A conventional 3.8L Whipple with the air entering at the rear didn’t fit the way this engine package needed to fit. The firewall was in the way, and the layout didn’t leave room where we needed it. So we flipped the approach and drove the supercharger from the induction end. That let us push the blower forward on the manifold, center the discharge on the engine, and free up room behind the case. From there, the inlet became the real engineering story. We wanted a dual-inlet, dual-filter arrangement, so the front of the blower and the custom Twin-Ram 5-inch inlet were shaped around airflow and packaging together. Splitting the inlet path drops air velocity through each side, which helps when you have to work around idlers and casting shape without turning the inlet into a restriction. We also added pressure and temperature pickup points so we can see inlet conditions and track what the air is doing in the system. Driving a blower like this also takes belt capacity, which is why this setup uses a custom 12-rib crank pulley keyed into our damper. The result is a supercharger package that fits the engine, supports the airflow path we wanted, and gives us the drive and data we need for the L5P crate engine program.
The video opens with the arrival of a long-awaited package from Whipple. John Espino had driven to Fresno the previous day to pick it up directly, and the team gathered to unbox what they already knew was a 3.8-liter Whipple supercharger. Before opening the crate, they used the opportunity to explain how this unit differed from a more conventional Whipple installation and why their project required a different layout.
A standard 3.8 Whipple setup places the drive pulley at the front of the supercharger, connected to the crankshaft with the usual tensioner and idler arrangement, while the air enters through the rear of the case. In that conventional orientation, air would typically come from the nose of the vehicle through ducting or cast passages that could also incorporate the throttle body and filtration, then turn and enter the rear of the blower. The rotors would turn clockwise as viewed from the front of the crankshaft.
That arrangement was originally considered for this build, but packaging made it impractical. The firewall was the limiting factor. Even with the final design, the installation already pushed back into the firewall area, so the conventional rear-inlet configuration simply did not fit the vehicle as intended. The team instead chose to drive the supercharger from the induction end. While that concept is not new in itself, their version added a dual-inlet, dual-air-filter approach, which made the packaging and casting design much more involved.
As the crate was opened, several accessory pieces appeared before the supercharger itself. One of the first visible parts was an idler pulley, followed by lubricant and then the lower crank pulley. The pulley design carried a deliberate styling theme: a six-spoke pattern inspired by period Raider-style mag wheels, chosen to match the era and character of the truck.
The lower pulley is a 12-rib crankshaft pulley that bolts directly to the Banks damper and keys into it. Beyond driving the supercharger, the front of the damper assembly also includes a six-bolt drive provision that creates another belt plane for auxiliary systems. Gale explained that this can be useful for accessories such as a mechanically driven water pump for a charge-air-cooler system when high water flow and meaningful head pressure are required. He contrasted that with electric pumps, noting that for extreme cooling demands a mechanical drive is often the better solution. As an example, he referenced the Bonneville Firebird program, where they run roughly 120 gallons per minute through the charge-air coolers.
Once the main unit was lifted out, the machining and overall form of the supercharger immediately became the focus. The case featured a pronounced ribbed treatment that had evolved during the design process. Rather than limiting that visual language to the blower body alone, the team decided to carry it into the intake casting as well, creating a more unified appearance.
Although this blower is still fundamentally a Whipple screw supercharger, its orientation is reversed relative to the conventional arrangement discussed earlier. What would normally be considered the rear of the blower becomes the front in this installation because the drive is located there. The result is a highly distinctive billet assembly that the team felt was too visually strong to hide under paint. They had originally considered finishing it in a magnesium-like color, but once machined parts began arriving from Whipple, the quality of the billet work changed that plan. Gale concluded that painting it would make little sense unless it were only protected with a clear gloss finish.
The reversed-drive arrangement was not chosen only for appearance. It also solved a major packaging and airflow problem. On a screw blower, air is inducted from one end and discharged from the bottom at the opposite end. Compression occurs axially through the rotors, with a compression ratio developed within the rotors themselves, and additional boost then built in the intake manifold as the engine is overfed.
By placing the drive at the front, the discharge ends up at the front of the engine as well. That allowed the team to center the outlet more effectively over the intake manifold. Gale emphasized that this was one of the biggest advantages of the chosen geometry. When the blower is arranged the other way, centering the discharge on the engine becomes more difficult. In this project, pushing the blower forward on the manifold gave them the drive-plane geometry they wanted while also preserving room behind the blower. That combination of centered discharge and improved rear clearance was a major reason this layout "worked out beautifully" for the build.
The inlet side of the supercharger is one of the most unusual parts of the design. Because the team wanted dual inlets and dual air filters, the casting had to accommodate an idler and other packaging intrusions while still maintaining adequate cross-sectional area. Inside the inlet passages there are visible humps and bumps, including a clearance feature for the idler. Even so, Gale explained that the airflow velocity through each side is lower than it would be with a single-sided inlet, which helped make the geometry workable.
The dual-inlet arrangement also allowed the team to preserve symmetry, something Gale clearly valued in the design. Looking into the openings, the rotors are visible, and the internal shape shows how the air is guided toward the screw elements. Despite the local protrusions required for clearance, the available area is large enough that the team did not consider those features to be a meaningful restriction or a serious aerodynamic penalty.
The supercharger was also prepared with built-in data acquisition points. Pressure and temperature measurement locations were added underneath the assembly and at the induction side so the team can compare conditions entering the blower with conditions elsewhere in the system. Specifically, they intend to monitor ambient pressure and temperature at the inlet and compare those values to pressure and temperature readings taken at the blower-related measurement points.
That instrumentation will help quantify what happens to the intake air through the induction path and may also show whether the vehicle gains any useful Ram-Air effect from the front-end configuration. Gale noted that the headlights had been removed, and the team hoped that opening could contribute to Ram-Air into the induction system. The measurement ports will allow them to evaluate that rather than relying on assumptions.
Despite the unconventional orientation and custom inlet casting, the back side of the blower still retains familiar Whipple features. The rear of the case looks much like the traditional back end of the supercharger, including the lubricant sight gauge. In other words, the project did not reinvent the supercharger internally so much as repackage and reorient it to suit the engine bay, manifold, and airflow goals of the build.
That balance between established hardware and custom packaging is central to the engineering story here. The blower remains recognizably a Whipple 3.8, but the drive arrangement, inlet architecture, and manifold relationship were all tailored to the specific constraints of the truck and the performance objectives of the team.
The unboxing closes with a strong emphasis on craftsmanship and collaboration. Gale described the supercharger as one of the neatest pieces of work he had seen and made clear that the result came from a broader creative effort rather than a single person. Although the project carries the Banks name, he credited the internal team and specifically Matt Campbell for helping shape the design, styling, and packaging decisions.
The final impression is that this is not just an off-the-shelf blower bolted onto an engine. It is a carefully considered billet supercharger system built around a 3.8 Whipple, a custom front-drive orientation, a centered discharge strategy, dual inlets, integrated instrumentation, and period-inspired drive hardware. The engineering decisions were driven by firewall clearance, manifold alignment, airflow management, and accessory-drive flexibility, while the finished piece also achieved the visual coherence the team wanted for the truck.