I saw the crossram that TA performance sells on there site and that thing looks pretty cool.my question is,where do they get them?
Richard graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I see a two-four inline manifold, no cross ram. ???
David

It realy looks like an Offenhauser intake with the letters ground off and then refinished. Offy is the closest manifold in appearance to the GM piece IMHO. Seems like they are marking it up quite a lot though.

With the prices being asked for the originals, the T/A performance setup looks like a bargain. All new stuff too. They have everything from parts to whole packages. No sniping required :cool:

-Mark.

[ 06-17-2004, 12:39 AM: Message edited by: stingr69 ]

I think they had a new casting made based on the GM crossram and just left off the casting # and snowflake.

http://taperfresto.com/index.html
Hard to tell, it's either an offy base with new lid, or they copied the GM manifold from scratch.
David

I have talk to and bought from Brett, owner of TA. It is a modified Offy intake. He has them machined to look similar to the GM stuff. The tops are actually cut and rewelded/machined and then glass bead blasted. He says they have quite abit of work in them. I did my own for a lot less....
http://home.comcast.net/~ltski/images/xram.jpg
It should be in this week. Man I had a hell of a time getting the v-covers to work with the Jesel shaft system. I literally had 1/4" clearance from the shaft rockers to the intake!
I'll have my web page updated soon. If you guys remember, I'm the one that scuffed a few pistons on my DZ. I was going to glass bead them but Diamond got me a set pretty quick - so new pistons :(
I need to work out the carb linkage and will be ready to drop her in...hopefully by the Camaro Superfest show.

Later,
Craig
p.s. - JeffH, You'd better get a move on it! ;)

Tski,

Your motor looks great. How did you refinish the manifold top plate? I'd like to do the same on mine if I decide to install. I can't wait to hear the results, especially engine and/or chassis dyno results. I hope you find the power you're looking for.

MAN THAT LOOKS NICE graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Richard graemlins/waving.gif

Thanks guys...heres what I've learned on getting the manifold to work/sorta look like the GM piece:
-machined off all Offy logos
-machined off Offy linkage tabs
-recontour leading edge of front carb throttle linkage pocket in top plate for 4295 throttle shafts
-intake ports are a prefect felpro 1205 size
and that is about it (so far). I had to do some other stuff because of the Jesel shaft system that most wouldn't have to do. I had to machine down my v-cover spacers to minimum height to clear the manifold. I can just slip a piece of paper between my v-cover bolt heads and the manifold (and that was with grinding on the bolt head!). Needless to say the v-covers are not removable without taking off the manifold graemlins/sad.gif Hopefully the Jesel system can hold lash for at least a year.
Eric requested I only change one thing at a time to see the power gains. I really want to put the 1.75" headers on it while the engine is out, but I'm also interested in the power difference between this manifold setup and the 472.

BTW - the stuff I got from Brett over at TA looks great....very knowledgable guy with attention to details!

Hopefully I'll get her on the dyno soon.

Craig

where can you find 4295 carbs?
Richard graemlins/beers.gif

also,does anyone here have any experience driving a crossram powered Z28?are ok for weekend street use?
Richard graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Yes their ok for weekend and street use, but you will need to learn about tuning so that you get the carbs and throttles setup right the first time. Once their done it's not that bad to run and maintain. (looks awesome)

I have the same setup as Tski and just installed it this week. I am going through the exact same issues as he, but have a few different ideas on a setups and trials. I am running 600DP carbs because of the increased cubes in a DZ 355ci motor. I bought the carbs new and then purchased a set of Progressive Throttle shafts from Phil Cancilla at www.customrebuiltcarbs.com (http://www.customrebuiltcarbs.com) as he is the one that has these made for the 4295 clones that Brett sells. You can save a few bucks doing it yourself but it does take time and know how to convert the carbs. (great learning experience though)

You can buy the 600DP carbs for about 600.00 a pair and the throttle shafts are another 245.00. Then you need some various P/V and jets so that you are good to go when tuning is required. I think Brett at T/A Performance sells them for 1300.00 a set and that eliminates all the leg work and time required to convert your own pair to the correct throtttle shafts. The 390's are a nice carb too but cost a little more as they are already setup for the crossrams and have the correct linkages. Either way, the cost to perform one of these installs should run you between 2500.00 to 3500.00 depending how much of the work you do yourself.

Here is a recent picture taken of my engine which was just installed this week. Finals and start up are happening within a few days from now. I will keep you updated in case anything works better for me than they did for Tski. (i.e We machined the sides of my manifold and also took the top edge back off the covers so that they would clear the rollers rockers and come off with the intake in place). I wouldn't want to run my solid cam where I had to remove the intake to perform a valve lash. Little things like that and the fact that I have rejetted and changed power valves just a bit differently than Craig. I also have different carbs so we are both sure to send some info back and forth and see who gets it working the best.

http://www.x33d80.com/images/fp_1/engine01.jpg
This is another Offenhauser intake that was modified. A good friend of mine helped me out by doing this and we spent the better part of 20 hours getting this intake setup correctly and cloning the GM style intake. I call it a proto-type and this is the same way that Brett and other make theirs. (lots of work involved - thanks MT)

[ 07-22-2004, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: hugger_sixty_nine ]

Cool!!!!

pdq67

Well I never would of thought there would be so much involved with the instalation of a crossram intake, but this week has been an eye opener. I have been really busy with work, and with the wife expecting soon it leaves no time for the car. Thnakfully my buddy Mike has stepped up and taken on the engine install and crossram setup in his shop.

The hard fuel lines sent to me by Brett at T/A leave much to be desired as they do not fit at all. Looks like new lines will be made from the pump to the carb, and from the fuel block to the carbs as they are out to lunch by inches. Thankfully my buddy has the tenacity to offer resolve for many of the little snags and delays we were faced with this week. Fitting the valve covers on the passenger side was another task. This involved many hours of grinding and fitting so that they can be removed for inspection / adjustments. He even went as far as turning down the O/D of a socket so that it would fit between the intake plenum and the tops of the valves covers in order to get the 2 bolts out on the top side of the covers.

The exhaust will not go on till next week now and this is a good thing as it allows more time to tweak all of the little ism's before the engine is ready to fire. It's looking totally awesome now and I can't wait to get this running. I guess the trials of installing a crossram are considerable, but the reward is in the awwwwwh sweeeet sound most people make when they see it up close.

I am glad this site allows us to share the experience with one another as I am sure that Craig and myself can share much with others as to the pitfalls of installing an aftermarket crossram. I doubt the real GM one makes it any easier than this one either. graemlins/beers.gif

Hugger,
The lines from Brett were inches out on mine too...but I took about a total of 30 minutes with a tubing bender and got them right. Not much but a tweak here and there. I also had to tweak the rear most on the drivers side to get it to clear my Pro Billet distributor. I thought it was going to suck getting them right but it wasn't that bad. Your car is looking great.....those engine pics look almost unreal. Keep up the great work....

Later,
Craig