Super Charging a V8s
Discussion
Is it possible to (relatively) simply and cheaply supercharge a V8s?
I know that there have been bolt on conversions produced for Chims but I seem to remember reading somewhere that TVR Power's installation is only available for Serpentine lumps. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Are there any significant alterations that have to be made to the drivetrain?
How much of a problem is cooling and how marginal are brakes and suspension?
Looking for something a bit different but as fast as my Chim and vaguely thought that the prospect of picking up a V8s for £7k-ish and the supercharging/modifying it for £5k-ish sounded slightly more amusing than a Griff/Tuscan
Having said all this I am fairly concious that I am a pretty simple fellow and that the concept of modifying one element of the car and expecting the rest to cope is a pretty naive assumption....
I know that there have been bolt on conversions produced for Chims but I seem to remember reading somewhere that TVR Power's installation is only available for Serpentine lumps. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Are there any significant alterations that have to be made to the drivetrain?
How much of a problem is cooling and how marginal are brakes and suspension?
Looking for something a bit different but as fast as my Chim and vaguely thought that the prospect of picking up a V8s for £7k-ish and the supercharging/modifying it for £5k-ish sounded slightly more amusing than a Griff/Tuscan
Having said all this I am fairly concious that I am a pretty simple fellow and that the concept of modifying one element of the car and expecting the rest to cope is a pretty naive assumption....
Joking aside, ...
It is true that the SC Power supercharger conversion is not available for pre-serpentine front ends. This is a relatively minor thing because you'd be strongly advised to increase the capacity if you want more power, rather than supercharge the original 3.9 lump. It would be simple enough to change to a serpentine front end if you were changing the engine.
Talk to the usual RV8 specialists to see what's available now, but when I was looking a few years ago the best bang-per-buck by far was a standard spec cross bolted 4.6 bottom end with some decent heads on top. You can get more power with higher spec engines but the cost starts to shoot up even for modest power increases.
The V8S is slightly lighter and lower geared than the following models and with the normally aspirated 4.6 it had a slight edge over a standard 500 Griffith or Chimaera and would keep a standard Cerbera honest to 100 or so before aerodynamics took over. Of course it's not fair to compare a modified V8S against a standard anything else, because all those cars could be modified too. The only point of the comparison is to show that it's completely feasible and not particularly difficult to bring the V8S up to par with the other models.
To the shopping list I would add: £1000 for safety equipment, £500 each for uprated gearbox, diff, half shafts (uprate 'em when they break), £1000 for brakes, £1000 for suspension upgrades, probably several hundred quid a year extra on insurance.
Just going to a normally aspirated 4.6 is a very substantial increase over the stock 3.9 but probably not going to impress you much if you're already used to driving a 500. You would have to ask SC Power how much they'd want to provide and fit their kit but gut feeling is it will be in the thousands and without having seen their price list I'd be surprised to see any change out of £5000 by the time the dust has settled.
It is true that the SC Power supercharger conversion is not available for pre-serpentine front ends. This is a relatively minor thing because you'd be strongly advised to increase the capacity if you want more power, rather than supercharge the original 3.9 lump. It would be simple enough to change to a serpentine front end if you were changing the engine.
Talk to the usual RV8 specialists to see what's available now, but when I was looking a few years ago the best bang-per-buck by far was a standard spec cross bolted 4.6 bottom end with some decent heads on top. You can get more power with higher spec engines but the cost starts to shoot up even for modest power increases.
The V8S is slightly lighter and lower geared than the following models and with the normally aspirated 4.6 it had a slight edge over a standard 500 Griffith or Chimaera and would keep a standard Cerbera honest to 100 or so before aerodynamics took over. Of course it's not fair to compare a modified V8S against a standard anything else, because all those cars could be modified too. The only point of the comparison is to show that it's completely feasible and not particularly difficult to bring the V8S up to par with the other models.
To the shopping list I would add: £1000 for safety equipment, £500 each for uprated gearbox, diff, half shafts (uprate 'em when they break), £1000 for brakes, £1000 for suspension upgrades, probably several hundred quid a year extra on insurance.
Just going to a normally aspirated 4.6 is a very substantial increase over the stock 3.9 but probably not going to impress you much if you're already used to driving a 500. You would have to ask SC Power how much they'd want to provide and fit their kit but gut feeling is it will be in the thousands and without having seen their price list I'd be surprised to see any change out of £5000 by the time the dust has settled.
Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 10th November 20:47
I should probably add the usual disclaimer. If you want to go faster, you should start by upgrading the driver, then the handling and brakes before resorting to more power. It will be an endless cycle of finding and fixing the next 'weakest link'.
In the search for more power the sensible approach if you are after a substantial power increase is:
In the search for more power the sensible approach if you are after a substantial power increase is:
- By a more powerful car.
- If you have reached the limit of that, fit a bigger capacity engine in the car you have.
- If you have reached the limit of that, use conventional tuning techniques to increase the power.
- If you have reached the limit of that then consider forced induction or NOS etc.
Orophin said:
I think 300bhp is very possible with a blown 4.0, which is more than most standard 500's make. To see if the car would take it, I'd ask Mr Jools who has taken his V8S and put a 500 in it and tuned to 350bhp.
