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Mention supercharger and LS engine in the same breath and you’re usually referring to a LSA or LS9 engine with their compact, almost unnoticeable blowers. The thought of a massive rib-cased 6-71 or 8-71 GMC-style supercharger sitting in the valley of an LS engine, topped with a pair of Holley carbs and driven by the familiar 3-inch-wide Gilmer belt just about never comes to mind.
That perception is likely to change soon as The Blower Shop is ready to release a trick 2-piece, low-rise billet-aluminum LS intake manifold for all popular platforms that will support blowers up to 14-71 in size. The first production run is currently at the polisher, and another production run is being prepped. Currently the aftermarket offers only cast LS intakes designed for Jimmy blowers.
The Blower Shop intakes for LS applications can be ordered with or without EFI provisions and for either cathedral- or rectangular-port heads.
Primary markets include street rods and musclecars.
“A lot of guys are putting LS motors in their hot rods now,” says Joe Vach, sales manager at The Blower Shop. “They’ve been asking for this for quite a few years. We were able to finally get the machine time and design work finished.”
“And we’re also getting interest from the marine market,” adds shop owner Ron Hayes.
Since the manifolds can be machined to order, they are available for cathedral- and rectangular-port heads. LS7 and tall-deck intakes are currently under development. The intakes can also be ordered with or without fuel-injector provisions at the port, allowing the use of carburetors on top of the blower. The EFI intake will also include dedicated fuel rails. When using EFI, The Blower Shop recommends running an additional four injectors up in the hat to provide a wet charge for the rotors.
“If they really want to run it dry we’d have to set it up differently,” says Vach. “But the motor isn’t as efficient that way. We like to see some fuel going through the supercharger.”
The first production run was recently completed. The intakes are machined from billet aluminum.
Many of the leading aftermarket ECUs can control from 12 to 16 injectors, so setting up the calibration shouldn’t be a problem and will offer additional tuning options for the engine builder.
Total weight of the 2-piece intake is about 35 pounds. The Blower Shop is prepping an engine for dyno testing.
“It is a lower profile intake, so it may not have some of the flow numbers of a taller sheet-metal intake,” says Vach.
