Engine and Transmission Tech

Hey gang. I thought I'd upload a couple pix of my empty mock up. I'm pretty excited because I finally got to starting work on the engine bay and therefore the engine.

Here's a pic right after I installed the head studs. This is a good view of the new cylinder liners too:


This is right before I popped the heads on. WOOOHOO:


Having the heads on without the rotating assembly afforded me the rare opportunity to see how well the chamber blends with the cylinders. I figured it'd be close because the bore is 3.74" only 0.01" away from the stock 300 cylinder diameter:


Lastly I dropped on the grungy old valve covers I'm planning on using just to see what it looks like. SWEET. I also put the single plane with the Qjet on it to see how it fit. This is when I discovered that the intake is set up to be level with the engine. Huh. That was a bit of a surprise since it the Buick/Rover is usually mounted at an angle. In fact the Edelbrock Performer intake has the angle built into the flange. I'm not sure I'll be able to use the single plane because of that. Unless I have a spacer made:

Nick, I would worry about the angle of the intake for now, most carbs will work pretty well up to about 5 degrees of tilt. Just set your engine up as near level as possible and see where things fall. Don't discount those stock Rover valve covers either, I've seen some of the guys cars in the newsletter that have polished and painted them and they look pretty good. Jim Blackwood also published something about modifiying the oil cap and vent to make them a little more visually attractive.

Hey Nick,

Can you hit the refresh button regarding your engine build? Yah - I know I can do a search but, for the new folks who might be tuning in (pund intended), what engine block 4.0/4.6 (I see crossbolts), 4.6 heads, valves - machine work, cam, crank, pistons, did you bore block for new liner (assume you probably had to), where did you get liners, how much?, are those the maximum recommended size liners - reliability, final compression ratio?

Thanks, Tony

Good to see it coming together..

Nicholas,

Do pay careful attention to the fit of the oil pump and access to the oil filter at the front of the block. A remote oil filter may be necessary for block clearance in the engine bay. Also, the sandwich block from the Discovery oil cooler assembly can allow entry to the oil cooler hoses via the oil pump. An oil cooler is an important consideration.

Phillip G

That's a good point about the oil filter location. That was part of my reasoning for fabricating a new cross-member. The stock Vega cross-member is a flimsy bolt on piece that gets bent all the time from owners jacking up the car on it so I decided to ditch that. The other reason was the rack system I decided to install. I needed to fabricate a sturdy mount for it.

I was considering a remote filter to give me the option of using a larger filter. It could also do a bit of cooling on it's way. Any opinions?

It's been a couple years in the making and about 8years in the planning. The recent change by Rover to the upgraded block was a big perk for me. I was initially planning on boring and sleeving the 215 block but then I got concerned with block integrity. I found this 4.0 block on ebay. So here's the break down at this point. Thanks for asking. I'll try to keep it short:

Block:

1. Rover 4.0 Block (probably cracked behind cylinders) X-bolt main, cool.
Sleeved with Westwood liners. That's the best price flanged liners I… Well, Tony, could find. At the time it cost $609 shipped from the UK. Probably more now as our dollar descends to peso levels.
2. Bored .040 over; Decked flat (like .010) then the liners were pressed in and decked about .002 above the deck.
3. Align bored for Buick 300 Main Bearings.
4. Cam bearings indexed 180º and redrilled with smaller oil holes (.060 compared to the .1875 they came with. Too big.) This mod fixes the over oiling for the cam and sends it to the Mains.
5. Blueprinted to the cam and crank, and cylinders to the pistons.

Rotating assembly:

1. Buick 300 crank. In good shape.
2. Ford 255 hyper eutectic silvolites .040 over. clearanced for the 300 crank.
3. Honed for Chevy SB pins or maybe it was the rods honed for Ford pins. I can't remember.
4. SBC 302 pink rods. 5.7" big ends thinned by .100 to fit journals. Final Rod Ratio: 1.68
5. D&D's special flywheel for the rear flange offset.
6. Whole assembly balanced.

Heads:

1. New larger valves and seats: Pontiac "Iron Duke" intake valves (1.72"dia.) and VW flat-4 exhaust valves (1.496"dia.).
2. Mild port job focusing on the pockets.
3. D&D's Crane single springs. Nice.
4. D&D's rocker shaft gussets
5. Oil gallery restriction inserts drilled to about .060 to reduce over oiling to the rocker shafts. Again more oil for the mains.
6. Harland Sharpe roller rockers 1.6 ratio. COOL!
7. Final theoretical CR: 11.5:1. I still need to assemble everything and double check this figure.

Cam: Crower 50233:

INTAKE: Duration: 280º Lift: 0.488
EXHAUST: Duration: 286º Lift: 0.501

INTAKE
Opens: 2.0 BTDC
Closes: 38.0 ABDC

EXHAUST
Opens: 49.0 BBDC
Closes: -3.0 BTDC

LOBE SEPERATION 112º

Duration at .050"
Intake: 220
Exhaust: 226

Intakes:

I've got two intakes. Edelbrock dual plane Performer 3.5 and a Harcourt single plane with a spread-bore flange big enough for a Qjet. I'm not sure which one I'll settle on. I'm planning on testing both to see what it looks like. I might just end up going with the Performer and a square flange carb.

I've already built the Qjet. It's set up for a stock 327 Chevy so it should work well with this setup. If not, I'm thinking of having a Holley Double pumper 600 set up as a comparo test. I suspect I will get better mileage with the Qjet though. What do you guys think?

Thanks. Again Sorry for the long post.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2008 11:26AM by NixVegaGT.

You can have a machine shop mill the intake carburetor mounting surface to any angle you specify.

Good thinking, Larry. I'll look into it.

Nicolas or anyone with experience with the Buick 300 engine,

What flywheel works with this engine? Right now there is one on ebay, but it looks awful heavy. A Buick 300 in a small car like a MGB doesn't need a very heavy flywheel. The flex plate flywheel that came with my '64 300 engine has 160 teeth on the ring gear and has a OD of 13.42 inches. According the specifications I looked up the teeth are a 12 14 pitch. I'm not sure what that means.

Al

I forgot to update how the engine mock up worked out. I made a bunch of modifications to lower the engine a little and move it back about 2". It worked out great:

Here's how it turned out! Sweet! It took some planning and manipulation of the engine position with a jack and the hoist to get it level and square. What's interesting is the engine is mounted about 1" to the right side. I guess that makes sense taking into account the pinion position in an equal length axle housing.



Here's before and after pix of the position at the firewall:




Here's a pic of the clearance for the radiator. It's up to 3 1/4" even with the wide core rad!!! AWESOME! I'm pretty psyched.

It's amazing how far forward the engine is mounted in a Vega compared to an MG. Interesting