I think my 5 litre is now sold to a guy who's building a racing land rover. I'm going back to 4 litres but turbocharged 
another set of challenges, but that's where the fun is trackcar said:
Orophin said:
I think 300bhp is very possible with a blown 4.0, which is more than most standard 500's make. To see if the car would take it, I'd ask Mr Jools who has taken his V8S and put a 500 in it and tuned to 350bhp.
I think my 5 litre is now sold to a guy who's building a racing land rover. I'm going back to 4 litres but turbocharged another set of challenges, but that's where the fun is 
Hi Steve, the reason im ditching the 5 litre is because the car is too good with it in! it has such a broad spread of power that track days are boring, I never have to touch the gearlever. I want to work hard on track days so I'm going for the 4 litre so it has little hp at the bottom end but comes on boost higher up meaning I have to work stirring the cogs about, will make track days entertaining like they used to be Getting the numbers from the 5 litre was fun, but it made the car more boring to drive believe it or not!
Getting the numbers from the 5 litre was fun, but it made the car more boring to drive believe it or not!GreenV8S said:
Joking aside, ...
It is true that the SC Power supercharger conversion is not available for pre-serpentine front ends. This is a relatively minor thing because you'd be strongly advised to increase the capacity if you want more power, rather than supercharge the original 3.9 lump. It would be simple enough to change to a serpentine front end if you were changing the engine.
Talk to the usual RV8 specialists to see what's available now, but when I was looking a few years ago the best bang-per-buck by far was a standard spec cross bolted 4.6 bottom end with some decent heads on top. You can get more power with higher spec engines but the cost starts to shoot up even for modest power increases.
The V8S is slightly lighter and lower geared than the following models and with the normally aspirated 4.6 it had a slight edge over a standard 500 Griffith or Chimaera and would keep a standard Cerbera honest to 100 or so before aerodynamics took over. Of course it's not fair to compare a modified V8S against a standard anything else, because all those cars could be modified too. The only point of the comparison is to show that it's completely feasible and not particularly difficult to bring the V8S up to par with the other models.
To the shopping list I would add: £1000 for safety equipment, £500 each for uprated gearbox, diff, half shafts (uprate 'em when they break), £1000 for brakes, £1000 for suspension upgrades, probably several hundred quid a year extra on insurance.
Just going to a normally aspirated 4.6 is a very substantial increase over the stock 3.9 but probably not going to impress you much if you're already used to driving a 500. You would have to ask SC Power how much they'd want to provide and fit their kit but gut feeling is it will be in the thousands and without having seen their price list I'd be surprised to see any change out of £5000 by the time the dust has settled.
Thank you Green- as you point out the supercharger conversion itself is nearing £5k if one is being realistic. There is a special offer on at the moment whereby it is £3.2 plus fitment but by the time one adds on the other elements you have suggested you are at an easy £6k. Furthermore I don't suppose one would get much change out of £3k for the 4.6 conversion (?). Very swiftly one is marching towards a £16k V8s. When there is a Taraka Chim for sale for £9k at the moment it becomes a pretty pricey option...It is true that the SC Power supercharger conversion is not available for pre-serpentine front ends. This is a relatively minor thing because you'd be strongly advised to increase the capacity if you want more power, rather than supercharge the original 3.9 lump. It would be simple enough to change to a serpentine front end if you were changing the engine.
Talk to the usual RV8 specialists to see what's available now, but when I was looking a few years ago the best bang-per-buck by far was a standard spec cross bolted 4.6 bottom end with some decent heads on top. You can get more power with higher spec engines but the cost starts to shoot up even for modest power increases.
The V8S is slightly lighter and lower geared than the following models and with the normally aspirated 4.6 it had a slight edge over a standard 500 Griffith or Chimaera and would keep a standard Cerbera honest to 100 or so before aerodynamics took over. Of course it's not fair to compare a modified V8S against a standard anything else, because all those cars could be modified too. The only point of the comparison is to show that it's completely feasible and not particularly difficult to bring the V8S up to par with the other models.
To the shopping list I would add: £1000 for safety equipment, £500 each for uprated gearbox, diff, half shafts (uprate 'em when they break), £1000 for brakes, £1000 for suspension upgrades, probably several hundred quid a year extra on insurance.
Just going to a normally aspirated 4.6 is a very substantial increase over the stock 3.9 but probably not going to impress you much if you're already used to driving a 500. You would have to ask SC Power how much they'd want to provide and fit their kit but gut feeling is it will be in the thousands and without having seen their price list I'd be surprised to see any change out of £5000 by the time the dust has settled.
Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 10th November 20:47
As with most of these things naive excitement can get you rather gee'd up about these things when what one really needs is a dose of cold hard numbers!
I've seen the odd V8 landrover discovery on ebay with a supercharger conversion - would these be worth considering or would it be false economy by the time you've got everything tip top? (Last one I saw entire vehicle went for £600).
I also assume it would be a bad idea to do it with a non cross bolted bottom end anyway??
Chris
I also assume it would be a bad idea to do it with a non cross bolted bottom end anyway??
Chris
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