Rate the Tunnelwedge

[wowens]

For a street build 482. BBM, Ford, or Dove ? Which one and why ?
Listed by available only.

[blykins]

How much rpm?

[wowens]

How much rpm?

6200/6500,  no cam specs but hydraulic roller

[blykins]

I'd think you can make any of them work ok on a 482 pulling 6500 rpm.  I generally don't like Tunnel Wedges for street engines, especially lower rpm engines, but I think a 482 will pull hard enough on one above 6000 to do ok. 

A Ford piece will be ok if you can find one that's not been ground to death.  A Dove will be ok if you can find one that doesn't leak.   A BBM intake is larger in the runners but should be ok too. 

[Joe-JDC]

Unmodified Ford is definitely better for lower rpm usage.  The Ford TW flows ~390 cfm as cast average.  BBM and Dove much more.  Joe-JDC

[6667fan]

This Dove piece was massaged by Les Schmader. Unfortunately he did not share flow data on it. I’ve looked inside an unmolested Ford TW vs an unmolested Dove TW and noticed more rounding on the corners that lead to each runner. I don’t know if that was a mod that Jim did to the Ford molds?

MSgt Joe, I don’t know if you saw the recent write up on my 482 but following your lead we stuck the TW on, with its small port mis-match to Barry’s heads and the power did not drop off vs the well massaged Victor that was on it previously. (Which is what I believe you foresaw happening).

JB

[Drew Pojedinec]

I’m running a massive Dove TW on my mellow 447. It is the one with the removable top so the plenum is absurdly large. Previously I ran a BT 2x4 MR.

If you cannot get it tuned for a vehicle like mine you need to reassess your tuning capabilities.
I lost next to nothing on the low end and gained everywhere else.
If anything, with my car that has 4.30 gears and a stroker engine, I am more than happy to give up a little low end torque tbh.

[blykins]

I’m running a massive Dove TW on my mellow 447. It is the one with the removable top so the plenum is absurdly large. Previously I ran a BT 2x4 MR.

If you cannot get it tuned for a vehicle like mine you need to reassess your tuning capabilities.
I lost next to nothing on the low end and gained everywhere else.
If anything, with my car that has 4.30 gears and a stroker engine, I am more than happy to give up a little low end torque tbh.

A deep rear gear changes the rules around a little bit. 

[Drew Pojedinec]

I was just concerned about the “common wisdom” regarding running a TW. Really was not an issue.
A fairly simple thing to work around.

Did I lose a tiny bit at 1200rpms?  Yes, but really if you have a vehicle set to run in a performance manner, you’ve really given away most of that anyway.
I just don’t want people to be scared to take on the challenge.

[machoneman]

Why not experiment with a stuffer to cut down that massive plenum volume? Could easily be made removable to make it smaller or replaced with a different shaped stuffer.

Having seen the old Ford pro stock 351C racers, they changed plenum volumes literally on the fly to see if they could lower their  e.t. Here, the gains, even for a streeter, may not be that obvious (seat-of-the-pants) but hey, could be fun to try it.   

[wowens]

Unmodified Ford is definitely better for lower rpm usage.  The Ford TW flows ~390 cfm as cast average.  BBM and Dove much more.  Joe-JDC

Thanks Joe, exactly what I was asking.

[babybolt]

My buddy once had one of the Dove type tunnel wedges he obtained in a large buyout.  The intake previously had been on a truck pulling engine and much of the volume in the plenum was filled with epoxy into a shape roughly like the original Ford tunnel wedge.  Particularly the center part was necked downed and the whole filler had the shape of a hourglass when viewed from above.  The cross section of the center neck was pretty small, probably only 1 1/2 or 2 times that of a single intake port cross section.

[Barry_R]

The 2x4 version of there removable top Dove tunnel wedge has a stuffer thingie kinda hanging down into the plenum from the lid

[Drew Pojedinec]

The 2x4 version of there removable top Dove tunnel wedge has a stuffer thingie kinda hanging down into the plenum from the lid

They do. It looks like it slams the fuel into the floor. I thought it was a bad idea and am just using a flat plate I made.  When I get some more time, I planned on making a stuffer that bolts to the floor instead. Haven’t had the time, and after initial runs around town and the country roads I wonder if it’s needed.

I’ll tinker with the concept in the future.

[My427stang]

I am doing a Ford TW build right now, between a slow head porter and CV19, I am late to the dyno, but should have some info on a stock Ford one (soon?)  LOL 

Looking at the various manifolds, I agree that the Ford would be the best bet down low, but correct cam and compression choice should be able to work around most everything.  That being said, the idea of turtles, and potentially reducing the volume of the F/R crossover should do wonders on the bigger manifold. 

My gut tells me, if you are going to limit the crossover on the big manifolds, it should be a nice bell mouthed entry and exit into each plenum area to allow pulses to move across the "tube" while reducing total volume.

As far as turtles, I think a man with a flow bench might be best to start, if you can just take a bunch of volume away and still keep total flow, then you could play with changes to shape on the dyno, 8 O2 sensors would be icing on the cake