Hey guys, I need some opinions. I'm thinking about buying a Holley Stealth Ram base and plenum from Summit for about $300. I've heard that it'll work with all of the stock components, but I'm a little skeptical. Have any of you run just the base and plenum?

Reason: I already have a custom burnt chip for my 383 TPI and the base and plenum I have are off of a 305. Instead of searching for a 350 base and plenum, Holley claims they made 40 hp from a stock 350 TPI.

Thanks in advance for the comments.

 

It will work with your stock throttle body, injectors, and wiring.

"Just the base and plenum" is the Stealth Ram in a nutshell. Just look at it. http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLin...S/SR/fSR1.html

It will not work with any part of the actual TPI: base, runners, fuel rails, or plenum. It would replace all of that. It would not produce any more power than TPI if it retained any of that stuff.

There is no difference in an of those TPI things that it replaces, between a 305 one and a 350 one.

 

Thanks for the input, what about the distributor? Will it fit?

 

You will need the small cap HEI distributor. Large, coil in cap style is too big to fit.

 

AFAIK yes.

What the Stealth Ram is, is an old street tunnel-ram that Holley used to make. It was aimed at the street rod crowd, who are always looking for big shiny things that they can make stick out of the top of their hood, but couldn't care less if it goes fast or not, or almost even whether it runs or not. It came with small plenums that you could bolt a 390 CFM 4-barrel or something like that to. It could be made to run OK, but it wasn't a race winner or anything like that.

Looks like they dusted off the old casting mold, added some injector bungs and flanges to attach fuel rails, whipped up a single plenum for a horiz-draft TB, and voilą... instant injection system, for basically zero investment. That's why it's so cheap - no development cost, and very little tooling cost.

It flows enough for about 450 HP. You're not going to set the world on fire with that, but it's a far cry from weenie TPI. With PFI you entirely dodge the tuning issues that made it useless as a performance piece with carbs. Kind of like taking the best of both worlds (carb & MPFI), and leaving the worst behind (multiple carbs & TPI).