Im looking to add a weiand/holley 177 blower to my 468 and want to know if it will fit under the hood.

Also I want to use a decent air cleaner, not a crappy triangle weiand open element.

I also have nitrous and would like to add the 1/2 inch plate if possible.

177 guys how much of a improvement did you receive?
thanks

Hi Steve,

I can send you pictures. Running a B&M 174 on a 454 under a 1970 stock Cowl Induction hood. Carb is about an inch from bottom of hood. Have fun making an air cleaner. LOL

I researched and found an air element that I stuffed inside my Cowl Induction hood. Fabricated an air pan and seal that bolts on under the carb.

Engine is sitting on Moroso solid engine mounts that are same as stock motor mount dimensions. I had the "clam shell" late style GM rubber engine mounts for a bit but they raised the engine a bit and I cannot afford the height with the blower or fan hitting fan shroud!

I have a 3/8 spacer under carb to fit 50cc pumps. Your 1/2 nitrous plate will be no problem.

Power addition is fantastic and blower is user friendly / simple to install. Maintenace free.

177 + nitrous = unreal

....Joe

Thanks for the help and I would like to see some pics of your setup and air cleaner if you could.

steve8tx@yahoo.com

Any other guys have some information or pics?

Hi Steve,

Running a 470 with a 177. I elected to use a 4 inch cowl so that I could use a 3 inch thick cleaner.

I am also using a 3/8 thick spacer to clear the 50cc pumps.


Hey Joe,

Are you using the original 10 rib belt, pulleys, and idler arm / spring combo? Under WOT using Holley's recommended idler arm mounting holes and trying various spring bolt retension positions, I can still throw the primary belt from time to time.

I noticed a little play in the upper idler arm; the play turns inward toward the block (without belt mounted). My thinking is that this might be causing the thrown belts under WOT.

Have you encountered this and made any changes?

Thanks.
-stu

Hi Steve...pictures on the way.

Hi Stu....my B&M setup is old. It has the idler pulley bolted to the passenger side of the water pump / lower alternator bracket mounting holes. It is a 6 rib setup.

To date, I have not thrown the belt. Probably slips at higher RPM, but I have not felt it or observed it on the boost gauge.

Recently I replaced the lower B&M crank pulley (6 inch), with a Weiand crank pulley (7 inch). The 7 inch spins the blower faster. This also allows the use of a larger pulley on the blower itself. The way I look at it, you get more belt on the pulleys by running larger pulleys.....hopefully less chance for slipping. The other thing I liked about swapping the crank pulley is that I still used the same belt. The bigger crank pulley made the belt very very tight. Had to work the belt onto the idler pulley. Lots of tension on the belt now.

Maybe you can measure your current belt and go to the auto parts store and see if they have a belt an inch shorter or so. I would imagine all 6 rib and 10 rib belts from other cars / trucks would work.

If you have a 177....is it a Weiand? You might already have 7 inch crank pulley. 10 rib setup?

Wondering if your pulleys are "true". Are they bolted on snug and seated well? No wobble????

My B&M idler has a spring inside it. Perhaps you can remove the spring in your idler and stretch it? Or replace it with a heavier duty spring?

My idler also has a locking nuts that can limit idler spring tension if adjusted properly. I don't want any limit to spring tension ever. So I have the locking nuts tightened up against each other about 1/2 inch away from the idler housing. In other words, the idler spring is always pushing the idler pulley on the belt. No rest.

Perhaps you can shim / secure your idler so it will not turn in towards your engine. Keeping it straight under load might help.

Will think about this some more.

....Joe.

Steve,

I will email pictures of my setup.

Joe,

I actually mistyped; this is a 174 unit but not the original B&M design. I purchased this 174 after Holley reengineered the original B&M 174 post Holley's purchase of B&M.

Interesting tid bits of 174 product history that I gathered:

1. After Holley purchased the B&M supercharger product line, they promptly renamed the product to Holley PowerCharger 174.

2. Sometime after the B&M supercharger purchase (perhaps a year?) Holley completely reengineered the 174; this was according to Holley Tech Support when I was doing purchase research about 2 years ago.

3. The revised 174 was still named Holley PowerCharger 174, but it appears that they made product kit changes, including moving toward a 10 rib belt, which mine has.

I never measured the crank pulley...I will do this when I get home and post my results.

Your idler arm description sounds exactly the same as mine...need to confirm tonight. Maybe I need to check spring pressure in the idler arm.

I also kept the locking bolts clear of the idler housing and maintained a "no rest" position.

You raise a good issue re. the trueness of the pulleys; I need to validate; geeze, these pulleys have less than 200 miles on them; and have not been abused.

One thing is quite clear with my setup, though. It is a major major PITA getting the belt on...even when the locking bolts are completely compressing the spring...which is making me wonder.

Does your setup have an idler arm bracket with a matrix of holes to select the proper belt tension?

I was also thinking about the inward deflection of the idler arm...shimm it, maybe defective?, engineered for a purpose? I am contacting Holley on this point.

What is your static piston compression and blower PSI with the new pulleys? I am running 8.5 to 1 and the out of the box 6.9 PSI pulleys. During numerous WOT blasts I haven't encountered any detonation on 92 gas...I was also thinking of increasing PSI as you mentioned.


-stu

Hello,

Pretty sure the later B&M / Holley powerchargers have the idler attached to the blower snout. This was supposed to provide better belt tensioning, and the extra adjustment holes / positions were engineered into the design.

My idler that is bolted to same holes as the lower alternator bracket, has no adjustment holes / slots. The entire idler bolts up as a unit, and the pulley rides on a shaft that rides against a spring inside a tube. In other words the pulley can move in and out against the spring. But not fore and aft. My idler pulley seems to track well (without twisting / pulling towards the engine or radiator). I have not noticed fore and aft movement when I rev up the engine. I will look for that.

I don't see B&M / Holley powercharger mentioned anymore. This idler is on the Holley site, and is listed as Wieand. It is a circular design. Mine is standard coil spring shape.
http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLine/Products/AMS/SC/SCPA/Idler.html

I am running a TRW forged flattop (454 + .060) with small eyebrow valve reliefs. These pistons can be run on the tight side, and have little to no noise even when cold. Heads are 1966 closed chamber rectangular port. 96cc chambers I believe. Felpro head gasket. With my deck height, I'm thinking compression is in the 9:1 to 9.5:1 ratio range. I have never heard a ping from my engine. Usually running Sunoco Ultra 94 octane or Amoco Ultimate 92 octane.

Boost gauge reads about 6 lbs under load (using 7 inch crank pulley). By the way, using the little nylon tubing to the boost gauge. Kind of small. Wonder if boost would read differently with larger tubing like -4AN steel braided.

Boost was about 5 lbs with the 6 inch crank pulley.

Wieand does make a 10 rib 7 inch p/n 6823WIN as per this chart...
http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLine/Products/AMS/SC/SCPA/PSl-s-Pulleys.html

....Joe

it will fit if you can locate the very hard to find2 1/4 inch drop base i have to if you go blown i might cut loose of one