Ram Air II Camshaft
 

According to the numbers I've seen, there were 12 Ram Air II automatic cars of the 110 produced.

On the Ram Air I cars, the automatics got the S cam(068) versus the H(744)cam the manual cars came with.

Would they have done the same thing with the Ram Air II automatics? A 744 versus an 041? Or did all the Ram Air II cars come with the same 041 camshaft?

All RAII engines had the 041 cam.

RAM AIR II CAMSHAFT
 

I've done some research on this since I own one of the 12 1968 RA II Firebirds with automatic trans.

Apparantly Ram Air II's equipped with automatic transmission may have been delivered from the factory with the 068 cam. The 4-speed cars got the 041. I have a letter from Malcom McKellar (Chief Engineer at Pontiac who designed these cams) concerning the RA II stating, "In regard to the camshaft the auto trans was released with the 068 cam". This can be confirmed in Pontiac's parts book which lists the 9779068 camshaft for all 67-68 F/T Ram Air engines with H.T. (Hydramatic transmission) and the 9794041 camshaft for 68 F/T Ram Air with M.T. (manual trans) and WU or WY engines.

However, pre-production sales information and a memo from Pontiac's Parts & Accessories Dept. dated June 24, 1968 that lists the parts that must be ordered to update a 1968 Ram Air to Ram Air II shows only the 9794041 camshaft. This may have been the original intention for NHRA racing purposes but idle requirements on production engines required using the 068 with automatic trans.

just my 2 cents,
Jim Mino

Thanks for your input!

Neat letter Jim, any chance you could post a picture of it?

wow, neat piece of info!

Old thread I know, but I came across this today. Well, a print out of what I had found on the web 5 or 6 years ago when I bought a set of Ram Air II Service Replacement heads.

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/c...ine%200001.jpg

What I do find interesting is that it lists two different numbered sets of exhaust manifolds.

is there a readable version of that hosted somewhere?

I think I posted these before, but here are links:

This is the May 23, 1968 P&A:

This is the June 24, 1968 P&A

:)

Thanks for posting!

Thanks John!

Long branch for the Firebird and the fat GTO style manifolds