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Well I am just playing around now that I have Torque to get data and things. The point of Ram air would be to decrease vacuum/increase VE. Same reasoning of a turbo, except turbo also gives better thermal efficiency. Clearly though, ram air doesn't work at all in the sub 60mph we drive :-).
As for HHO, I played with that in HS to try to increase the 8MPG my Caprice 9C1 got :-), but that was long ago and instantly lead to the 'why does it rev down like its under load when connected'. I still think there could be something there and have read plenty of different plans with pulsing the power to the unit, using PWM, and maybe if you can control the power consumption and somehow a 'very little' HHO actually aids combustion somehow then maybe it'd do something. Still I don't have the time to mess with such things now.
Next on the list is warming the fuel from the heater hose and putting in a 195 thermostat. See if that combined with HAI will help or not.
Aside from that I'm slowly working on wiring in an old Megasquirt 1 I have from an ancient project that never materialized. The goal would be to buy a wideband and try to lean out my cruise within reason and at least have control over fuel that gets used.
I'm also trying to get a '98+ MP2 5th gearset that I think will prove useful for the times I need to go 60-70MPH instead of 50-60MPH.
As for as less proven ideas, something I've always wanted to try but requires more time and money that I have an doesn't make sense on my daily; would be to put a small turbo on it. Turbo can definitely help with efficiency, and once megasquirt is already wired in shouldn't be that hard to tune for. The 'less proven' part would be that I would like to put an injector before the turbo and have the intake runner get heated by the exhaust manifold some. The goal being to try to mix the fuel as much as possible and have the intake charge already have some fuel in it, say at 25:1 or 20:1 or something and then we can add more fuel from the main injectors while intake closing. Basically try to stratify the charge a bit while following the turbo/heated intake idea of Smokey Yunik.
Beside that, something that I've never seen attempted before, would be to make a parallel hybrid, remove the starter, rewind or buy a motor, build a motor controller, hook to flywheel (at something better than the stock 7:217 ratio (off the top of my head, but have looked it up before)) or use chain drive to output shaft from engine or something. Or, just thought of, but some engines you have easier access to front of crank shaft. Maybe could use a platter style motor (like in electric fan or clothes washing machine) and replace/hook to the harmonic balancer. Goal being that we can remove starter and alternator and have one 3-phase drive with regenerative capabilities. Hardest part is programming the controller, my 'dream' would be to leave the car in 5th gear all the time, at a light, engine is off, at <25mph I am using electric motor to drive the car and the 'dead' engine (which shouldn't be too bad at the <1krpm) and light off engine when above 25mph/1krpm. The goal while actively driving >45mph would that I can use this to help with P+G. That is, if I am clutch in and not in gear then engine off, 0rpm, if I am in gear, clutch in, then let CPU/motor controller/something rev match the engine using electric so I can engage clutch and pulse. It also adds the possibility that if I have enough battery charge and only a slight hill that I could electrically assist the glide, same as warp stealth on gen 3 Prius.
I'm working on the motor-controller/programming now because I see that as the hardest part, but it only gets spare time and I'm not really a microcontroller programmer and electronic/circuit knowledge is average at best. So it'll probably be another project that never happens, but everytime I'm stuck in stop and go traffic I think about how nice it'd be to use 0gph the entire time and only electrically 'pulse' a little as we crawl along at 5-15mph.
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