The real restriction was not just the bend. It was what happened to the air as it left the throttle body and entered the engine. Our Monster-Ram was shaped to diffuse the air, turn it 120 degrees, and feed the manifold with more uniform pressure and velocity. In testing, the bare throttle body moved 59 lb/min, and the Monster-Ram delivered a 42% improvement over stock while outperforming the throttle body by itself. That tells you the elbow is not a penalty here. Done right, the exit shape improves how the engine breathes. When we added a purpose-built diffuser to the throttle-body exit, it confirmed the same point: airflow is controlled by geometry, not just by how straight the pipe looks.
The discussion centers on the original engineering objective behind the Monster-Ram for the 6.7L Cummins. The goal was not simply to create a larger opening or remove restriction. Banks wanted to manage the airflow leaving the throttle body, diffuse it, turn it approximately 120 degrees, and deliver it into the intake manifold with more uniform pressure and velocity.
The emphasis was therefore on the condition of the air entering the manifold, not simply how large or unrestricted the upstream passage appeared.
After decades of studying engine airflow, Gale questioned a basic assumption: what would happen if the intake elbow were removed entirely and the engine flowed through only the throttle body?
Rather than assuming fewer components would automatically produce better airflow, Banks tested the configuration directly and compared it with both the stock arrangement and the Monster-Ram.
With the elbow removed, the throttle-body-only configuration flowed 59 lb/min, representing a 42 percent improvement over the stock arrangement.
That result confirmed that the factory configuration imposed a meaningful restriction. However, removing the elbow entirely still did not produce the best result. The engineered Monster-Ram flowed better than the throttle body by itself.
The result demonstrated that the Monster-Ram's advantage comes from more than simply reducing restriction. Its geometry controls what happens to the air as it exits the throttle body and makes the approximately 120-degree turn into the intake manifold.
By managing diffusion and the direction of the airflow, the Monster-Ram improves the conditions entering the manifold. The testing showed that a properly shaped airflow path could outperform having no elbow at all.
Another important finding was that assembling the individual components could produce different results than their appearance or individual characteristics might suggest. Simply bolting parts together did not guarantee better overall airflow.
The test reinforced a larger engineering principle: intake components operate as a system. The transition between components, changes in cross-sectional area, and the direction of airflow can create losses that are impossible to identify simply by looking at the individual parts.
The unexpected result led Gale to push the experiment further. He questioned whether an idealized diffuser attached directly to the throttle-body outlet could outperform the Monster-Ram.
Banks then produced what Gale describes as a "perfect" air diffuser. This allowed the team to isolate the effect of diffusion and investigate how effectively the air could be managed immediately after leaving the throttle body.
The team compared two airflow paths. In the first configuration, the throttle body and diffuser discharged directly into ambient air. In the second, the airflow had to make an approximately 120-degree turn before discharging to ambient.
The experiment provided a controlled comparison between a nearly ideal straight diffuser and the more difficult turned-flow condition the Monster-Ram must manage when installed on the engine.
The testing validated the fundamental engineering behind the Monster-Ram. A simpler or more open-looking passage did not automatically produce the best airflow. Properly controlling diffusion and the 120-degree turn produced better results.
For Gale, the experiment demonstrated that the Monster-Ram works not merely by removing restriction, but by controlling airflow quality as it enters the manifold. Its geometry is designed to improve pressure distribution and velocity uniformity through a difficult turn, and the measured results confirmed the value of that approach.
