Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Includes fuel system, cooling system and exhaust.

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Harv
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

pauly wrote:http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/121842153657?_mwBanner=1
Not sure if this is any good
Mmmm.... Wray.

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Craig Allardyce
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Craig Allardyce »

Here's one for you Harv. Not a grey but its got a Norman with Su's.

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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by DOLLER60 »

Wow! that has made my day!!! :clap:
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Craig Allardyce wrote:Here's one for you Harv. Not a grey but its got a Norman with Su's.


Batey's 'Lil Horny Devil FED. My repro Inconel vane springs are in that supercharger :D .

Cheers,
Harv
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and gents,

This post will focus on some of the historic documents that I have been able to get access to of late.

Recently, I have been able to access a copy of the “GO! With Safety” brochure that Eldred printed in the mid 1960’s (no later than 1965… see the Eddie Thomas catalogue below) whilst still living at Tolleys Road, Hope Valley South Australia. My thanks to the gentlemen who lent me a copy… the only one I have seen for sale sold some years ago on eBay for $400 (!). The brochure covers the sale of Type 65 Norman kits for the grey motor (to suit all Holden models, 1948-1963 inclusive). Eldred was selling two kits – one to suit all models FX-FJ (£107 10’), and one to suit all models FE-EJ (£111). In the copy of the brochure, the earlier kit had been discontinued (crossed out by pen) and the latter kit modified to suit FX-EJ (i.e. only one kit for all grey motors). Eldred was also selling bare superchargers for £57 10’, along with individual spare parts (casings, end plates, vanes, bearings, seals, crank and supercharger pullies, supercharger and generator brackets, supercharger outlet and inlet manifolds and elbows). It is interesting that the kits were such that “the average man with a comparatively slight mechanical knowledge can fit it in approximately one half day”. Equally interesting that the tools needed were a hammer, cold chisel, pliers, screwdriver, 10” and 8” shifter and an 18” tyre iron.

Eldred’s take on supercharging the grey was interesting. The kits were designed for the Holden grey motor, or engines of 1000-2500cc. Eldred notes the manifolds were slotted for the BXOV-1 carburettor, or a much larger Nicchi (Nikki) 1 5/8” downdraught which Eldred sold (the Stromberg gave just as good at low and medium speeds, though the Nikki was better up top). This has got me curious - anyone know a vehicle in Australia in the early sixties running a large single barrel Nikki? For the grey, the kits ran at 1.1 times engine speed to give 5psi boost at 30mph and top gear, and 3 psi at 20mph and top gear with the FB-EJ bore (slightly higher with the smaller FX-FC 3” bore). The kits required the use of super fuel, with Eldred noting he was intending to market an 8spi boost unit that had to use 115 octane fuel (bear in mind that modern Aussie pump fuel is typically 91RON, whilst E85 is 105RON and methanol is 109RON). From Eldred: “The supercharger will not give you a racing car’s performance – certainly not on pump fuel, but it will put you on a par with a Valiant or a Holden 179 in acceleration, particularly in top gear. If you tow a boat or a caravan or like to “feel” a car, you cannot afford to be without a supercharger".

The second brochure I have been able to access is a pricelist from the late 60’s. Prices are in dollars, so this is at least 1966 (bear in mind that Eldred moved to Noosa in 1966, and passed away in mid 1971). The prices are all quoted as for Queensland delivery with freight additional – it is a fair bet that Eldred had moved to Noosa by this stage. The brochure indicates the following models of Norman supercharger were available:
Type 65 Standard
Type 65 Lightweight (LW)
Type 65 Super Lightweight (SLW)
Type 70 Lightweight (LW)
Type 70 Super Lightweight (SLW)
Type 75S Lightweight (LW)
Type 75S Lightweight (LW) Deluxe
Type 110 Leightweight (LW)
Type 265 Standard
Type 265 Lightweight (LW)
Type 265 Super Lightweight (SLW)
Type 270 Lightweight (LW)
Type 270 Super Lightweight (SLW)
Standard models have a cast iron casing and a steel rotor. Lightweight models change to aluminium casings (cast iron or steel lined), whilst the Super Lighweight units have aluminium casings, tufftrided cast iron or steel liners and a lightened tufftrided steel rotor. Aluminium rotors are not offered. It is interesting that some of Eldred’s other machines (the Type 45, Type 90 and Type 110) are not offered for sale. The engine capacities suggested for each size machine are as follows:
Type 65: 1250-2250cc (note the GO! With Safety brochure advise above of 1000-2500cc)
Type 70: 1750-2750cc
Type 75S: 2250-3250cc
Type 265: 2500-4500cc
Type 270: 3000-5500cc
Worked motors are recommended to use 2/3 of the above capacities. The brochure indicates that early Holden kits are available for Type 65 and Type 70 superchargers, whilst H-model Holden kits are available using the Type 75. A kit for the Toyota 1900cc motor is also indicated.

