TVR/Rover 4.8 or 5.0 short engine

TVR/Rover 4.8 or 5.0 short engine

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Discussion

TomcatErik

Original Poster:

18 posts

118 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
quotequote all
For an offroad rally car I am looking for a 4.8L or 5.0L rover V8 engine. As far as I know this is a non-standard upgraded version of the standard 4.6L engine. I already have the upgraded heads which are now mounted on a 3.9L engine. Does anyone know where such a short engine is for sale for a reasonable price? Preferably in Europe.

Another option would be to have the conversion done myself. What is the exact modification done to turn the 4.6 into a 4.8 or 5.0? Is this only increasing the stroke or do they also replace the cylinder liners with a bigger bore?

Best regards,
Erik

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
quotequote all
5.0's usually use 96mm liners as well as a stroked crank. 3.9's 4.0 will like to rev a bit more easily. Horses for courses as we say over here. 4.0 and 4.6 engines are a good base imo as they have nice strong parts inside from the factory.

Have you considered a turbo and a low boost engine? Put that onto an ordinary engine and you'll get strong results. That's if the rules allow it.

rev-erend

21,536 posts

291 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
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The 4 bolt bottom end engines are getting much rarer and don't come up for sale on ebay as often but
they are still out there.


TomcatErik

Original Poster:

18 posts

118 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
quotequote all
Could you please help me to understand what you mean with 4-bolt bottom end? I can find that there is a difference between the normal and cross-bolted engines but what is specifically the difference I cannot find. Of coarse the most important is the compatibility with the cylinder heads and gearbox.

Using a turbo or blower is not an option, both rule-wise and because of the amount of sand and water in the offroad rally. The 3.9 engine we have now is already equipped with John Eales heads and a TVR exhaust. This together with the changes to the injection (reprogrammed 14CUX) we now have 200BHP on the wheels (with the 4x4 drive system), so probably around 250BHP at the crank. This proves to be insufficient, therefore we would like to increase the output power and specifically the low-ed torque (now 340Nm at 4k rpm and 300 at 2.5k)

rev-erend

21,536 posts

291 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
quotequote all
Just found one on PH classifieds for you :

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/parts-and-p...

4 bolt bottom end means the the crank is attached by 2 bolts and 2 more bolts bolt from out side of the engine (cross bolt).

It makes to bottom end much more robust.

Another feature you should look for is top hat liners.

TomcatErik

Original Poster:

18 posts

118 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
I've found some places where they sell the converted short blocks for a 4.8 and 5.0. What I don't get is why the 5.0 is so much more expensive than the 4.8. Both have a bore of 96.0mm where for the 5.0 the stroke is longer. Why does this have to be so much more expensive?

In case of the 4.8, are the crankshaft and conrod standard or are they also custom made? I assume the piston is non-standard in both the 4.8 and 5.0, am I correct?

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
The 5.0 will usually have a TVR crank and TVR rods inside combined with shortened cast pistons. The 4.8 can be done with a crankshaft from Real Steel along with a piston swop iirc.

3.5 and 3.9 engines use a small journal 2.300" main bearing diameter. The blocks aren't cross bolted as standard. The 4.0 and 4.6 use a larger main journal crank diameter of 2.500" and the blocks are cross bolted by the factory. The crank, rods and pistons are better and stronger the the parts inside the earlier engines, imo.

Quite a few of the later blocks have been linered to 96mm because of coolant issues or just to increase capacity. Not all later blocks have coolant problems.

phazed

21,994 posts

211 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
Are these cranks still available to produce a 5.5 engine?

http://boostperformance.co.uk/rover_v8.html

If tourque is what you need then mine produces 460 foot pound of torque.

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
Yes but they're difficult to get machined within a reasonable time frame or at reasonable cost. I sell them as blanks nowadays rather then keep a customer hanging on.

That's one of mine in your engine :-)

Edited by Boosted LS1 on Wednesday 16th September 12:55

DangerousDerek

8,669 posts

227 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
TomcatErik said:
I've found some places where they sell the converted short blocks for a 4.8 and 5.0. What I don't get is why the 5.0 is so much more expensive than the 4.8. Both have a bore of 96.0mm where for the 5.0 the stroke is longer. Why does this have to be so much more expensive?

In case of the 4.8, are the crankshaft and conrod standard or are they also custom made? I assume the piston is non-standard in both the 4.8 and 5.0, am I correct?
Speak to Roland at ACR. He supplies all you need and specialises in off road race V8s.

Yes both the 4.8 and 5.0 come with forged pistons. The 4.8 utilises the standard 4.6 crank and rods whereas the 5.0 uses a proper offset ground crank and chevy I beam rods on floating pins with spring locks. This is the option I am building at the moment.

phazed

21,994 posts

211 months

Wednesday 16th September 2015
quotequote all
Boosted LS1 said:
Yes but they're difficult to get machined within a reasonable time frame or at reasonable cost. I sell them as blanks nowadays rather then keep a customer hanging on.

That's one of mine in your engine :-)

Edited by Boosted LS1 on Wednesday 16th September 12:55
Thought so, no complaints there!

TomcatErik

Original Poster:

18 posts

118 months

Sunday 3rd January 2016
quotequote all
Well, we got a bit further with the engine. It is now being assembled to be put in the car. After the first 300km of break-in we will go for the rolling road again. Hope to see 300bhp at the rear wheels.

The engine specs for the interested readers:
JE developments 5.15L crossbolted V8
Bore 94.5mm
Stroke 91.5mm
Conrods 5.700" centres
Pistons are forged Omega
Compression ratio: 10.0:1
Stage 3 heads (JE developments) fully ported
Inlet valve: 42.8mm
Exhaust valve: 36.2mm
Tvr plenum and trumpets
Tvr exhaust manifold with straight open pipe to the back (no silencers)

wuckfitracing

990 posts

150 months

Sunday 3rd January 2016
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Warning its addictive that offroad thing.

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Sunday 3rd January 2016
quotequote all
phazed said:
Thought so, no complaints there!
I can get them machined now. Hopefully for a reasonable price and to chevy rod specs, fuellie or 2.1" journals.

TomcatErik

Original Poster:

18 posts

118 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
I know it is addictive wink





Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
Looks like you're having a lot of fun in that.

WWAHEED

5 posts

20 months

Wednesday 29th March 2023
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Hello
Has another one conversion 4.6 L to 4.8 L ?
Regards
Waheed