Engine and Transmission Tech

Does anyone have a copy of the Volume IV, Issue 1 (February 1996) issue of the MG V-8 Newsletter that they would be willing to scan or copy for me? I'd be happy to reimburse for any expenses. The specific article I'm interested in is "Powerboat Racing the 215" (by Dan Suter) but I'd also take copies of:

Rumors Squelched (by Ted Schumacher)
Transmissions
After market Piston Manufacturers

Also, Kurt Schley published the Part 1 of a 289 CID stroked Oldsmobile 215 in Volume XI, Issue 3, (September 2003). Searching the archives, I can't find Part 2. Does anyone know if it was ever written?

Thanks,
Dan Jones
Florissant, MO USA

See if this works…




POWERBOAT RACING THE 215
By Dan Suter
Our hero slams into the final turn of his race.
His 215 is singing as he claws his way through the turn. On the last straight-away he pushes the throttle to the stops, and the 215 screams in defiance....7800, the 8000 RPM shows on his tach as he flashes past the checkered flag.
Another Sunday for an MG autocross? Nope. It's Gary Mueller of winning another power boat race in the 225 Hydro class in 1965...or 1985.
Many articles on the Buick/Rover V8 that I've come across have mentioned that these engines
"found favor with the power boat racers" or " were popular for power boat racing. My curiosity got the best of me, so when I found out that retired power boat racer Gary Mueller had used the 215, I decided to learn more.
Gary racer power boats for 27 years, and, for all but the last 3 years or so of that career, used the Buick 215. Power boat races in that time period were run at venues all over the Eastern United States. Gary has memories, race programs, and literature from such places as St.
Timothy's on the Niagara River: Dayton, Ohio:
Greenville: Hampton RI: and even as far away as Tennessee. Courses were generally laid out as a
1-2/3 mile oval with two straights: races were three lap sprints covering 5 miles. In this configuration, strategy for the running start was all important and required careful use of stop watches which were mounted to the steering wheel.
There were a number of classes at each event.
His chosen class was the 225 Hydro class which allowed a 225 cubic inch engine. The Buick literally owned this class for decades. Very few people ran the Oldsmobile version and Gary was surprised to learn that Rover had continued to manufacture the engine since 1967.
We spent an enjoyable evening at the home of Gary and his wife Grace, looking through his technical data, race histories, and photo book.
...8,000 RMP WAS COMMONPLACE,
Some of the numbers he quoted were staggering:
8,000 RPM was commonplace, his first boat was capable of about 125 MPH (on water!). His later boat was good for about 152 MPH. At one point he even built a sleeved down 152 cubic inch engine which could spin easily in excess of 10,000 RPM!
On the technical side, it must be noted that these were pure race engines with little applicability for what might be considered normal; street use. The main goal was to get reliable RPM from the engines. absolute horsepower was not necessary when only 1/2 of the prop was in the water. It was common practice to run wild camshafts and dual carbs on the Offenhauser manifold, Gary used a proprietary camshaft supplied by George English of Michigan. Rods were shot peened Buick with machine trimmed bosses. Stock crankshafts were used, pistons were flycut to
"eyebrow" them for the higher lift cams. Mallory dual-point distributors were used as well as custom flat bottom oil pans. The cylinder heads were all chambered and used ground stem valves with Chevy 327 springs. His engine build sheets provided a clear understanding of the substitute components, tolerances, and general details used in the construction of a race-prepared 215.
Gary had photos of one engine that he changed the angle of the exhaust ports in the heads by welding, to provide a more appropriate angle and smoother exhaust flow past the bulkheads on the boat. Water pump and water outlets were altered to encourage high flow of water and cool running temperatures
At first, looking at the photos gave me a moments concern. Something did not seem right.
Finally, I realized that was because the engine was turned around backwards. Power was taken off of the nose of the engine in this application.
As such, Gary ran only a lightweight, bare, automatic flywheel.
"just enough to turn the
starter" he noted.
Another impressive fact was the amount of
"Pioneering Development " work they did on these engines. Gary had a friend make up some special brass distributor gears to overcome the known high RPM problem in this area. He also ran a special oil feed line to those gears as well as modifying the front oil passages in the block. All these items are neatly laid out in various publications today such as Hardcastle's "Tuning the Rover V8" (Available through the newsletter
-Ed.) but were developed in boat racing as much as three decades earlier.
The Hydro 225 class gradually died away in the 1980's as many boats were converted to run Chevy 350 V8s, an easy and economical conversion. For his last three seasons, Gary ran
(Cont'd on page 8)

