1/25 Vintage engine parts question

['70 Grande]

So I recently received in a trade, the 1/25 Engine parts shown in the following 2 photos, and I was hoping someone from this forum might be able to educate me as to what type of blower/intake setup this is and if it actually represents a 1:1 setup.  Also, does anybody have any idea what kit these engine pieces might have come from?  Thanks!

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by '70 Grande

['70 Grande]

Some more info; these are painted Red but were produced in Black colored styrene.

[Toner283]

That is a Latham Axial supercharger. Super hens teeth rare in real life. I believe the one you have pictured is from one of the AMT 1925 model T double kits where the hot rod engine is a kinda sorta lincoln V8. Not 100 percent accurate to the real engine but sorta close. The supercharger is fairly well rendered IMO though.

[High octane]

What Toner283 says is true, and if I'm not mistaken I've only seen one of these superchargers in over 50 years.

[Ace-Garageguy]

That is a Latham Axial supercharger. Super hens teeth rare in real life. I believe the one you have pictured is from one of the AMT 1925 model T double kits where the hot rod engine is a kinda sorta lincoln V8. Not 100 percent accurate to the real engine but sorta close. The supercharger is fairly well rendered IMO though.

All correct. The Latham Axial Flow blower was a relatively expensive piece when it was new, due in large part to the complexity of manufacturing the impeller. They were built from the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s. Also, because of their design, they didn't produce much boost at low RPM (which is a strong point of the positive-displacement Roots-type blower). And as Nick already mentioned, they're extremely rare today. Only a few hundred were ever made (though there were other sizes for several applications, even very small ones for motorcycle engines).

         

The carbs represented are Rochester side-drafts, similar to what would have been fitted to a new early Corvette inline 6-cylinder engine.

The engine in the AMT double-T kit, as Toner states, is roughly a Lincoln, sorta, but it is a mashup of various FoMoCo-looking bits.

The valve covers you have represent factory cast-aluminum units for a 368 Y-block Lincoln engine as fitted to the '56-'57 Continental Mk II. but unfortunately the rest of the engine (which you don't have anyway...except for the intake manifold and heads, which are wrong for a 368) is kinda an FE-MEL mix, not particularly accurate for anything (but an OK MEL...Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln...engine).

The blower itself can be fitted to just about any engine, so long as you align the drive pulleys right. Those cool valve covers will, in reality, only bolt to a Lincoln Y-block...and there's not a decent one of those to be had in scale without some serious bashing and fabbing. 

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[TarheelRick]

This set-up, or one very similar, was also available for the 409 in the original Trophy Series '57 Chevrolet, as well as some of the later repops.

[dodgefever]

This set-up, or one very similar, was also available for the 409 in the original Trophy Series '57 Chevrolet, as well as some of the later repops.

That was a Roots type, bearing a resemblance to a S.Co.T. /Italmeccanica blower.  It does have sidedraught carbs though.

The Jo-Han '70 Eldorado has a Latham, IIRC.

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by dodgefever

[Ace-Garageguy]

This set-up, or one very similar, was also available for the 409 in the original Trophy Series '57 Chevrolet, as well as some of the later repops.

Sorry. Nope.

That was a Roots type, bearing a resemblance to a S.Co.T. /Italmeccanica blowers.  It does have sidedraught carbs though.

The Jo-Han '70 Eldorado has a Latham, IIRC.

 

Correct, and the one in the Eldo is pretty nice.   

 

[o-man]

Also in the AMT 65 Riviera

['70 Grande]

All,

Thanks; I certainly appreciate the wealth of vintage kit knowledge found on this forum!  These parts represent a supercharger arrangement like none I've ever seen before.  The info provided on the 1:1 is extremely helpful to me as well. 

Now, just to find a project that would inspire me to clean-up and restore these supercharger parts and find an engine worthy of putting them on!  Any suggestions out there?

[Casey]

[Ace-Garageguy]

 

Now, just to find a project that would inspire me to clean-up and restore these supercharger parts and find an engine worthy of putting them on!  Any suggestions out there?

There are a lot of photos on the web these days of Latham installations on various engines. Just do a Google image-search for "Latham supercharger" and you'll get a bunch of ideas. There are setups on old Hemi engines, flathead Fords, Chevy smallblocks, etc. 

One thing to remember though...if you use the Latham on something like a Ford with the distributor drive in front, you'll need an angle-drive setup for the distributor to get it out of the way of the Latham. AMT thoughtfully included one in the old '25 T double kit.