350 Ramjet Engine arrived

[56hotrodred]

Well my plan is slowly coming together and immediately upon my arrival back to the snowy north country I ordered my 350 Ramjet. The dealer said initially it would take a week or longer to get one into the Lethbridge location but they found one in Alberta and it arrived overnight. So in between snow events I had to run in and pick it up!

I have attached one picture that shows it just unwrapped, not at all unlike a late Christmas present to myself, with the water pump already removed and some old spark plugs installed in advance of me painting it Chevy Orange!

I have a complete Vintage Air Front Runner system to instal but will wait until the engine is set into the frame.

The 700R4 transmission is being built as we speak and should be ready late next week. Also going to be painted Chevy Orange!

I have the body still on the frame because I want to load it up on a trailer and take it into a couple of body shops for a cost estimate on getting it painted. Once I have that I will take the body off frame and get the cab into whichever body shop gets the job. They will then paint firewall and inside of cab so I can then put cab back on for final time!!!

Many more pictures to come I am sure!

[_Ogre]

merry xmas 56hotrodred

I have a complete Vintage Air Front Runner system to instal

ka-ching! i looked at it long enough to see the price

[whitedog76]

Looks like a bundle of fun.

[mobileortho]

Where's that like button!

[1project2many]

Very cool! Take plenty of pictures during the installation.

[roger55]

Great engine. I installed one in my '55 Bel Air. I have over 12K miles on it now and couldn't be more happy.

Just a couple of suggestions.

If you search the web you will find a lot of complaints about these engines running rich even with the newer Mefi 4 versions. I suspect that most if not all of these complaints come down to not following a couple of the recommendations in the instructions.

They are very specific with the exhaust system you should use and I set mine up doing it exactly this way:

"A RAMJET 350 engine should be equipped with a header exhaust system for maximum performance in applications where a non-production exhaust system is legal. All of the calibration development work was done with a header exhaust system installed on our development engines. Installing production style exhaust manifold may increase backpressure and alter the performance of the system. The recommended header configuration is 1-3/4" diameter primary pipes, 32 to 36 inches long, with 3" diameter collectors. Use 2-1/2" diameter tailpipes with a balance tube ("H" pipe) and low restriction mufflers."

Also, the instructions suggest that you mount the air temperature sensor as far away from the throttle body as possible. I would wager that their development engines were set up and calibrated this way and the air intake would have been some sort of cold air setup. Since it was probably done on a test stand with a dyno, the intake air would most likely not be hot.
Many of the installations you see have the air filter attached directly to the throttle body as it was shipped. Obviously, doing this doesn't allow the installation of the sensor any distance away and also makes the engine draw a lot of hot air that has just passed through the radiator.
They aren't as specific about this in the instructions as they are with an exhaust system but I believed it was a good idea to follow the recommendation. A cold air system is always better anyway. My air filter is in the fender well behind the headlight. I fabricated an intake pipe and a box to house the filter and protect it from getting wet.

[joedoh]

what a great looking engine! congratulations!