When does the factory ram air begin to make more H.P. than the non-ram LT1 and LS1? And when you put a ram car on a dyno that has 330H.P. (Trans Am) what will it register H.P. wise?

 

The factory intakes on the Trans Ams and the Camaro SS's, despite what GM's marketing told you, are not ram air intakes. They are hood-mounted cold air intakes.

LS1 cars, completely stock, typically put anywhere from 295-310 to the wheels. M6's tend to put a couple more down than autos.

 

If the hood were sealed to the ram air, you'd still need to be going over 60 before any measureable differences were felt. The main benefit to a ram air car is faster intake temp drops. When your car sits, the IAT sensor registers an increasing temp because more underhood air is entering the intake, air flow is slow and heatsoak from the metal MAF housings are close (on aftermarket lids). The ram air cars can bring the IAT's down a little faster and hold them a little lower than non-ram air cars. But, not much. The airflow for a non-ram air car is actually pretty good. It enters behind the black plastic grill (on Camaros), hits the styrofoam splash guard and is redirected to the front of the air box via a few plastic shrouds. It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done. My SSRA on the other hand gave my car a few extra ponies above 80mph on the highway. Nothing too noticeable...but, it's a proven mod that'll get you an extra MPH or two in the 1/4 all else being equal.

 

the performance gains seen by the addition of a ram air hood and airbox generally are from the weight saves of going to a fiberglass/composite hood and not from the air itself. as sspdmon said, the non ram air cars are pretty much identical in setup. its mainly a marketing ploy by gm. dyno numbers are usually pretty negligible in both cases.

 

The original poster was talking about a factory ram air car. Those are not lightweight hoods, so there is no weight savings to be had there.

 

At the track an SS or WS6 is no faster than a base Z28. Infact, that base Z28 is probably going to be lighter.

One day, I'm going to make a RA setup just to test it, but the gains are usally small. To get huge difference you have to be going VERY fast. As in, faster than we drive our cars. RA intakes do a nice job of giving you COLD air, but only give a very slight increase in volumetric efficiency.

Ben T.

 

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148399

 

The SS in particular has a convoluted, restrictive air-path that limits the cold-air intake, let alone any "ram-air" effect. I have a Suncoast SS hood and feel better about my car breathing through the FTRA kit underneath.