Well here we go again. You'd think that I would have learned my lesson about projects after the last one but a little bit of counselling and rehab' can do wonders. I hardly ever cry at the sight of a bug now... almost!

Now that I'm feeling better and with nothing better to do than sitting at home thinking (that should have started alarm bells ringing). I had the bright idea of supercharging the "Fatso" Kombi. No prob. I'll just get a supercharger and stick it on, easy. Famous last words.

We will start at the beginning. One day while talking to me ex friend and troublemaker extraordinaire Murray, the idea of blowing "Fatso" was born. From there I found out all I could about the job by asking Larry, using the Internet and looking at every picture and photo I could lay me paws on. The blower was located in South Australia and shipped over for a cost of $20.00. The blower itself was $350.00 and came out of a Toyota. The size is perfect for the 1600 upright engine. I ordered it on Friday and it arrived on the Monday, great service.

I must say after sitting and looking at it for two days sighing I decided to get started, but where to start. A mounting bracket seemed in order, so that is where we will begin. After measuring the room available it was noted that the blower would have to be mounted at an angle, as the inlet and outlet are opposite. This makes mounting the carby interesting, as the manifold would have to be hand made. I was able to this at home in my now famous shed. But back to the mount; this was located between the alternator and the distributor using the fuel pump blot holes and the long bolt that usually supports the carby. These three mounting points are just adequate so I decided to also use the alternator strap by removing the bolt and using a threaded rod through there and into the blower mount at the top, this made the job very rigid.

The mount was made using a 20 x 20 mm angle and 220mm flat bar. I mounted the blower using the inside of the blower mounts so that I would have clearance for the belts, I would be using two drive belts. I decided on this so that more tension could be used on the blower belt and less on the alternator as it has a rather small bearing and may fail. It also lets me change blower drive belts with a minimum of bother. All I have to do is use a larger or smaller drive pulley which is welded to the VW drive pulley. This may sound like a lot of work but VW pulleys are plentiful and cheap. While different size blower drives are just as plentiful you just weld them up and change one drive pulley back to the mount, you must be careful to get the height right though as if you don't you will foul the distributor or the alternator. At my second go I got it right! You must also keep a clearance of 10 mm from the fan shroud.

Up until this point two days had disappeared and the urge to binge drink has returned, steady son, steady. My wife is yelling, "have you taken your medication?" As if I would forget! I don't like it in the wardrobe, in the dark! Back to the job. You must remove the fuel pump and make a full size gasket... easy, remember to buy a sheet of heavy gasket paper, very cheap. After you bolt the mount in place it's time to decide on what type of carby to use. I was told that a 1.75 to 2 inch S.U. would do nicely, so I bought one. I then proceeded to make the inlet manifold. I did this using a 5mm flat bar and tracing the shape of the carby mouth on paper then transferring that to the metal bar then oxy cutting it out and finishing it off with a grind stone fitted in a router. I used a router because of the high revs.

After I did all this I found a set of 40 delortos so I started to make a manifold. The process of manifold making is not as daunting as it seems. With mine the blower inlet and outlet were the same size and shape so all I had to do was find a rectangular tube and cut it to the desired size and angle I needed. I used the 5mm flat steel to make the end plates for the fitting of the carby then I welded them together, easy. I cut every thing with oxy and finished with a grinding bit in the router and filed the last bit. (You may ask why steel and not aluminium, well I have the equipment to use steel and the experience).

On the outlet side I made a backfire release valve using a 4-inch x 1-inch pipe. Into this I placed a 1 inch tap washer rubber followed by a spring then another washer, put a screw-on cap on and a bolt through the top to adjust pressure on the spring then welded it over a hole I had drilled and bingo a relief valve. The next thing I did was remove the bolt used to clamp the generator to the stand and replaced this with a threaded bar going to the top of the blower. This allowed me a two-ended adjustment so that I could angle the blower to suit the carby angle not to tension the belt. (There is not enough movement for this). I used a belt tensioner from an E A Falcon with a homemade bar. The drive pulley comes from a VN Holden and was welded to the VW pulley using the centre out of a large bearing. I was able to get very accurate welds by clamping the pieces to a steel bench and slowly measuring the distances around the pulley until it was right then welding. This method allowed me to use the original pulley bolt as the hole in the bearing and Holden pulley are very large.

The pulley on the blower is an electro magnet type and was retained and wired in the coil loom so that when the ignition was turned off the blower stopped, this way I would not have an ugly mishap if the motor decided to over run when hot and fill the blower with fuel.

Now to the manifold running to the heads. This was made using a piece of pipe the same diameter as the original and merely using the rest of the V.W. parts and gaskets and rubber joiners. I had to insert another pipe into this and I did it by cutting a 4 inch x 1 inch hole into the centre and laying the other piece of pipe along it angled up and with a bit of heat turned it further up allowing a good angle for the rubber pipe I used as a joiner between the two. I used rubber here because at this point it seems that a bit of heat is generated and the rubber allows for movement. The hose is from a Mazda radiator that takes 14 lb pressure at well above boiling point also the drive belt is Mazda.

While I think of it there is a small thing to take into consideration and that is the angle of the carby, if it is at right angles to the blower you may get a small amount of fuel running into the blower If you have a needle and seat leak. So if you angle the carby down a few degrees any fuel that does leak will run out of the filter end. This has no bad effect on the running it's just playing it safe. After you have run it for a while and all is well with fuel than put the angle at its correct setting.

Since writing this story I have taken the bus to Victoria towing a trailer and although the trailer was a bit much for the bus it performed well and has since had the drive pulley enlarged it's now running at 1 to 1 and maybe just maybe I might go up to 1.5 to 1 as there is a bit of rev range difference between a Toyota and a VW the reason for this is that the blower is rated at 1200 cc at 7500 rpm and my old bus just wont rev to 7500rpm so I will let the boost come on earlier by over driving the blower with a bigger drive pulley but I am getting a bit ahead of myself… the future is just that, the future.

Happy Dubbing and I will keep you all up to date with what happens with Fatso the blown bus.