tight blower

I got my blower back from littlefield for restripping ect... I have a sheet metal intake. The opening on the manifold has a o-ring and groove. The intake is on my work bench and when I torque the blower to it (15 inch pounds) I then cant turn the blower over. Loosen the nuts and then it spins. I wonder if when the manifold is bolted to the heads then the blower torqued down to the manifold
will make a differance. My thought is maybe the manifold is flexed alittle and that is throwing the blower off, or do I need to get the manifold top squared??? any Ideas.

 

bolt the manifold on your engine check if square, any doubt get it skimmed while on the motor, (will keep your belt on square too) AND A MUST get the o'ring groove cut to the correct depth for size o'ring your using.

 

Or use a manifold torque plate to make sure you tighten it down flat
(Manifold is bolted to the motor so surface is flat)
If you dont know what I am talking about its a 1" milled plate with about a dozen dial indicators to zero out the manifold deck

 

Your blower could be out of square from shiping. Check it first. Dont surface your intake unless its bolted to heads.

 

intakes

They will move around. Check on motor. Good luck Don

 

The correct thing to do is bolt intake down on motor and then lap intake while bolted down.Your blower is now tight and fresh when it is bolted to intake it can twist if intake surface is not perfectly flat.We wolud fill plenum with rags and cover motor, put blue dye on intake surface then take a lapping plate with a sheet of sand paper glued to to it and do figure 8'sover surface til dye was gone.We would do that at the start of every season or if any welding was done.Your going to want to get a standard method of tightening intake and stick to it.Typically an O-ring should stick up 1/3 the dia. .125 o-ring should stick up about .040

 

thanks for the great advice

 

first what do you mean buy tight? that blower did not leave merts shop without andy or lee rolling it over several times! I think after you put the intake on it should be ok if not lap the manifold, what we do is I made a 1inch plate with a dozen dial indicators on it and I sit it on the intake and start tighting the manifold down till all the dial ind. read zero..most of your top fuel team use them..Dave

 

Lee did a good job, what I mean is , it rolls over till I try to bolt it down. Be fore I get to 15 inch pounds it locks up. I think once the manifold is bolted to the heads as one mentioned it may make a difference. Thanks

 

On a fresh roots blower 15 inch pounds isnt much. Some of the top fuel guys rebuild their's so tight that it is hard to believe it is ok to use it like that. Maybe some of the guys here can chime in on what it too tight? Dave Germain

 

Lapping your manifold is always a good idea but problem sounds more like
the o-ring in your manifold is to tall. The first thing we would do is take out
o-ring and try it without it and see what it does. If its not tight then your
o-ring is to tall. Try the simple things first. On a previous post it was talked about where the end plate meets the case, that would only be a concern if you had a retro blower. If you have any concern about your Littlefield Blower please do not hesitate to call us.

 

we have them stripped so tight it takes a bar to turn the first time

 

The man has spoken...Mert Littlefield.......Dave