who's made their own tunnel ram

I dont like paying for crap i can make myself. Anybody got a creation they wanna brag about or show off?

 

Yeah, but how are you going to line up the distributor hole and make it the right height as a stock manifold?

i'll try to dig up a link. And no, i haven't tried making my own tunnel ram;

If i were going to try to make one, it would only make sense to me to run four 2 bbls and have a runner going to each intake port for each barrel. But then, it wouldn't really be a tunnel ram would it...........?

 

No, but it would be rowdy as hell, and I love it!!!!! Distributor crap is all in the details.

 

use a big block mopar and you dont have to worry about the distributor hole

 

seems like some chrysler guys did that a few years back.......to an extreme!

 

I would if i had one. Seriously, the distibutor hole aint that big a deal for me.

 

In 65, I made a tunnel ram from a new removable top Corvette FI parts. The base and body were bought new from chevy.

 

High n Mighty?

 

If I was gonna do it, I would find a junked aluminum intake and cut off the runners leaving the dist. mount location and any other peripheral stuff. Then I would make the runners and carb mounts. Then it would either be a bolt on or a weld in job.

Good luck with re-inventing the wheel.

 

Explain these carbs to me please .
How do they work ?

 

If you have the skills and equipment you can make any damn thing you can buy .
Anything !!!!

Most of the time its better to buy the thing , but you can make it. I don't give a shit what it is.

 

I agree, but i need a project to tide me over till i get the rest of the crap for my truck im building.

 

When youre dirt poor,,,, thats when you break out the tools

 

All about the wow factor for ya ? Seriously you can buy a used tunnel ram for a hundred bucks at most any swap meet. Why waste your time on something that most likely won't work very well anyhow, other than the "Hey looky what I made "

 

I think MANY guys (including myself) that make tons of our own custom parts might not quite agree with this mentality

 

I say go for it!

4 2 bbls (in essence) have been ran in IHRA Pro Stock for years. The NHRA will not allow them but split domminators have been the main stay for 800+ inch motors for years.

Making an intake is not that hard for a street application. It is time consuming. If you want all out performance, buy a Hogan or Wilson intake.

 

Some Ninkapoot made a gasket out of a bench grinder box, yeah he made a gasket but it sure as hell didn't work. Sometimes it's just easier to buy something that is part of making the car drivable.

 

There can be crap work found everywhere. Just cause its "home made" doesnt mean its "crap made".

 

I make plenty of my own parts too, the question I have is why make a tunnel ram ? I guess that goes right up there with those cool spider web braces that you see.

 

If I wanted a 6-2v tunnel ram, who exactly would I buy it from? Lots of reasons to make it. Even $100 is more than some guys want to spend on a used part (or can). Ive watched guys spend countless hours making parts they could buy fairly cheap. Why? Because they had lots of time and less of money.

 

Back in the 70's my father made one for a Ram Air 5 Pontiac (huge ports)made steel flanges and used 2 1/2 inch exhaust J bends,came out beautiful. Used a big block chevy upper if I remember correctly. I made 1 for a 4 banger 153 Chevy that I had put a smallblock head on again steel flange I made and exhaust j bends used a collector and blew out a 1/4 in plate to match a Holley base gasket.

 

In general, I'm not opposed to making things... in fact, I LOVE watching guys make things. Sooo much cooler than 1-800-SEND-ONE

The problem is, most people don't know what they don't know.

I've seen guys make tunnel rams, and I always asked questions... The cutting and shaping and welding is only part of the construction: You need to understand how the plenum volume is going to affect your carbs' signals.

You need to know how the plenum volume is going to affect the power curve.

You need to know how to measure plenum volume! And how much plenum volume you need per cubic inch. And of course, there's the shape of the plenum itself.

Then you have to know how to design the runner shape and volume... they're usually tapered. How much? It affects things. A tapered tube increases the velocity, and density, and pressure, of the liquid flowing through that tube... "liquid" in this case being "air an atomized fuel."

How wide is the opening at the plenum?
How are the runners joined? Bluntly, or do they have a divider between them that rises up to the bottom of the carb mount?

All factors that have gone into the designs you see today.
There's a very, very good reason a new Wilson Manifolds tunnel ram looks absolutely nothing like the one on High and Mighty.

Fabricated intakes aren't that hard, if you're just worried about cutting metal and blue-gluing it together.

Making the thing actually work is where the trick lies. People pay a LOT of money for that trick... Top-end fabricated tunnel rams can cost $15,000. And they don't cost that much because a guy knew how to weld aluminum and drill a hole for the distributor.

Start reading books on intake volume, design and construction, and you'll be on your way.

Otherwise, just weld some round tube together and stick a few Strombergs on it and call it "done."
But don't call it "good."

-Brad

 

Not too hard to make 4 a Pontiac

 

I don't believe you have read any of my build threads here. If I was to do a 6 x 2 tunnel ram I would buy a 100 dollar tunnel ram and make a new top plate that would except the 6 2's. Same as the guys that are making 3 four barrel tops so they can run 3 4's.
On the same note plenty of guys ran log tube intakes which you welded what ever mount you wanted to onto the log to except what ever carb you wanted. A good case in point here would be toymaker's evil twin by Rocky http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=533613&highlight=evil+twin he built a sort of log tube on top of rams for a diagonally mounted engine. This I have no problem with because it was engineered to solve a problem and work.
I stick by my original comment for the purpose of building a tunnel ram for a car that I'm sure doesn't really need one anyhow.

 

As will I. And I agree with you on the probably needing one part.

 

My usual m.o. is before fabricating, search Craig's List and find something similar, drive 100 miles to see it, realize it's not really what I'm after, buy it anyway because I've come all this way, bring it home, cut it into little pieces and make what I originally wanted out of it.

 

I am making my own for a 16 port 4.6 DOHC Ford with removable top plate to run 2 4's single 4 barrel or tri-power

 

I made this back in high school for my big-block Olds.



Never ran it, since I didn't have the right tools to finish it back then. These days, I'm working (occasionally) on a low-ram EFI manifold in aluminum for the same engine.

Doc.

 

I always appreciate input from every perspective. But, i also always notice that alot of people that talk motor talk, that whatever a guy is putting together, its to be built to run 7's in the quarter. I spent 20 years in professional drag racing and can promise that i could care less about whether or not my little hot rod will out perform anyone else. It was a random thought, i just wanted to see some pics of what yall have widdled out. Im not being rude, im just trowin this out there.

 

Exactly