Anyone here had success with the Xram intake? I have had it on my 1984 since I have owned it for twelve years. The car was originally my cousins and he did the conversion. Does it really make a performance improvement? He also put a different ECM in the car, one from a Camaro I believe, and 1985 fuel pump, and different fuel pressure regulator, and enlarged the throttle bodies. I think this is what many were doing back in the day when they were trying to play catch up with the TPI Corvettes. Since I have nothing to compare it to, I was just wondering if all that effort was worth the trouble. Maybe someone else has had experience with this performance path?

 

Allegedly porting the stock intake puts you on par with TPI... boring the tbs isn't needed until you have a lot more power. I have seen guys go from an xram to a renegade and pick up a tenth or two.

1.6 rockers, ported intake, upped fuel pressure and timing advanced a few degrees used to be the recipie.

 

Three tenths to be exact going from the crap flow of an Xram to mine, no comparison. It would be better to go with a ported stock manifold.

 

Since I am not a super mechanic, I have some questions. My cousin did this conversion years ago before I purchased the car. He also had the ECM changed to a later Chevrolet, I believe a Camaro. He had an 1985 fuel pump put in and he has enlarged the throttle bodies, and has changed the fuel pressure regulator. If I were to put the stock ported intake back on the car, which I still have, would all the other things he has done to the engine be an issue. The car runs lean, always has and I have not been able to correct that problem. What would be the advantage going back to the ported intake? Would I pick up just a tenth or two or have a real performance gain. I remember your name from the old Crossfire web site.

 

Yes, it will be even more lean until you know what the fuel pressure is set to right now. Do you know? 13psi is optimum to see max performance. When you say "he changed the ECM to a later Chevy model", is it now laptop tuneable? If so, I see a bad tune causing the issues. If you keep running it lean you will burn the motor up, don't run it.

 

I not sure if it is lap top tuneable, as when this work was done there was no lap tops. This was about 16 years ago. I have the car 13 years, and he did the conversion about two or four years before that. I was told it has a chip that was programmed by someone from GM? Since this stuff is way over my head, I would not know how to re tune it. I can tell you I had a high idle and found out there was a leak on the intake. I resealed the intake and the Xram, and replaced the gaskets on the throttle bodies. That was about the biggest job I ever did on this car, and to me that was a big job and a mile stone in my mechanical ability . As far as messing with the fuel pressure, I do know from the text messages he had with the guys at the crossfire injection vault that it took him a while to get that part of the conversion right. The car had a miss and he said something about changing the spring, trying several until he got it right. I do know that he spent many hours fussing with this car. About a month after I got the ca Ir started getting the check engine light coming on. When I did the carter pin diagnostic test the code came lean mixture. By the way I did that resealing job about 4,000 miles ago, which is a bout 8 years ago. I do not drive the car that often. Is this a known problem with the Xram for the gray sealant to leak? So far so good. The car runs very well. In face when I had the transmission worked on the owner of the shop told me the car was a good driving car. It is not fast, and I believe the 3 tenths of a second stuff you posted. My cousin who claimed to beat tpi Corvettes with the Xram I think is probably a stretch.

 

Sure they have...I've been tweaking the parameters on my 1227730 ECM over 20 years ago with an ultra slow 486 laptop 8mb ram 200 mb hard drive. Walked into a computer store and asked if they had anything old that they could sell me for cheap. Guy reaches under the counter, hands me the brick and said "It's yours!"

 

Honestly, the best thing you can do with it now if the ECM turns out to be bad is replace the ECM with an EBL Flash II from Dynamic EFI and start laptop tuning. One reason is you will probably not find an 84 ECM that will work and who knows what ECM you really have now. I'm sure there are issues with that tune you have or a mechanical issue. The EBL is hands down the best thing around right now for ANY CF car. I run it in mine and have been for a number of years. All you need is a USB port on the laptop and a CD ROM or external CD/DVD ROM drive a WB O2 sensor and start tuning.

Also, if you are getting a lean condition code, there are a lot of things that can cause this, fuel pressure, a vacuum leak, bad O2 sensor, bad ECM, short/open in a circuit somewhere and the list goes on. Do you have a 84 GM service manual? If so, the information in there is more than enough to troubleshoot this issue. If you don't have one, get one. The 84 service manual is very good and better than the 82 IMO, it explains things a lot better. There were laptops available 16 years ago, just not an ECM that you could do that to then for a CF car, that happened a few years later.

 

I do have the 1984 GM service manual, my cousin gave it to me with the car. I am computer illiterate but my wife is very good with computers and my son is a computer geek for a large company with 400 people under him. I will run these ides past them and see if they can help. My cousin warned me to never touch the ECM as he said he spent may hours soldering and wrapping each wire. I looked at it once and it looked very professionally done. He was very good at mechanics. I changed the 02 sensor when I first starting to get the lean code. I also must inform you that all the pollution equipment on this car has been removed, even the cat is gone. I do not know if that would cause a code? There are no vacuum leaks.

 

Looking over posts my cousin made on the crossfire injection forum, I find him writing about two different ECMs. The first in 2003 is said to be a 8746 ECM. They in 2006 he speaks about a 7747 ECM. I do not know if he just got the numbers mixed up or if he is speaking about two different ones. I find it hard to believe he changed this ECM twice? I can check. The part number should be on the ECM correct? I understand you need a special adapter for OBD1 for your lap top which is in the 1984. Are they available? I also notice him speaking about fuel pressure regulators. He states is has 9-10 PSI at idle and 15 PSI at WOT.