A (third) separate pricing brochure adds the Type 110 (both Lightweight and Super-Lite), indicating a target motor of 2500-3500cc. This brochure indicates that the H-series Holden kits are based on the Type 110, using either two 1 ¾” or two 2” SUs. This brochure again indicates early Holden kits using the Type 65 or Type 70, using either the original BXOV-1 Stromberg carburettor or a 2” SU. Interestingly, this brochure indicates that both the Type 70 and Type 110 can be offered with a clutch drive (I have only seen this previously on Type 45, Type 75 and Type 90 machines).

The fourth brochure below was used to sell Mike’s Normans:
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The fifth brochure is a 1965 catalogue for the Eddie Thomas Speed Shop, which draws material verbatim from the Go! with Safety brochure described above:
[URL=http://s929.photobucket.com/user/V8EKwagon/media/Eddie%20Thomas%20catalogue%201_zpsb7or6wgg.jpg.html]Image

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The next pieces of this post are magazine articles that I have had for a while, and have drawn on as this thread has developed. Pieces of the magazines have been posted previously, though I will post the entire articles here. The magazine articles are a little less reliable than the brochures and catalogues above… there is sometimes some artistic license used by the writer. The first (and probably most recognizable) is the Blow For Go Norman Style article from Australian Hot Rod of November 1966:
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The second is the Blowers for Holdens! article from The Australian Hot Rodding Review of January 1967:
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The third is an article from Hot Holdens and Customs #2, depicting the Norman-blown Alki-Burner:
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The fourth is an article from The Australian Hot Rodding Review of June 1968, showing the Norman-blown Bobcat:
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The fifth is an article from Adelaide’s The News of September 28th 1964:
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I have copies of another three articles (The Blow for Go! article from the 2009 Street Machine Hot Rod Annual, the Dirty Stuff column from Street Machine of May 2014, and the article on Grantley’s Norman-blown FJ from Chopped Nº. 7), though these are pretty new and I am seeking permission from the publishers to post them here.

Cheers,
Harv (deputy apprentice Norman supercharger fiddler).
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and Gents,

It appears that a number of different logos were used for the Norman superchargers. The picture below shows a metal badge affixed to the side of a Type 65 supercharger, taken from the GO! With Safety brochure.

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I have never seen one of these affixed to a Type 65 in the flesh, nor can I see how they attach... they may have been sticky-taped on for the brochure photos. The logo however is similar (if not identical) to the ones used on the Rowe/Wigzell WonderCar:

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A different logo is shown in the1966 Blow for GO! Article as an EJ Holden window sticker:

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Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and gents,

One extraordinary document I have been able to lay my hands on (with thanks, Ed) is a copy of a thesis written in November 1985 - Rotary Vane Compressors, Testing and re-design of a sliding vane compressor for supercharging. The thesis was authored by Mark Hammond and Edward Vieusseux at the NSWIT. Hammond and Vieusseux’s project evaluated the suitability of a Norman to supercharge engines up to 2,000cc capacity. The work undertook extensive bench testing, including analysis of alternative vane materials. The test mule for this work was one of Mike’s 200 Normans, casing number 2000002S, as shown below:

