Busting the Myth of Pontiac’s Ram Air V

Forget for a moment all the moral and ethical ramifications of copying someone else’s work. If you’re going to do it, you should at least look over the shoulder of the guy with the right answers.  

Pontiac found that out the hard way with the legendary Ram Air V cylinder head, which was cribbed entirely from Ford’s Tunnel Port head. The problem was it didn’t work. Not in a street application, anyway—and it wasn’t so great on a racing engine, either. 

Racing, of course, was the long plan for Ford’s Tunnel Port design. That was no different from Pontiac and every other automaker looking to rack up wins in NASCAR and NHRA. Airflow was the common denominator, as shoving more of it through an engine was the eternal challenge. 

Displacement was always a fundamental factor, but moving air quickly and efficiently was more important than the bore and stroke dimensions. Pontiac tinkered with both in 1967 by increasing displacement from 389 to 400 cubic inches and improving breathing in its heads with larger valves and narrower valve angles. The 400 H.O. engine package was the max performer for the year, and it was available for the GTO and Firebird with a Ram Air induction package   

It was 1968 that the first true Ram Air engine package was offered, and it was essentially the same as the previous year’s 400 H.O. Later that model year, the Ram Air II changed things dramatically with the introduction of round-port heads in place of the standard D-port design for the exhaust outlets, along with the hotter “041” camshaft and unique exhaust manifolds to accommodate the round exhaust ports. Next, the Ram Air III used D-port heads, but with larger valves, high-flow exhaust manifolds and more, while the Ram Air IV built on the characteristics of the Ram Air II’s round-port head design, but with redesigned intake ports and additional updates that supported higher rpm.  

The Ram Air III and IV were introduced in 1969 and carried over to 1970, while the round-port design was also used for the later 455 H.O. and 455 Super Duty engines. All the Ram Air variants helped the GTO and Firebird hold their ground on the street and strip, but for all their capability, engineers were still looking for more airflow. The problem was the pesky pushrods got in the way, restricting the size of the intake ports. It was a challenge other manufacturers had also chased and one Ford worked around by simply running the pushrods right through the intake ports. That was the Tunnel Port.  

As the legend goes, George DeLorean, the brother of John DeLorean, was doing engine development work for Pontiac, but also had a drag racing contract with Ford, and spied a set of unique heads on a Ford race car at the drag strip. They were prototype Tunnel Port heads, and after leveraging his sway with his FoMoCo contacts, he got his hands on one of the heads.  

The Ford FE engine’s bore spacing was very close to the Pontiac engine and when DeLorean dropped the Tunnel Port head on a Pontiac block in his shop, it lined up almost perfectly. He called his brother, who immediately sent legendary Pontiac engineers Steve Malone, “Mac” McKellar, Tom Nell, and Bill Klinger to check it out.  

George DeLorean had to return the head quickly, but not before the Pontiac squad quickly took photos and measurements and even made a mold of it. They next carved away the guts of a Pontiac head and set the cribbed Tunnel Port mold inside its walls. They called it the Tall Port head internally and it was the beginning of what would become the Ram Air V program, which also included a unique camshaft lobe arrangement and complementing valvetrain components, along with a heavy-duty block with four-bolt mains and forged rotating parts.  

Lofty plans for the copied head design were soon created, including a version for a short-deck engine displacing 303 cubic inches. It was to be the homologation engine for the original Pontiac Trans Am, competing with the 302-cube competitors from Ford and Chevrolet. Not-so-coincidently, Ford was also working on a Tunnel-Port version of the 302.  

Despite some promising early dyno results, it soon became evident that the tall-port Ram Air V head was too much of a good thing. Its intake runners were enormous and flowed something like 325 cfm — nearly 50 percent more than a Ram Air IV head. It had volume and plenty of it, but it was too much, even for 400 cubic inches.  

In short, the Ram Air V had air but no airflow. The air just sort of laid there in the ports and without velocity, the head was a dud on the 400, whether for the track or street. It was even worse on the proposed 303 Trans-Am engine, which would have depended on lower-rpm performance to power a race car out of corners. More cubes and more rpm were needed to realize the Ram Air V’s potential and while Pontiac had larger engines planned, the development program was killed before that was realized. Not surprisingly, Ford had also dumped its 302 Tunnel Port engine program for its Trans-Am racing effort.  

A number of complete Ram Air V engines were known to be produced, including several 303s and perhaps up to 200 examples of 400-cubic-inch engines, but none were installed in production vehicles. After that, the remaining parts filtered out through Pontiac’s parts network. Original and reproduction Ram Air V heads have been used over the years, mostly by drag racers, to make big Pontiac power, but they all say the same thing: It only works with big, big displacement and rpm.  

The Ram Air V’s legend grew to mythical size, but its real-world performance was the true myth. Despite its fascinating backstory of clandestine corporate espionage and the big promise of its bold design, the head didn’t deliver on its promise. That’s the risk of looking over someone else’s shoulder.  

Myth busted.  

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