Intake Shootout

[HP2]

...or conversely, how good they were to begin with, so only incremental gains have come about in the last several decades. 

[moper]

HP2, nice work. That article's details were on another board a few months ago, and the authior was posting there. You hit the nail on the head in regard to dynamic numbers, and combination beign "the right setup". But a litle off in terms of compresion=tq and airflow=hp. They work together to get both. And very generally, they are so interdependant, that you have to sacrifice something from one for the other in order to get the balance that exact package needs. It's more accurate to say compression gets the snap, while airflow keeps the snap. In any case, nice work...

[nivvy]

...or conversely, how good they were to begin with, so only incremental gains have come about in the last several decades. 

good point !!!

[HP2]

Well, yes. After all horsepower doesn't occur without torque so that was a very simplistic view tha tI was trying to generalize. It would have been nice to see all the tunnel rams tested on the milder combination because it appears to me that the higher torque peaks of the second portion of the test are more the result of the difference in cam profile than it is a change in intake style. After all, an intake is simply a distribution tool that can fine tune the power. The true key to power is in the cam and head combination.

[moper]

Truthfully, the tunnel ram does work well when tuned to a lower compression engine. They called it the long ram, and it was a tunnel ram, with about 6" more runner length, and flattened so it fit under a hood. The problem is keeping the mix in suspension for that length, and utilizing the inherant pressure wasves generated by the intake valve opening and closing to get the "ram" effect. If the cam is a little off, the presure waves may hinder things, which is what most low compression tunnel ram engines run into. Run smaller carb(s) and a smaller cam, and tunnel rams work very well. Usually guys over carb them, and that kills the velocity, and the power down low.