Blue Thunder tunnel ram intake

This BT tunnel ram has come up before but after searching I can't seem to find any info on it. I am looking for an tunnel ram lower to convert to efi. I was going to use a Weiand tunnel ram lower but Charlie suggested looking into the BT intake.  I was just going to make an upper plenum to mount a front throttle body on like the one below. Goodvibes has the intake in stock but I hate to spend $600 just to look at an intake.   


[url=http://www.goodvibesracing.com/Tunnel_Ram_Injectors.htm#Tunnel Ram Bases]or here[/url]

http://www.goodvibesracing.com/Tunnel_Ram_Injectors.htm#Tunnel Ram Bases






http://www.roushyatesparts.com/parts-p/frp-m-9926-cj65m.htm

Jason,

It's a very nice piece and is actually a highly modified Blue Thunder blower manifold. I'm just saying this Good Vibes stuuf is worth looking into. With the Weiand, your going to have the cost of the manifold, then the cost of modifying it, welding the bungs on, porting it and whatever else you'll need to do, so their $600 may not be so steep afterall.

Charlie

I own both and the blue thunder is worth every penny. For your app I think the blue thunder would be great.

Charlie that is the only picture I could find after an hour of searching. It looks like the BT blower manifold with no blower mount. My concern was the runners would be way to short for a N/A engine but not seeing the inside makes that all speculation. That's why I started this thread in hopes to get some feedback from someone that has actually seen or used one. This intake is designed to use a injector hat spacer and a hat on it.

I spoke with Goodvibes and they don't do any efi stuff at all , just mechanical injection (which is strange because they have FAST systems on their site). They did say "It should work just fine with EFI". lol

I realize either way this is going to cost some $$ and I am not expecting this to happen for $300 or something crazy like that.   I'm just looking for the best starting point for the reasons you noted in your post.

How tall is that B/T intake?

6 3/4

Rick and I were just leaving the car corral at the Columbus swap meet and I found one of these BT intakes. It has been modified a smidge to use two dominator carbs via a bolt on adapter plate. I just figured I would share some pics seems how they seem impossible to find online.

cool look'n piece! what efi you going with?

Without looking at it in hand it appears that the injector ports are wrong for EFI. The horizontal port is an obvious no. The vertical port maybe but appears to be thin in that area. Drilling that port out may expose the upstream side the injector o ring. Looks like a good intake otherwise. Any particular reason you are using that throttle body and not the 5.0 version which is easier to mount. Ross Machine even makes the mounting plate blank. You could take two small 70mm TBs and come out ahead.

Just my opinions and I have been known to be wrong before.   

cool40 wrote:cool look'n piece! what efi you going with?

I have a Holley HPefi retrofit kit.

SandHillsHillbilly wrote:Without looking at it in hand it appears that the injector ports are wrong for EFI. The horizontal port is an obvious no. The vertical port maybe but appears to be thin in that area. Drilling that port out may expose the upstream side the injector o ring. Looks like a good intake otherwise. Any particular reason you are using that throttle body and not the 5.0 version which is easier to mount. Ross Machine even makes the mounting plate blank. You could take two small 70mm TBs and come out ahead.

Just my opinions and I have been known to be wrong before.   

The injector bosses are made for mechanical injection not efi. I will have to mill some holes and weld efi bungs in vertical like normal. That particular throttle body I have so if I can use it I will. It is a Ford Racing GT 500 unit so I figured it should flow enough air.  If I have to go to a round throttle body (like a mustang) then I will do that. I am looking to have a forward entry above where the distributor is to clean things up in the engine compartment. The hood on my 56 is huge so I don't have to worry about hood clearance in this application.

Sounds like a good idea. Will be watching to see the final product.

Another way is what I did here starting with a Weiand TR, but never finished. Was a lot of work to get to this point and given the steep angle of the runner is not easy to get the injector bungs in correctly. I did them on a mill and are set up for CJ port height. I decided to go a different way as could find no good way to make the plenum fit under the stock hood. May finish it one day or sell it.

That is similar to what Dfree did with his TR. IIRC there is a few more pictures on the forum here but I can't seem to find them.

466cj wrote: Was a lot of work to get to this point and given the steep angle of the runner is not easy to get the injector bungs in correctly. I did them on a mill and are set up for CJ port height.

Did you install your own injector bungs or did you farm that out?

Jason

The injector bungs I bought, I drilled holes on mill, made them a light press fit so could adjust them for correct placement. I ported the intake roof to CJ gasket first, be surprised how off as cast is. One side was lower than the other by 1/10th inch. Is real important get this right so injector is in right place, especially with how steep port angle is. After all that had a welder weld them in and then I blended them in to the port roof. I will post a picture of the port side, you will see what I'm talking about.

