Quote:
Originally Posted by Ram4king
You have to remember the 455ho from 1970 used D port heads so when they put round ports on them in 71 it had some people confused. And if I'm correct pontiac didn't officially call the ram iii a ram iii. Just a ram air engine. That came from people later in the early 80's.
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I thought the round port 455s were SD engines? Was there also a non SD 455 engine with round port heads?
I think you are correct about the RA III. From what I have read, those were simply badged as Ram Air and the RA III nickname came sometime later. I don't know who started it first, Pontiac or owners but I have seen factory literature with the RA III designation.
Admittedly, back then I was fooled by the RA III name, thinking it was something special compared to the HO from previous years. It wasn't until maybe 5-6 years ago that I learned how similar they actually were.
Heck, there was a time where I thought most ALL GTOs were ram air cars since that was all I was around when I was younger.
When I bought our 1968 RA II convertible in 1987 it was painted Mayfair Maize with a white top and it looked like the factory made it that way. It had "RAM AIR" decals on the hood and I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until much much later when I learned the decals were first used on 1969 models and not correct for that car. When I first started restoring that car my plan was to install RAM AIR II decals since it is a real deuce but I came to my senses before long and came to appreciate the sleeper nature of an unbadged model. Funny how things change over time.