(Continued)


in a 4 cylinder class using Ford Pinto engines.
I came away from my visit impressed with three things. First, the absolute performance numbers attained were very amazing.
Second, the
knowledge base and development work in those early years was far more advanced than I had realized.
Last, I was impressed with the
commitment he had shown to the sport in towing a raceboat all over the eastern United States as many as 14 weekends per summer, for many years.
Gary has retired now, from work as well as racing. However, he has not lost a bit of enthusiasm for motorsports and enthusiast cars.
He was quite interested to learn about the MG V8 conversions and urged me to bring my car over once it was completed.
I would like to offer my thanks to Gary and Grace Mueller for so graciously sharing their experiences with me for this article.

The transmissions article was great, but it won't cut-and-paste so neatly here. It sprawled over 8 pages of the newsletter, included photos/figures/captions, and a list of suppliers and references with rather elaborate formatting. Some good info too, although probably 99% of it appears in other ways on this site (e.g. within How It Was Done articles.)

The piston article is just one paragraph that tells you what info you need to provide Wiseco if you want them to make you custom pistons. An address for Jahns Quality Pistons was also provided. No other suppliers mentioned.

Volume XI Issue 3 was the last issue published by Dan Masters. Kurt contributed the article. But then BritishV8 was handed off to its third editor, James Jewell who published Volume XII Issue 1. The second half of the 289 stroker article was apparently unfinished or lost at that point although Kurt contributed some other articles.

If these articles are valuable to you, you might consider making a contribution to this website via the "Make a contribution" link at the top of every page. I think the PayPal form will provide you a place to type a message.

Thanks Curtis. I donated using the "Make a contribution" link at the top of the page. I know I've read that boat engine article but can't find that issue in my paper or digital copies of the newsletters.

So I have one of these boat 215s on the engine stand at the moment. The seller was a kid who bought a storage unit in an auction and the 215 was among the stuff in the unit. He pulled a valve cover and the oil pan and took a few photos and measurements. It was topped off by an Edelbrock 2x2 barrel dual plane with Rochester 2GC carbs and the cylinder heads were stamped with Mondello Porting Service. Plus the crankshaft looked just like the 3.5" stroke one in my 5.0L Rover V8 and showed signs of being balanced but the snout has been shortened. Rods appeared to be 215 forgings with the balance pads removed, the beams polished and shot-peened. It's been converted to dry sump and chrome valve covers have large fittings welded to them. The block and heads have been o-ringed and the block is zero deck. Oddly, the distributor is an OEM single point. He measured the piston travel from the bottom and came up with something over 3.5" so I pulled the trigger. Turns out the stroke is only 2.83" and the bore is 3.55" which puts it at 224 CID, just under the N-class 225 cubic inch limit. Bummer. Pistons are forged flat tops with dual valve notches. Rockers and rockershafts are stockers but show no signs of wear. Camshaft is a solid lifter grind with adjustable tubular pushrods to set the lash. At a minimum, I'll add a pair of the D&D end stands. The heads have some of the prettiest porting I've ever seen but retain the stock diameter valves. I wonder if that was a rules thing too. I'll have them flow benched and decide if larger valves and some bowl porting is warranted.

I'm hoping to swap the heads to a 266 cubic inch Buick 215 I have. That engine was originally set up for a turbocharged aircraft application and has Venolia forged flat top pistons and Eagle h-beam forged rods but low compression with the 54cc Buick 300 heads. The smaller chamber 215 heads should boost the compression ratio. If the boat engine was a stroker, I'd simply swap the Buick 300 heads onto it. I'll have to do the math but, if I mill the Buick 300 heads and maybe run a thin head gasket, the compression ratio might work out. Alternatively, I do have a pair of 4.6L heads but, even with thick composite head gaskets, the compression ratio would be 12:1. Pictures to follow.