curious about a SC cord I saw

You are right Cliff, I did forget about the side mount fuel pump.

For others - The FC block had a side mount fuel pump. The FB block had a top mounted fuel pump that doesn't fit with the supercharger, hence the reason for the move. However the very late FB blocks did have the side mount fuel pump.

As a follow-up, a long friend and ACD club member here in Ct. has a VERY RARE and desirable side mount fuel pump FB block for sale in the Cord parts for sale section.

Jim you are 100% correct in everything you said. However if you supercharge a FB block, unless it has the side mount fuel pump casting, you have to use an electric fuel pump.

The FB blocks were normally asperated. The FC blocks were Supercharged. The blocks are "basically" the same. It is possible to put a supercharger on an FB block by drilling the oil passage for the supercharger and adding the mounting bolt holes and water passages for the supercharger. 

The cams were different between the two engines. Frist was the firing order. The standard engine fires all the cylinders on one bank then the cylinders on the other bank. The supercharged engine is a cross firing order - not a true cross fire though at two points in the firing order it fires two cylinders on the same side. Also the cam profile is different as is the valve overlap to account for the supercharging.

The timing chain is larger on the S/C engine due to the larger power required to drive the camshaft. Although both were undersized

The FB engine used a single point distributor and the S/C engine used a dual point distributor. The distributors had different advance curves. Yes they can be interchanged but they don't run quite right.

Also the valve springs were different.

Just to add something overlooked so far in this discussion is the FC supercharged engine had a 1 1/2 inch wide timing chain the same pitch and number of links as the FB non supercharged chain that had the 1 1/4 inch chain. Original chain was the Whitney timing chain.


Gary Parsons

A Cord Super Charged engine (FC) can run with a single or dual point distributor, you just have to change the firing order and the timing by a couple of degrees. The advantage of the single point distributor is simplicity as the dual is difficult to set the dwell of both points without proper equipment. The disadvantage of the single point is judging and slightly less power at higher RPM's. The S/C cam, I believe, has the same lobe angle as the non S/C but has the gear to drive the actual S/C. Jim may have better info if the cam lobes are more like a 3/4 cam for more power.

Hope that helps - Mike

I recall something about turning an FB non supercharged engine into a supercharged engine but not a real FC engine. An oil passage needs to be drilled and some bolt holes needed to be drilled and tapped. The supercharged engine did have a very different cam, so the firing order was different. too. I'm not sure how a non supercharged distributor could work with the cam for the supercharger. Hopefully others will correct me if I spoke wrong about my post.


Gary Parsons

I'm working on a cord phaeton that is scattered all over my garage. I was going to be in Wisconsin and I looked up any possible members in the area that had a SC cord. I found someone not far from where I was going to be. I contacted him and he was happy for my to come look at his 812 SC sportsman. he was not up on cords as much as other cars he had. I looked the car over to see a few things but it really wasn't a correct restoration but as all cords it was beautiful. Before I left I looked at the Ser# plate and he told me he had the original plate for the car and went and got it. I noticed the engine # started FB, I then looked at the number on the engine and it matched. It is an FB #. I was told one time that FB engines were never Super charged and FC could or couldn't be super charged. The other thing was the Distributor did not have the condenser on the out side. He did tell me he had someone rebuild the super charger so I assume that it has the guts in it. Did they have a different Cam that would be single fire and super charged? As I said I'm just curious about the FB and Distributor. .
Robert L Hauser