Put my new motor in my project car last night. Ram Jet motor with Fast burn heads, LT4 Hot Cam, GMPP 1.6RR, SVO 30lb injectors, etc.

It looks tough in there!! I know you guys have seen the GMHTP with the yellow ram jet car, but this thing jsut looks flat out impressive in there!

I still need some parts to get it running though. Have to get the computer reprogrammed ($450), get the SLP 1.75 headers coated (~$200), cat-back exhaust and it will be drivable.

Ill see if I cant get some pics posted.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

hey i am going to be doing that swap this winter.... how did it go?... what problems did you have? are you using your cars ECU or the computer that came with the ramjet?

 

I am using the computer that comes with the Ram Jet motor. Arizona Speed & Marine is the only company that I know of that can do the reprogramming on it although I think Street & Performance may be able to do it also.

Problems: First of all, the oil pan that came with the motor is a marine pan and there is no way it will go in the car AND clear a stock type exhaust routing. I had to use a stock Fbody oil pan. The Fbody pan will not clear the windage tray that comes on the motor. I had to remove it to get the pan on.

Other than that, that is the only problem I have run in to.

Now I have to make some fuel lines and plumb them to the back of the Ram Jet intake.

I hear that GMPP makes a throttle cable to fit the Ram Jet/Thirdgen application but I just got one from a 4cyl thirdgen (those are the longest throttle cables in a thirdgen).

Oh yeah, the A/C & smog pump bracket (serpentine) needs an extra hole drilled in it to work with the fastburn heads. The alternator/power steering bracket is fine though.

Thats all I can think of right now. If I come across anything else, Ill post it.



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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Kewl... keep me informed on anything...also let me know when you get it runing, and how it runs.

 

my only advice to you is hurry up before the wife thinks you need that money for new carpets and such....LOL

 

Have you looked into using a stock 7730 SD ecm and harness and just reprogramming the eprom to work with the Ram Jet?

If the fuel rails were readily available, this is the route I would consider for a replacement intake to my TPI.

Since the Ram Jet does not have an EGR, it would not be difficult to reprogram the 7730's eprom to not use an EGR. Guys do this ALL the time with the Miniram.

If any of the wiring connectors are different for the Ram Jet vs the 7730's wiring harness, you could just "cut and splice" the Ram Jet's connector right on to the 7730's harness.

 

No, I have not checked into using the 7730 ecm. It sounds like a good idea because the Ram Jet ecm has some limitations associaated with it. For example, 6300RPM is the most this thing will let you spin the motor. This motor should make power up to 6000-6200.

What kind of cost would I be looking at to do this. I mean, can the cost be justified to go this route over just using the computer I have now? This would be cool, I only live about an hour from Tulsa (Ed Wright/Fastchip). That would be handy.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Joe,
I just sent you an e-mail with a few questions....

 

I emailed Ed Wright aking him about doing the Programming on the Ram Jet computer. I also asked him about using a Speed Density ECM from a TPI fbody. Here is what he said.


"Hello Joey,
I'm afraid I can't help you with that marine ECM. The speed density ECM
will work OK. You can use the original harness, by moving some of the pins
to the correct locations for the later ECM, and getting the 3rd connector
the later ECM uses. The two connectors you have now hooked to the ECM you
have now fit two of the postilions in the new ECM. If you want it dyno
tuned we can do that also. Right now we are booked into early August for
dyno work. You can call John @ 918-446-3019 if interested in a dyno
appointment. Custom chips sell for $350.00 + freight. Done with the dyno
they cost $500.00 total.
If I can answer anything else, please let me know.

Take care, Ed"




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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

FormulaJoe How is the swap going? Do you have an auto trans? Have you adapted or made a TB cable yet?

 

Well the swap would be going better if I didnt just suddenly run out of cash like I did, but other than that, its going smooth.

Right now, the motor is bolted up to the 700R4. However, the car is already set up for a T56. Its already got the pedals installed along with the hydraulics for the clutch. When I first get it running, Ill drive it with the automatic. When I know it is running good and I can depend on it, I will pull the T56 out of my 88 and put it in the 89.

