V8 Rover Engine

[bendy21]

Hi People.

Firstly thanks to all that posted piccies of their cars on my last post (have stopped dribbling over them now). Have decided to go for a Sumo now although have given up on the windsor engine and am opting for a Rover V8 as my budget won't stretch that far.

Has anyone on the forum got one fitted to their sumo and if so what size is it. I was originally going to fit and 3.5L SDI Vitesse engine (194BHP) with a Weber 500 and 3.9L cam but now i'm thinking why not just fit a 3.9L or 4.5L.

Can anyone who has used these Rover engine options comment or offer me any advice?

Also will fitting the Weber 500 have any effect on the bonnet closing on the Sumo? It will be bolted to Edelbrock manifold.

I understand that the clutch operation on a Rover gearbox is hydraulic. Has anyone used a different approach from the normal one of fitting a Morris Marina pedal assembly to connect this up?

The reason i seem to be jumping the gun and buying the engine first is that i am going to strip it down and replace any worn parts and hopefully have it all nice and gleaming before i order the kit and get low on space.

Thanks

Ben

[StuartH]

Ben,
I have an AK with a 4.6 rover in, I would thoroughly recommend one.
As you are just down the road from me, feel free to pop round for a look if you want and I'll take you out for a spin (try not to literally, though driving back from the rolling road today (see todays posting) in the rain, gave a few interesting moments!! ).
I used to have a 3.5 rover and that was ok (194BHP seems pretty top end for this engine, and mine certainly wasn't that much), but the 4.6 is infinitely better,
I have the marini setup on mine - the clutch is giving me some squeeking grief at the moment so I'll reserve judgement on it for now, there's not really much too it (why can't I get mine to stop squeeking then, eh?) so doing something different shouldn't be too hard, indeed on a sumo I beleive you use a sierra pedal box (not sure - I could be wrong) so you will have a cable operated clutch conversion to do.
my weber 500 fits with no probs (can't say for a sumo though), I have an offenhauser JWR manifold which is lower profile than the edelbrock, and a 2" cleaner so could get a taller cleaner but the rolling road showed that it made no difference to the power.
When I built my car I stripped all the bits first and rebuilt the engine before the kit arives - I think this is a good idea because I then had something to do while eagerly awaiting the kit's arrival, I could then just bolt everything on when it turned up, also you have some garage space to work in before the kit turns up

Stuart

[russell_ram]

Ben,

don't hink I should be saying this as Wilf will have a field day but I wouldn't dismiss a SB Ford on grounds of cost! Dismiss it on grounds of weight maybe, but to rebuild a RV8 and make 250 or 300BHP is going to cost about the same or more than doing a SBF to the same sort of output. It's economies of scale you see. In the states performance parts sell by the thousands, hence they become much cheaper. In the UK, the only real market for performance RV8 parts, the volumes are much smaller and hence bits are more expensive. Along similar lines, to rebuild a 3.5 or 3.9 will cost the same as doing a 4.6 excluding the purchase price of the base unit, having said that the 4.6 on the floor of my garage was only £200 (5000 mile old - long motor) so there are bargains around (and is the base for my 5.2 conversion).

As for engine spec, best alround manifold is probably Edelbrock Performer, in my opinion. Holley or Weber is swings and round abouts, Holley if you know them and want the last HP your engine can produce for a given spec, Weber easier if you haven't messed with Holley's before. Ported heads and inlet manifold a must for performance. Bottom end very strong. 214,218 or 224 cam for the road depending on whether you want top end performance or more balanced torque + less top end HP. Bottom end, rods, pistons all good unless you want to rev to above 5500rpm. Same for standard valvegear, although steel o/hung end pillars are a good investment.

My 4.6 RV8, flat top, pocketed pistons 10.0:1 CR, Kent 248 mechanical, solid lifters, hollow pushrods, dual springs, steel pillars, roller rockers, full race porting to heads - matched to in and ex manifolds, Performer + Holley 600, defender front cover/pump, remote lucas DLM8 ignition. 320BHP + 250HP nitrous injection kit.