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The test rig drove plain air (and in some cases lubricant spray) through the Norman, using a waterbrake dyno driven by a BMC 1800cc engine. Different casing liners were used to give different port timings (0% compression, the standard 16% compression, and a higher 32% compression), along with two rotors (3- and 4-vane).
Some learnings from the thesis:
• The Norman supercharger has an adiabatic efficiency of 45-60% for 2-10psi boost. This lines up pretty well with the numbers I have used earlier in this post when we modelled the Norman. I had assumed 60%, whilst other resources indicate 70% (Eldred) and 50-65% (Corky Bell).
• At 4000rpm (typical operating range for a wide-open early Holden Norman), the volumetric efficiency starts at around 80% at 2psi boost, and drops to 70% at 10psi. Increasing pressure ratio lowers the efficiency due to the increased internal pressure recirculating gas within the supercharger. This is a little lower than the values I used in the modelling – I assumed 90%, compared to literature values of 82-90% (William Lyons), 90% (Royce Brown) and 85% (C.F. Taylor).
• The 200 Norman casing was measured (using the modern method, not Eldred's method) to give 115ci/rev (very similar to the Type 65). The 16% internal compression ratio of a standard Norman was close to optimal (i.e. increasing or decreasing internal compression was not beneficial).
• Four vane materialss were tested: Bakelite, Feroform F31 (similar to the Feroform F57 I have discussed earlier), Tuffclad Moly (a self-lubricating thermoplastic) and Nylacast Moly (a self lubricating thermoplastic filled with nylon). Of note:
a) vane wear for the Bakelite was very similar to that noted by Mike Norman – about 4-5mm per 20,000km of driving. One of the reasons for this is that Mike’s design has a very high vane tip speed due to it’s large casing diameter – some 49m/s at 6000rpm, which is nearly four times faster than a grey motor piston at redline.
b) using water alone as a lubricant for Bakelite vanes lead to liner scoring. Oil is required.
c) water can be used as a lubricant for the Feroform and Tuffclad Moly materials. It removes frictional heat far better than oil, probably by partial vapourisation.
c) friction power loss was not noticeably different for the different vane materials. However, the Nylacast Moly vanes tended to pick-up in the vane slots (even with water lubrication) and hence are not suitable.
d) Both the Nylacast Moly and Tuffcast Moly were more susceptible to delamination or cracking than Bakelite. The slots cut out for the vane spring carriers act as a stress riser.
• Vane rattle was examined, and found to be due to:
a) too much clearance between the vane and slot. This stops once operating temperature is reached. Note that a clearance of 0.005” was recommended for Bakelite vanes (this is perhaps a little more accurate than Eldred’s “flop fit” specification), and is a useful number for anyone milling down their own replacement vanes.
b) low speeds (<1500rpm) where the small centrifugal forces are unable to overcome slot friction and the weight of the vanes. This is where the vane springs are useful. Of note, there was no discernible power loss from using the vane springs (i.e. they do not increase friction, as the centrifugal forces on the vanes far exceed the spring tension).
• Whilst four-vane rotors are more efficient and do not increase shaft power, they are not a simple swap-in for the exiting Normans. Four-vane rotors were tried, but delaminated over 2000 pm as the vane stroke was too high in the existing casing. A word to the wise – if replacing the rotor in one of Mike’s Normans, do not be tempted to use a 4-vane design unless the end-plates are remanufactured to give less vane stroke.
• The seal between the end-plate and casing was effected through the use of a synthetic sealing strip (I have yet to find one of these in a Norman… they tend to get discarded, and replaced with a line of sealant like Sikaflex
• Just like Roots superchargers, the positive displacement Norman delivers a pulsing flow at the discharge ports. Four-vane rotors delivered smoother flow than three-vane rotors. The attached graph shows how the discharge pressure changes over time. Note that a Norman running at a nominal boost pressure of 10psi has the discharge port oscillating between 7 and 11 psi (albeit over a very short time frame).

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• The nature and surface finish of all sliding surfaces have to be very hard and smooth to reduce friction and vane wear. A surface finish of <16µinch is recommended, as per the red line in the chart below. As a comparison, a rough turned item with visible toolmarks is about 500µinch, a smooth machined surface around 125µinch, bearing surfaces are around 32µinch, and fine lapped surfaces are around 1µinch.

