55 Willys with supercharger?

[boatingbill]

A friend and I pulled a 55 Willys Burmuda Hardtop out of a bone yard in the 60's that the engine and transmission were missing. The salvage yard man said it had the 226 Kaiser engine in it. We found a replacement 226 engine and installed it. The ex Willys dealer (then a auto repair shop that had lots of Willys NOS parts) said that the 226 engine could be ordered with the supercharger, so we were looking for a original blower set-up to install. Our plan was to drag race it in the F-stock category if my memory serves correctly. Then my friend got drafted and the project ended. My question is: has anyone ever seen a Willys with the 226 engine and the optional supercharger from the factory?

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

This is an interesting point.   As far as is known, there were no 1955 Willys cars built with a blower, unless it was a special order.  There is nothing on the factory parts book on a blower for the 1955 willys.  Also, the only "oddball" memo from the factory to field service people on the supercharger that I know of covered 1954 Kaiser and Kaiser-Darrin sports car models.

[boatingbill]

In order to race the Willys as stock we had to provide proof that the supercharger was indeed optional. We talked with the ex Willys dealer and he was going to look for literature, but wasn't in any hurry to do so. We did buy a new 55 taillight assembly from him, so he did have some incentive to look. If my friend hadn't got drafted, we would have been a kept up with the project and maybe had a unique Willys. He was driving a 51 Kaiser at the time (I had a 51 Frazer 4 door hardtop project) and when he came home two years later, both the Kaiser and Willys were gone.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Sorry, but neither the showroom brochure (and there was one for the 1955 Willys passenger cars), Parts book or Service Manual identify a blower on the 226 that most of these cars were equipped with.  It was the standard 2-barrel dual-manifold 6, normally hooked up to Hydra-Matic.   

[boatingbill]

Could a 54 Kaiser that came without a supercharger be retrofitted by the dealer if the owner wanted more performance and requested it? If that was true, then maybe a Willys dealer would do so if the owner would pay for it. Its a moot point now I know.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

It would be a major production, but all the pieces would fit, except for the air cleaner and connected parts.  That would be a snag, but  you probably could work out the engineering and mounting of the parts.

[Aeroman]

As far as I know, no 226-engined Aeros were factory equipped with a supercharger. I have never seen any literature suggesting it and there is no mention that I can recall in the Aero related parts books.

I remember a conversation with John Parker over 25 years ago. He put one on his '55 Bermuda at one point and he told me that he did not put the fan on (because there was no room?) and the engine would overheat in traffic or on long uphills, but it went like a scalded cat.