[Stinker]

Looks like some money finally coming in. Planning an upgrade over the winter.
565 BBC 14.2-1 compression. Planning on 2 1050 dominators.
Who makes the best cast tunnel ram? Gonna be able to step up, but can't bite off a sheet metal intake yet. What's the consensus on cast intakes?

 

[QUICKNICK]

Looks like some money finally coming in. Planning an upgrade over the winter.
565 BBC 14.2-1 compression. Planning on 2 1050 dominators.
Who makes the best cast tunnel ram? Gonna be able to step up, but can't bite off a sheet metal intake yet. What's the consensus on cast intakes?

Just went through this myself. I put on a cast tunnelram and my engine builder talked me into buying a sheetmetal intake. It was over a 100 hp gain over the cast tunnelram on the engine dyno. Yes more money but 100 hp is huge for a Bolt on application.

 

[JL Performance]

Which cast tunnel ram did you have and was it worked at all, and who did the sheet metal?

 

[Stinker]

Holy cow! That is huge. Maybe I'll keep saving and do it right. (and just cry once) lol

 

[Vinny V]

Just went through this myself. I put on a cast tunnelram and my engine builder talked me into buying a sheetmetal intake. It was over a 100 hp gain over the cast tunnelram on the engine dyno. Yes more money but 100 hp is huge for a Bolt on application.

On more than one occassion over years I have ported dart tunnelrams and guys bought sheetmetal and slowed down.probably ported 14-15 dart and profiler edelbrock bbc tunnelrams this year.dart has area in runner to turn air into port and if you work with that there is power to be had.10.2 deck area sheetmetal intake is not a good platform period.any manifold builder with a good reputation will explain this.I had a discussion with CFE awhile back.I called John Marcella and he told me exact same thing.Either place could of sold me a manifold that day but were honest with their thoughts and got my full respect for it.Nice that some buisness saavy and honesty still exists.

 

[JL Performance]

So you're saying one of the cast tunnel Rams, for say an edelbrock conventional 24 degree victor would be a good option? Heads will be done by Rfd or by total flow.... Just curious in which tunnel ram, would be the best bet to start with for porting. Planning on a pair of dominator a, size tbd by how big I can afford to make the bottom end. Min 565, if I can afford a crank at the time of rebuild, 615. 10.2 dart block fwiw

 

[Vinny V]

So you're saying one of the cast tunnel Rams, for say an edelbrock conventional 24 degree victor would be a good option? Heads will be done by Rfd or by total flow.... Just curious in which tunnel ram, would be the best bet to start with for porting. Planning on a pair of dominator a, size tbd by how big I can afford to make the bottom end. Min 565, if I can afford a crank at the time of rebuild, 615. 10.2 dart block fwiw

Depends on your goals power and rpm wise.all of the cast manifolds are to tall of runner and not near enough plenum area.they will require a ton of work if wanting good power.if a guy is buying sheetmetal or cast there is only so much you can do with area you have to work with.plenum volume and runner angle is hard to get correct for allotted area it has to fit.if you want engine to peak above about 7600 its going to take allot of work with cast also.basically because of real estate you have to work with .plenum incast manifold is about 350 cubic inch.you can only go up.then it takes a hell of a scoop to cover it.guys can do single cast manifolds with one four and almost duplicate power of tunnel ram. imo if you don't spend a bunch of hrs on cast tunnel ram its not even worth it.

 

[Vinny V]

I would do dart before a eddy or profiler because they have runner setup to turn air.if not dart profiler would be next choice.I'm not impressed with edel deal at all but that's just my opinion.only thing edel has over other two is you can get version for efi if needed.other two need welded bungs.dart has 10.200 platform covered without spacers also.

 

[Vinny V]

If rfd is doing your heads let him do your manifold.if you look in ihra or nhra rules and look at height they allow hood scoops/ no way you will get cast tunnelram with proper plenum area and have ample area above carbs to work in hood scoop height they allow.and forget about seeing the tree at allot of tracks from the left lane.we fight this shit all the time.imo not worth hassel.