Right now I have the TV cable and the throttle cable hooked up already. I am using a TPI throttle cable bracket. I had to use a throttle cable from a 4cyl thirdgen (as far as I know, it is the longest one that came in a thirdgen). It is just the right length for this application.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

So the TPI throttle cable bracket was a direct bolt up to the Ramjet intake, I thought the cables hooked up on the oposite side of the TPI with the Vortech T/B? Another question, how have you plumbed the fuel rails to the stock hard lines? If we can figure all this stuff out I am going to put a Ramjet intake on my new E-Tec 200 headed engine, and put the blower to it or go back to turbo. I have enough $ to do this, patience for **** that wont work I dont have. So any help is appreciated!

 

No, the throttle cable bracket from the TPI is not a direct bolt up item. The ram jet intake has a nice aluminum piece of strap that bolts to one of the fuel rail bolts and also to the back of the TB bolts where they protrude past the mounting flange.

This piece of aluminum runs along side the plenum and it is about 4 or 5 inches long. You can drill a couple of holes in this bracket and mount the TPI throttle cable bracket onto it.

You are right about it being on the opposite side as the TPI. You can just flip the bracket around as I did and bolt it up to the piece of aluminum.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Oh, the fuel lines. I almost forgot.

The TPI "hard lines" run up toward the front of the car to hook into the front of the TPI intake. That car in GMHTP that had the ram jet motor in it....they just took some 90s and hooked them on to the stock hard lines up at hte front and them ran them back to the rear of the ram jet fuel rails.

This seemed pointless to me, so I cut the fuel lines back at the firewall. I bent them upwards and put a double flare on them with flare nuts. Now, I just need to get some braided lines and some NPT-AN adapters and make the fuel lines and get them plumbed in.

One thing that is weird that I cant figure out is what size the threads are on the supply side of the ram jet fuel rail. It is threaded directly into the fuel rail and it appears to be a 3/8 NPT (pipe thread). Everyone that has looked at it has said that. However, the 3/8 NPT fitting I have doesnt really want to go in there. It will start in real smooth for about 3 turns and then it binds up. It isnt an AN size either, I tried it...wont work. The NPT fittings are beveled (for the lack of a better term). In that I mean that as you screw it in, the threads get larger in diameter and fit tighter the further you go in. I dont want to F*** up these fuel rails and just "run it in" but I dont know what size it is. Have any ideas?

The return side coming out of the regulator is a -6AN.

Another thing I found out; The fuel pressure regulator is the same thing as an LT1 vette. So, you can buy an aeromotive AFPR for an LT1 vette and it will work on the Ram Jet fuel rails!!

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

I was going to ask next where the cable bracket bolted to, but you already covered that one, makes sense now. On the fuel fitting, I bet this is one of those special TPI thread types, I have no idea what thread they are, but I have seen adapter's for them before. I thought that from what I could see that it was just a standard LT1 regulator, do you know if a regular LT1 reg is different from a vette one? I am real close to ordering this stuff for the T/A, as long as the IAC will work with the 7730 ECM I think it should all work out OK. One other question, what is that casting stuff under the fuel rail on the drivers side of the Ramjet? Got any pics of your swap?

 

I believe that the vette regulator is different from the Fbody LT1 regulator. I just happened to stuble upon it. I took the fuel rails to a speed shop and the guy noticed it looked like a vette rugulator. He had an Aeromotive vette regulator and we looked at it and it is the same deal.

I dont know what you are talking about regaurding the casting area ont the drivers side by the fuel rail.

I really need to get some pictures taken and get them posted. Ill see if I can do that today.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Their are some casting spots under the fuel rail and in between the 2nd and 3rd injectors on the drivers side. It looks like some sensor EGR or something goes there, but appears unused in the pics I have seen. Does it serve any purpose?

 

The MAP sensor is in that general area. That might be it. Im gonna work on some pictures.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Any other obvious problems that I have not thought of? Like hood clearance, is the stock hood OK?

 

FormulaJoe, have you consider buring your own eprom for the SD? The repinning etc is not all that hard if you have MAF and if you have SD, its a snap since you have it already. You just have to splice the proper Ram Jet connectors in place of the TPI connectors where there are differences.

Scope out the DIY PROM board.

I have been seriously looking at grafting the Ram Jet to my car and making it work with my SD ECM, especially since no one has done it yet. It all depends if my deal for a MR falls through or not.

But I can tell you that burning your own eprom is a lot simpler than you think. Once you get it all set up and tuned fairly close (again, not that hard), then you can look at doing a Dyno test and tweak the eprom for further performance. Just remember that even a Dyno Tune is not the real world and ultimately, what gives you the fastest performance at the track is what you want.

