Tunnel Ram ( Novice questions )

I am considering buying the tunnel ram pictured here. It is and Edlebrock TR1 Dual Quad. Can anyone offer me a little advice on the mistake I am about to make.

I have a 350ci with a 350 turbo tranny. Running 3:55 gears with a 26" tall drag radial. Camel back heads with the big valves. Hydraulic cam with 650 lift. Holley 650 carb. Block hugger headers with thrust master exhaust.

Will the tunnel ram be streetable on this motor? What my I expect for difficulties tuning, driving, etc? I run this car mostly on the road but it does get ran down the 1/8th mile when the opportunity arises. My intention for the car is to more aggressive than a normal street car. I want it to be more of an 1/8 mile car i take down the road.

In the future I am building a 327 from my dirt track racing experience that will have very light internals and hi rev capability. Will this intake suit that better or worse?


Thanks for you advice! I want to get some idea what I might be getting my self into.

 

the worst problem i have had with my tunnel ram on the street would be that it has frozen off once or twice in the cool early morning if i had not warmed it up properly prior to leaving the house.

 

I have a 302 ford with a tunnel ram. It has 450 holleys, aluminum heads 471 lift cam, and .40 over with a c4, 372 gear with 30" cheaters and mine does great. Drive it everywhere


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the plenum on that is very very large - maybe look at a more streetable design and save yourself many headaches

 

and the runners look very short

 

I have that exact same tunnel ram on my 327 in my 37 GMC. Double hump heads, mild cam, zoomies, 390 cfm holleys, petronix breakerless ignition, 4.88 gears and a 700r4 trans. Couldn't be happier with the performance. Not alot of bottom end but the 4.88s get it goin. The 390 holleys arn't bad to tune but I recommend a quick change vaccum secondary spring kit. So you can dial in when your secondaries open up easier. If I idle around alot it will load up, but just rap up the rpms a few times and its ready to go. I ran the tr1 just for nostalgia purposes. Built a 60s era engine and that tunnel ram was edelbrocks first one. You can polish the sides of the box fairly easily and it will look nice. Hope this helps.

 

That's a '70's style Pro-Stock intake... Not for street use...

 

Is that a mistake on the Cam lift 650 ?

 

I had this set up in my t bucket, went down the road nice. Fired right up, little to no warm up, put it in gear and go. I am now putting that motor in my other car but without the tunnel ram. I don't want to cut the hood.

 

I like the tall tunnel ram, but either way with 2 fours, use small carbs as Kcarey did, they'll be plenty.

 

That type of tunnel ram had the issue of "puddling" gas on the floor of the plenum. Look inside and you'll see how it can happen. They have gone BOOM before.

 

ive run that ram on the street a long time ago.but I did use small carbs.i have 2 cars now we run on the street with t rams. no trouble at all.that t ram you got aint bad on the street but they do make ones more street friendly..

 

That thing has a H U G E plenum! I personally like tunnel rams but (especially with an automatic) I'd find something with longer runners and a *much* smaller plenum if I were you.

A pair of old 660 center squirters up top and some 4:11's in the rear and you'd be good to go, just not with that particular intake pictured

Al in TN

 

we filled the lower half extending the runners, reshaped the entry for better flow two 600's needs more gear, as far as building a 327 go with more cubes and call it a 327

 

One more thing to think about is your gearing - as some others noted, deeper rear axle gears are typically more forgiving, allowing the engine to get up on the cam and get some air flow through that huge plenum.

 

Typically the plenum was the size (volume) of two clyinders worth. i.e if you have a 327 CI motor than two cly = 81 cubic inches. That was suggested to me by Vic Edelbrock 35 years ago. I took it to mean minimium. I was cutting off the top of the first design shoebox manifold so that I could mount a blower. Regardless, I would probably "devcon" the floor to eliminate puddling and run that puppy!

 

We ran one of these when they first came out.
As stated earlier these manifolds have a very large plenum, we did the same, used epoxy to fill the lower section ,which gave longer runners, and smaller plenum.
This is what Edelbrock and Weiand did on there next version.
I have ran a tunnel ram on race cars and street cars both,using the Holley 450's and 660's
I prefer the 660's
Speedy

 

as said before^ fill the bottom with epoxy, I/we also used anti-reversion plates.

 

I run the next "evolved" design after that one and some people still says it has to much plenum volume

 

Hello, great thread here. I was following this thread last year and finally decided to add a tunnel ram to my engine too. I'm a novice as well, and have searched the Hamb forums for some answers to my questions but didn't find any.

