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The Magnecharger was a rather showy street upgrade built by Steve Wilkinson's shop back in the early '80s. The original double blower setup was, I believe, intended for a Corvette, arranged as it is to clear the low hood on a front-engine car. Steve turned it 180 degrees and drove the superchargers from the back on Pantera 351-Cs with a jackshaft similar to a Mangusta A/C & alt. Those are dual 50 DCOE Webers. Magnussen is still in business but that rig has been out of production for decades. Several Nor-Cal Pantera owners ran them.

Yeah I've managed to source a New Old Stock one for a SBC. Its the low profile design for the Corvette and Camaro. This setup comes with the original dual Dellorto DHLA 40mm and lots of pulleys for various overdrive settings. I will need to upgrade the Dellorto 40mm to 48mm for my application but I am after people's opinions on how hard they've turned them and how efficient they are. 

I am basically chasing any info I can get. I have spoken to Magnuson supercharger and he had a lot of positive things to say about them, so I am just seeing other peoples experiences. 

Thanks

husker posted:

Do you have a picture of the front of the engine for the setup in the Pantera?

I do not have Photo's. Maybe someone here might have some? I don't know much about the set up except my friend has the set up on the shelf. I see someone posted some Photo's,These are of a SBC, the Pantera would use a Jack Shaft as the set faces the rear of the Car.

Last edited by cuvee

All the Pantera setups from Wilkinson I've seen used stagger-jetted 50 DCOE Webers, except for Forest Goodhart's rig that used two 454 GM TBI injector bodies. TBIs will run in any orientation but need a 12-15 psi fuel pump and some sort of controller. A stock Ford or GM TBI fuel pump will run inside a Pantera fuel tank without cutting the tank. Maybe the Dellortos were from Magnussen for GMs?  40mm throttle bores seem really small for a blown 350 ci engine (as do the 50mm Webers). 

In a street-blower comparo' dyno run by HRM decades ago, the dual-Magnussen produced 7 psi max. The assembly (less intake) weighed 74 lbs with Webers on my scales. Wilkinson's special Pantera intake for the necessary reversed blowers used 2V cylinder heads, not 4V. There were two long aluminum shear- bolts holding the blower cases to the modified intake, in place of a burst panel used nowadays to prevent backfire damage to roots-type blowers.

Some higher rpm problems reportedly occurred with the rear Gilmer belt alignment between the reversed blower snouts and the end of the jackshaft or idler pulley (curable), and you need to modify the Cleveland's PCV system- or when boost goes positive, the rear window may get covered in engine oil from crankcase blow-by past the front main seal being carried by normal air flow up and out the rear opening over the deck. But everything fits under a stock engine screen.

Interesting stuff.

I’ve never thought about it much, but it’s interesting that crankcase pressures will increase in the supercharged engine, although it stands to reason now that I think about it.

Another thing I never considered is this idea of shear bolts to let the blowers pop off if the engine backfires. I never thought about it. I guess that would necessitate a tow home.

Rocky

Last edited by rocky
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