Triumph Sports Cars

Hi all; I don't see any mail about guys putting the sb Ford in a TR-7. Does this mean that it wold be a real pain to do so? Seems that here in Californa where we have to test to the latest date of either the motor or car that it would be the logical installation other than a Rover. True, it would distroy the ballance of the car but this could be somewhat minimized with suspension work and would make a great user!
cheers;
Roarr

I wondered about that too. I think a lot of the reason for the Rover swap is that TR8 parts are already made for it, so it should be a pretty straight forward swap. What is the difference in the weight of the small fords?

From memory... with (aftermarket) aluminum heads and intake manifold installed, the small block Fords usually weigh about 80-pounds more than a stock Rover. There are of course a few places where either motor could be significantly lightened. The difference between a lightweight (aluminum) and an OEM flywheel is probably in the ballpark of 20 pounds. A T5 tranny is significantly lighter than a Rover LT77 or a heavy duty Tremec, and a LOT lighter than a T56 6-speed. Gear reduction starters and small frame alternators are also example places weight can be trimmed. The Ford engine may or may not require a few slightly heavier "accessories" (e.g. a somewhat bigger radiator or a bigger-bore exhaust system.)

Yes, the big advantage of the Rover swap is that you can simply order TR8 headers and motor mounts and be extremely confident that you're not going to have to design your own new one-of-a-kind steering system. Another area to really look hard into is oil pan clearance at the front of the motor (where the Ford engine usually has a deeper section than a Buick/Rover V8.) Some of the aftermarket distributors for Ford seem to stick up pretty tall (in front of the carb) too. The Ford engine may not be difficult to install, but you won't really know until you try. The big advantage of the Ford swap is you'll have some sort of bragging rights for being there first (and also it's not cheap to take a Rover motor to 5.0 liters displacement!)

Thanks for your thoughts all! I guess I'll have to get the tape out and take a check, My thought is that 5.0's are everywhere as are parts. If I blow a distributor up or such in East Armpit, I'll have a problem, with a 5.0, I'll go to Kragans/Chuckers/Sherbas etc and be on my way. The throttle body setup should be easy to transplant also.
cheers;
Roarr

What year is your Tr7? In California you can install an engine the same year as your car if your car is 1976 or newer. If the engine is from a different manufacturer than your car, or if the engine is from a later model than your car, you need to have it inspected by a referee and get a sticker on the door post. The sticker will have a bar code that the smog tech will scan which will tell the tech that your car has been updated and approved by the referee. You want to go to the referee with stock exhaust headers on the engine and all of the smog equipment that the engine would have had before you swapped it out. I know a guy who swapped a Chevy LTI fuel injected small block into a Jag XJS and he had to go to the referee 3 times and ended up buying 6 catalytic converters before he got the ones that the referee would approve.

Mike has a nice Ford TR7 build on this site:

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