Thoughts on Miniram for 85 with ZZ4
 

I find myself debating going with a miniram on my car again. I'm not a racer but am one of those people that is always tinkering with my car. Current set-up/mods:
- ZZ4 crate motor
- Edelbrock TPI base (ports cleaned up and port matched on the TPI side, base side left alone)
- SLP runners (port matched to base and ported on the plenium side. Extended the siamese of the tubes down a couple of inches and smoothed out)
- Plenum - (Siamesed and port matched to the SLP runners, inside cleaned up and TB opening port matched to 52mm TB)
- TPIS long tube headers, HF cat, Magnaflow mufflers
- TPIS smog pump delete kit
- Auto car with 3.07 gears
- Tuned by TPIS

The car sat for 6 years due to life getting in the way of which I'm now at the point I'll be able to start driving it again. I'm not looking to make it a race car as I don't street race or go to drag strip but I do like to play around some on my own. I'm looking for something that will be easy to maintain and potentially open up the breathing of my ZZ4 as it still feels choked down a bit with my TPI set-up. I'm finding myself needing to go through the car again to fix some vacuum leaks and fluid leaks so I figured if I'm going to rip the top end off I might as well take some extra time to see if it's worth while to swap to a miniram and either sell my TPI set-up or put it on the shelf for a while.

If it makes a difference, I'm going to be having to rebuild my transmission soon anyways so can easily swap to a higher stall converter at that time. I've done some research and it seemed the stall for an Auto was the big negative as well as the gears but I couldn't see many, if any, threads with people with the 3.07 gears vs the 2. something gears.

With all you have done to the motor, I think it would be very happy with a SuperRam or miniram. I have run both and either would be a good option for you. The SuperRam can be hard to find and can be a challenge to install, but it's wide torque band would be perfect with your automatic for a street car. The miniram is an easy install and will also work well.

The mini ram will work great, get the correct stall speed converter of 2500 RPM and the car will work great. Gears are a distant second in my opinion, 3.07 gears will be fine.

My 87 ran 12.80 at 107 with a zz4/miniram//3.07 gears/tpis headers. Good combination.

A ZZ4 with miniram will appreciate more gear. The factory TPIs love a 3.40ish range. With the increase in RPM available from the Miniram/ZZ4 combo, a 3.73 will be wonderful on the street. You won't regret it. You will notice the gear swap from a 3.07. Especially if you change to a slightly higher stall converter. It will wake that combo up! The 20% is a multiplication factor. It is the same as adding more than 20% torque, except you give up some mph and fuel mileage. If you were runnign a manual, I would say 4.10s with no hesitation.

Definitely consider the MR intake. The long-tube TPI intakes have an rpm barrier just below 5000rpm that basically shuts off the power production. It's not due to a constant-flow restriction (i.e. it doesn't show itself on a flow bench), but rather due to resonance set up by the runner length. So you can't eliminate the issue with porting the base or getting fatter runner tubes. With the MR you won't lose any off-idle torque. You'll lose a torque spike at around 3000rpm. You'll also gain huge torque above 4500rpm or so. The end result is that instead of a spikey, short useful power curve like the TPI gives you, you'll end up with a much flatter and wider torque curve that gives you a more flexible rpm range to work with.

Appreciate the feedback. I'll give them a call after the holidays to see which version I need and get one ordered.

Sounds like a great build, have you considered the SuperRam to preserve some of the addicting torque?

First I'd like to say it reads like you have a pretty cool project - congratulations!

As far as intakes I'm sure the MR will work but isn't that intake pretty expensive compared to a EFI single plane intake? FAST sells a single plane w/throttle body for under $550. No, I don't know if it would perform better or worse than the MR but I don't think anyone else does either.

Or you could use the FIRST s/p using a Nitrous Outlet air elbow with your stock t/b.

And take this for what you paid for it, I think a EFI converted dual plane intake would be a better match for a ZZ4 motor and cam. Heck you already have a good intake for this that came with the ZZ4. I can find intake specialty shops on-line that can/will do this. Well I'm just mentioning this as I have this in the plans for my LT1 do to lack of good streetable intakes.

Good luck.

I think these would all be good options if they can be fit under the hood. What's strange is that the previous owner of my car tried a s/p setup like these in an effort to gain mid-range grunt with their longer runners, but in the end all the gains were on the very top end of the rpm range! Never could explain that.

Another cheap option that would be basically the same as the MR but less money might be this ported LT1 intake set up for a traditional distributor. I don't know what else, if anything, would have to be done to make it work on a Gen 1 SBC.

I'm curious on which Minram are you referring to:

This one?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...b4e7006294.jpg
or this one?

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cor...16e737af29.jpg

The top pic is not a Miniram.

Yes I know. But, the original poster mentioned miniram and in his discussion he mentioned plenum and runners which a miniram does not have. I suspect he has a TPI setup like the top image depicts

I have, but the main reason I'm looking away from the TPI is I'm wanting something that will run better and be easy to work-on/maintain. The fun of installing those and the potential vacuum leaks has always steered me away.

Appreciate it. Not to be "that guy" but I'm at that point/age in my life where I'm OK spending a little more to buy a plug and play product. My time of buying parts and trying to make them work are behind me. Just don't have the time or patience anymore for it. I'm just looking forward to refreshing the car to be road ready again and then just turning the key and driving :-)

That's correct, I was explaining what I have now to see if it would be worth the change. I already have the edelbrock base, SLP runners (have edelbrock ones as well) and the plenum all ported. Going to call TPIS this week to get the MR ordered. Only decision point now is if I'm going to sell my TPI parts or hang on to them.

The TPIS Miniram is a good unit. I have the Miniram on my SBC 427 with a monoblade Throttle body and I am very happy with it.

Just got off the phone with TPIS. Miniram is on order :-)

If they said one week, it will probably be two.:D Worth waiting for. Install take a little time because you will be making fuel lines and adapting some stuff. Once done you will not believe how easy it is to R&R. Motor will spin to 6k easy. First time my cheap alternator exploded the plastic fan inside. Took it back under warantee and exploded that real fast. Had to get a new, not rebuilt one and that was it.

I cheated and bought their fuel line kit to. Supposed to hook up to the stock ones. Guess we will see :-)

I bought the kit too. It comes with braided lines that you need to cut and assemble. At least it came that way 100 years ago when I did mine. Still not hard and very worth the effort.