I was wondering if a supercharger from a Lightning would/could be fitted to a I6 300. There are plenty of them laying around when people upgrade to bigger superchargers than from stock. As well, there are plenty of superchargers from Expeditions and F150s, both 4.6 and 5.4 up for sale. So is it possible to do? Is it a good idea?

 

i highly douibt a lightning supercharger will fit a 300

 

I've been contemplating this myself. The brother of one of my co-workers works in a body shop and they just replaced a whole Lightning blower because the pulley was scratched in an accident. There is a good chance I might get the blower.

The only thing you really need to make it work is an adaptor plate to fit the blower to an open plenum carb intake. The intake must be plumbed for EFI, but that is not difficult or expensive. The outlet on the bottom of the blower is rectangular. A 1' thick plate roughly the size of the bottom flange of the blower could very easily be made into an adaptor. If the blower pulley couldn't be made to line up with this type of adaptor you would need something more extravagant. You would also need an FMU to boost the fuel pressure as the manifold pressure increases. When I mash the gas on my Lightning I get about 7 psi instantly at idle and about 10psi by 4500 rpm. The hot setup would probably be to use a lower blower pulley that would run the blower about 20% faster than it runs on a 5.4. The throttle body bolt pattern on the uppper intake plenum of the Lightning is the same as the one on a 300/302/351/460, and the TB butterflies are 58mm. You could keep the IAC in the standard Lightning location with a 460 TB, or you could use a TB from a 302 or 351 and keep it on the TB. Of course you would also need to lengthen the intake tubes and maybe some wiring. Hmmm. My 300 makes 272 ft-lbs@2000 at the wheels in it's current form. My Lightning makes 445 ft-lbs@3400. If the blower was repullied to make peak boost by 2000 rpm you could probably get nearly 500 ft-lbs of torque at 2000 rpm out of a 300.

Now that I think of it, some creative idler pulley positioning might allow the use of the existing serpentine belt. I've gotta go do some measuring.

 

Actually the Eatom M90 found for 200$ or less on Ebay off a 89-95 thunderbird 3.8L moves enough air to make 6-7psi on a 300-6 (by the airflow maps). I plugged this all into Desktop dyno with a Mild cam (compcam 260h) and stock EFI head flow and it made 226hp @ 3500rpm and 369ft-lbs @ 2500rpm
With good portjob and 1.94/1.60 valves in the head the HP jumps to 355hp @ 5000rpm and 406ft-lbs @ 3500rpm with ONLY 6psi boost (the upper limits of the M90 for effecent airflow)

 

a vortech would be easier modded to fit, than a roots type charger

 

But a vortech only makes boost at high RPM. On a truck you want full boost at lower RPM for towing or hauling.

 

Actually the M90 from the supercoupe is fairly compact and easy to make brakets for, easier than a Vortech would be to mount. I've got both in the garage

 

What kind of TB does the M90 accept in stock form? I think I would still go with the 112. On an EFI engine you could probably make either one fit on top of the plenum very easily. Just block off the stock TB opening, mill the top of the plenum flat, cut an opening and drill/tap holes to bolt down an adaptor plate.

 

silver streak, thats what i was thinking in ways of installing the m90.

You would have hood clearance issues obviously, but the belt should be pretty easy to run, and you could keep the blower completely stock also, because you'd have a few inches to work with on where you would mount it.

The hard part then would be the fuel delivery and computer, but we can just leave that to the pros who burn the chips for a living

 

The factory ford inlet for the M90 uses mustang 5.0L single blade 60mm throttle body and fits upto a 70mm aftermarket Throttle body with port matching. I have a whole spare unit in the garage so I think I'm going to work up some brakets for it and see how it works, its a spare I bought for my 1990 thunderbird supercoupe.

 

I have a '90 Thunderbird SC, and 2 - '94 F150's with 300 sixes. The Thunderbird is a torque monster. I am currently putting wider sticky tires on it to get some low end traction. The 300 sixes are pretty good on torque and outlive V8's by at least 200%, but I think they could outdo the Tbird with a Tbird supercharger on them. You can pick up used Tbird superchargers with all the components pretty cheap. If anybody is looking at doing this we need to talk. I have no idea of where to even start on this project.

Rob

 

Funny you should mention Birds and Eaton blowers.. I've been lurking here trying to read up on the possibility of putting an EFI 300 I6 w/ a supercharger into one of my two Fox T-birds. (I have a thing for inline-6s.. and besides, I already have a 5.0 SO in one of the Birds.. the one getting the 300 would probably be my current CFI V6 Bird) Initially I was thinking twin-turbo, but I was talked into considering a positive-displacement supercharger like the M90. My reasons are probably a long and boring read, so I'll save 'em for another time.

Some of my fellow T-bird/Cougar enthusiasts seem to think that the M90 is a little bit anemic even for the 3.8 its mated to in the Super Coupe.. (I wouldn't know, personally.. I prefer the Fox T-bird to the MN12.. not quite so fat) let alone for the big I6. The Lightning supercharger is the M112, if my research has been correct.. might not be such a bad choice, if you can get it reasonably.

My own direction is probably toward a Kenne Bell twin-screw supercharger adapted to the 300. The fact that Kenne Bell offers a kit for the Jeep 4.0 I6 gives me a little extra hope that something can be slapped together without driving me completely insane. (short drive)

 

DO ya'll know what the best SC would be for a carb aplication? I've always heard the eaton M90 for all 300's but I didnt know if i could mount a carb on top of the charger or not? Ive seena guy on here with a paxton charcer I THINK but im not sure. One wouldn't need any comp. for a carb application right?

 

ummm, the blower "outlet" is the top opening on an eaton M90, meaning a carb on "top" would be a bad choice, unless you want gas all over.hahaha.I also had a 1995 thunderbird sc. The inlet is in the rear, pressure comes out the top. You would not be able to run the blower backwards as the screws would not operate in reverse properly. There is a mechanism to allow the screws to have some dampening and wouldn't work in reverse.

 

well i just picked up a free M90 and all the stock plumbing for it. id really like some input on where to start with this thing. im thinking of drawing the whole setup in CADD to kind of get an idea. ive got a few ideas on how to plumb it but anyone else interested in it or have some ideas?