Mopar Turbo

The main disadvantage to a draw-through system, where the air goes through a carburetor first, is that realistically, you can't run an intercooler for safety reasons. Once you have a large amount of turbo-compressed air that contains atomized gasolne, you have, basicallly a BOMB, that in case of a backfire, can cause a pretty large explosion, and blow an intercooler wide open in a micro-second.

As I'm sure you know, turbos (and superchargers) heat up the air when they compress it, and if you're going to run any meaningful boost, SOME sort of charge-cooling will be very helpful in making more power and warding-off detonation.

A better setup, I think, is to configure your plumbing for a blow-thru carb, where the turbo-compressed air goes through the intercooler (ou its way to the carburetor) without having gasoline in it. This requires a carburetor with modified fuel metering, but such carbs are readily available from places like Barry Grant, the Carb Shop, and many others. That way, a backfire is not so disasterous.

My car has a Vortech centrifugal supercharger in a carbureted, blow-through system, but I couldn't figure out a way to get an intercooler into the plumbing, so I took the chemical intercooling route, with a Snowperformance Boost Cooler. This is simply a high-pressure atomizer that sprays a 50/50 mixture of alcohol and water (a lot of folks use windshield washer fluid) into the pressurized mixture on its way to the carburetor. Cooling the charge, it is a big deterrent to detonation, and allows more ignition timing without detonation, so in a lot of cases, actually adds power. More info at www.snowperformance.net

There are several books available that explain all the different possibilities much better than I can. The best one I've found is called "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell. I got my copy at a Border's Books, but it's available at most book stores and Amazon.com, I'm pretty sure.

Draw-thru systems like the early turbo Buicks used, make GOOD power, but are rare because of the danger element, if an intercoooler is used. Most folks want to run an intercooler for the 15-percent (ballpark figure) power increase they can provide, along with the anti-detonation benefits.

Hope this helps. Turbos are way cool... Wish I could have figured out how to get one (or, two) on my car... Maybe next time!!!

Good luck with your project. My friend's Buick G/N, running 25 pounds of boost, just went 128mph in the quarter at the Buick/Ford shootout at Noble, Ok. This is a 3,500-pound street car with a 231cid V-6!

The possibilites with a V8 are virtually unlimited.

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas