Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirrotica
Already posted by Mc Cronk:
There were plenty of road tests with Pontiac non ram air cars, vs ram air cars. The ram air cars came out on top, proves it to me. My own GTO converted ran better with no other changes other than opening the scoops and adding the RA parts.
For the time being it's a free country, believe whatever you want to, even if you fly in the face of facts...……..  |
So, if you look at cam selections for Ram Air cars versus non-Ram Air cars, what do you find? For '68 Firebird with manual trans, the base 400 engine got the 067, the 400 HO got the 068 and the Ram Air I got the 744. They also had different carb ID numbers and so likely jetting and hanger setups. Those items alone could account for most of the performance difference.
I'm not doubting MCCronk's results of 1/2 a tenth to a full tenth from the Ram Air setup. I'm willing to bet you would see a similar gain just by removing the factory air cleaner on a base 400. Testing by Kenne Bell on Buick 350s during the early '80s showed that result simply by removing the factory air cleaner(Item #4)
https://www.teambuick.com/reference/...0_ken_bell.php
You don't make any more money by telling the customer to get rid of the air cleaner nor do you get any style points by selling a performance upgrade(cam and carb mods) that is invisible to the eye. So, you come up with a compromise that makes subtle visual cues to the buyer, requires a contraption to be installed that likely performs no better than getting rid of the air cleaner, all for a nice little upcharge. That's marketing.