Varioram for a street machine?

[AES]

Silly thought here, Can a vram be adapted to a 3.2?

[masraum]

I'm betting that by the time you've spent the money to get it adapted (changing to the new computer, adding all of the new sensors and electronics, etc...) you could probably have spent just a little more and gotten the rest of the motor which with it's larger displacement would be another major improvement.

[widebody911]

Do you have diagrams for the 964 setup?

I've seen several 3.6L conversions now without the vaccum bottle set up. To a man, they either didn't know what it was, or their mechanic told them they didn't need it.

[Jack Olsen]

Originally posted by AES
Silly thought here, Can a vram be adapted to a 3.2?

Yes. Randy Wells on this board has done it. His car is probably faster than any 3.6 on this board.

[Randy W]

Yes, I had the 993 Varioram adapted to my stock longblock 3.2L (now sadly history, due to a recent rod bearing failure after 200 track hours). This resulting engine is not in 3.6L territory, however we did gain 20 hp and 30 ft lb of torque at 3500 rpm. Varioram starts to help the torque curve as low as 2500 rpm, then fills out that curve to about 5000 rpm. At 5900 the resonance flap acts to extend the HP another 500 rpm to about 6500. It is an amazing piece of technology that actually works. Chris Powell, my mechanic here in Washington state, oversaw this adaptation. We will be applying it to another motor soon (2.8L race motor with big oil tank most likely).

[Bill Verburg]

Randy, Any pictures? Details? I'm sure that there would be a lot of interest in this topic, as an intellectual exercise if nothing else. Off the top of my head I would have thought no, as to start w/ the stud config at the heads is different on 3.2 and 3.6.

Do you have diagrams for the 964 setup?

Thom, i'm not sure who that was directed at or what was requested.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Bill Verburg
Thom, i'm not sure who that was directed at or what was requested.

It was directed at anyone; I'm curious what the plubming schedule looks like for a 'normal' 3.6L, specifically how the resonance flap fits into the picture.

The 964 flap is actuated at 5100rpm, and made ~12hp on my car when we experiemented with it.

[Randy W]

Bill, no digital pics, just prints back then. The adapter from two to three bolt was CNC'd and was matched to port size. I have also heard Gamroth in Portland has done something similar using individual throttle bodies in between head and manifold.

[Bothari]

This might be an incredibly stupid question but... how dificult would it be to "make" a varioram setup, after all it seems to be just some (carefully measured and dimensioned) tubing, some gaskets and actuators, maybe linked to a simple rev-meter... am i oversimplifying or is this at all possible to someone with fabrication experience (like Thom and his RS tube)?

[Jeff Alton]

Randy, can you give us a ball park cost figure on the 3.2 v-ram conversion?? Was it a PITA for your mechanic? Those are good results in the midrange!

Jeff

[Wrecked944]

Originally posted by Bothari
This might be an incredibly stupid question but... how dificult would it be to "make" a varioram setup...?

I'm really glad you asked this question. I was wondering the exact same thing but I was too chicken **** to ask.

[Bothari]

Originally posted by JanusCole
...but I was too chicken **** to ask.

Hehe, i'm still cringing , waiting for someone to merrily rip into my sugestion

Considering that ( if remember correctly) the whole point of varioram is to change the length and resonance of the intake to match the revs (frequency) of the engine at more than one place, and since we have a template all calc'ed out for us (original Varioram specs) someone more handy/more inteligent than me could have here a little sideproject...

However, I've been (frequently) known to be way off target, and I'm definitly a newbie in this area.

[Randy W]

Bringing new life to an old thread:

Here is a photo of my newly completed 2.8L with Varioram. It is built on an early aluminum case with big baffled oil tank, GT3RS oil pump and coil-on plug/Motec ignition/fuel injection - yet to be dyno'd. It will be used for auto-x and track work.

[silverc4s]

That is very cool, Randy.

Please keep us updated on this beast. i am curious to know the actual race track advantages of this setup over a big honking set of PMO's for example...

[randywebb]

Wow! I think it will prove more engaging than the dyno stats. reveal b/c of the varioram.

Who built it?

[blue72s]

Stupid question I know but does varioram only work with EFI? What about MFI?

[silverc4s]

I think the non adjustability of the MFI pump - space cam arrangement would render any variable length inlet tuning ineffective. The benefits of varioram seem to rely on DME control at least in some part.
Besides, the MFI system has one butterfly per cylinder, for improved throttle response. MFI w/Varioram would be reaaaaaly complex & likely not worth all the effort.

[Randy W]

Thanks.. Chris Powell in Bellevue built the motor. He has been very patient with me and vica versa. This was a 2 year project extended by budgetary constraints and slo..ow headwork by Pauter. I'm hoping the wait was worth it - it does sound pretty awesome with those big cams and headers/Flowmaster. The advantage of Varioram is primarily for auto-x because you are in 2nd gear most of the time - for trackwork, it's not necessary as long as you are willing to shift more. I figure you can add Varioram for about $2-3K provided you have the necessary EFI sensors already. I'll post updates when I can.

[JonT]

So who as VRAM'd a 964 engine and does someone have any details and instructions and costs involved?

[blue72s]

How much does a Vram thing weigh?