Engine and Transmission Tech

Greg, I can't imagine. The original, designed in the late 50's, production block, was good enough for : Formula 1, Won the championship 2 years. Was good enough for Indy,Mickey Thompson.According to Jim Moorehouse, it was in first dragster ever to go 170mph. in 1/4mi. on alcohol and first dragster to break 200mph. on nitro. This being with modyfied 215" heads! Some would contend the 64', 300 head as pretty decent for a production piece. The 65' head flows even more but of course, it's only 44 years old.This mightymite of a motor was quite well designed for the period and has flogged many a larger adversary in many forms of racing. It must have done something right to be so popular today inspite of it's detractors. When you look at the first, "modern" small block Ford at 221" and the 265' Chev., they wern't exactly fire breathing monsters, first hatched but with the skilled persistance of so many, such as in this forum, I would say they have all evolved rather well. I'll get off the soap box now, roverman.

Here's another new development, block girdles for the SBB:
[www.v8buick.com]
Unfortunately the SBB and the BOPR use a different pan so they won't fit the Rover, but they will fit the 300, 340 and 350. Just another example of where dedicated enthusiasts are taking this engine. As of now we have roller cams (for the 350), roller rockers, and soon aluminum heads and block girdles. Currently these engines have produced in excess of 1000 hp in streetable form and have the potential to go considerably higher. Don't forget, the Buick V6 is part of that family and has seen in excess of 1700 hp. Some things just get better with age.

Jim

It's a strong community. Pretty awesome for a majorly overlooked powerplant.

We may be at a pivotal point in history for the Rover V8! In speaking with Mahle-Drivetrain Division, they are considering the potential aftermarket customer base for potential sales. "IF", they can be convinced with lots of positive feed-back for potential sales, this could be good for all concerened,world wide. I'm suggesting flanged liners in leiu of OEM. and taller lifter bores, suitable for OEM. type Chev. hyd. roller lifters. They seem receptive at this point. They need to be convinced. Do we want this?? roverman.

Evidently not! Anyhoo, anyone used the, "Wildcat"-Turbo-Rover block? Cylinder head attachment, thread bosses are reportedly anchored better. If so, power you could hold with it? roverman.

Art,

Re your post of the 9th, I can think of a lot of guys who would be interested in theUK of the mods to the Mahle Rover block.

The problem is money not lack of interest, the mods you suggest would be beneficial to serious racers and certainly an upgrade to tophat liners would give peace of mind and shouldn't be very expensive to incorporate, most of the feedback I have seen about the Coscast/Mahle blocks is why didn't they fit tophats, you can clearly see the much higher quality of the casting in the pictures I've seen and I believe they come with a three year guarantee so obviously they are confident in their product.

In the Uk there are plenty of used 4.6 engine coming onto the market, usually because they have had a liner problem, mainly they get rebuily with tophat liners to solve the problem which costs £800 - £1000 so the cost of a new Mahle is quite competitive.

Kevin.

About those Rover/Buick blocks, Anyone got/share a dimensioned drawing for Rover and 300-350" girdle? I plan build from billet alum. Regarding movement between the decks, Rover discovered early-on, in their developement, that a well secured one-piece intake manifold tied the two decks together and reduced related movement problems. Anyone willing to share pic's of welded valley areas? about 27 years ago, I built a 215" out to 300", all alum Buick with billet alum. main caps , std. mains with studs. Worked out well in a 77' Celica Liftback, (baby Mach I Mustang),50lbs less weight on front end, somewhat of a "sleeper". roverman.

No doubt you saw the thread on the V8buick smallblock forum about girdles, the title was something about header flanges, multi-page thread. Tom is working on a CAD file and has a connection with a waterjet guy but it may be a couple more weeks before he has anything to look at. The 215 has a different pan rail from the other SBB's. I'd be surprised if anybody here has done anything, but you never know.

Jim

OMG Art!! That '77 Celica GT sounds like a totally bitchin' project. I had one of those in High School. I absolutely LOVED that car. It had their 8" rear end. I bet it worked out great.

You got any pix of it??

Thanks man.

Car belonged to a friend, Steve McLeod. We lost touch 20+ years ago. Facebook anyone? Build: new, close ratio.T-5, Mopar 8 3/4" re. w. 3.55 posi, std. width,(fit), and 84 Vette,"Turbine" wheels. 300"BU., Offy, "cold" man. w. 600 Holley,custom headers, windadge tray, baffle and pistonless acumulator. As I recall, car weighed less when completed. Handled pretty good. Some folks don't know that this motor is lighter tha most cast iron 4 cyls. and has a lower c.g. I'm considering getting a similar car. Maybe an alum. hemi/later. "Elanor" on a diet? Hard car to find.Pictures even harder. Regards, roverman.

Sorry for dragging up such an 'ancient' thread, but...









And yes, it goes quite well :-)
(When I can keep cams intact...)

Hack

I love it, Dude. That is frickin' sweeet. I'd love to build one of these. It's always been a favorite.

Hack, "cams intact"? More than one? You may want to follow our "serious roller" thread. We would love to see a "how it was done" Looks like a Rover/Triumph BH.? Should weigh pretty close to a stocker? Thanks, roverman.