It's true that the SS has a little higher re-sale value than the Z, but both are still pretty good... considering they no longer manufacture the cars and the history of the SS and the Z, both types will have great value as they get older. Some day they will be the classics, and the cars in good condition will be worth a lot. The key is just to keep them in good condition, looking great!

 

Ahh..now I understand! So the stock Z28 pushes out like 315hp, but is rated at 305hp. Whereas, the SS pushes out 320hp, and is rated at 320hp. Very interesting. Now that's some serious marketing skills!

Yeah, the SS does look EXTREMELY sweet!!!

Let me just to all the Z28 and SS owners.

Akshay
www.geocities.com/akshay95624/index.html

 

That's a good attempt at doing an objective test, but it's not very meaningful. You can't just say: take 5 measurements, average them, and compare them to five other averaged measurements. Think about it. What was the standard deviation? Was it greater than 1 mph? I bet it was. Statistically, you didn't do enough runs to cancel out random error.

There are lots of other problems here too. If it not the exact same car, the test is pretty worthless. Yes, it will show that the ram air doesn't add 100hp, but it's not going to prove that it does nothing.

It seems like there's no objectivity here. People are talking about blocking off their intakes and noticing no difference. WTF!? Are the going to stick a cork in their tailpipe and pretend it doesn't do anything either?

OF COURSE RAM AIR MATTERS. I'm not saying it give you a large HP gain, but every little bit counts. As long as the ram air is less restrictive than the non-ram air intake, it's better.

I'm not saying SS >> Z28. I'm saying ram air > no ram air.

To me, it seems obvious.


Also,1/4 times would be a terrible way to evaluate whether a ram air works. Say you run the 13 in 1/4, what percentage of your time are you spending above 60MPH (assume constant acceleration for simplicity)?

1/4 mile = acceleration * (13 sec ) ^ 2
so acceleration = 1/ (4 * 169) = 1/ 676 miles/sec^2

now:

velocity / acceleration = time
(676) * (70 m/h) / (3600 sec /hour) = 11.27 seconds

So in your 13 sec car, the ram air has a whopping 1.73 seconds to work it's magic!

So what if the ram air really does work?

Let's say it give you 25% more horsepower once you hit 60. Normally you'd finish at 69.2 MPH. This time you finish at 71.5 As you can see, not that big of a difference.

 

I dont think the LS1s are over or under rated. They just arent made consistant. Becaus ive seen some dyno as low as 280 and some like 330.

They all run good though. I dynoed like 304 on motor, and run faster on the street and at the track then my buddies that dynoed around 330.

 

You need to pull your head out of your textbooks and get out in the real world. An LS1 car hits 60 in about 5 seconds giving it 8 more seconds to use the "ram air" effect in a 1/4 mile run.
So if it worked it would be a noticable improvement.

 

all this theory is cute, but the fact remains, even if the hood "rammed" air properly, it will lose all its ramming effect as soon as it gets to the airbox, since the airbox isnt sealed to the hood. It might direct some cooler air to the air inlet, but NOTHING will be ramming into it unless you seal it off.

99blackSS, Are you getting your information from the same source that informed you that Z28's get 15mm sway bars? If so I would stop listening to them.

 

I second that!

Spend a while here and get a few more posts under your belt before you try to tell us that it takes our cars 12 seconds to hit 60MPH. FYI - the hood is not sealed to the air box. It just blows (a small amount of) air onto the opening at the front of the air box. There is absolutley NO pressurization taking place. As for cooler air, that's even debatable because of the heat from the engine soaked up by the ductwork in the hood. It takes several minutes of constant high speed air flow to cool the air duct back off after the car sits. You can always raise the hood at the dragstrip. But even then it's not much of a difference if any. You're still getting cool enough air without having the scoop blow on the box. It probably blows hotter air after sitting with the hood down so performance would theoretically be even worse with an SS hood. I happen to agree that the best air intake mod other than the lid is the Free Ram Air mod. Air is pushed up by the deflector, diverted from the radiator and enters directly into the bottom of the air box. You just have to be sure to keep the filter clean as it gets dirty quicker, especially if you drive through high grass somewhere.

