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I want to put a Magnacharger twin blower on my '74 Pantera. I'm familiar with setting up a motor for a supercharger, but was wondering if anyone has any insights about this particular kit. I'm also wondering where to find one, and roughly what I can expect to pay for a complete setup. Thanks all for your time, and have a great day!

Cyboman@aol.com
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The Magnecharger was originally built to clear the low hoods on '80s Corvettes, and Wilkinson adapted it to the Pantera. They were popular in 1980, but its been out of production for decades. The company was sold to B & M, who decided that it was too expensive to produce. Parts are available from the original designer, Jerry Magneson, who still has a few complete units, I hear. Most ones that turn up are thoroughly thrashed swap-meet units, and remember you need the Pantera mount kit & jackshaft to go with the basic blower. Hot Rod did a comparo of all street blowers back in the '80s; the Magnecharger was one that they said worked well, but could not put out over about 6psi on a 350 inch engine. The 50 DCOE side-draft Webers are rare now, too, having also gone out of production. Some belt alignment problems have shown up, and a variety of fixes have been used by die-hard Pantera guys.
Still on the subject, one Pantera friend adapted two 454 Chevy truck throttle body fuel injections in place of the troublesome side draft Webers. He has put nearly 50,000 miles on his toy (392 stroker) and says it still runs well,, putting out about 8 psi. E-mail for the straight scoop by a guy who did it. He has many well thought out adaptions on his Pantera
There is exactly ONE source for the specific parts required to adapt this blower to a Pantera, and that's Steve Wilkinson, of Panteras By Wilkinson, (562) 634-3434.

He probably doesn't have any blowers in stock, but may be able to provide the ancilliaries such as the special brackets, jackshafts, pulleys, etc. etc.

This is a very non-trivial conversion. When done right, it can be very impressive. But ultimately it's a very expensive, complicated and maintenance-intensive way to achieve horsepower. The WOW factor is incredibly high, but it's a rather impractical solution when compared to more conventional means if horsepower is the ultimate goal.

Forest Goodhart (eventually) had success with his system, and his car delivers planet-shattering amounts of horsepower and torque (the number 565 rings in my head although that may not be right.) But it took literally years of concerted fiddling, a conversion to fuel injection, lots of dyno time, a few blown head gaskets, etc. etc.

If you want to wow 'em at the street rod meet, this conversion may be right for you. Plan on spending $20-25K before you're done.

Or, you could slam in a stroker 427 Windsor or a 514 inch 460-based motor and get the same level of performance for half that....

Mike
LOL.... You know a person to touch base with perhaps is Dennis Q out of his shop in Colorado... I saw pictures of him running a supercharger set up using the flywheel I believe. A gentleman visiting from Europe passed through his shop and had snapped some photos that he passed on to everyone. In those I saw a side shot of it and it looked impressive. Good luck. The cost is a bit prohibitive for what you get out of it though...
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