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The document also contains a compressor map for the 200 Norman – this is the only Norman compressor map that I am aware of:

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Cheers,
Harv (deputy apprentice Norman supercharger fiddler).
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and Gents,

A quick post to share with you an article from Chopped No. 7. The article features Grantley’s Norman-blown humpy. Thanks to Kyle for providing approval to publish the copyrighted article here.

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Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and Gents,

Attached below some more photos of Matt Brown’s Norman. From what I can see:

It's a Type 65 Norman. It could either by a Lightweight (solid steel rotor) or Super Lightweight (steel rotor made hollow by welding steel plates together). Matt has weighed the machine, and it seems very light (10.7kg, whilst Gary Claypole's Lightweight weighs 20kg). I am itching to see the rotor in Matt’s machine… it could well be a Super Lightweight rotor, which I have not yet seen before in the flesh. Looks like a home-made carburettor-to-supercharger manifold, but a pretty good copy nonetheless.

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The casting number (22) is pretty meaningless. All the alloy cased Type 65's that I have seen (e.g. Pauls , Gary Claypole's) have that same casting number.

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The drive-end plate stamping (516) is interesting, and more like a serial number. The numbers were not consistently applied by Eldred though (for example neither Paul nor Gary's has an end-plate stamping). This is the third one I've seen - Ian Barnard has 522, and Ted Robinette has 513, both on steel-cased Type 65’s.

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The non-drive end is interesting. Most Type 65's have a plain end-plate boss, into which is driven a welsh plug. Matt’s machine non-drive end end-plate has been drilled and tapped for four setscrews. I have seen this on other machines, including both my Type 45 and Type 75. I suspect that the four holes mean that Matt’s machine was once fitted up with a clutch (the same as my Type 75), which would make it a Deluxe. The four holes allow the clutch hydraulic driver unit to be bolted to the non-drive end of the Norman. The other clue is that the non-drive end of Matt’s driveshaft has a nut fitted, the same as my clutched Type 75. The non-clutched Normans (like Gary’s) have just a bare shaft sticking out through the bearing on the non-drive end.

I've seen rotation directions stamped into Normans before, sometimes as plain arrows, sometimes as ROTATION, but this is the first one I've seen with MUST ROTATE stamped into it.

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Matt has two supercharger-to-cylinder head manifolds. One looks to be made from steel, and mounts the supercharger up high (this is the one that is being used to mount the Norman to the red-painted grey motor in the photos above). This is period correct. The other manifold is used to mount the supercharger low, in the place that the generator normally sits. The slip-in flange is unusual, and probably robbed off an original carburettor-to-supercharger manifold - they normally have a hose connected where you have the flange. There are very few of these manifolds surviving - Anthony Harradine's supercharger (ex Bobcat) in his EJ Premier is one of few.

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Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

One project that is slowly percolating along is my meth monster Norman. I intend to Norman-supercharge my FB daily driver, and putt around running on SU carbs and petrol fuel. For the nostalgia drags (and maybe some Wednesday night WSID drags) I will change the intake to Hilborn injection, and the fuel to methanol. I’ve got the supercharger and injection, and have been slowly piecing together the other bits (dry sump etc). I’ve been slowly accumulating the bits for the fuel system:
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I wanted a Moon tank to fuel the alky into the meth monster. It took me a while, but I finally got all the bits together and got the fuel tank made up. The Moon tank will sit in front of the grille, and be able to be removed when the car is in daily-driver use. I looked at buying a genuine Moon tank, but they are around $550. They do not have enough fittings for fuel injection, so I would have to have some nipples TIG welded in. They are also not baffled (the fuel return would churn the tank up), so the Moon tank would also need to be cut open to put in a baffle. For that much money, and still needing work, I figured there had to be a better way.

I took a brand-new 8.5kg gas bottle, which owes me about $30 from Bunnings. Assuming the tank is about 75% full, and that the meth-monster is punching out around 150BHP, the tank should last about 20 minutes on petrol, or 8 minutes on methanol. 8 minutes should be enough for queueing in the staging lanes, a run down the strip, and the return lane drive back to the pits.

