Re: Packard V8 supercharged engine

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2014/3/13 19:23:11

This thread is very cool! Thanks to everyone who has posted on it, especially the 2x4 Supercharged marine engines. Who'd a'thunk it?

IF I were to do something like this today:

1. I would turbocharge it, not supercharge it. Turbos are much more efficient because there is no parasitic drive belt loss. You can get turbos in all kinds of sizes, so one would be sufficient for a 374CID Packard V-8. Also, you can run the exhaust piping any convenient place as well as mounting the turbo (within reason) and also the boost pipe.

2. I would fit EFI instead of a carb with a pressure hat on the airhorn or carbs within a box. There are many Throttle Body Injection aftermarket kits out there, so one could be made to fit a stock Packard 4bbl intake with little modification. Some of the kits are "self learning", so you don't need a computer science degree to tune it.

I designed, engineered and manufactured a blow-thru QJet Turbo kit for Gen-2 Firebirds back in the day (1970s), so I know a lot about these. I still have one (1976 Firebird "TurboForce Revival Project" car) in my possession today. It is scary fast. I have NO PLANS to do the above on my Panther, mostly because I think it will be fast enough as is and also I'm getting too old to be going really quick anyway.

Craig