Engine and Transmission Tech

Word on the street is the first sets are going to the foundry by Mid July.. Maybe I should put the brakes on my 64' Buick 300 head development.

Quote from Mike Jr.
"Update on the Rover Head, I'd post the pictures but I took quite a few. Hopefully it'll be to the foundry in the next 5 weeks or so, give or take."

That was 2 days ago, so inside 2 months I expect we'll be seeing some foundry photos. Since these heads will be built on the V6 tooling lead time after that shouldn't be long at all, my guess is 3 months at the outside.

Now the question is, what can I ebay to raise the necessary funds?

Hey Carl, we've got to figure out that Volvo rocker shaft setup. Shouldn't be that much work to cut and splice them. (wonder how it works out cost-wise?)

Jim

I'll have to check again, but I thought I decided against that for some reason. May be that the rocker ratio is different?

About those "Volvo" rockers, I used to buy them from "Gary at Rocker Arm Rebuilders" Los Ang.,CA. I believe he moved somwhere in Nevada. Have'nt got current phone or webb address. To use these bad boys requires billet stands because shaft dia's are larger and wall is thicker. All the better to get geometry right with-out shims. No end supports needed for most serious cams. Tooling required : minimum (2) precision guide pins fitted in hold-down holes and precision slotted track for pins to ride in assuring correct index alignment while (2) halfshafts are pressed into center splice tubing(heavy walled, with internal shoulder), to assure correct assembled length. Properly done, all four hold-down bolts will fit. As I recall, ratio is 1.6/1 at nominal. Will accept at least , 1.25di. springs. I will verify this and try to post pictures of assembly. Rock-on, roverman.

T&D machine makes shaft rockers for the Buick 215 as well as contract work for T/A.. So It isnt much of a stretch to see a matched set come out of T&D for the new heads.

I just wrote about these in the cam option thread. I contacted a guy in WA who builds Volvo's for racing applications. He had a bunch of these rockers sitting around for like $5 a piece. I was considering doing this mod until I found the Harland Sharp rockers. I think it would be cool to have someone flesh out the idea for the average guy. I wonder what the racing teams did to adapt them… Larger shafts? or bigger bushings?

The Volvo rockers come from the 16b engine. They are very close to the stock dimensions but the shaft bushing is a bit bigger ID. It looked like 20 thou or so. Here's a pic for comparison:



This one is missing the adj stud. I'm pretty sure it uses a ball with a cup on the rod if I remember right. The ratio is different too. 1.55:1

Hello again buget minded, Volvo rocker type people. Gary or Blane at Rocker Arm rebuilders, Phone(530) 378-1075, in Anderson ,C.A. Complete, rebuilt assemblies, their #B20, outrite. Hardchromed/ground shafts with bronze bushed rockers. 4 cyl. set. Lash-out at the valve, in a good way. roverman.

[www.v8buick.com]

Jim

OH MAN! These are going to be sweet!

There was some talk on the V8Buick site about casting these with the Buick 350 valve cover pattern. Pretty good idea. I started thinking about it a bit and looked up adapter plates to use Ford or Chevy valve covers. I'm gonna have to do something like this because of the roller rocker setup. After mocking up the heads with the covers it looks like I'm gonna hit the underside of the valve covers.

So I started thinking about welding in bosses for the valve cover bolts. Anybody done this? The cheapest adapters I found were like $80 from UK without shipping.

Thoughts?

They may add the bosses for the Chevy pattern. As long as the flanges will match up there's no reason not to use a SBC cover.

Coming into this late. Do the TA Performance heads require a custom intake and headers (i.e. are the ports relocated and/or resized)?

Dan Jones

Not relocated. The ports match their V6 heads. More rectangular and without the step in the exhaust port. Standard headers should match up just fine.

Jim

Thanks Jim. Looking forward to these hitting the market.

Dan

TA picked up the head castings from the foundry today. WOO HOO!! Based on former results, these new heads will hit the market before Thanksgiving for sure! Maybe even around the end of the month. Remember, the tooling is already in place for their V6 heads.

My advice, if you're in the market for a set of the ultimate Rover style heads, call them up and place your order now. These are going to get snatched up quick. At about $2500 a set complete they are very cost competitive.

Jim

Mike Jr. couldn't give me an exact count but he thinks they had 8 or more sets of forgings made for this first run. They will have to write the CNC program to machine them (which will be essentially a copy and paste operation on the V6 program so that will go quickly) and then machining and assembly will go pretty fast. Undoubtedly several sets are already spoken for but there should be at least one or two sets available out of this run. Better jump on it if you want them.

Jim

OMG! I am a little bummed I have my heads all ready for me. I've spent that much already and I'm certain these will kick the @#$%& out of mine.

Hopefully I can get a couple years in and then justify buying a new set...

Mike Jr's estimate was off a bit, They only cast 4 sets. Of those, "several" are going to Ian at Triumph Rover Spares in Australia, leaving maybe one set available. Mike Sr. would be the contact for these.

I get it Nick. Mine are done and on the engine. Not nearly as extensive as your work up, but if we'd known they were coming this soon, who knows? I'd love to keep the thought in mind of swapping on a set of these one day. Realistically with the blower on the 340 it's hard to imagine the need, but as we know horsepower is addictive. I might have to have parity or better with a certain big block GT!

Jim

And now, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! Nuthin' up my sleeve...

Presto! A guy in the pacific NW has a Buick 350 short block that somebody put 340 heads on! Apparently it had been run that way. Details are still a bit sketchy, but he says pushrod clearance is not a problem.

That means a cheap, abundant supply of lightweight iron short blocks of 350 cu.in displacement, alloy aftermarket heads that are the best you can get at a reasonable price, and all that's left to sort out is the cam. I think that's pretty big news. Soon you will be able to build that big inch BOP/R style motor, retain the appearance and hold the weight at about 400 lbs.

Jim

So he must have put a BOP/R style cam in it then? The 350 has a different cam journal size, right? So custom cam, right? Maybe not. I suppose you could make or use OS bearings. About the push rod clearence. Why would that be an issue. they come up in the same places right?

A sturdy 400 lb 350 is pretty frickin' hot. That's got the small Ford beat. Unreal. I'm so hot for this it's obscene.

STOP! Focus, Nic. YOu're almost done with your current engine… Hey, I'm almost done with my current engine!! LOL!