How streetable are tunnel rams. HAHA

[65stang289]

I am buying this motor off a buddy of mine who built it for his 68 fairlane that ran 7.80's in the 1/8. I think with my car being lighter it should hit 7.50's. I wanna drive it on the street bad just to show off the tunnel Ram. His mustang has about the same setup and gets 4 miles to the gallon. The cam in the car is a 248/258 dur .536/.560 lift with 2 Holley 600 cfm up top. The engine should help me with my goal of seeing day light under the tires.

 

[302 coupe]

IMO, thats a pretty crappy build up. I know a 68 fairlane is pretty heavy, but damn, running 7.80's is a long way from needing tunnel ram and 2 carbs.

You're only young once, so you might as well try it.

 

[iskwezm]

Put in a 4000 stall and it might work for what you want,but what is "streetable"????Also lifting your front tires on a launch doesnt equal speed.I have a bunch of friends that run 9-11 seconds 1/4 miles and they dont pull the wheels off the ground.It does look cool,but doesnt help.

 

[Dark Knight]

They're fine on the street if you adjust the carbs right... 4 speed would be better than the auto..

If you want to see daylight under the tires, hit some railroad tracks at 60 or so..

Doubt you'll lift the tires with that engine, trans and suspension..

 

[69Rcode_Mach1]

I hope that cams duration is at .050 otherwise your friend has a very mismatched combo. Is this a 289? If so then you are way way way way overcarbed, the problem being that it will run like crap especially if you are an auto. An auto will make it a pain in the ass to even get go.

 

[rbohm]

an interesting combo, for a race car. for the street that thing will load up at idle and low speeds, be very sluggish untill you get the rpms above 2500, and with the lighter car you might get 6mpg, 8 if you go real easy on the throttle, and you might even get as much as 12 on the freeway depending on what gear you run.

tunnel rams can be very streetable, if you convert them to an efi intake and tune the combination properly.

 

[latamud]

I had a dual quad high rise tunnel ram on a 302. dual 450 holleys. I had a T-5 so it was okay. Stock cam, stock 302. I just wanted to try it too. Haha. It lasted about a week and I moved on. funny thing though, I was on your side of these posts and everyone telling me how it was going to be. I was going up a steep hill one day and the engine got so bogged down. It wasn't worth it. I did get my money back from ebay. Some guy bought the intake and put it on a 302 in a 1st gen RX-7.

 

[thumper460]

tunnel ram....

My first Tunnel ram went on in 1974 !! 302 cid, 600 Vac Hollys ( list 1850) in a 3100 Lb Fastback Mustang... The Fairlane is about 3400/3500 lbs.. the T-ram ISNT the fuel issue... it is the right foot!! There has been a lot of articles on the Ram... and they always come out from mid to TOP on performance and mileage!! 7.80s for the 3400 lb car rocks!! ( figure MOST 5.0 mustangs.. run mid to high 9's!!)

I agree... get it!! and have fun... if you want out of the ram.. mail me and I'll get it from you!!

OH... I still run a tunnel ram!! I will never go back to a single carb!!

Just me..........................

Thumper

 

[MustangMatt1966]

any pictures of some of these tunnel ram setups??

 

[Hissing Cobra]

I agree with Thumper and Iskwezm. You'll definitely need either a big stall converter or a 4/5 speed to get anything out of it. I think the 4/5 speed would be more fun. If you can tune it to perfection, it'll be a fun combo. It'll also get you lots of looks and comments.

I have that same exact cam in my 306/dual quaded engine (no tunnel ram/two Edelbrock 500's). It dynoed at 307 rwhp and 278 rwt and made it's power between 2,400 rpms and 6,400 rpms (peaking at 6,400). I've run 7.90's in the 1/8th on my way to 12.40's-12.80's @ 107-110 mph.

Because it has barely any torque, I went with 4.30 rear gears. Of course, this would not be fun to drive on the highway so I added a 5 speed. It's real good in traffic (idles at 900-1,000 rpms) and doesn't load up, stumble, overheat or anything else. I'm actually pleased with it's street manners.

Good luck!

 

[1320stang]

The only T-ram setup I've ever used was a Offy 360 dual top T-ram and a pair of 660 center squirters. It was on a drag only 289 and we'd get about 8 passes out of a 5 gallon fuel cell.

