tunnel ram or single carb edelbrock 850

[gas Hogg]

I have a question for you guy's. I have just built a balanced 460 bbf with aluminum heads roller rockers and a few other of the goodies. I purchased a new 12 berkely pump that I had balanced with a a/b impeller and installed a loader into it. My boat is a 18' sleekcraft. The deal is that i have a offenhauser tunnel ram with dual holley 600's. But my jet builder told me that since my exhaust goes through my transom that I would loose a 100 horse power and the tunnel ram would not be a good idea. He said I would not have enough rpm for the tunnel ram to work correctly. I have purchased a edelbrock performer with a 850 edelbrock carb to bolt onto it. I was finishing bolting the engine up when I made the mistake of setting the tunnel ram onto the block HOLY SHIT it looks good. But I know that I will also get 50 hp out of my flame stickers. So any ideas?
Thanks,
JW

[pw_Tony]

I have a question for you guy's. I have just built a balanced 460 bbf with aluminum heads roller rockers and a few other of the goodies. I purchased a new 12 berkely pump that I had balanced with a a/b impeller and installed a loader into it. My boat is a 18' sleekcraft. The deal is that i have a offenhauser tunnel ram with dual holley 600's. But my jet builder told me that since my exhaust goes through my transom that I would loose a 100 horse power and the tunnel ram would not be a good idea. He said I would not have enough rpm for the tunnel ram to work correctly. I have purchased a edelbrock performer with a 850 edelbrock carb to bolt onto it. I was finishing bolting the engine up when I made the mistake of setting the tunnel ram onto the block HOLY SHIT it looks good. But I know that I will also get 50 hp out of my flame stickers. So any ideas?
Thanks,
JW
You have a performer intake or an Performer RPM?

[Squirtcha?]

I have a question for you guy's. I have just built a balanced 460 bbf with aluminum heads roller rockers and a few other of the goodies. I purchased a new 12 berkely pump that I had balanced with a a/b impeller and installed a loader into it. My boat is a 18' sleekcraft. The deal is that i have a offenhauser tunnel ram with dual holley 600's. But my jet builder told me that since my exhaust goes through my transom that I would loose a 100 horse power and the tunnel ram would not be a good idea. He said I would not have enough rpm for the tunnel ram to work correctly. I have purchased a edelbrock performer with a 850 edelbrock carb to bolt onto it. I was finishing bolting the engine up when I made the mistake of setting the tunnel ram onto the block HOLY SHIT it looks good. But I know that I will also get 50 hp out of my flame stickers. So any ideas?
Thanks,
JW
I'm not sure you would lose anything with the tunnelram, but you probably won't gain anything either (other than worse fuel economy).
This subject is one that has been done to death and can be found by doing a search. Not sure what exactly the correct wording would be to find it though.

[gas Hogg]

It's a edelbrock 460 torqer (spelling?) I knew there was not enough information in that short story. I did the same old thing just kept buying more and more for the engine. It also has the MSD ignition and 8mm wires.

[gas Hogg]

Squirtcha, I know what your saying. That's the problem I have looked it up until I'm blue in the face. A million stories with no conclusion. I'd hate to loose out on performance just because I need to stroke my ego.

[pw_Tony]

With all the fancy smancy stuff that's on your motor, if you're going to stick with a 4-barrel manifold, I think there might be more to gain with a different 4-barrel manifold. I had a torker on my 460 and almost threw it away cause I couldn't use sell it worth a damn.
Tunnel Rams look cool

[LakesOnly]

It's a edelbrock 460 torqer (spelling?) The Torker 460 cannot hold a candle to the tunnel ram setup. In fact it is a low rpm intake and would not work well on ANY jet boat like yours, meaning that all other intakes are superior to it, even the factory iron intake will kick its ass in a jet boat application.
The tunnel ram has the potential to produce the greatest amount of power on your Ford engine, and while tunnel rams will offer power improvement from the mid-range on up, the fact remains that jet pumps require ever increasing hp in order to turn them so much as another measely 100 rpm (ie, more and more hp is required as rpms go up)...so, while it's a good thing that you have an A/B impeller (which allows your engine to approach rpm range where the tunnel ram will really shine), whether or not you feel it in the seat of your pants (or see it on the GPS) remains to be seen and is not very likely. Depends on the rest of your build. In short, I've seen about a 50hp increase at the dyno when switching from a single carb to a tunnel ram, and with that in mind how much more rpm can you get from your jet pump with just 50 more horsepower? (yes, much more hp can be gained with a tunnel ram at much higher rpms, but most jet boat engines don't operate up there.)
The point about the "thru-transom exhaust versus the headers" is generally true, in that you can conceivably lose close to triple digit hp, BUT this has more to do with the difference between the two exhaust systems in question than it does the induction system. Your engine will still generate substantially greater hp with the tunnel ram and logs than it would with the single 4-bbl and logs. But the virtues of the tunnel ram are not fully taken advantage of with the logs (compared to open headers).
If you have not run a tunnel ram with two 4-bbl carbs, you will be downright shocked at the fuel consumption. Go to the bank first and have your credit limit increased on all your credit cards so that you can continue to purchase lots and lots of fuel.
If you don't want to do that, then I suggest an Edelbrock Victor 460 intake manofold and Holley 850 double pumper, List # 4781. Please do not put that Edelbrock carb on your jet boat.
LO

[speedymopars]

I've run every kind of manifold there is. The tunnel ram with give you more power everywhere. The reason people say it "loses" power is simply because they overcarb. If your engine needed 700-800 CFM before, and now you throw a tunnelram on there with 2 700 CFM double pumpers, well guess what, you are very over carbed at 1400 cfm.
The best factory manifold in the 60's was a long ram chrysler. It hung the carbs out over the fenders and the runners were 2 feet long. power range was up to 4700. Longer the runners, the better the bottom end. Todays engines have a dry manfold, and if you look at the factory maniolds offered today all of them have the runners going around in a big circle making them really long.
the tunnel rams have much longer runners than a performer, the plennum is bigger, and the charge doesn't have to take a turn.
run the tunnelram with some small carbs, the 1850 vac secondary (600 cfm) works well or the 660 center squirters if you have a much bigger cam with head work. When you mash the throttle with the 1850's, you are only metering 600 cfm total and you should have great throttle response. The secondaries may open above 3500/4000, but not until they are needed.

[YeLLowBoaT]

. leaes do not put that Edelbrock carb on your jet boat.
LO
Why don't you care for the edelbrock carbs? more just wondering then anything else.

[speedymopars]

Why don't you care for the edelbrock carbs? more just wondering then anything else.
My experiance with off road says they don't like to bounce, and spill fuel easily. Just my observations, wouldn't want that prob with my boat.