Inliners International Forums General Discussion Blown and Injected Sanity Check

Greetings, all. It's been quite some time since I posted here, but a new project has brought me back.

Here's the scoop: I have a 64 Nova with the original 194 and PG behind it. I drove it in last year's Hot Rod Power Tour. (Yeah - not much of a hot rod, but 2400 or so miles on a 50 year old engine that hadn't been driven for years has to count for something, right? ) I'd like to pep the old girl up just a tad for this year's tour without a full rebuild, so I'm considering a mild turbo set up.

My question to you all is this: Will a stock engine hold together after adding a mild amount of blow through boost (5 lbs or so) without coming apart? If I could get 200 HP out of the little 194, I'd be happy. I actually have a 230 as well, and if there is a long term plan it would be to build that engine the right way and swap it in.

From other threads I've read, it LOOKS like the stock engine can take the extra stresses, but I wanted to ask the question directly.

The little 194 will surprise you with boost. If you give it 5 lbs and control the timing, it will have no problems. The stock components can take the 5 psi with no problems, but no pinging is allowed.

What do you plan for carb on it? Maintaining the proper fuel and timing is key to longevity.

If those are kept proper, 8-10 psi could be in store.

Forget about the HP increase, think of the boost as a torq multiplier. You can see about a 5% increase in torq per PSI you give it. If the head and cam were improved, then the increase could get even higher.

Hi Tom and thanks.

I'm undecided about carburetion. (Well, undecided about the whole project really.) I was thinking the Holley 390 that many have used on top of the Offy intake if I could muster the courage to mod it correctly.

I like the idea of a throttle body EFI, and the FITech unit is intriguing. If it's a true bolt on and go kind of thing, I would seriously consider it.

I'm pushing 7 through my stock 194 now. Runs a treat! Blows some minds.

But now I want more.

Picked up an intercooler to be installed soon.

Thanks, Dodgy. Your thread have me some degree of confidence.

Did you ever come up with a different solution for retarding the timing other than removing the vacuum advance?

Sadly, no. But it seems to be running quite well all the same.

I had found a few vacuum leaks in the system, which were not helping the stalling issue i was having. But even with those corrected, it would still stall (or try to) when put in gear. Disconnecting the vacuum advance and setting the base timing at 10* seemed to correct the problem.

I bought a new HEI distributor that I will be installing soon enough. Then I will try the vacuum advance again.

I'm currently looking at turbos. The ebay jobbies scare me a little, so I've been looking at Turbonetics. I'm pretty sure that I've picked something suitable out based on previous advice here, but I'd like to have some of you experts check it out. Opinions?

The turbine wheel is too small on that turbo you specked out.