As for clutch operation, with a hydraulic system it's all a question of matching slave cylinder bore and required operating stroke, master cylinder bore and stroke and pedal ratio to get a system that works. You can use components from anything if these are right. Sumo is cable operated though with Sierra/granada pedal box and I have yet to see a cable conversion that I think is decently engineered and there are many posts on this forum complaining of difficulties of getting these to work properly. The cable self adjuster on these Fords was never very clever or robust in the first place either. My choice would be to convert the pedal box to hydraulic with a Wilwood m/cyclinder or similar.

In any instance, I would have the engine and box built (and suspension/steering) before the kit arrive. You will seem to make so much quicker progress if these are ready to fit when the chassis arrives.

Welcome to the world of garage inhabitants

Russell

[Dan]

Hi Ben,

I think it would be a very wise idea to get the engine sorted before working on the chassis. The engine is what took me the best part of six months to sort out - But then I was a complete novice and had a lot to learn.

I have a 3.5 unit from a range rover that I have had completly rebuilt with new parts - I hope I'm not been unreasonable in stating that I expect about 200 - 210 horses. I have the webber 500 Carb fitted with the Edlebrock which didn't cause a problem with bonnet clearance even with the leveling plate. I was using a 2" round air filter. I swapped this for an Oval filter and have found that bonnet now rests against it about 6" below where the airscoop ends - So I have had extend the air scoop to cater for the oval filter. Bob burchell has an oval filter fitted with leveling plate but I believe his filter is slightly thinner and his bonnet is single skinned. Oh - If you go for the bonnet without an airscoop you may have problems - It should fit but you'll have to mount the engine lower leaving less ground clearnace between those damn speed bumps / sump / gearbox.

With regards to the clutch - The morris marina is in short supply - If your able to find one then keep quite about it The Hydrolic operation would be a far better method but at a cost. converting the clutch to run via a cable is a far cheaper alternative that when working, works well - You may have to spend some time to get it setup right - In my case it worked first time...

Dan 'Were all these nuts used before' Man
www.cobra.kitcar.btinternet.co.uk

[wilf]

Russell - I am beginning to worry about you, but cannot fault your impartiality!

Guys - just remember, when talking about clearance under the hood, that the different Edelbrock manifolds have different heights.
Torker 11 is the lowest (but is a single plane design that will rob low rpm torque), performer - forget it, its a US emissions certified item, performer rpm - about 1" taller than the torker, and a dual plane design, Victor Jnr - probably too tall for most, and very definitely makes big power only at high rpm. Not sure that all of these are available to fit the RV8 anyway. If you look in the real steel catalogue, it will give you the relevant dimensions.

Wilf

[russell_ram]

Wilf,

don't worry about me! It's only distributor position affinity (and ex-mustang owner (and employee of Bill Ford), as I said before). I'm not about to put a big magnetic lump in the front of mine.

Russ

[maxGD059]

I agree with Russell. My Rover puts out around 250-260 bhp, & in a GD that means around 290bhp/ton which is eonugh for me. however the cost of tuning a rover is not peanuts. American engines in general are now being imported at such low prices I think if I was starting over again I would be seriously tempted by some yank iron. perhaps in the future I may 'upgrade' we'll see
Cheers
Richard

(It'll only be a 5 minute job)

[bendy21]

Thanks guys for the information.

BUT i'm afraid i've come across the AK427 kit and am going for that kit now. Also am hopefully getting a 302 windsor 5.0L next week to play with.

Sorry for messing you guys about but i prefer the look/setup of the AK427 and have decided to go for Jag running gear.

Has anyone got the number of the Jaguar specialist in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. Had the number but my other half had a clean-up of my scraps of paper before i had chance to hide it safely away.

Cheers

Ben

I want that one.......... No i want that one instead

[wilf]

Ben - don't know who you mean in Waltham X, but good for you - you are going to be a FORD man!!

Now - why not go for the 351W - same cost to buy/rebuild/upgrade as a 302. Very similar weights etc,. And a Toyota Yaris or so bigger!!! No replacement for displacement - wish I'd gone for the 514 cu in Ford crate engine!! (well, not actually).
You are going to have to learn the distributor placement mantra - front distributor good, rear distributor bad - and repeat.

Wilf

[Miket]

Welcome to the AK Club

Miket