 

So it has a vacuum reference pressure regulator.

7747 is the later ecm that EBL uses... it could be an early one...

 

That's funny, It used to be called the Crossfire Injection Vault originally created by Ken back in the day. I revamped did that site at one point entirely including the banner for Ken who is down in TX. I still talk with him as well and he still has his 82 along with other vettes. There really isn't activity on that site anymore, which is too bad since it was the premiere CF site way back and lots of people on there, something like this site really.

If you find something, let us know. Like mentioned, it could be an early EBL? I guess you could get a hold of Bob at Dynamic EFI and ask him about the unit and see what he says. GL

Here is another reason the XRam doesn't work as good as the Renegade does or even a very good ported stock manifold that matter. The sketch says it all. Compare that to the stock manifold flow and then compare it to the Renegade, no comparison at all as far as flow goes. We outflow the XRam hands down. The XRam was an Weiand Accelerator manifold with a bastardized top plate, it killed the flow by doing that as you can see with a very small top plate with nowhere for the flow to go except into the floor and then take a 90* turn over to the middle plenum hole... BTW, Pat Owney the owner of the XRam down in TX said they saw 100HP gain. What?! If they are getting 100HP, what does the Renegade make, 200HP? LOL Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I still have the complete website narrative somewhere here from XRam website before he shut it down where they claim that outrageous amount of power. His words, not mine.

 

Man did you just draw that picture? Not really knowing what a xram is, search revealed it is as you depicted. '8746 is a f-body tbi ecm and the '7747 was used in tbi trucks of that era. I was told they will plug and play with each other only difference is '8746 has an IAT sensor so not hard at all to have gone from '8746 to '7747. If it was my car, I would not hesitate to get some pigtails, cut splice solder and heat shrink either of these ecms but if that's already done, you're that much closer to an EBL. I already have the tuning equipment and that's another option. At the very least a laptop and an aldl cable to see what's going on with how the engine is running.

 

LOL...I did! This was to make it clear what the flow is like with an XRam, which was crap and that's why we designed the Renegade manifold as a CF performance mod and works very good. Correct on both accounts on the ECMs. I have used both of them over the years and the only difference is the IAT on the 8746 like you mentioned. If anyone is thinking about cutting up your harness...STOP! You don't have to cut/spice or anything else to make those ECMs work with a stock CF harness 82 or 84. I created an interface board (HAM board, Harness Adapter Module) that is installed into the ECM which will make those ECM's plug-N-play with a stock harness...unplug old ECM, plug in new ECM. EBL Flash II, USB is the way to go with the software for data logging that comes with the ECM called What's Up and the tune software which is free from TunerPro R/T if you don't want to donate to help make it better. Bob at Dynamic EFI is the guy to talk to about EBL and is VERY knowledgeable about his product and tuning. I send my HAM boards to Dynamic EFI for the installation since if you do it wrong you WILL trash your ECM and then you get to buy another one. I have plenty of the new and improved version of the HAM boards on my site.

 

Good info! Shameless plug time...what's the url to your website. I don't own a CF but let one slip away. CL listing 4+3 $2500 didn't last long then a week later found my '90 vert. Had a lead on a CF intake complete TBs w linkage but after the exchange of phone numbers, called the guy and he never picked up. Only reason I wanted it was bc there was a CL listing just the base $300 but I needed the supporting cast members before I pulled the trigger! I've read many Emails by rBob when I used to be on the diy gm_efi mailing list back in the late '90s. Back then I didn't understand 90% of the content!!!

 

I used a 7747 on my 383 , the tuning was def a learning experience but it was doable-Ken helped walk me through it. the 383 was a lot of fun till I experienced 2 wiped out cam lobes in a row. You can get a 383 CFI car into the 12s and I have a special fondness for the L83 , even on the stock ECM it can be a decent performer and a fun torquey beast. And damn reliable ! My L83 never ever let me down including driving from Houston to Richmond and back for the Corvette Nationals - car even got Super Chevy Ride of the Month

 

Seen a few of those around in my time and for CFI as well. I had the SY1 on my 69 Z28 302, crap down low, but wind it up to 8k and it came alive.

To...racerxl83 Are you the same guy back in the day on CFI vault with the blue C4 with orange wheels or something like that or was that someone else? That name just looks familiar to me, sorry if it's not you.

 

Here is a link to a dyno shootout on all kinds of intakes on a SBC L98 including the mini ram.
Some good information here for those looking to build up their L98. Shows where they build power and where they don`t.

 

He has a lot of good vids..the supercharged superram 406 he speaks of musta been a beast.
Maybe he should do a test on Buccaneers once production is pumping.

 

Great comparison video but did I miss the CF content? j/k
Nothing wrong w '7747 as I have one in my bros Chebby truck and in my Caballero. You just gotta be patient with it! Data rate is a little slow at 160 baud. With an EBL or faster ECM/PCM you gain 8192 baud data and you can dial the tune in much quicker. Soooo...since you're already there, it's possible to re-pin to run a '427 truck PCM which can control a 4L60E and with some hacks gain fan control.