EFI port injection on a tunnel ram.

anybody running efi port injection on a tunnelram? I'm interested to see some pics of how you did it. Or if someone knows a guru who knows his stuff on how to accomplish this kind of upgrade would be great too. Thanx.

I have wondered about port injection on my rig but I wanted to go with the Edelbrock port intake with a large throttle body.

Gus

I have a 400 block & they dont make these for B engines unless I fit Stage 6 heads. Not going to happen, but I have bought a tunnelram to match my combo so I'm looking at what common rail systems guys have done to go EFI.

Most any competent shop can convert a TR to port injection....I ran one with a bug catcher on my Hemi for years....Pretty bad as$ setup....Now a days, there are lots of options. You don't even need to convert the intake anymore, just run dual TB's...Super simple.

Yes, a dual Sniper setup is the easiest install. If you want true port injection then the price goes up significantly. The tunnel ram will need to have bungs installed for the injectors and you'll need to buy throttle bodies to control the air as well as an ECU to run it.

My old setup from way back before efi was a thing....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AXRHXSV5Jc

this is the kind of set up i'm thinking of. What throttle bodies did you use on this?

I had a Holley Pro Dominator Tunnel ram setup for port EFI for my W2 small block. The only issue I had that I didn't think about was the fuel rails got right in the way of where the traditional bell crank style linkage would go. My solution to that wasn't my favorite but it works. I used the 4500 top for it and put adaptors on it for my 4150 throttle bodies, this allowed me to turn them inline and make a very simple throttle linkage. I don't have a pic of the linkage but its a lokar throttle cable on the front throttle body and a link connecting the two throttle bodies off of the bottom most hole in the linkage arm.

Hindsight 2020(or 2018?) I would have used two 4500 series throttle bodies instead of the adapter setup. I already had one 4150 throttle body so it was easy to just buy another. But looking back I would have just put 4000CFM of throttle body on it and never looked back. Monte Smith used to say that you can't have too much air for EFI and I have seen lots of things to support that. I have a barometric pressure sensor and was able to see that my little 416 was still pulling a vacuum on the single 4150 1000CFM throttle body, that is what made me want to try the tunnel ram.

Port injection with a tunnel ram is defeating the purpose of the tunnel ram. Not needed if you have port injection. Just get an intake that is set up for it or have bungs welded in. How about this option...

For clarity then, please share the purpose(s) of a TR.

Here is my road race stroker SB TR. This pic is during the build. A few details not exactly obvious, I added a spring loaded pop off valve on the crossover, the fuel rails are plumbed parallel to help equalize fuel temps and pressure, the front rail crossover has an upward arc to assist trapping air in line to soften pressure pulses, I did some lightening milling on the fuel rails and TR as its porky weight wise, and in a road race application way above the COG, I cut out the rather heavy center ribbed stock TR valley cover, and replaced it with less heat transferring Ti ( the pic shows a CF/honeycomb, which I nixed) and way lighter, I epoxy coated the internal water coolant passages to reduce heat transfer into manifold, I added rear head supplementary coolant lines, ( a dubious mod I likely would not repeat), and added gold reflective mylar on outside of bottom of the intake runners.

My old setup

These are a lot of fun...

The bug catcher IS the throttle body....

Yes that is a good point but most likely beyond the capabilities of the average racer. The Pro Stock teams have struggled with EFI tunnel rams. I think there is a lot of debate about where the injectors should be placed and stuff like that but the average guy isn't going to notice it much. The best shapes appear to be the LS stuff with the big forward facing throttle body but many racers want a more traditional look. And tunnel ram EFI setups do work pretty well up past 1500 hp so they do work just fine for almost all bracket racers. Might not be perfect but it is a fairly inexpensive solution that makes excellent power.

always liked that look

A lot of the intakes on modern efi v8's are tunnel rams, just the ports wrap around the plenum for tighter packaging. The injector placment is always a compromise between emissions, driveability, power and power band. The farther the injector is away from the port, the more time there is for the gas to evaporate and cool the charge, but the you have to pay attention more to runner design and velocity. The closer it is the easier it gets to tune idle, but the the more overlap on the engine then gives the effect of fuel stand off and hiccups like that in parts of the intake, you quickly learn where the port flow stalls.
When I built a ram stack intake for the pport rotary, I built the lower intake section multiple differnet ways, with a power band from 5500 -11,200, the injectors needed to be 16" from the port exit for best power.

Is it just as simple as hooking up a TPS and Mass air flow sensor ?

No mass flow sensor required. Just need the TPS and a MAP sensor located in the manifold. The bug catchers work fine for race engines but they aren't great for a street engine since they tend to leak air at idle. There might be someone making a high quality one with really nice throttle plates that seal up nice so you can set the idle speed but I've never seen them. The ones I've worked on are leaky so you end up with a high idle speed that can change a fair amount between cold and hot idle.

The port injection on a tunnel ram gets the RAM effect of a tunnel ram without all the distribution and cold start issues of dual carbs. You do lose some of the cooling of the charge but that is true with any port EFI system. Even with dual throttle body EFI you could still have distribution problems just like with a carb.

As far as the bug catcher goes they do make some street friendly ones, even ones that have progressive throttles to help tame them down on the street. There has been several magazine articles on Glen Hunters Drag Week 56 Chevy, I am sure one of them mentions the blower and EFI setup. The car is now twin turbo.

On second thought it looks complicated!

My EFI street car, works awesome,

Well this is the manifold I intend to doctor up with the EFI. It already has holes drilled into the ports, but i'm guessing i'll be making them bigger. I like Dragulas set up, looks easy, Is there a kit that I can buy & thats will work for this manifold?

Those ports appear to be drilled for nitrous. Ideally you want the FI injectors vertical, not at an angle. Also, there isn't enough material there for the injectors so you'll need to weld on some bungs.

Unless you really like doing stuff the hard way you should just sell that manifold and buy a new one from Indy that is already drilled and set up for fuel rails. If you insist on doing it the hard way I can sell you a kit of bungs and fuel rails that you can have installed on your existing manifold. You'll need to find someone who can TIG weld aluminum.

And there's someone here looking for one of those intakes !!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/THEMOPARTRADERPAGE

I'll have to go the hard way Andy, this manifold is for a B engine & 2 months ago, ICH told me they were out of stock & was unknown when they would have stock. Whats the price on your bung & rail set?, tig welding is easy as well as getting any machining done, thats what friends are for right?

Do what you want to do. That's what makes us hot rodders. A challenge is a good thing especially when it works to YOUR liking. The holes in your manifold will work just fine. Just get some Hilborn deflecting nozzles. If I could figure out how to post phots on here I would show you my setup. Its an Injectorater on a edelbrock victor intake. with nozzles in about the same location with Hilborn deflect nozzles. Works really good!

What I want to do is upgrade this induction system & go deeper into the 8s on pumpgas.

EFI does not increase HP, unless your tune is out to lunch or your carb is too small, which is probably not your issue.....Add a Sniper 4500...have fun.

I converted mine . Get the parts for the conversion from Racepartsolutions. Com

I sent mine off to hotrodsolutions.net. He was recommended and did a great job. Though, it looks like they upped the price since then. Ideal injector angle is less than 45 degrees to the airflow. Due to the plenum on my tunnel ram the injectors are at closer to 60 degrees. Though it would seem the faster the airspeed and the greater the vacuum the less it would matter. Closer to the valve seems to be the recommended spot even though higher up may make slightly more power. Keep in mind I’m relying totally on my own observations and those who know way more than I do. I can say so far it runs great.