Edelbrock Supercharger & GM Performance Parts - Feasibly Forced Induction

In the past, we've relied heavily on not only Westech's tuning resources, but on its tuning guru Steve Brule and his uncanny ability to bring the best out of practically any engine we bring him. This session would prove to be no different.

The installation of the E-Force blower is very straightforward-especially with the supplied directions...

...Edelbrock's own intake manifold gaskets are included, as is the very effective O-ring gasket for manifold-to-blower case seal.

Note that while the E-Force kit does include fasteners for the blower to manifold, you will need to supply your own intake manifold hardware. For that, we used ARP fasteners. With the pre-'87 applications such as this, the manifold/blower are torqued separately; for the Vortec-style, see instructions for torque specs and procedures.

Unlike larger blowers, the E-Force does not require a special distributor for case clearance (excluding HEIs, though). For this setup, we simply went with the tried and true MSD Pro Billet distributor along with an MSD 6BTM timing controller.

Finally, the E-Force kit is topped off with Edelbrock's Thunder Series AVS 800-cfm carburetor, which we used for the first round of dyno testing with the supercharger on the stock crate engine.

As supplied, the E-Force kit includes a 3.6-inch drive pulley, which will provide 5 pounds of boost. With the limited valvesprings on the stock GM cast-iron heads, increasing boost wasn't considered-but will be later on in testing.

With just the addition of the supercharger, Westech got the eager small-block to produce 400 hp @ 5,300 and 443 lb-ft @ 4,000-not too shabby...

...especially considering nothing else was done to alter the engine.

Here's where the 350's main limitations were: the valvesprings. And because no stiffer spring applications could be found for the stock heads, we were forced to look at other options.

The other option we ended up going with-Pro Action 200cc aluminum heads from RHS. These flat-tappet aluminum gems feature 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves and 72cc chambers, ultimately taking the 8.5:1 compression up a notch to 8.7.

But before the heads were bolted on, the stock cam was swapped out for a Comp 222/226 flat-tappet camshaft-a bit mild, especially for a blower cam, but considering the stock lower end, it seemed to be perfect for daily street use.

Along with the cam, we also used Comp's hydraulic flat-tappet lifters, doused heavily with Lucas assembly lube prior to installation. (Pre-soaking in engine oil is not necessary, nor is "pre-pumping.")

Speaking of oil, it's imperative with all new cam installations that you use proper break-in additive to combat the lack of zinc in newly formulated engine oil, which is the number one cause of cam failure.

With the cam and lifters in place, the RHS cylinder heads were next on the list. And as RHS/Comp recommend, we used ARP 134-3701 12-point head bolts to secure the aluminum heads to the iron block.