 

I realized that the 15mm sway bar was wrong and pointed it out. Was that not enough, did you want a cookie? What did I say that was wrong about the SS hood? I said it does not cause a ram air effect, look at the first post. What am I wrong about?:blah:

 

My point is that no one's even trying to be objective here. I realize that assuming constant acceleration isn't true, but you're not paying atterntion to the real point behind my statement:

In a 1/4 mile run a fairly significant amount of time is spent below speeds where any type of ram effect could happen. If you wanted to scientificially test this, you should be starting from 70 MPH roll and timing yourself up to 100 or something (pick a speed range where you don't have to shift). The point being, you should eliminate all the variables you possibly can.

IMO the ram air would be less restrictive than the normal intake, therefore better. I doubt it makes a big improvement, therefore it would be very hard to measure. I agree that without things being sealed, you're not going to get much pressurization, but it's still technically possible. I think any ram air effects are minimal, but it probably does work well as a cold air intake.

 

I'll let you come feel my hood after I drive the car some time. Definately not what I would call cool. And the restriction is in the airbox, not delivery to the box. So whatever happens before then doesn't matter. Now... seal the hood to the box and put insulation under the hood and you might see some gains at higher speeds. But even then, the intake path would be so long that it would be a huge restriction at lower speeds.

My car's fast enough anyway. Who cares?

 

You have some good points.
Would the pressure generated by a nicely sealed intake be enough to overcome the extra length?

Or the better question would be:
At what speed does this happen?

Pressure is going to increase with speed, but the length of the tubing, and the temperature of that tubing aren't.

As for why I care, I'm just curious. I have a deposit down on a '99 formula w/ ram air. I'm sure it will be plenty fast for me, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and tweak it.

Another reason for my interest is that all this sounds like an interesting fluid dynamics problem. It's not an area I have expertise in, but why should that stop me

 

Bare in mind here that the pontiac ram air is considered a better design then the SS. I don't have an SS so I can only go by what I read from others. However I have seen lots of SS owners laugh about that design because of where they located the air duct on the hood. Apparently the air needs to travel into the hood and then be directed down, travel backwards and then forward again into the airbox

The ws6 hood is a much better design as the nostrils flow straight into the airbox with only one major flaw. The hood does not seal up so it's not very presurized unless you buy the bg ram air kit for it that is supposed to seal that 1-2" gap.

I agree with those that say it's not a big difference anyway. Ram air is nice and it does help at higher speeds (I love my SSRA) but we are talking about approximately 10 HP. There won't be a huge SToP feeling from any 10 HP mod.

It's worth having but not worth arguing over.

Peace

 

Sounds sensible to me.

 

See here.

Does it really work ?

Maybe.

Does it look good ?

IMHO I think it does !

Do I have Free Ram Air ?

Oh, Yeah !!


Would I swap my SS for a Z28 ?

Nope.

Do I think just becuase it is an SS it will outrun Z28's or non WS.6 T/A's ?

Nope.

It's all in what you want & can afford.

Later !

Britt

 

on the hyabusa some magazeen installed a boost guage in the air box of the bike.did it produce more boost?yes.but it only did it at 120.and at that speed you cant feel 10 hp at that speed any way.and the ram air on that bike was desightned in a wind tunnel and on a flow thingie(cant remember the name).and they did thousands of dollars in research on that ram air.and the needle only wiggled at 80 thru 120 and it showed a little less than 1 psi of boost at 180.
does this have any thing to do with the ss or ws6 hood?no it doesnt but i thaught this was useful info on ram air.
is 10 or 20 hp worth 200/300 or 500 dollars yes it is but it will only help if you run 150 in the 1/4.i think its worth the money because it looks good and adds a little hp but if it didnt ad to the look i wouldnt waist my time.