johnr@tekig.UUCP (John Rettig) (08/18/84)
x Regarding the recent discussions on whether or not a supercharger can be switched in at will, I saw today what I believe to be exactly this - on a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, the blower being manufactured by McCulloch. The owner unfortunately was not available for more explanation, but it appeared to have a switched magnetic clutch similar to air conditioner clutches of that era. As an interesting sidenote, the drive pulley was adjustable by installing or removing shims to change the effective pulley diameter, and the blower had its own oil circulation system, with a separate pump, filter and cooler. It appears this model was Studebaker's answer to the E and F model 1957 Thunderbirds and whatever else fit in this class about that time. I presume these were rather short lived, as Studebaker was already in financial trouble at that time and survival of the company was in doubt.
kurt@aat.UUCP (08/22/84)
I own a 1963 Studebaker Avanti with the R2 supercharged engine. I got
the idea of putting a clutch on my blower after seeing it done in the
the Australian film 'Mad Max'. The reason I wanted to was to improve
my gas milage during normal driving while still being able to blow the
doors off of almost anything on the road. Wrong. After talking to
some people who know a good deal about supercharged Stude's and by
experimenting with my own car I found that disconnecting the blower
is not a good idea. The carb(s) on a supercharged engine is jetted
for the compressed air. If the blower is taken out of the system,
the carb dumps in more gas than can be mixed with the small amount
air coming in. It makes the engine run much less efficiently and
get worse milage than with a good blower on.
I was also thinking of being able to switch from the normal
supercharger drive pulley to a smaller one. The smaller one would
make the blower spin faster and therefore produce more boost.
This would cause the same type of problem but to a lesser extent,
but the reason I didn't try it was because of the problems of
coming up with a good device to switch between pulleys on the fly.
I am a big fan of superchargers and would like to see them on more
new cars. Unlike their little brother, the turbocharger, they help
the engine run even cooler than normal. They are also a good means
of increasing power while still keeping a low compression ratio. My
Avanti can kill anything made today (Except maybe the 930 & Countach)
in the quarter mile and can run on regular gas as well!
Studebaker still lives!!!
..!aat!kurt