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I cut the foot ring and valve collar off the bottle, and ground the welds flush. The inlet/outlet valve for the bottle unscrews. It is a tapered gas thread (¾”-14NGT), and took a damn long extension bar to get enough torque to get if off. I don’t need that particular hole, and sourced a plug to suit. Finding a NGT plug is near impossible, and I ended up having a good conversation with Gameco (http://gameco.com.au/) who confirmed that ¾”-14NPT is very similar to NGT, and close enough for what I intend to do with it. Probably wouldn’t use a NPT plug for LPG service, but OK for this job.

I then marked out and drilled holes for the fittings. The top of the tank has two returns (primary and secondary bypass), which have -6AN nipples (the equivalent of 3/8” pipe). I made a slit in the tank wall, and have inserted some steel plate 1” under the two return lines. This plate acts as a baffle/splash plate, preventing the returning fuel from stirring up (and aerating) the tank contents. This type of baffling is recommended by Kinsler for Moon tanks (see the diagram down the bottom of page 179: http://www.kinsler.com/Kinsler-Handbook/HTML/#178). The tank has another -6AN nipple for a tank breather. The breather gets a nice filter, and also a rollover valve (in case things go pear-shaped). The fuel tank outlet (under the tank) is plumbed with a -8AN nipple (½” pipe). A second -8AN nipple will let me fit a drain cock. I used an early Holden filler neck (many thanks Jim), which has an original Holden cap on it (should match the era of the FB nicely). The ANDRA rules require that the cap be “positively locked”. There is a small lug on the tank to anchor safety wire. I will drill a small hole in the cap to suit the safety wire, and solder the original cap vent hole shut.

The two legs under the tank have been cut from steel plate. They are a little long for now, but can be trimmed later. I will make up some brackets to pick up the FB bumper bar irons (plan at this stage is to unbolt the bumper bar centre section and leave the two end sections in place). Still got to give the tank a rub back and some paint… not sure what colour yet but probably silver RustGuard.

By using scrap, and my brother-in-laws welding skills, the tank owes me about $60 all up. By the time I refitted a Moon tank it would have cost $620. Not a bad saving.

Cheers,
Harv
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and gents,

Having spoken to the seller, I thought I’d post some more info on the Norman that is currently on eBay, along with some things that stood out for me.

The unit is a water cooled, cast iron cased Type 65. The unit was run in an FJ Holden hillclimb car in the early 90’s. The unit had gone through several owners (mainly changing hands without being on a car) prior to purchase. The humpy was running a grey motor with a Vauxhall 12-port head and crank. The motor had been bored out significantly, and had a habit of blowing the copper head gaskets (between bores) when running in supercharged configuration.

The vehicle originally ran motorcycle carbs (probably Amals), though suffered from fuel surge. The carbs were replaced by the Norman, fed by the twin 2” SUs (that’s a lotta carb for a Norman blown grey that is not running alky). The Norman was later replaced by triple SUs. The vehicle ran BP100, with water injection. Drive for the Norman was taken from a chain. This required a significant drive shaft extension, made to be a tapered (interference) fit to the original supercharger drive shaft. The driveshaft extension has been subsequently cut off. The Norman was run without water cooling (due to the short duration hill climbs it was used for), with the water inlet/outlets blocked by brass plugs.

The Norman has been rephrased at some stage – notice that the end plate holes have been redrilled. The end plates are eccentric, so turning them in this manner moves the “low point” (where the rotor is closest to the casing). This can change both the Norman capacity and pressure output (depending on how much rotation is achieved, and in which direction). It would be interesting to see the internals of this machine to map out the exact change (hint hint… if someone purchases this machine, please give me a yell and I’ll walk you through how to remeasure the Norman). Rephasing Normans is unusual, though is relatively common in Wray machines amongst the MGTC crowd (see my Wray anecdote for details of this).

