Engine and Transmission Tech

I am thinking about upgrading my 215 block to a larger rover version. I was told by a shop that they have had problems with the cam bearings. They said that the bearings inserts were eliminated and the alumininum bore is now the bearing and they have seen them break or just fail. Please inform if this is the case and if the builders have a fix that they are doing such as installing regular bearings.
Thanks, Matt

I think you probably should consider finding a different machine shop.

Camshaft bearings on 4.0 and 4.6L blocks are no different than earlier Rover blocks, and they're replaced by using pretty much the same technique as any other pushrod engine. (Des Hammill wrote in his book on Rover engines that the Rover factory used a different bearing installation technique - but he was very clear to point out that service technique is unaffected. Hammill recommends the Eaton tool for bearing installation.)

One thing that IS different about the 4.0L and 4.6L engines is that the camshaft is retained by a bolted-on thrust plate, which is certainly a desirable feature.

Thanks Curtis.
So do you know of any problems with these blocks or would you say they are the way to go?. I will probably be looking for a 4.0 if you know of any.
Sincerely, Matt

I mentioned the Des Hammill book ("How to Power Tune Rover V8 Engines") in my previous post. If you read that book and believe what Hammill says, you'll probably decide to forget about Rover and go for a Ford 302 crate motor. Seriously. Hammill will worry you to death with all his "warnings" and "cautions" - it seems like there's hardly a page in that miserable book that doesn't contain at least one warning, and all those paragraphs start with the word "warning" in big, bold red letters.

I haven't actually built a Rover engine up (just a Buick 215, and tomorrow I'm finally/hopefully bolting-on a newly built-up set of Rover 4.0 heads to upgrade it...) but I'm sure Rover V8's can't be as fussy and troublesome as Hammill makes them out to be. Some people would have you believe that all of Rover's bigger-bore blocks crack horribly, suffer slipped cylinder sleeves, overheat, warp their heads, etc. - I don't believe it. If I had the money and time, I'd build-up a 4.0 Rover for my MGB. I love my little Buick. I tend to baby my engine, believe it or not, so 4-bolt mains aren't really a selling point to me. Still, I wouldn't mind the bigger displacement afforded by bigger pistons. On the other hand, if I were building another BritishV8 from scratch, I'd probably use a different engine altogether.

There are obviously inconvenient aspects of swapping from a 215 to a 4.0. I've been using a Buick V6 front cover and oil pump on my 215 with very good luck (and without remote filter!), and I'm not keen to swap to the 4.0's crank driven oil pump (which would certainly require a remote filter in my installation). The 4.0 is also distributor-less, but the swap to direct ignition would be a good thing, in my opinion. Mods are required at the tail end of the crank too as shown here: [www.britishv8.org]

LOL. You're right about the warnings, Curtis. I, for one, loved the book. I got a lot out of it and feel like I've built a pretty tough engine. You've just got to take the recommendations with a grain of mechanical logic and weigh the cost/benefit between the new blocks and old. Hammill is says that if it's a 4.0 it IS cracked behind the cylinders. I'm with Curtis on this, that is a load of crap.

The biggest problem with the cracking was overheating due to the attempt to get better emissions by cranking up the running temp and then selling it to a bunch of jokers that have no comprehension about the importance of oil changes. Bad idea. On the plus side, the 4.0 is certainly an upgrade in displacement. If you find one that hasn't been massively abused you're better off. I didn't do this. I got a naked block really cheap that had been heat cycled pretty bad, and had to put about a grand into it to bring it back up to speed. I sort of wish I'd gone with the later front cover now that I'm going with the crank triggered ignition. I'm locked in now though and ready to rock.

BTW here's a pic of my 4.0 stroker (Buick 300 crank) with the Harcourt intake and Holley loaded up. I just wanted to see what it looked like. Damn, the Holley is LONG with the Adjust-a-Jets installed! I'm pretty keyed up to wrap up and get it on a dyno. I've still got a couple details to work out. I don't have a oil pump gear, key, or retainer bolt for the cam. I still need to weld a cap on the nose of the water pump housing, and fabricate a mount for the crank trigger. The 340 valve covers turned out pretty cool though. I just laid the coil packs where I figured I'd mount them.