most you guys probably been helping me with my rod choice. Now im looking for some advice about tunnel rams. in short im building a 402 260 duration 629 lift @50. The oval port heads will have a pretty good port and pollishing job. 10.5 compression. the tunnel ram my friend has is an eldebrock tunnel ram with a two holleys. Anyone here ever built something with a tunnel ram? how did you like it. Or anyone have any thoughts good or bad about them. trying to decide if ireally wanna cut that fiberglass SS hood i bought. thanks guys

I've seen some tunnel rams do some awesome things on 383's. I've got a 355 with an XE262 Camshaft and a Fuel Injected version of the tunnel ram and for some reason I can't make any power. Not sure if that helps but have fun!

well im runnin a BBC 402 but its nice to hear something good about them. still would like to hear some more about reliability and everything else that goes with it.

Anthony
imho the cam is too big,The tunnel ram will work much better with a milder one 236@.050 or so unless this a race car with 5 series gears.

work better as in make more power? or just quality of running in town?

work better in town
the bigger cam should give you more "allout" power if you have gears

a buddy of mine ran 1 on a 400 sbc that was in a 68 firebird. this was a well built motor and he ran 2 450 holleys. also a 10" converter and 3.73 gears. he loved it. the car felt very responsive. everyone dogs them but we had a very good experience. i think that if you put a smaller cam, use a good 10" converter, run a msd6A(help to keep the plugs clean) and 3.73 to 4.10 gears you can have a nice little w/e street car. but i would try to hook up with someone who has done it successfully. mike

thanks for the input, Im running a 4 speed so the converter isnt an issue. Im really not real concerned with the town driving. I guess my thing for the big cam is mostly because i want a real loppy idol. Anyone know of someone who has had a good expirience with thier tunnel ram?

I run an edelbrock street ram with 2 525 demon jr.s on my street driven 468,but I have 411 gears and a 400 worked over trans.The combo is unbelieveable,makes great power and is very consistant on the street.The heads are 781's with larger valves and a lot of port work.The cam is a comp hyd.with 597 lift,300 dur.sounds really great.My comp. ratio is a little more than yours,11.84 to 1,needs a gas additive for seriuos raceing,but runs good on pump gas for normal driving.

would 9;75 @136 in a 57 chevy 3400lb be considered a good expeirnce?

lol......man this really makes me want to go get one again.......

even thou i have not done a big block chevy yet with a tunnel ram

i did however do a small chevy some years ago...i built something that was pure fun to drive and out of the the groove of performance

i started with a well running 305 chevy ,the heads was stock and had a one angle 45 degree valve cut just to clean them up (valves and seats)compression cam out to be 8.2 to 1 then i slammed in a nice used 305 comp cam and put an old tunnel ram intake on with two 600 VS carbs i even ground on the tunnel ram intake to make the hei unit fit behind it....i place this beast(lol)in a 81 station wagon with a 4500 stall and 4.56 gears

this was a fun ride it took some tunning but i got it to idle as well as one can with such a big cam and i had locked out the hei with 40 degrees total timming at idle....starting wasnt bad give it a few pumps to kinda flood the motor with fuel and start ......

this thing i will admit was kinda soggy down low but it was fine for around town and the idle was cool...lol the car really ran a respectable 13.60's out at the track and mph was very good i thought at the time with 104 mph

i built something alot of people(peers) said that it just wont work and every step of the way i was putting this together i was laughing but when i ran out at the track the laughing stopped and now every one thought(peers) that i was cheating with more compression and maybe it wasnt really a 305 engine...........

Tunnel rams are bitchin! Like everything else it will all come down to the total combo.

Do you have a part# on the intake you plan on using? The main pratfall of tunnel rams on a street rod is when you use a large plenum race manifold with large carburators. If you stick with a small plenum street tunnel ram and two 450 Holley's you will be suprised how well it runs.

Thomas

Thanks for the stories and advice, this is great. Never thought id learn so much from a websight. I cant get enough of this. Dennis in particular, i appreciated your response on my oval port question also. Makes me feel alittle more sure about going with the tunnel ram.

Hey Anthony, I LOVE MY TUNNEL RAM!!! http://mywebpages.comcast.net/adamlym/chevellepics.html

I agree 100% with Thomas, if you run a small runner street ram with 2 small carbs, you will absolutely love it. Its all about the total package if youre going to use a tunnel ram, but can tell you that they still can be made to perform well on a "wrong" combo. My old t-ram combo was this:

406 sbc
maybe 9:1 c.r.
228 @ .050 solid cam
stock heads
weiand tunnel ram, 2 450 holleys
2.56 non posi rear :eek:

Surprisingly, it had no lack of low end torque compared to my old dual plane manifold, and I still got 10mpg on the street graemlins/thumbsup.gif

The new combo should work well though, a solid roller 406, 11:1 cr and 4.56 gears :D

Go with the tunnel ram, you wont be sorry!

forgot someone asked what Tunnel ram i was runnin. Not exactly sure which one it is but its an Edelbrock tunnel ram with 450 holleys. the guy i bought the motor from said it would be great with the tunnel ram. Bought the tunnel ram from a mutual friend, that was gonna buy the motor. so tahts about all i can tell ya about it

I ran an Edelbrock tunnram with 2 holley 600's. The engine was a 396 .060 with 13.1:1 pistons with 305H comp Cam. When I punched it , it would shove you back in the seat. The damn thing gave me a fit tring to get it to idle correctly. It would surge from 1000 to 2000 rpm. I finally took it off and replaced it with a Torquer II and a 750 holley (which isn't big enough).