# 65 Gto Tri-power Ram Air



## clay1965gto (Aug 21, 2013)

Hi, This is my first time posting. 

I am in the process of restoring my 65 gto, and am going to make it my daily driver. I changed the 4 bbl over to a Tri-power set up and put the ram air pan and foam surround on it. The stock hood that I bought already had the scoop cut out to allow for the ram air. 

My question is, has anyone had a problem with driving the car in the rain with the scoop cut out? From the look of it, in a heavy rain you would have water hitting the front air filter. I live in Florida, and in the summer it rains here everyday in the afternoon like clockwork. It would suck to get stuck on the side of the interstate with a soggy air filter.

thanks


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## Darth (Apr 30, 2011)

You will definitely have issues then. It will basically suck the water right ii. There is even an interview on youtube (Army work computer won’t let me imbed it) with Jim Wangers talking about the Royal Bobcat package. He explains how it works, what it was, etc…and he specifically mentions “you wouldn’t wanna drive the car in the rain” and laughs. One thing you could do, which wouldn’t be particularly stock for 65’ is to install the pull tab like a 70’ GTO had. It’s a knob under the dash that said RAM AIR. When you pulled it, it opened flaps in the scoop letting the air get “rammed in”. Or you could leave them closed if you were driving around Plant City, FL in a rainstorm. On a stock 65' with the kit you were just "ramming air" all of the time.

I have a 65’ myself (you can see it in the Garage tab under my avatar” and I am thinking of putting a Ram Air kit on mine. However, I am stationed in El Paso (Fort Bliss) and won’t be using it as my daily driver, nor driving it the 2 days a year it rains there. Others opinions may vary.


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## 68GTO4004Spd (Jun 19, 2008)

Um three things. You do realize that "Ram air" was not installed on GTO's prior to 1968.

Secondly it doesn't actually ram air into to intake, air flowing over the hood in that area is to low of pressure to force feed the engine. At most it allows "cooler" air into the enging bay, which may at a tiny performance advantage. Mostly it just sounds impressive, what actually made a ram air car more of a bad ass is the engine itself had more performance parts.

Third I doubt you would get enough water in the scoop in the rain to damage the engine unless it's a downpoor for a couple of hours. Probably make it a lot harder to keep the engine bay clean.

That said, if you are building it for you, do whatever you want to.


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## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

I was told the RAM Air Tri-Power tray and what not was a dealer installed item that came out in mid `65.Which is why I didn't install it on mine as it was built in Jan.


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## clay1965gto (Aug 21, 2013)

Sorry I should have prefaced my first post, I am not going for a concourse restoration, Just a cool car to drive every day. I have also read that the “Ram Air pan” was a dealer installed option, if you read HighPreformancePontiac.com they have an article with the instruction that the dealer received on how to install the part. The article online says their "rain contingency" is to stuff rags into the Scoop if it rains and don’t glue down the foam, to allow for air to get to the carbs. (Trying to avoid that if possible). I was wondering if anyone had any other options or ideas. Or possibly a flap system (like the later gto’s had) off another car that I could modify to work. Looking at the later year gto’s Pontiac must of thought it was a problem, because they came out with the flap system for the ram air.


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## Darth (Apr 30, 2011)

I know it wasn't offered, but you COULD get it from the SD parts department of your local Pontiac showroom as a dealer installed aftermarket kit. That's why I said he could install a factory incorrect knob off a later model car that would allow him to control the hood scoop flaps even though it wouldn't have been offered in 1965. Much like my car has unoffered or uninvented power disc brakes at all 4 corners.

Yes, it didn't work very well. The placement of the hood scoops wasn't really conducive to the action hoped for as it basically only picked up boundary air. It was good for maybe 5 horsepower. Chevy's "Cowl Induction" locaterd at the rear of the hood worked better.

Third, it will still get water in there, which is probably not good. Especially since I have family and spend a lot of time in Florida and I know in the summer it rains everyday. I just thought I would let him know so he would know what he was getting into in case it did damage the engine.

Lastly, it looks cool as hell and sounds cool even if it doesn't work well. Telling a chick your has a carburetor doesn't sound as bad ass as saying:

"My car has RAM AIR."  YAY! Got it to work. Here is the video where Jim talks about the Royal Bobcats, how Ram Air works, and how you could get it from the dealer in 1965.


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