I am in the process of finding out what the specifics are in my motor, pistons, cam, etc..
Lets say that I can use this tunnel ram with the 383 stroker motor. And by the way, it should work together fine since a professional engine shop was employed to do it for over $4300. I am going to dyno this setup, but my question is, " How is this motor going to act? Is it going to be a dog on lowend untill it revs up then scream? I have no clue what this setup will produce? I have read that I will need a high stall converter and idle high because they are bad in low end.
The cam should be a roller from the info I recieved from the guy I bought it from, and he has been not yet caught in any lies up to this point.
I am just trying to answer some of my questions in my head.
I will run only one carb as the ram has a reducer on top. Thanks for you imput guys, I hope I am not being to redundant. I have limited knowledge in the inner working of motors and am tryng to learn. Thanks for all of your help!!!! Ron

PS Edelbrock RPM Airgap intake instead of the tunnel ram? What do you all think. Will I get the power? I want 11's to 12"s when its finished completely!!!!!!

 

Well, the dyno will show where it makes power; you can usually tell by the curve what its minimum usable RPM is and stuff like that.

The problem with a race-built motor like that, remains whether you can even run it at all on pump gas; if it requires racing fuel, it's going to be mighty expensive to operate. And, like you say, a typical race motor doesn't have to work good across a wide range of RPMs, so a typical racing cam is going to completely eliminate bottom-end torque and driveability and all that, in favor of top-end horsepower.

But, the dyno will tell you a great deal about it, especially if you can be right there to hear it; you'll get an idea how the cam idles, how quickly it runs up through different RPM ranges, etc. etc.

 

well if you were gonna switch to an intake like the proformer rpm which probably makes power in a different rpm range then the tunnel ram you'd probably end up changing cams as well in favor of something that makes power in the same range that the rpm flows..

 

I would not use a tunnel ram with a single carb.
use two 500cfm Edelbrock carbs.
They work very well on street tunnel rams setups.
Thats a 1000cfm. more than enough.

A good single plane manifold will make more power than a tunnel ram with one carb.

There are two tunnel rams that work well on street/ strip motors. The Edelbrock Street Ram and the Weiand Hi- Ram.

These tunnel rams will be very responsive if set up properly. the trick is to use two small cfm carbs with vac or demand secondaries, like the Edelbrock carbs.

You will need a tuning kit with all the jets/ rods etc.
You will need an assortment of accelerator pump shooters. They are not in the tuning kits.

You will need to tune the accelerator pumps on both carbs. because these carb come setup for a singe 4bbl
application out of the box.

Tunnel rams like lots of initial advance at idle.
You will need to recurve your distributor.
If you have a big "rough idle" cam in your motor I suggest you lock out the advance curve and run 36deg at idle advance.
Once the motor is *Fully warmed up*, it will idle just fine.
For best results you want functioning manually operated chokes on the carbs. (For warm up in winter.)
You want to retain and use vacuum advance.
You can retain a PCV system and hood up the power brakes. If the cam is large you will need a vacuum pump
and auxillary vacuum canister.
When set up properly a tunnel ram like this will act much like a single plane high rise like a vic Jr but will make more overall torque and more top end horsepower.

Yes you will want to get a high stall torque converter
More because of the big cam in the motor than the intake manifold.
When set up properly it will idle just as good as any other manifold. About 800-900rpm in neutral 700 in gear at idle. Once the carbs are setup and the ignition advance curve is dialed in the driveability on the street will be as good or better than a good single plane racing manifold.

Can't beat the looks.....

Note: I recommend you install twin 3wire heated O2 sensors on the header collectors. A great aid in dialing in the carb AFR.

 

Here is a link to a site that all about the functioning and tuning of Edelbrock carbs.

Read it, know it,,,There will be a test....

edelbrock tuning