So here's my question: if I'm buying a used tunnel ram (on a budget as always), how do I know it will fit my engine?
The seller says his Weiand tunnel ram was on a sbc 350, 1972 El Camino. I have a sbc 350, 1990 Camaro. Will that tunnel ram fit on a newer engine?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

Lokii

 

I've always admired a tunnel ram on a street car, but as mentioned, power on the lower end and carb selection separated the good examples from the "not really" crowd. It's good to see some guys figured it out.

 

you have the vortech heads? look at the way the intake mounts to the block. The bolts can go straight down into the block or to the side at an angle.

 

Ran a weiand tunnel on a 283 with 2-600 afbs ( yes 2 ) big solid cam and good heads. Would load up on the bottom but screamed past 3 grand. Had too much carb and not enough vacuum, but I drove it like I stole it. Here's my new motor.




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@pdunn10
I think you mean the intake bolts in at an angle, older heads bolt in straight right? I don't have an answer right now, will find out later this evening when I get out of work. Thanks for the advice, I'll report back.

 

Yes, the bolts on the intake manifold changed in the late 80's you can add a shim if you need to. We have done that with TPI set ups


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Do it, I have a tunnel ram on my 302 windsor, and despite the fact everyone said it would be no good it works great, it's on a fairly mild motor, it's got 289 heads with a bit of work, 10:1 comp, fairly mild hydraulic cam, and twin 600 vac sec holleys, which everyone said would also not work. Starts great, idles when cold, I've got a auto with a 2500 stall and it pulls at those revs no problem, every one that's had problems with them must be doing something very wrong.

 

I run an offy tunnel on my 355 sbc 650 lift dirt track cam, small valve double hump heads single AED 750 double pumper on amotor set up in the 80;s for 3/8 mile dirt track car,11.90 in the 1/4, street legal 3.73 gear , just got to play with the carb, oh yea 3500 stall;;;;;

 

Ok, I'm finally replying a bit late. After trolling through a bunch of camaro, 4x4 and hot rodding forums and taking a close look at the engine I'm working with, I figured out that the Weiand tunnel ram I was interested in will actually fit, but only after making a couple of small adjustments. Also, I do not have Vortec Heads on my engine, apparently those did not come out until 1996 (some argue 1994 for some Corvettes - either way my 1990 Camaro engine doesn't have them).

Just as @pdunn10 mentioned above, the intake patterns changed in the 80s and I will need a few shims for the middle bolts within the pattern. Those middle bolts go in flush with heads, whereas the rest of the bolts go in at an an angle. In order for the tunnel ram to sit right, I'm going to have to drill out the middle holes a bit so the bolts can go straight down into the block. Luckily, Holley sells wedge shaped washers (shims) for this sort of thing.

I haven't actually done the work yet, just finished all the research. Here are links to everything I used in case anyone cares to read up on it. I'm hoping to get started in a few weeks when my work schedule lightens up.

Thanks again for all the help everyone.

How to tell if you have Vortec Heads:
http://www.chevymania.com/tech/vortec.htm

Cross referencing numbers for SBC small blocks
http://outintheshop.com/faq/casting/heads.html

Converting TBI intake to carb (with pictures!)
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?p=4944205

 

I think Edelbrock makes what they call a street tunnel ram I had one on a big block and it worked great but like others said it has long runners and small plenum trying to change mixture quickly in that big plenum might be tough

 

I would recommend those asking questions do a few searches. There are more than a few lengthy threads regarding both cross rams and tunnel rams with much good info.

You will hear a lot of pro and con with these questions. Most of the naysayers are from one of two camps. Either they are serious engine guys who know that in most cases a street engine will perform better all around with a different intake, and they are right... Or the naysayers are guys who have no idea what they are talking about and they are just spouting off what they have heard.

Personally, I ran a big TR1 tunnel ram on the street for years on a little 283 with mostly stock internals, 2 Holley 600 carbs, 3.73 gears and a 4 Spd. That was my daily and I drove it through multiple Midwest winters every day. Pump the gas, light it up and drive it. That car took me from Indy to Ft Lauderdale for more than several spring breaks.

Today I has a more radical 358 sbc with a .560 lift solid cam, Dart heads, good compression, 2 edelbrock 500 carbs, a 4 Spd and 4.88 gears. Absolutely great fun all the way from idle through 7500 rpm. 20 degrees initial advance and 40 degrees all in. I don't drive this one every day, but I could.

Either way you will be changing plugs much more often and tinkering with it to keep it happy, but I don't mind.




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