Vinny P

I currently have a real nice 540. Makes about 700 hp. I am in the process of gathering parts for a new engine. I have a Dart block, 4.375" Callies Magnum crank, 6.385" Lunati Pro Mod Rods. Originally, I was thinking of just building an NA 565" , not so much for any additional power over my 540, but just to have a fresh bottom end ready to go. Then, the bug or disease that we all have started bitting me. I am now thinking of building a supercharged 565. I build all my own engines, but have never built a supercharged engine before. I wanted to go with a Whipple. I havent talked to Dustin yet, hopefully he will see this and chime in. Anyway, would a 3.3 or a 5.0 be the right choice? Not looking to make real crazy power, maybe 850-900 with the right pulleys. Then as all you blower guys do, swap pulleys if I only feel the need for less power. I understand the theory of spinning the 5.0 slower than a 3.3, less heat with bigger blowers, etc.. But, I am thinking that the 3.3 would be enough. I was wanting to use my AFR315CNC heads from my 540. Dont want the extra expense of another set of heads. I have heard that there has been an issue with rear bearing failures, any truth to that?
My next hurdle would be the fact that I run only in salt water and refuse to give up my closed cooling system. I would have to relocate the heat exchange tank. Currently, it sits on top of the engines water pump. I am thinking I can mount it down in the bilge. Plumbing it would not be too big a problem, but would the water pump handle pushing the water down to the heat exchanger and back up to the engine? I am fairly confident it can at speed but what about idling through no wake zones? Obviously, a crossover is not an option.

CB-BLR

I am currently going down the same road mentally. I did talk to Dustin. He said to go with the 335 heads and a 3.3. Said I would be pushing over 1000 HP with a single carb setup. I currently have a NA 548 setup that was speced by RM builder that pushes 665hp/665tq with all accessories and wet exhaust. Said that the larger heads would work to keep the heat down on the 3.3 because of the increased flow as compared to the 315's. I have 305's now that have been milled to get my compression up to 9.75, so I was looking at some different heads to lower my compression, and my first thought was some 315CNC's that had not been milled. My current motor only has about 8 hours on it so keeping the bottom end together would be a plus.

Let me know what you find out.

Chris

P.S. I am also wanting to do this and be able to go out in Puget Sound (ie salt water). Dustin said that the cuppernol intercooler was good for salt water, and that you use a seperate thru hull pickup, for the innercoller. This means that your closed cooling would work just as it does now, just have to relocate the heat exchanger as you mentioned to give room for the belt of the Whipple.

Vinny P

Chris,
I am aware of the additional pick up needed to supply seawater to the intercooler. Thats the easy part. Mounting my heat exchanger is the tough part. As you mentioned, I was concerned that my AFR315 may not be enough for this engine. That would be a huge negative for me to do this. Buying another set of heads would not be a good thing.

CB-BLR

Could you e-mail me some better pictures of your heat exchanger mounted on the engine. I have not done this yet.

Thanks,

Chris

[email protected]

SB

iTrader: (1)

850-900 should be no problem with the 315's on a 650-700hp NA low compression base. Sure, the 335's maybe better at that level but not a do or die. They have the same exhaust port right ?

Whipple Charged

Your closed cooling might become a problem if you run the motors hard. You'll want to install a 120 deg stat, and to some degree, you'll just have to run it to see where the temp rest. Water flow is very important through the entire system, but you may need a bigger heat exchanger. I don't know what size, or style it is, but just be prepared if your motor can't maintain 140deg, then I would go bigger. A company named Sen-Dure in Fl can make any size.

Your AFR's will be fine. If you only want 900hp, the 3.3 will be fine. The 5.0 is super big and is ideal for 1000+ although it can be used at the lower power levels. Our 3.3's have only gotten better with time, we have our Gen 2 versions now, which picked up 7-10% more flow across the board, so you can certainly make power with that.

When ordering, make sure you say that your going to run the circ. pump, because we'll go 1" longer on the front drive snout which ends up being .670" longer than our standard kit. Sounds confusing, but it's simple.

Thanks,
Dustin

Whipple Charged

I actually think the 315's will make more power at this range. It will really keep the air velocity up. Many over size they're heads, but the 315's, with a touch of compression, will make great power. I would go with 8.75:1 compression, run 5psi and it should easliy make 900hp.

Whipple Charged

Your heads are fine, but if you don't have the CNC'd version, I would recommend going in and cleaning up the ports a touch. Those heads are awesome as cast, but can always use a touch more.

You can mount the HE on the rear seat in front of the motor, then just run the hoses, I've seen that done quite a few times.

Vinny P

Dustin,

Thank you for the reply. I certainly value your opinions and experiences. My heads are already cnc'ed from AFR. Right now, I run a 170* thermistat. The engine never gets over 190* . I would hope that my current heat exchanger would be enough. That seems to be the biggest hurdle to jump.

Chris,

Here is a picture of the heat exchanger mounted. Sorry, but the resolution is not so good.

Whipple Charged

Motors always seem to run 20deg over thermostat temp, since the stat starts to open at the pre determined temp. A 120, with possibly 3 3/16" holes will probably keep it in the 120-140deg range, especially with light load, but you'll have to test to see what it does on top. In my opinion, it's gonna need to be bigger. The 525hp efi unit, works great at 800hp, but at 1000, she climbs pretty darn fast. And I'm pretty sure it's larger than the unit you have there.

looks like you have a 502 mag belt system, that will still work but we'll maybe have to make a custom crank pulley adapter.