I cut all the webbing out by hand. The v cut I did in a mill. Not sure, but think mine pre-dates Dfree's as was 2005 when I did this (yes, been sitting long time). I intended to have TB in the front and did the V to be able make plenum lower. It could be finished how Dfree's is too.

466cj wrote:The injector bungs I bought, I drilled holes on mill, made them a light press fit so could adjust them for correct placement. I ported the intake roof to CJ gasket first, be surprised how off as cast is. One side was lower than the other by 1/10th inch. Is real important get this right so injector is in right place, especially with how steep port angle is. After all that had a welder weld them in and then I blended them in to the port roof. I will post a picture of the port side, you will see what I'm talking about.  

I cut all the webbing out by hand. The v cut I did in a mill. Not sure, but think mine pre-dates Dfree's as was 2005 when I did this (yes, been sitting long time). I intended to have TB in the front and did the V to be able make plenum lower. It could be finished how Dfree's is too.

I have a Weiand TR and the drivers side lines up pretty good and the passenger side is 1/8" off (on the side). I'll have to look at the roof when I get home.

Y'all need to remember. That when Weiand made that casting, they made it amberdextrious for both the Boss 429 and the Wedge 429-460. Thus the variation in the flange thickness across the top. Wedge heads are at a 45* angle and the Boss heads are at a 52.5* angle.

Jason, we can clean up that side that is .100" off, and make it fit.


Charlie

I always thought it was just the casting quality. I understand about the TR being machined for different applications, but not getting how that would make the port roof higher on the one side?

Anyway mine is ported for CJ roof anyway so had to be opened up regardless. My main point was that when you put an injector in a port roof you need to be concerned a lot more about port height to make sure the injector tip is in the right spot, not in the air stream or shrouded by the pocket.

Here are a few pictures of the injector bung. As you can see the steep angle required the extra relief and the weld on top is a tight deal too. Have to find an injector so you can see how it fits in the pocket.



The black notches seen in the injector hole is something in the background.

c.evans wrote:

Jason, we can clean up that side that is .100" off, and make it fit.


Charlie

For the life of me I can't figure out how you would do that Charlie. If it is too far over how can you make it fit? The only thing I could think would be to move the head intake port over to match which doesn't seem right to me.

Jason,

I'm not sure exactly how it is off. However if it is a left bank, right bank thing and the manifold needs to be shifted, then run a thick gaskets on one side and thin on the other side. If it is a port alignment issue, then we could weld on the intake manifold runner walls and build up the area that has gone too far over. Next time I'm in LaFayette, I'll run over and look at it.

Charlie

c.evans wrote:Jason,

I'm not sure exactly how it is off.  However if it is a left bank, right bank thing and the manifold needs to be shifted, then run a thick gaskets on one side and thin on the other side.  If it is a port alignment issue, then we could weld on the intake manifold runner walls and build up the area that has gone too far over. Next time I'm in LaFayette, I'll run over and look at it.

Charlie

It is left and right shifted. I don't feel so bad now because welding is the only way I could think of fixing it properly. I thought you had some magic wand in your pocket. lol.

Btw it is crawfish season. A good time to visit. lol

So is it the flange thickness that is off on yours Jason? My flanges are the same thickness. I think I now understand what Charlie was getting at. On mine issue was the as cast port roof height which I was porting to CJ anyway and when done the ports all looked right.

Lets try this. With the Weiand TR cylinders 1-4 line up and 5-8 are off center about 1/8".




Here is the BT intake cyl 1-2. There is no gasket so it is sitting a bit low.



Cyl 4-5 again with no gasket so sitting low.

Question: Is the head port matched to an intake gasket? What I can say about my Wieand TR was stock both sides did fit within a std port intake gasket.

466cj wrote:Question: Is the head port matched to an intake gasket? What I can say about my Wieand TR was stock both sides did fit within a std port intake gasket.

A little background here. I bought this engine used. It has TFS Powerport heads. It looks like the heads have had some type of work done at the end of the port ( I can see the marks) but I have no idea if it was just a gasket match or more. On the T/R I can see casing flash line so I would say that it has not had any work. Your question prompted me to go look at things closer and the gasket on it is a Felpro 90110 which is actually way to short for the head.

Here is a pic of the old gasket. You can see the imprint of the vic jr manifold that was on the engine. I may be wrong but I believe this is a DOVE gasket not a CJ gasket.