Old Weiand tunnel ram

Hi everyone,

My name is Steve, and although I've been reading and searching for years, this is something I can find no info on. I posted in the introduction section, but was advised to post here as well for more responses. I bought a used tunnel ram for a future build, but I can find no information on the parts. The base is a 1993, but it has no patent number on it. The 1993 base is the same part number they use today, however, the lack of a patent number says to me that it is old. The top plate is PN 1990, with a patent number of 3561408. From the searching on this forum, this links it to potentially being a Boss 429 part. Probably not, but we can all hope, right? The ports do not seem to directly match up between the base and top, it's like the spacing between the carburetor mounting flanges is a hair different than it's supposed to be. I can make one set of runners line up perfectly, but the opposing runners are misaligned slightly. Do I have some sort of frankenstein here, or is this potentially worth something? Judging by the size of the intake ports, I believe they're at least CJ/SCJ size. Externally, the runners continue up into the top plate, which also leads to it being relatively old. The shape of the outside of the top plate matches up fine with the bottom, and although the ports don't match up perfectly, the bolt holes do. The holes in the carburetor flanges have been welded up and the surfaces milled true, and the flange opening looks to be opened way further than stock. The previous owner said he was setting it up for Dominators. I test-fitted a 4150 yesterday, and the base of the carburetor was too small to cover the opening, leading me to believe that Dominators are the only option at this point. Can anyone educate me on the dimensions of the base of a Dominator, so I can check it against the plenum opening? I know the holes are arranged in a 5.380" square pattern, and the flanges have plenty of real estate to drill and tap that pattern. Thanks in advance, this forum has a wealth of information and I'm proud to become a member of it.

Edit: The base has a 429/460 bolt pattern, NOT a Boss 429/Kaase bolt pattern after some research. That still leaves the top to figure out. The casting on this thing is not very accurate. All of the intake ports measure differently, although the ballpark port size is:
H: 2.5525"
W: 2.3275

It's old because it still has the "say why and" cast into it but that doesn't make it valuable. I have never seen one come with a  dominator top. Weiand used the same spacing for other engines as well so I think you just have a mismatch of parts.

Three to four different tops where available, you just don't see a lot of the dominator or single 4 tops.

The older 2x4150 tops can be made into dominator tops pretty easily.

Weiand had more tops for their tunnel rams than you can shake a stick at and it can get very confusing at times. There are basically two different "types" of manifolds. The street ram, and the "super pro ram". The easiest way to tell the difference is in how the top attaches to the base. The street ram has the bolts that hold the top to the baes on the inside of the plenum. NOt a good idea. More than a few of these have come loose and found their way inside an engine. The "Super Pro Ram" usually gas studs for the top and they are on the outside. I think the original concept for this intake was developed by Bill Jenkinson for the BB Chev and it was originally designed as an individual runner intake. You'll notice that the bolt pattern (at least on the BB Chev Super Pro Ram) is the same as the Holley Dominator bolt pattern. The original idea was to just bolt a dominator to the base as it is, with no top. They learned real quick that this sort of intake doesn't work real well without a plenum, so they designed the top for it, but left the bolt pattern on the base as it was. I don't know if the 385 Ford intake retained this bolt pattern, but I do know that a lot of the tops will interchange from intake to intake, depending on the carb centers. There are countless different tops available for these intakes with the external mounting bolts. (and a few choices for the street version as well) Single four, dual four, 4150, 4500, adapters for injection hats, and crazy plenum designs. They even have adapters for adapters. I did one years ago that had the adapter on it for a hat, but then they had a carb adapter for two dominators to go on top of that. All cast by Weiand. The intake you have is very outdated as far as plenum and runner design. Don't expect a whole lot out of it as far as performance.

Here's a newer version of your intake. You can see they tried to increase the plenum volume here. One of these tops would work a lot better than the one you have.

The older ones have separate extended runners in the tops and the newer ones have the runners ending in the bottom with open areas in the top above the runners.  Tops for 4150 carbs and Dominators were made for both. There are simple 1" spacers which were available from Weiand  mated to the bottom and were half open with roundish runner endings for using separated Dominator carbs which were popular with Cleveland Pro Stock engines of the past.
There were also some three piece manifolds available which have two piece plenums with different area tops for Dominators or 4150 carbs. (I have one of those here). Those plenums bolt to the full length runner bottoms like yours.

Look at where the plenum meets the bottom and if it has scalloped sides it is an older manifold -- if it is flat on the sides then it is a newer one.

Dave Freelander, Charlie Evans and I have had every Weiand version ever produced, (and tested quite a few changes to those plenum tops, all within the castings; as per rules), to dyno test with 5 different sets and sizes of 4150 and Dominator carburetors on three different engines entered in the Engine Masters Competition from a past year.

rmcomprandy wrote:The older have separate runners in nthe tops and the newer ones have the runners ending in the bottom with open areas in the top above the runners.  Tops for 4150 carbs and Dominators were made for both. There are simple 1" spacers which were available from Weiand  mated to the bottom and were half open with roundish runner endings for using separated Dominator carbs which wer popular with Cleveland Pro Stock engines of the past.
There were also some three piece manifolds available which have two piece plenums with different area tops for Dominators or 4150 carbs. (I have one of those here). Those plenums bolt to the full length runner bottoms like yours.

Look at where the plenum meets the bottom and if it has scalloped sides it is an older manifold -- if it is flat on the sides then it is a newer one.

Dave Freelander, Charlie Evans and I have had every Weiand version ever produced, (and tested quite a few changes to those plenum tops, all within the castings; as per rules), to dyno test with 5 different sets and sizes of 4150 and Dominator carburetors on three different engines entered in the Engine Masters Competition from a past year.

This is all awesome info, thanks to everyone for the replies. I think I'll just finish the Dominator conversion on the top, and probably sell it after that. I don't have any real use for it at the time, in all honesty. I'd be much better off with a Victor/TFS and a single Dominator for what I'm eventually planning on doing.