Installing a Tunnel Ram

I have a Offenhauser single 4 brl tunnel ram. Im wanting to install it on my 273. That resides in my 64 Barracuda. What issues am I looking at with this instalation? Also how do I do it. Ive never installed or even dealt with a tunnel ram.

Here is the tunnel ram

Is it a stock motor?

Longer throttle/kickdown just get a loker set up with the bracket. If you are running them you will also need longer vacume lines for the vacume advance, pcv, and pwr brake booster.
You may also need to whack a hole in your hood or just slam it real hard :-D

Im doing a duel T-ram on a 360 that is going into a 27 T just as soon as I get my girls 72 and my 53 done.

As 360Scamp asked, "Is this a stock motor?" Are you going for looks or performance/driveability? I have always been a fan of tunnel rams and have run a couple of setups back in the day. One of the motors was built so that it could make use of what the tunnel ram had to offer. The other (an earlier one) was not and I couldn't wait to get the single dual plane setup back on it. Again, I would like to hear more about the motor (ie. internals, specs, etc.) and what carb you are planing on running.

Are you sure you want to run this on that 273? As far as linkage goes, you can look at companies like Lokar or start fabricating.

Don't put that POS on your car! It will run bad, you will cut a hole in a good hood to find it runs bad then you got that hole. I have yet to see a ram work well on the street. You may think it looks cool til you get really tired of how crappy the engine runs. Sell it, be happy.
Just my .02

Carb linkage kits are available. Probably Jegs or similar to get them although most of the time I ran tunnel rams it was with twin carbs. Call a tech line at one of the places and see what they have. You may have to adapt brackets and then run a cable system instead of mechanical.

The lokar set up seems to be the popular choice for hooking things up to the trans etc. I've never used one that I can remember so don't know all the ins and outs of them. I could be wrong on this, but I believe it allows you to run a cable kickdown rather than a solid kickdown rod. Sort of like an aftermarket shifter cable from what I understand (those out there that have used them, is what I said correct? Always looking to learn more).

The tunnel ram does have a bit of wow factor looks. Single carb a little less so, but still... Seemed really popular in the late '70's or so. Lots of mag articles on how to street a tunnel ram. Smaller carbs, cam selection etc. From my use of them we never used one on a car that was not built for it. Most I'm familiar with are designed for high rpm use. Cam power bands starting at around 4000 rpm up, high compression, flowing heads, headers etc. I can't speak for Offy, but many of the brands out at the time just used to swap tops on the same race type piece to increase their marketablity to the masses that wanted to throw one on their car. As such you did not get an ideal package, just something that you could get to at least run on the car.

So, can the manifold be made to work, yes. Hole in hood you already know. With such a stock engine and small displacement you will have a tough time getting it to run decent. I would guess you would loose bottom end power and the car would dog around, bog perhaps and not start to come on and give any benefit until your cam/engine has about run through its useful rpm power band. From the sound of your existing set up you will probably not gain much by installing and could potentially end up with a car that has less power, useable range etc. than you have now.

So, semi answered your questions. Not looking for the advise coming, but I'd agree with selling the manifold and save up for something else that will benefit the car. If you are not avert to cutting a hole in the hood and are looking for wow factor, what about a hood scoop? Introduces fresh air into the engine and gives that visual wow.

Depending on engine condition, fuel system etc. you could always add a 100 shot of NOS, somewhere I saw a few articles on a Paxton supercharger adaption to a small block. Looked really nice, had the wow factor, but also according to the supposed gospel text, gave great power, street manners and decent fuel economy.

Just some ideas. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do. Google lokar and I'm sure you should find some useful info.

Cheers

Tunnel rams on the street get a bad rap, mainly because people just toss them on and run them. They need a little work and tuning to run well. They are not as forgiving as a low rise intake. For comparison, how long are the runners on a slant 6, a whole lot longer than a tunnel ram I can tell you that.

I noticed that top on your intake is backwards, was it in a boat? single 4 tops are pretty popular on boats.

Chuck

well Lokar is hands down the easiest to install....

top is throttle cable = bottom is kickdown...



since your is a single carb it will fit easy.. i installed mine on the front carb due to firewall clearance...

i know one thing that bugs me is people talking about t-rams that have never ran one...

make all the negative statements IF...... IF you have ran one...

I run a STOCK 360 small valve heads, 3.23 gears AND get 16 mpg run a 12.56 in the quarter mile... dont say it will harm performance...
NO WAY - my t-ram is worth AT LEAST 40 HP over ANY single plane or dual plane - easy...

1.75 60' times with a 3430 lb car and 3.23's? with a t-ram that dont start pulling till 7000 rpm or whatever myths you say.....

fact of the matter is they work... plain and simple and unless you have the balls to try one you should keep your wives tales to yourself!

Run more than one on more than one car. Is it optimum for the stock engine combination............... Congrats on being happy with it and on your reported results.

Not in any way to sink to your "ball" level, but stand behind my statements as I'm sure you do with yours. Simply slapping on a tunnel ram with no concept of tuning, flow characteristics, manifold design and perameters and other engine perameters just to be the hero to the High School kids at the local 7 Eleven is still not a wise plan. Same applies to any manifold. The manifold is just one component of the COMBINATION to get things working which is my point. Time spent matching cam, carb, heads, flow, engine build etc. should be done and taken into account with any build to make sure all work as you want in the desired and capable power band. Comes down to your knowledge level, abilities, experience, personality and what is important to you.

Can it or any manifold be made to work? Sure. Is it worth it? That is up to the individual owner and their knowledge/experience level. Simply throwing out numbers of hp gains without support and verifiable tests is as useless as your claimed "myths". Even with that there is no way to say that the posters 273 is going to get the same results as his combination/variables are not the same.

