tunnelram?heads?Headers?

[Sanger Steve]

ive got a 1978 sanger bubbledeck 18ft, powered by a balanced 460ford dove-c heads ported and polished .030 over. comp cam. flat top pistons,sanderson racing headers, torker2 intake and a holley 750 double pumper. i have a weind tunnel ram that im thinking about swapping over to,would i get alot more speed going to the tunnel ram and dual carbs. or would i just be waisting gas?will i lose my low end torque. what carbs should i go to with the weind. i bought the boat last year,what are (dove-c)heads
and do they still make sanderson racing headers for boats, ive never heard of them and ive never seen a pair other than mine, they do look pretty cool though. oh yeah the jet is a stock berkeley 12JG.iknow these are alot of questions but im new at this. any questions answered would be greatly appreceated.
[This message has been edited by Sanger Steve (edited June 30, 2002).]

[Hotcrusader76]

Originally posted by Sanger Steve:
ive got a 1978 sanger bubbledeck 18ft, powered by a balanced 460ford dove-c heads ported and polished .030 over. comp cam. flat top pistons,sanderson racing headers, torker2 intake and a holley 750 double pumper. i have a weind tunnel ram that im thinking about swapping over to,would i get alot more speed going to the tunnel ram and dual carbs. or would i just be waisting gas?will i lose my low end torque. what carbs should i go to with the weind. i bought the boat last year,what are (dove-c)heads
and do they still make sanderson racing headers for boats, ive never heard of them and ive never seen a pair other than mine, they do look pretty cool though. oh yeah the jet is a stock berkeley 12JG.iknow these are alot of questions but im new at this. any questions answered would be greatly appreceated.
[This message has been edited by Sanger Steve (edited June 30, 2002).]
Steve,
You can achieve your goal with both set-ups if built correctly. If you want to run a tunnel ram, make sure to get the carburetors dialed in together. I preach the Dual Holley 660 carbs, because they seem to be the best mechanical secondary, center squirting, and space saving carbs out there. I run my 468 Tunnel ram BBC with an Edelbrock/660 Holley set-up with Mallory Fuel system. It runs without a single burp, and fires up on first turn...
Now you I can massage that 750 you have to perform the same. It just takes some knowledge and sacrafice...on low end torque that is. But to be quite honest...my 18 footer popps out of the water quickly...ask my better half the same question...I had to install the Oh-Shit handle to keep her in the boat...with the 660 tunnel ram. I switched from the single carb to the dual....the only sacrafice you ask???? Gas mileage...there is none!
If you need some help on a carburetor/s build-up, drop me a line. I offer Holley 660's tuned for tunnel rams, and I can rework that 750cfm carb to finally pull it's weight on your boat.
V/R
Ty Lofstrom
Texas Performance Carburetors
sales@tpcracing.com
[This message has been edited by Hotcrusader76 (edited June 30, 2002).]

[Dans66Stevens]

I have a tunnel set-up on a BBC 402 and Im running two 450 cfm Holleys. I get great mileage....Im not kidding. It is in a V-Drive Flat....

[HighRoller]

I think if you want to look cool the tunnel ram is the way to go.But if you want to have a better torque curve and tunability as well as good idle I would recommend a high rise single plane manifold like a Victor or Team G and one big Holley like a 1050 Dominator.I have a million stories about my friends and other people who put a tunnel ram on their boats and ended up hating it because it was hard to tune,wouldn't idle,loaded up etc.... Just my .02

[wrightnow]

If the carbs are set-up right a tunnel ram works great and the mileage will be just fine.
I run two 750's (6109), start first on first turn always. I ski, wake board all day and come evening do a few hot laps.

[Hotcrusader76]

I'll have to agree with Wrightnow...
Tunnel rams can perform flawlessly with the "correct" tuning and "tuned" engine. Alot of people blame the tunnel ram right off the bat! Then they install the single carb intake again, and the problem still exists....Hmmmm. makes you wonder sometimes.
Like I will say again. I have the experience with tunnel rams, and I can make them perform flawlessly. But carburetors and intakes aren't the only ingredient for the whole recipe..."Smell what I'm cooking?"
V/R
Ty Lofstrom
Texas Performance Carburetors
sales@tpcracing.com

[LakesOnly]

Originally posted by HighRoller:
I think...if you want to have a better torque curve and tunability as well as good idle I would recommend...one big Holley like a 1050 Dominator.
No, no, no. One big carb is going to give you poor low end throttle response. Sanger Steve, don't be fooled by two Holley 660's totalling 1320 c.f.m., because air must flow past eight small venturies which will better aid in fuel atomization--especially at off-idle and low speed throttle positions--than four bigger throttle plates such as on the 1050.
Sure, they have to be tuned right; same would be true for a 1050 Dominator carb.
Generally speaking, yes, the tunnel ram will give you more horsepower and therefore more top speed.
D0VE heads have the HUGE intake port, closed combustion chamber and best exhaust port shape of the factory Ford cast iron heads. (I just acquired a pair myself.)
As far as the Sanderson Headers, Sanderson is in San Bruno, California and I believe they are still in business today. Headers were a side bit for them; they are primarily a machine shop/engine builder...I think I have a pair of those headers myself but I don't know either. Mine come off the exhaust and immediately wrap tightly over the valve covers and the pair exits out the rear about a foot apart from each other. Do you have a photo?
LO

[HighRoller]

Touche'....I agree that if you have the tuning skills and patience a tunnel ram is great.As long as you have the heads,compression and cam to swallow it.I just have seen too many guys who stick a tunnel ram on a 9-1 motor with a stock cam and no headers and it just is overkill.I've also seen some light boats with killer motors and they haul ass with great throttle response.But to say that a single carb flowed out is not as good might be pushing it....There are guys making over a thousand HP on pump gas with single carbs now.I think it's all in the Head/Cam/Intake combo. rehermorrison.com has some awesome head/intake combos and I'm thinking of having them do my next motor.Check out their site,it's cool!

[Sanger Steve]

Thanks for the input guys , think im going with the tunnelram and dual carbs, i was out at lake Lahonton yesterday and i hooked up with a guy that had an 18' Bahner (nice boat) he was running a BBC with a tunnelram and dual carb setup. he also had some nozzle work done and a custom intake grate, mine are both stock. anyway we ended up making a couple of passes, i had him out of the hole but he had me at top end by about 1/2 to less than one boat length every time. he admitted my boat SOUNDED better but that doesnt mean shit if you cant come up with the goods. I also had my buddy with me, he was alone. I should have dropped him off at the shore, iwasnt thinkin, must have been the mullet,( didnt realize i had one till i checked out the web site DAMMMMM).with a different intake setup and no buddy in boat i woulda had him no problem. i think.

[Sanger Steve]

Hey Lakes only. how goes it ? my Sandersons have a superman "S" on them and they are very narrow. they really wrap around the valve covers. in fact to get them to fit with the tall valve covers the guy i bought the boat from cut out an oval in the valve cover inverted it and welded it bach in where one of the header tubes is, he did a really good job on the welds and it looks trick. im not set up for pictures but a friend of mine is ill see what i can do.
thanks again.