 

[3gdwrench]

^^^^^ Good advice here ^^^^^

 

[JL Performance]

Believe me guy doing the heads gets the intake.

Heads have a lot of potential, I just want to make sure I put an intake on that's not going to be a restriction. Keeping the engine a wet sumo, may go external oil pump when it gets redone, space determining that.


Is there a ny option other than the sv2 that's worth a look? I have the original super victor on this now, 2918 I believe is the # cast on it. I know the sv2 is supposed to be 20 hp better, when the heads get done absolutely something needs to be don: and I have no rules dictating only a single carb, tunnel ram made the most sense. But if a single cast type with a big big single is as capable I'm fine with that, I don't really care how I get there for lack of better term. I just want to do whatever is going to make the most power. 8000 peak would be fine especially if I bump the stroke from 4.25 up to 4.5-4.625

 

[JL Performance]

I have a 9 inch limit on the hood scoop over the hood also for the index class I run.... As it is with the intake I have I'm about 3 inches from the hood with the single 4, plate and Wilson pop off spacer. Scoop will likely go on just have to find one that doesn't look terrible with a 5 inch cowl ws6 hood on a 4th gen transam

 

[engineguy]

I too, have had very good results with Dart cast tunnel rams on BBC applications. In my opinion, a 100 horsepower increase due to change from cast to sheet metal tunnel ram is not a viable scenario. There just isn't that much performance difference between the two manifolds, unless the cast item had some holes drilled in the runners, or something.

It would be interesting though, to hear from others who have had considerable torque/horsepower gains after changing from cast to sheet metal, using back to back dyno testing . . . . . .

 

[abbottracingheads]

I highly recommend the Profiler Sniper Ram. They make great power and need very little port work. The Dart would be second , but needs lots of porting. The new Edelbrock is nice ,but the runners are too long.

 

[Graphic Man]

^^^^^ Good advice here ^^^^^

X2 !!

 

[Graphic Man]

IMO a sheetmetal intake would be a good choice when your looking for every HP one can find,... a tuned runner and plenum can have good #'s in the right hands over a cast deal

 

[JL Performance]

I'm not brand loyal to anything, just want the best all around option and try to keep it simple.

If a single carb like a big braswell or the like on a single plane that's set up for it is the way to go so be it. If it's a sheet metal so be it. I'm looking for best results from 5500 to 8000 with a varying amount of nitrous, one small system, or one rather large system.. large being at the point that a single -6 feed line is about maxed out.

 

[bigblockmark]

How about a 8500 RPM 532 BBC, 385 CNC AFR heads required to run cast 2X4 tunnel ram? Tractor pull. Equipped with 2 Rons Terminators on Alcohol. Present Dart mildly ported. What are potential gains with max effort port or another brand intake.

 

[Vinny V]

How about a 8500 RPM 532 BBC, 385 CNC AFR heads required to run cast 2X4 tunnel ram? Tractor pull. Equipped with 2 Rons Terminators on Alcohol. Present Dart mildly ported. What are potential gains with max effort port or another brand intake.

In the last year we did three engines where I did dart tunnel rams were dyno back to back with sniper and or edel tunnel ram.all three other manifolds besides darts I did were done by other port shops.dart made more power on all three engines.I tried reworking one of the snipers to no gain.I'm not at all implying that my port work was better.I believe the dart turns the air better into the port.

 

[Vinny V]

I'm not brand loyal to anything, just want the best all around option and try to keep it simple.

If a single carb like a big braswell or the like on a single plane that's set up for it is the way to go so be it. If it's a sheet metal so be it. I'm looking for best results from 5500 to 8000 with a varying amount of nitrous, one small system, or one rather large system.. large being at the point that a single -6 feed line is about maxed out.

You will not get a cast tunnelram under 9 inch scoop.guys are doing serious numbers with single dom manifolds these days.sv632 or sniper and others can made pretty impressive.imo that would be in your best interest.