The Norman is also unusual in that this is the first time I have seen the serial number (481) stamped on the casing and the carburettor-to-supercharger manifold. All other early Normans I have seen have been either unstamped, or stamped on the end plates only. Note that the non-drive end plates on this machine have not been drilled and tapped, signifying it has been a Standard (unclutched) model rather than a Deluxe (clutched).

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Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by D-MAN »

Harv may be a stupid question but how much work would be involved hooking that Norman up to a grey?
How many people have the knowledge and skills to do it?
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

D-MAN wrote:Harv may be a stupid question but how much work would be involved hooking that Norman up to a grey?
How many people have the knowledge and skills to do it?
Damn good question. From what I learnt doing Gary's...

a) Strip the whole lot down. Not hard to do, no special tools, and there are photos of how to do so in my Norman thread. An afternoon's careful work.
b) Clean everything in kero, take a look at the bore and test for case hardening (use copper sulphate from Bunnings). Easy enough to do.
c) If needs be, hone the bore. Needs a large diesel engine shop (eg Duncan Foster). About $50.
d) If needs be, replace the vanes. I can sell you the blanks cheaply. Probably two days of cutting and shaping though.
e) Replace bearings. About $300. DE is readily available, NDE may have to be ordered in.
f) Lap end plates - about a days work. Need to make a DIY lapping plate ($15).
g) Measure, order and purchase driven pulley ($150) from Stenco.
h) Buy crank pulley ($50 - I can supply) and have machine shop redrill ($20).
i) Reassemble and set clearances. The guidance on how to do this is here. Need to buy plastigauge ($20).
i) Overhaul SUs - maybe $200 in parts. Simple internally, most DIY'ers can do one.
i) Make supercharger-to-cylinder head manifold. This is the only really hard bit, especially if you can't weld (like me). Figure $500.
j) Make idler pulley bracket - I have a pattern for this, maybe $20 in materials, can do at home.
k) Reroute fuel lines, buy drive belts, buy up air cleaner socks.

Not real hard, nor expensive at all. Pretty time consuming though. If anyone wants to do it, I'll walk them through it (have helped quite a few do so already).

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and gents,

I was working through my Norman notes, and came across some material that I don’t think I’ve posted before – apologies in advance if I have.

In my previous Wray supercharger anecdote, I mentioned that in the local (Australian) forced induction field there were numerous people bolting on (or making kits for) imported superchargers in the 50’s and 60’s. Whilst this is a little different to Norman and Wray (who were building superchargers from scratch), the kit builders were both contemporaries and competitors to the Norman supercharger.

One such contemporary was Barry Ekins. Barry originally became interested in superchargers when he bought a Marshall-blown 1300cc MG/TA Special around 1959. The car, owned by Alan Tomlinson, had previously won the 1939 Australian Grand Prix in Lobethal, South Australia. Tomlinson, who won the AGP at age 22 and is shown in the event in the photo below, has described the circuit as “bloody dangerous” to drive on.

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Barry operated in the late 1960’s in Sydney, utilising the Marshall-Nordec Roots-type supercharger.
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Marshall is a large UK automotive and aircraft company, which started in the early 1900's and continues to operate today. I have confirmed that this “Marshall” neither manufactured superchargers, nor licensed the design (with thanks to Marshall, who were incredibly helpful). Sir George Godfrey and Partners made Marshall-Roots superchargers, both for aviation service and for automotive use. There are a number of advertisements advertising them doing so:
http://www.aviationancestry.co.uk/?comp ... 6+Partners
Godfrey traded from at least the 1930’s, until being taken over by Howden Wade Ltd (who were once Wade Engineering, and now trade as Hadron SR) in 1955. I have been unable to trace back the origins of the “Marshall” component of the Marshall-Rootes name for these type of superchargers, despite much hunting.

