weight of TVR engine?

[GasBlaster]

Hi, does anyone know the weight of a TVR 5ltr engine - be interesting to compare the weight of engine: weight of car ratios for a Griff 500 and an Elise.
Cheers

[sparks]

I did have a link to engine weights,which I have lost, and I seem to remember 315 pounds, but I am renowned for a poor memory. It sounds about right (143KG) as I think the lotus K series is 75kg. The V8 is all aluminium, so doubling the K series would be a rough guide (and close to my vague memory).

HTH

Sparks

[Wedg1e]

Well, I'm no brick outhouse, and I actually did intend to be a real saddo and weigh the bits when I had my V8 stripped recently, but in the heat of the rebuild I forgot! Anyway, point I was going to make: I had the engine on a trolley, with flywheel and clutch fitted, both heads (inc. valvegear) and front cover. No inlet or exhaust manifolds, no pulleys, no distributor. I was able to stand astride and lift it off the trolley by a good few inches, so I wouldn't put it at more than a couple of hundred pounds. With all the ancillaries, injection etc. I'd say 300 was about right.
The block must be about 50 lbs, and the crank something similar. Each piston/ rod assembly is about 2.2 lbs. The camshaft seemed to weigh a lot more than its size would have suggested, relative to the crank!


W.

[Toffer]

The Rover V8 is a light engine...particularly for one so old! I recall that the TR7 when it was developed into the TR8 and was fitted with the V8, remained a similar weight...

[craigalsop]

quote:
The Rover V8 is a light engine...particularly for one so old! I recall that the TR7 when it was developed into the TR8 and was fitted with the V8, remained a similar weight...

Ahh - in fact the TR7 was developed for the V8 & then in a branding exercise they decided it had to be a Triumph & hence have a Triumph engine, which was less powerful, heavier & more prone to overheating. Therein lie all the problems with TR7 (apart from the ugly rear end).
I have less than fond memories of my old TR7 - people think TVRs are unreliable, but I had to do 3 engine rebuilds in 2 years, until eventually deciding that a Rover V8 was the way to go....

[goin2fast52]

how do they get the engines so light?!?! all v8s i've seen are 100lbs(about 4X kilos) or more heavier than that! even the v8 in the ferrari 360 is 400lbs( about 17X or 18X kilos). and it says on the tvr site(the old one, not sure about the new one) the speed 8 is 121 kilos!

[ultimaandy]

My fully dressed small block chevy (less the headers but including the elctronic gismos and the crate!) weighed 215kgs.

An alloy block would have saved 40kgs so down to 175kgs.

It said so on the shipping document when it was flown in from the US.

There arn't many engines that are heavier than the american muscle V8's.

The alloy blocked Rover V8's are supposed to weigh the same as a 2L ford pinto motor!

[goin2fast52]

wow, thats amazing. but even the all alloy ferrari engine weighs more than the tvr and rover engines. how do they do it?(i know alot of aluminum, but you can only go so far)

[TR MIKE]

3.5 litre, small bores, close bore centres equals a fairly short engine. Also there is no solid material in the bottom of the V unlike american V8's. This is thought to be one of the Rovers weakneses. On a Rover the block height is less then on a larger displacement engine. The cam/crank centrelines are quite close as well. All in all the weight saving is because the engine is so compact and fairly thin walled in places. I reckon that the engines have been getting heavier over the years. Probably starting at 315 lbs for early engines and I guess about 350 lbs by now.