Thanks though for posting the great pic of the Lokar set up. Very interesting. I've not used the Lokar set up as I said, but understood that it ran on cables. Looks like a slick piece.

Sure a /6 intake has long runners, but what are their sizes, flow characteristics, what range are they tuned to work and what other factors in the engine are combined to make sure the engine has power in the required band and where that band is. Granted the /6 intake probabably does not make optimum power and torque, but compromises were most likely made for various factors in the overall car build and range of uses by the factory so they could get the broadest uses and economy of build out of production. As I mentioned before, can any manifold be made to work, sure. Will it work the way you wanted if other factors not taken into account, maybe not.

Like they always say about opinions and what they are like. Everybody has one (and I've been called a big one at times, lol). You are welcome to yours as I am welcome to mine. If we were all the same it would be a boring world!

So opinions done with to the posters original question. You can install the intake as with any other intake. The Lokar set up that is nicely pictured by DJVCUDA looks to be the slickest set up to get you up and running without having to cobble. Run your petrol line and do normal intake swap installation things. Best of luck with it whatever you decide.

Cheers

Doesnt the 64, 273 have the weird intake bolt angle ? Will that intake even bolt up ?

By the way, the top is on backwards and its for a spread bore carb like a Thermoquad or Q-Jet.

MoparBrit said:

Run more than one on more than one car. Is it optimum for the stock engine combination............... Congrats on being happy with it and on your reported results.

Not in any way to sink to your "ball" level, but stand behind my statements as I'm sure you do with yours. Simply slapping on a tunnel ram with no concept of tuning, flow characteristics, manifold design and perameters and other engine perameters just to be the hero to the High School kids at the local 7 Eleven is still not a wise plan. Same applies to any manifold. The manifold is just one component of the COMBINATION to get things working which is my point. Time spent matching cam, carb, heads, flow, engine build etc. should be done and taken into account with any build to make sure all work as you want in the desired and capable power band. Comes down to your knowledge level, abilities, experience, personality and what is important to you.

Can it or any manifold be made to work? Sure. Is it worth it? That is up to the individual owner and their knowledge/experience level. Simply throwing out numbers of hp gains without support and verifiable tests is as useless as your claimed "myths". Even with that there is no way to say that the posters 273 is going to get the same results as his combination/variables are not the same.

Thanks though for posting the great pic of the Lokar set up. Very interesting. I've not used the Lokar set up as I said, but understood that it ran on cables. Looks like a slick piece.

Sure a /6 intake has long runners, but what are their sizes, flow characteristics, what range are they tuned to work and what other factors in the engine are combined to make sure the engine has power in the required band and where that band is. Granted the /6 intake probabably does not make optimum power and torque, but compromises were most likely made for various factors in the overall car build and range of uses by the factory so they could get the broadest uses and economy of build out of production. As I mentioned before, can any manifold be made to work, sure. Will it work the way you wanted if other factors not taken into account, maybe not.

Like they always say about opinions and what they are like. Everybody has one (and I've been called a big one at times, lol). You are welcome to yours as I am welcome to mine. If we were all the same it would be a boring world!

So opinions done with to the posters original question. You can install the intake as with any other intake. The Lokar set up that is nicely pictured by DJVCUDA looks to be the slickest set up to get you up and running without having to cobble. Run your petrol line and do normal intake swap installation things. Best of luck with it whatever you decide.

Cheers

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MoparBrit:

You are quite the statesman. Point well taken wo/any defensive posturing. The older I get, the more difficult it is to go into a long drawn out explanation of why or why not to get into a project. These days, I usually ask one or two simple questions to hopefully make someone think before leaping. In most cases now, it seems you have to quickly gauge the age, intention, experience of the person and just "let the boys do what the boys are going to do." Again, your opinion was very well stated.

Cheers.

Yea when I bought the tunnel ram and it arived it was on backwards. But it is no longer. I thought it was funny too when looking at it until I relized it. :tard:

As for the bolts, I dont think so. We instaled the Edelbrock manifold with no problem, so I think Ill be ok.

Sounds like you are going for it. Good luck. I hope it works well for you. Please keep us updated.. BTW, how much does a hood for your car cost these days?

I would look at getting a replacement hood or after market and keep the original un-cut just in case you want to go back to a under hood arrangement. I know it's probably not the most cost effective. I guess it all depends on how you feel about it. Just a suggestion.

P.S. DJV your setup looks great!

DVJ yours looks like the Edelbrock tunnel ram, this is the same one I use and it has throttle response like it is injected. I liked your comment about people talking about T'rams that have never run one, lol. I have found the runner length it not the problem that kills low end torque it is the plenum size. Longer runners can and do improve low engine speed torque. This is one of the reasons why a /6 has more torque than other inline 6's even though it has less cubes, longer runners and not much plenum. Look at a tune port injected intake of a late model car, long runners, higher torque. That Offy intake has a much larger plenum than our Edelbrocks so if the torque is down at low speeds it is because of this, not because it is a tunnel ram.


Chuck

Road_Devil said:

Just ordered all the Lokar components today. I hope to have it installed this weekend. Ill keep you all posted on how it goes. :evil5:

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Good luck with the install. We will be waiting to hear the outcome (with pics of course).

Its an eddy street ram... and your correct.. its plenum VOLUME that affects more then the runners...

some of the large plenum intakes are race only pieces, but a small plenum t-ram will be great on the street...

like i said i have the small intake valves and all... i think they aid in keeping velocity up in my setup as well as the small plenum


I am going to take my t-ram off this summer to test it against a stock '68 340 iron manifold and maybe a few aluminum aftermarkets...

i'm betting that the car will SLOW DOWN.... but we'll see...

what do you expect a stock 360 with small valves and 3.23's to run with a stock intake?

not 12's....lol