Save $500.00 and do it yourself. Then you can do other things like invoking Highway Mode to save some gas and if you have emissions, you can even tune for that. Make it run clean for emissions, and then make it pollute good like a car should when you are finished.

 

Glenn I am getting ready to do that very thing! I will be ordering the parts tommorow, and hope to have a used T/B by next week. I guess you saw my replies about going to the SD 7730 ECM? I have an ECM and wiring blocks located and should be shipped soon. Also Glenn I am going to need advice on prom tuning, so I do hope you will be there when the time comes. I see lots of potential with the Ramjet, and am committed to making it work with the 7730. You never answered my question about whether or not you see in binary, hexadecimal or alpha numeric? My guess is Glenn's monitor is like looking into the Matrix from the outside!

 

I havent seen the fuel rails, but knowing GM I am going to take a wild guess.

Is the thread inside the rails tapered? If its not, and has a radiused end into the line down inside the fitting, my guess is its a 'saginaw flare'. Its about useless IMO, I looked for a fitting for one of those damn things about 6 years ago (dealer too) and came up with nothing. I ended up cutting the fittings off the stock TPI fuel lines and using that to hook up to the fuel rails.

 

I think madmax is correct about the thread size on the supply side of the ram jet fuel rails.

Where do I get a 7730 ECM? How much would it cost? The car has the stock 89 L98 MAF ECM in it now, so do I need a SD wiring harness?

Basically Im wanting to go the cheapest route right now. I think that it might just be worth it to have AS&M reprogram the MEFI computer and call it good......Someone please enlighten me.

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L98, 3.27 9-bolt, Hooker shorty headers, custom 2.5inch Y-pipe, no cat, 3inch 2chamber flowmaster, JET AFPR, Ported MAF, Best ET: 13.86 @100mph. 1.99 60'
17 inch ROH "ZS" wheels. 17x8.5(front) and 17x9.5 (rear). Firestone Firehawk SZ50s. 245/45/zr17s and 275/40/zr17s. T56

On the way... Radar Blue 89 Formula, T56, Ram Jet 430, Ram Air, 17inch ROHs.

 

Blown, we generally just use "Editors" that are setup to allow us to enter "English" values which convert the setting to the proper Hex setting. The files themselves are in Binary (hence their suffix is BIN). Scope out the DIY PROM board and check out Tim's article on "Prom Burning Introduction" link at the top of every page on the PROM Board.

FormulaJoe, you can grab a 7730 ecm from a variety of cars for virtually nothing. Obviously, if you can get one from a TPI 350/305 is the best, as you can also grab the wiring harness. But you can convert a stock MAF harness to work on the SD ecm - there are a number of posts on the DIY PROM board on where to find this information ... all use Mike Davis' web page as a primary source. The biggest problem I find with going to wrecking yards and asking for the 7730 from a TPI F-body is that wrecking yards want a lot more for them (than 3.1 V6s which are the same ecm) and they also tend to want to sell it as part of a package with the TPI. Wrecking yards are reluctant to "piece meal" a TPI..they want to sell it whole for a lot of money.

As for other sources of the 7730 ecm, virutally ANY 3.1 V6 from the early 90s will work except "W" bodies. Just check the 4th digit of the VIN and make sure it is NOT a W. The most common sources are 3.1 V6 J-boies (Cavilier, Sunbird), L-bodes (Corsica, Berrettas and possibly the Pontiac Tempest though it may be a W) and N-bodies (Grand Am) to name just a few. Just double check the ecm tag to make sure it has 7730 on it. I am not sure on all the cars that are W-bodies but Buick Regals/Centuries, Pontiac Grand Prix, Olds Cutlass Supremes and Chev Luminas come to mind. Just double check the VIN.

You cannot use the 2.8 V6 ecm as it is a 165 for MAF...but there is the source for MAF cars too.

[This message has been edited by Glenn91L98GTA (edited May 25, 2001).]

 

Glenn I have been reading the archives on DIY prom board daily for the last month or so. Lots of good info in there, some is a little confusing but still good info once I figure out what it means. I am actively looking for an older laptop to aid in this, no luck yet, that's the biggest hangup right now to me burning my own proms.
Formula Joe I saw a pic of the Ramjet in CHP, the spots on the manifold under the injector rail look like the PCV ports and maybe the MAP like you said. just could not tell if that was a MAP or not in the pic.