Think Small: Weiand 177 Mini Blower

The Weiand 177 blower may be small, but it is mighty.

The Weiand 177 blower may be small, but it is mighty.

Words Richard Holdener

When it comes to supercharging your motor, there are plenty of options to choose from. Some are looking for that top-end rush of a centrifugal supercharger, but traditionalists want more immediate gratification. For these guys, the only choice is the symmetrical look and instant boost offered by a positive displacement supercharger all nestled down in the valley of a V8 (where god and nature intended it).

Whether it’s for looks, cooks, or a little of both, adding a roots-style (positive displacement) supercharger to any motor is a surefire route to increased performance. While everyone wants supercharged performance, some applications (especially small blocks) don’t necessarily require a full-on 6-71 with dual quads sticking out the hood. Such a blower would be ill suited (meaning too big) for a stock or mild crate motor application, but fear not, as Weiand offers their Pro Street 177 supercharger for those looking to think small.

When choosing a supercharger for any application, it is important to be specific about the intended purpose or application. Just as the choice of heads, cam, and intake will be dictated by the intended application, so too is a supercharger. Taking an example to the extreme, the blower choice for an 8,000-hp, Top Fuel motor would be decidedly different than a 400-hp, daily-driven small block.

Recognizing this, Weiand offers a variety of different roots-style superchargers to meet most any performance need. Milder applications (like stock crate motors) might do well with the little 142 series, while more dedicated builds can step up to the massive 8-71. For this test, we were most interested in the smaller, low-profile street blowers, but wanted something that had the potential to grow with our future needs. In the end, we selected the Pro Street 177 supercharger. Heck, even the name sounded old-school cool!

We liked several things about the Pro Street 177 supercharger (besides the name), including the ease of installation, ability to easily increase the power output, and capacity to grow with our future power needs. Increasing the power output of any supercharged combination is a simple matter of increasing the boost. The increase comes from nothing more complicated than a pulley swap — what could be easier?

As always, there are limitations to the available rotor speed and attending boost supplied by any blower, especially the roots style. It is worth noting here that roots blowers are much more efficient at lower boost pressures. This is compounded by the lack of what we call secondary intercooling. What the heck is secondary intercooling, you ask? Intercoolers use air or water to help lower the increase in inlet air temp inherent in boost production. The carburetor mounted on top of the blower acts as a primary intercooler, as the fuel flow through the supercharger significantly drops air temps (as much as 100 degrees or more on high-boost applications). There is, however, no other form of intercooling employed downstream of the supercharger to further lower air temps.

Recognizing the limitations, we kept boost pressures to a reasonable level during testing, but that took nothing away from the ease of installation. If you can successfully swap an intake manifold, you can install this Weiand 177 supercharger. Can the same be said of other supercharger systems? Once the dedicated intake was in place, the blower mounted with six bolts and the crank pulley with just four bolts. After installation of the belt, we were ready to make boost.

We purposely chose the larger 177 Pro Street blower over the smaller 142 (which would easily satisfy our current power needs) for its increased capacity. Not necessary on our mild 350 in its current state, we suspect the 350 will become considerably more powerful in normally aspirated form in the not-so-distant future. Whether that comes from a hike in compression, wilder cam timing, or increased head flow is irrelevant, but the 177 supercharger has the ability to grow with our power needs (we’ve made 644 hp with it on a wilder 383 stroker).

Enough purchase justification and future speculation; let’s get to the test. After all, the primary reason we selected the Weiand 177 supercharger was because we wanted more power. In its current state, our 350 small block featured a four-bolt main block, stuffed with cast internals, including dished pistons. Though better than their stock cast-iron counterparts, the GM aluminum heads were far from racy and combined with the dished pistons to produce a blower-friendly compression ratio of less than 9.0:1.

The 350 had previously been upgraded with a mild PE246 cam from COMP Cams. Basically, this was a mild 350 just one or two performance steps above a stock motor or your typical crate-motor offering. The low compression made it ideally suited for boost, so naturally, we thought it was the perfect candidate for the Pro Street blower. Before adding boost, the 350 was run in normally aspirated trim using a Holley 650 XP carb, Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap intake, and MSD ignition system. So equipped, the NA 350 produced 346 hp at 5,100 rpm and 412 lb-ft at 3,800 rpm.

Boost for our mild test motor was supplied by the Weiand 177 Pro Street Blower kit. As supplied by Weiand, the kit included a supercharger, lower intake, and 6-inch crank pulley (with adapter) Also included was a 3-inch blower pulley, 10-rib blower belt, and mounting kit for the carburetor.

We quickly removed the NA induction system and installed the dedicated blower manifold. We liked the fact the intake featured O-ring sealing for the blower. The 177 supercharger was installed next and bolted in place using the supplied hardware. The final touch was installation of the adapter and crank pulley, followed by the 10-rib belt. The blower snout featured a spring-loaded tensioner to eliminate belt slippage.

After replacing the 6-inch crank pulley with a larger 7-inch pulley, the peak boost jumped to 9.3 psi. So equipped, the supercharged small block produced 452 hp and 492 lb-ft of torque.

After replacing the 6-inch crank pulley with a larger 7-inch pulley, the peak boost jumped to 9.3 psi. So equipped, the supercharged small block produced 452 hp and 492 lb-ft of torque.

Using the supplied 3-inch blower pulley and 6-inch crank pulley, the Weiand 177 supercharger produced a peak of 6.3 psi and increased the power output of the 350 to 405 hp and 446 lb-ft of torque. Stepping up to a 7.0-inch crank pulley resulted in a jump to 452 hp and 492 lb-ft of torque.

If we wanted more, it would be wise to look into water injection or, better yet, improve the power output of the normally aspirated combination to help lower the boost. For now, we can enjoy the newfound power, content in the knowledge that thinking small can still bring big boost!

Sources: ARP, arp-bolts.com; COMP Cams, compcams.com; Edelbrock, edelbrock.com; Holley/Hooker/NOS/Weiand, holley.com MSD, msdignition.com

About the author

PPN Editor

Power & Performance News is the source for news, tech and products that help you get more performance from your vehicle. If powertrain performance projects and hardcore technical content are your interest, Power & Performance News is the publication designed for you. Our acclaimed editorial staff covers all aspects of engine and driveline upgrades with a mission of presenting information that is both interesting and achievable for the “average car guy”.
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