303 Ram V
 

Just got this Ram V 303 together for my 69 Firebird, supposed to be Buck Baker`s old race engine but don`t have anything to document it.

Did it come with the fuel injection ?

What I remember was those heads did not flow until you got to a silly RPM and then would wind to the moon.

Most of V dope is bad dope.JMO,Tom

HUH?

Wow! How rare is that! Are you going to dyno it before you install it in the car? I'd be curious as to how it runs.

I'll bet the hardest original factory part to find for your build was that 406 coil.

You know it! The coil with Bracket and the exhaust manifolds which I haven`t installed yet.

My memory is from one that sat in the dyno area at GMI in 1970 and looking at the pull charts.

What fuel injection?

No I don`t plan on a dyno test.

I think he's saying that a lot of RAV information is bad information - there's a lot of legends floating around out there, and not very many hard facts. I think Tom has as much hands-on experience with them as anyone, so he can probably say that with some authority. :)

Ken, you have some cool stuff in that garage. Be curious how that runs in the car, it should be a different animal than what's in the car now.

Ken goes WAY out his way to find all the correct hard to find little parts that bolts to the engine.Would be killer if he could find the smog setup for the engine.Tom

Tom knows I busting his balls that`s why he didn't respond with Authority, but thanks for the exceptionally informative translation.:-ohwell:

Think the RAV had smog equipment but the 303 never did, was just a race engine that had too big a port to be effective. Then Titus claimed is Firebird was Canadian and the Chev 302 was leqal (wink, wink). And that was the end of the 303.

There was talk of an oval track series but don't think anything happened except a few engines went to racers.

Just know there was one with FI at GMI in the early 70s.

Factory 303s SCCA short deck engine had smog pumps when the 25 crate engines were made.Look at Kens engine and you will see the plugs in the heads where the lines were attached.DS 303 and 400 heads were not drilled and tapped for smog.i have built just about every version of the V engines from 303 short deck,303 std deck,366 NASCAR,428 and 455 3 in main along with a factory alu block.FWIW.Tom

Coil
 

The coil on the engine is a #1115421 which I understand is a correct Ram V ign coil.
See pic also has FOO5417-12 inscribed on it.

By all means, I'm not saying that your coil is wrong. Its that the delco remy transistorized / uhv ignition site only shows the 406 as the correct RAV coil. The reason I say this is because I recently aquired an NOS 406 coil, dated 9D14 in a large RAV parts trade from a well known collector.

No worries, I didn't take it that way.

I had a nos 406 coil, it bench tested good but when I put it in my Ram V Judge it did not start the car with the cd ignition.

I know the site you referred to, very informative.

sent you a PM

Did you happen to use the under dash ignition jumper harness on your RAV Judge? If not that might be the problem with your 406 coil not working. As I understand, it was used to give a full 12 volts to the coil. Just a thought.

Yes the jumper plug is there. Thanks

Very cool engine . Nice to see it all together .the little details are always tough, impressed. ��

Thank You
Current pic with manifolds

Drool....

Very cool!

A body manifolds or F body?
Really loving those manifolds !!!!

Gen 1 short decks.Tom

I need a set!, those are sweet!

They made 25 sets,they should be EZ to find!There is a set about 40 miles from me!Tom

the drivers side, yeah. the pass side, eeh, not so much (jmo) to clear the block mounted oil filter, it looks like a regular log.

Anybody dropped compression for pump gas on the V curious how much it affects them
Especially bottom end?

All my engines are 9.5.Tom

I'm late to the party, but WOW, that is awesome, Ken!

On the epoxy coil, there were other applications for those - I think they used them on one of the OHC-6 installations - F-body? I have no references for which part numbers though. I had a #240 red CD coil that I had planned to use on my V. Most of the magazine articles showed the epoxy coil (not all), but the '70 A-body service manual diagram shows a conventional coil with the CD amplifier, so I wasn't going to lose any sleep using it. Like has already been said, the #406 is unobtainable, and I sure couldn't have afforded it if I had found one.

I am looking to use the D-R CD Ignition on my '63 Tempest build. I have a distributor, but need an amplifier and coil. If anyone has a lead, please let me know. A non-functioning box would be fine as would an Olds UHV version. I have rebuilt two of them with good results.

Friendly correction....... You're completely right about needing the jumper, but to be precise, it is to bypass the resistance wire to supply the full 12v to the amplifier box, not the coil. On the CD system, the amplifier charges the main 2uF capacitor with over 300v, and then discharges the 300v through the coil primary winding to initiate the spark. That's why the CD system uses a coil with different electrical characteristics - lower primary resistance and inductance.

It's also why you can't trigger a tachometer from the coil. The amplifier box provided a low voltage pulse signal for a tach.

Thanks for the correction on the jumper harness, sometimes I get ahead of myself when typing. If you still need an amplifier, I have an NOS 010 in the box. Not the correct number for a RAV, but at least it's for a Pontiac and not an Olds. I think I have a repro. mounting bracket for it as well. PM me if interested.

Chevrolet also used one of the epoxy fillled coils in the late 50's and early 60's on their 6 cylinder. It is # 296 and was only 9 volts.

Looks very cool!!

Just a side note but with solid state ignitions beginning with the 1962 Delcotronic, GM always used a transistor circuit while the points ignitions recived a passive circuit.

Is easy to convert, just depends on which tach it has.