I posted install pics on my non-emissions 78 Malibu earlier in another thread. Now I've had the chance to actually drive the thing. Roads finally dried out around Philly area after a few days of no rain/sunshine. My brother went with me since he's up from VA this weekend.

Drove it out on the back roads for a while to warm it up and then went to get gas. It drives and idles just like it did without the blower at light throttle. When first fired up cold the blower gears put out a little whine but that fades dead silent after about 3-4 minutes. You can NOT tell it's got a blower after that. I gassed up and took it back home to set final timing.

I backed it down from 12* initial (my N/A setting) to a very conservative 6* for initial runs. Back out on the road I slowly put the pedal to the carpet from a 20 MPH roll. NOW it's got blower noises! A godawful "zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZ!!" noise screams from underhood as the tach shoots for redline and the tires go bye-bye. I let out. OK. Let's try it from 2nd gear. I run up to about 45 MPH and manually drop the TH350 into 2nd. Normally it would downshift to 1st from that speed (2.73 rear gears) but the kickdown cable isn't hooked up so I know I'm safe. Back to the floor it goes. Smooth HARD acceleration and I'm at the top of 2nd gear (100MPH) very quickly, making all the right noises, too. Much faster than it ever would have been without the blower. Acceleration in 2nd is almost as hard with the blower as 1st gear was without it.

A few more runs on the back roads. I got it to sorta hook up in 1st gear on one run and then it got loose again on the 1-2 shift at 60 MPH, but still pulling hard. The boost gague never shows more than just a smidge over 4 PSI (my brother's reading it- I don't dare lose concentration). Grins and maniacal laughter all the way. We head home. Enough for one day.

My brother now wants to put a blower on his Minirammed 409ci 87 T/A. Me? I want more boost. The 142 blower comes set up to deliver 6 PSI on a stock/mild 350. I have a slightly heavier-breathing 383 to start with so it doesn't make as much boost. I'm on the phone to Summit to order up a higher boost pulley set an hour later. I want to get about 6 PSI out of it. Should be good for a legit 450 crankshaft HP.

 

Sig update..............

 

Ahhhhh, the ich in my right foot.
If you get the oppertunity for normal driving (as if ) post you normal fuel economy and new MPG with the blower. Ive heard that with the blower one can expect 4/5mpg better with normal driving. If this is true than I can probably justify getting one.
SSC

 

Very cool...
the question is.. will i be seeing it in Marlton!!! If you've got it down that way, swing by pep boys.. I'll enjoy seeing that!

Makes my job more difficult, with the TA in need of a motor within the next year

 

Kickass Damon. Keep us posted on future results.

 

Fuel economy should be interesting. I think it'll be a bit worse but it drives EXACTLY like it did before the blower- at least at idle and light throttle. I honestly couldn't tell you what's gonna happen with that. It used to get bout 15 MPGs before (with the carb tuned a bit fat to keep things on the safe side). And that's with making no effort towards conservation and, of course, no overdrive in the ancient TH350 trans.

I will be putting a little more vacuum advance into the distributor since I backed down the initial setting quite a bit. I would like to run just as much timing at part throttle as I did before (for decent economy) but not as much timing when the motor jumps into boost. I pulled out 6 degrees of timing by backing down the intial setting so I'm going to add 6 degrees more vacuum advance back in for starters and then go from there.