Mopar intake on pontiac
 

Years ago i read about putting a Mopar tunnel ram on a traditional pontiac v-8
i have access to a 440 high ram with 2 stage fogger already set up,

Anyone who has done this are has access to the info, i could really use some assitance, thanks

I think the 383 port spacing is the same as the Chevy 409s and some guys used to do that swap-cutting down flanges then welding together.

I believe the mopar will be about a .200 mismatch so roughly that amount will need to be sectioned out of the plenum/flange to shrink it. IMO it isn't worth the time/money

I did this many years ago, (with a friend who was a Fabricator at a very high quality shop). He has worked for McLaren for many years (after he swapped jobs from the place where we built the different intakes). He was a Pontiac Guy. He did the fabrication work on the two M/T Crossrams that Skip Fix and I have.

There was some cutting apart of the plenum, changing the angle of the head mounting flanges to match the 65-later Pontiac heads, and modifying the lid the same way the plenum was modified. Really not difficult at all for a good machinist. Mopar intake has longer runners than some intakes, Good for lower speed engines like a Pontiac (per Richard Holdener in his dyno testing).

So if you have the intake and the Fogger stuff, do NOT be moved away from your original intake plan.
The Gutsram intake has too large of runners for most street/race modded engines. Stuffer blocks required.

The other "Larry" Tunnel Ram has the smaller runners but they are also too short for the typical Pontiac engine.
The Mopar Intake for the 440 high ram engine was a well designed intake that worked very well on those sized engines.

But you need a DECENT fabricator and machinist who can do TIG welding. I also have one of those 440 intakes on the shelf.
Put a lot of thought into that project but never got around to finish doing it.

Do not be swayed by miss-information.

Tom Vaught

Tom as always thank you, Btw, the 3 Barrel info you shared with me years ago, worked perfectly, and I’ve Fixed a couple more since then, Thank you sharing your VAST knowledge feeely!!!

Always glad to help.

I have about 10 of those 3-BBL carbs (in a safe spot) IF I could remember where that safe spot was today, LOL!

Tom V.

Hello Tom ... I'd like to know more about the stuffer blocks. Do you or can you get any pictures. I'm interested in reducing port volume on my Gutsram

I have a few good friends that are Mopar guys. Just eyeballing it, looks so close!

Are the banks the same?At one time I looked into it and the banks were off.Tom

What I did with the stuff blocks was:

1) Measure the port opening of the heads you want to use.

2) Measure the Gutsram and the ports at the entrance to the plenum.

3) Subtract the Head Runner dimension from the "Plenum" dimension".

divide that dimension by 2.

4) Make your stuffer blocks so that the bottom of the stuffer blocks blend with the Head Port Opening.

5) Make the top of the stuffer blocks so that the runners have the same dimension for the runner (Left to right) at the top is the same as the bottom of the intake runner.

Drill holes so that you can tap and screw retention bolts thru the outside of the runners into the stuffer blocks. That keeps the screws away for your engine parts.

Not a thing wrong with Larry's Gutsram. Just needs to be "Runner VOLUME Tuned" for the application.

Tom V.

But, but the Factory Iron Q-Jet manifold is gooder.

Absolutely, FOR SOME APPLICATIONS, LOL! HIS

Tom V.

Dave Wilcox (H&M Airflow) has an option on his website where he adapted a BBC tunnel ram for Pontiac heads, I have no idea if BBC is easier than a mopar part to adapt. The pricing on his site says $1600 for the BBC done, and matched to your cylinder heads........:noidea:

Link: https://headsandmanifolds.wordpress....d-for-pontiac/

Last I heard that Dave has kind of dropped out of sight, seems people had tried getting a hold of him without success. That was about a year ago, so things could have changed, his website is still up, so that may be a good indicator.

HO Racing chopped up a SBC Edelbrock T ram years ago for their custom "326".
But I would drop 4-5 K to Marcella for a custom sheet metal before I lit time and money on fire cutting up another brand intake. Pay a lot but end up with a work of art.
Hey, if you have lots of time to burn and a Tig welder, go for it.

A friend adapted a Hilborn SBC to a Pontiac head, granted it was a 4cyl application. I'll post a couple pics later tomorrow.

Besides everything else in these off the self TR intakes that makes modding them having to be done , the very bad main thing that we now know about them due to a lot of modern wet flow testing is that the shape / radius into each runner from the Plenum is critical and not correct in all of them !

It's been found that what needs to be done in this Plenum to runner transition area to totally counterintuitive to what simple air flow testing shows.

I fully agree that unless you can do the work yourself to mod the off the self TRs to work on a Pontiac I woukd sooner blow the needed money on custom sheet metal one.
This of course assuming your reason for running a TR in the first place is for the full added power that it can produce .

If your only looking for a non ultimate performance gain and for eye candy factor then have at it with a older one.

Shameless plug!We still have late style Bathtub tunnel rams available.There are no early style left and won’t be anymore built.Tom

Torker I Plenum hogging with Roof dress by rat-tail file and belt sander yields a great low 10 sec ET result.

No worries.

On the MOPAR intake you would have to cut the intake apart and then move the runner pairs to the other locations to make it work on a Pontiac Cylinder Head.

It is NOT a direct bolt on by any means.

Tom V.

My most recent experience with cross-branding an intake manifold was with a Studebaker V-8. The gentleman who owned the engine had a small block Mopar intake re-flanged to fit the engine. The Mopar intake was a single plane aluminum piece. The Studebaker intake was a dual plane iron unit. Mopar saved 12 lbs. On the dyno, the Mopar unit didn't idle quite as well. On power pulls, the Mopar intake lost 5-6 ft. lbs. to a 2 ft lb. loss at torque peak. HP, it gained 1 HP at peak. My conclusion was that there is more science and calculation required to optimize an intake manifold than just changing flanges. FWIW.