Godfrey supplied the Marshall-Godfrey superchargers for the World War 2 effort, where they were used as high-altitude aircraft cabin blowers and for snorkel blowing on submarines. Following the war, a significant number of these machines were surplus. L.M. Ballamy was able to secure the rights to use these surplus machines for automotive supercharging. Ballamy did not manufacture the superchargers, rather they “kitted” them into post-war vehicles including &*#@ 8s and 10s, Vauxhall 10s and 12s, MG TCs and even at least one E93a &*#@ Prefect. Ballamy’s company, L.M. Ballamy, Consulting and Experimental Engineers began in the UK in 1939. In 1946 the business was reorganised as North Downs Engineering Co (Nordec). The company continued supplying supercharging kits (based on the Marshall supercharger) as well as retaining the rights to some of Ballamy’s patents. In 1947 some of Nordecs engineers, designers and managers departed to form Wade Superchargers. Thus both Nordec’s staff, and Godfrey’s company, ended up with Wade. Wade derives from it’s company name from those of the founders, Bryan Winslett and Costin Densham. Wade is familiar to many Aussies for their Rootes-type RO superchargers, including the model RO20 utilized on Peter Brock’s 1970 HDT 186ci LC GTR Torana rallycross vehicle “The Beast”.

But I digress :D

Barry sourced the superchargers (originally intended for either aircraft cabin pressurisation or industrial service) from Marshall-Nordec in the UK, along with some aircraft repair companies. A visit to the UK in 1968 saw Barry return with around 150 superchargers. Barry would provide his "tame pattern maker" with manifold mock-ups (two flanges and a piece of bent wire), with the pattern maker delivering to him the finished cast manifolds. Relief valves for the machines (originally intended for air compressors) were manufactured by Clisby, and sourced from McPhersons hardware in the Sydney CBD. Barry used ex-aircraft gauges, plumbed with copper pipe. Whilst the thermostats were removed when fitting an Ekins kit to a Mini, the grey motor kit thermostats were soldered/braised open (Barry found that removing them directed the flow of water at the radiator cap, blowing it off).
Barry made kits for around 400 vehicles, including around 25 Holdens and 100 Volkswagens (which largely used the J-75 model Marshall-Nordec). The image below shows the Volkswagen kit:

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The image below shows a typical endplate made by Ekins:

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Barry’s machines were also used in some historic racers, and some ski boats (Barry was interested in skiing as a hobby). The majority of Barry’s works were done in 1968. Barry remembers supercharging a new Holden Monaro (probably a HG or HT). The customer wanted the largest setup available, and despite Barry’s advice a supercharger and manifold was imported from the US… costing half as much again as the new vehicle price. The kit was removed after one years use due to the high fuel costs. When Barry ceased his supercharger work he pursued his own Volkswagen service business. Most of the manifold moulds have since been destroyed.

The “BLOW it Man” article below, from The Australian Hot Rodding Review of November 1968 shows some of Barry’s work.
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Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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Harv
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 2:00 pm
State: NSW
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Harv's Norman supercharger thread

Post by Harv »

Ladies and Gents,

Wanna see something cool 8) ?

I have owned my Type 110 Norman for quite a while… pulled it apart, measured bits etc. In all that fiddling, I missed something until Fred pointed it out (many thanks Fred).
On the non-drive end of the Type 100, a fitting has been made that screws into the end of the rotor.

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The rotor non-drive end normally has a rotor keeper screwed into it (see my earlier posts). The fitting in my Type 110 replaces the rotor keeper, and has a bayonet fitting at the end. The bayonets protrude past the end of the casing.

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The purpose of the fitting is to provide a drive for a fuel pump (to suit mechanical fuel injection). Fuel pump drives are typically hex drive, as per the photo below (which I have borrowed from the HAMB):

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Older fuel pump drives however were tang drive, as per the photo below (again borrowed from the HAMB):

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The tang from the fuel pump engages the bayonet on the supercharger fitting. This allows you to bolt a fuel injection pump (eg Hilborn, Enderle, Crower) to the rear of the Norman. The crank drives the supercharger, and the supercharger drives the fuel pump. This saves having to drive the fuel pump from either the distributor/magneto, the camshaft end, or the crank.

Whose up for a Norman blown, injected grey :ebiggrin: ?

Cheers,
Harv
327 Chev EK wagon, original EK ute for Number 1 Daughter, an FB sedan meth monster project and a BB/MD grey motored FED.
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