I had an interesting experience last night when I got home. One of my
neighbors who also builds hot rods (there's a bunch of us on the same block
- a great place to live) said he had a surprise for me. He then pulled down
from his garage shelf a package about the size of a shoebox wrapped up in
rags. Undid the rags and lo and behold I was staring at an old Roots type
blower with manifolds that was obviously set up for a small LBC motor!!
It was at least 35 to 40 years old, but was otherwise in fine shape. He
found it at an auto swap meet a couple of years ago when he was restoring an
old Ford Anglia, and had contemplated putting it on the Ford but changed his
mind. Amazingly the manifold was almost a perfect fit on the Spitfire Mk I
cylinder head!!!!! It may take a little filing and grinding, but it should
fit and looks as though it was designed for just this type of installation.
Now for the best part, it's mine for free if I want it, and all of my
hotrodding neighbors are salivating at the thought of helping me put a
blower on the Spitfire motor. Will I do it? Not sure. On the one hand,
the drivetrain, brakes, etc. will all be stock and will no doubt be
overstressed by a blown motor. (I did port and polish the head last weekend
and it looks gorgeous, and am installing a 3/4 racing cam, but otherwise
it's a pretty stock motor). On the other hand, it's a pretty
straightforward installation, requires almost no modifications to the
vehicle itself in the engine compartment, and what minor changes must be
made can all be undone easily, cheaply and quickly to restore it to stock
settings.
This could be really interesting. So, what's the consensus? Thumbs up for
a blown motor or thumbs down?
Ross D. Vincenti
64 Spitfire 4 (undergoing surgery - and possibly more!)
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