When I was looking for an intake and carb(s) for my engine, I asked a couple of guys I repected about what to get, this was in the early 90's. They were both street/drag racers back in the late 70's/early 80's when we didn't have so many aftermarket options. With the right cam and gears, the SBF's that had the Offy 360 with 660's always ran best they said, so that's what I got.

One of my friends had a '68 Chevy with a 350 and a T-ram with a pair of 600's. The guy he bought the intake off of took the transfer tubes out of the carbs and plugged the holes and had disconnected the secondaries. So in essence, he had a pair of 2bbls. It ran like crap, but it looked 'cool'. I think a pair of 450's or 500's would work better on a primarily street car.

 

[2nd Mustang]

Tunnel rams on the street are for the "wow" factor. One good tuned 4 barrel will get you moving. As an example, I bought a used Holley 600, cut off the air horn, took out the check ball in the vacuum secondary along with a light spring and that was too much for my car on the street. It would look cool though and impress the heck out of the front wheel drive crowd.

 

[65stang289]

The engine is a 302 with the stock bottom but it does have a windage tray. The heads are 54cc with 1.94/1.60 valves with the triple springs in. When the car ran a 7.80 it was with a 3.50 gear I got a 3.73. I am going to be using my streetfigher trans with the 2000 stall for now to see how it is. I am a young guy that just wants to have fun. To me running 7.80's in that tank it damn good. Yeah I need to find A set of railroad tracks around here so I can catch some air LOL The old set up you guys see with the 289 is in my truck now and that is fun too.

 

[dodgestang]

Which version of my car do you think is faster :halo:

 

[iskwezm]

Which version of my car do you think is faster :halo:

With the carbs through the hood it was already pulling the wheels up standing still

 

[Hissing Cobra]

Nick, I'm guessing that the single four barrel setup is faster? If so, how much faster. I'd like to try a single four barrel setup but can't decide on a Performer RPM and a 650 or a Victor Jr. and a 750. That's a lot of money to spend and if the results aren't worth it, I'd stay with the twin four barrels. I do like the different look when I go to car shows and people ask about it.

 

[steel1212]

Nick, I'm guessing that the single four barrel setup is faster? If so, how much faster. I'd like to try a single four barrel setup but can't decide on a Performer RPM and a 650 or a Victor Jr. and a 750. That's a lot of money to spend and if the results aren't worth it, I'd stay with the twin four barrels. I do like the different look when I go to car shows and people ask about it.

If you have the right cam and heads I think you'll make more torque and there fore leave the line faster. The only down side is you may lose hp on the top end?

 

[MitchGT]

Since people generally use tunnel rams for racing they usually have tubes with large cross sections, which are good for high rpm, but crappy for torque. If the cross section was made smaller, with smaller plenums, it would work very well. The proof of this is all the late model five-oh's, which use really long runners folded over on themselves. If those runners went straight up instead of folded over you would have a tunnel ram with more reasonable runner size, which gives you plenty of torque with a good idle. Most tunnel rams have about twice the carb cfm as you would ever need, which doesn't help with torque and low-end manners either. I think that if you are running those carbs with air cleaners(as you should), then I doubt any one would notice you running smaller carbs. I think it would take alot of customizing to make a setup work really well, but if you did people would be pretty impressed.

 

[dodgestang]

Nick, I'm guessing that the single four barrel setup is faster? If so, how much faster. I'd like to try a single four barrel setup but can't decide on a Performer RPM and a 650 or a Victor Jr. and a 750. That's a lot of money to spend and if the results aren't worth it, I'd stay with the twin four barrels. I do like the different look when I go to car shows and people ask about it.

It was a dog with the T-ram. Simply by swapping in the xcelerator intake and 750 with VS the car was significantly faster (even though it still had a 2.8 rear and a C6 with unknown stall). Add to that the stroker, AOD with 2.85 first, 4.11 rear end and 3k stall the car is super fast now with roughly twice the total power (estimate since I never dyno tested the t-ram but I did drive it a few times, have driven the current setup and dyno tested the current setup).

t-ram can be tuned to use on a street car with some success, but they will always be much higher in the RPM band and IMO marginal at best. They make nice discussion starters at car shows....which ussually start with...oooo look this one is supercharged (because of the crap which sticks through the hood) and then you have to correct them....or...ooooo look a tunnel ram...I had one of those once....they suck on the street car.