Rover vs Ford V8

[wildoliver]

I have an MGB, and am v8ing it over winter, My chosen route to go is Ford V8 due the engine being nigh on Bullet proof, and larger capacity as standard than Rover V8, whilst similar physical size.

The big issue I have is I'm doing it on the cheap, hence wanting an engine that puts out good power as standard, can't afford to start tuning it.

Re. Ford V8 what gearbox would I use? I want manual, 4 or 5 speed will be fine, cheap and strong, while not stupidly large, It has to fit in the tranny tunnel with minimal alteration.

Come on peeps Help!

Olly

[Trooper2]

If you are using a Ford 302 C.I. engine then the natural choice would be a Tremec T5 5 speed from a V8 mustang.

[Boosted LS1]

Surely if you fit the ford it'll never go round corners again due to the understeer Isn't there a used rv8 somewhere which you could fit?

Boosted.

[wildoliver]

Its not really much heavier than an RV8 tbh, I'm also going to try and get it sat as low as possible and as far back as possible, dont get me wrong if I fell upon an SD1 vitesse cheap or free then yes I'd go rover, but I'd rather go Ford if I can.

[love machine]

How about a Triumph V8 out of a stag. A bit rare but rev nicely.

[Seasider]

love machine said:

How about a Triumph V8 out of a stag. A bit rare but rev nicely.

Rare for a reason

[richtvr]

rv8's are cheap as chips and easy to tuned for sensible costs, look on ebay always big cc rv8 for sale. but for both engines i'd run the borg t5 box can get recons for £500


rich

[Pigeon]

Seasider said:

love machine said:

How about a Triumph V8 out of a stag. A bit rare but rev nicely.

Rare for a reason

Yeah, but the aftermarket has now done the development that Triumph didn't get to do, and Stag V8s can be reliable now.

(Though I don't know if it'd cope with the idea which has tickled me for a long time, of using an amalgam of Stag, Dolly and Saab parts to produce a 4.6-litre 32-valve twin-turbo beast...)

[Boosted LS1]

Pigeon said:

Seasider said:

love machine said:

How about a Triumph V8 out of a stag. A bit rare but rev nicely.

Rare for a reason

Yeah, but the aftermarket has now done the development that Triumph didn't get to do, and Stag V8s can be reliable now.

(Though I don't know if it'd cope with the idea which has tickled me for a long time, of using an amalgam of Stag, Dolly and Saab parts to produce a 4.6-litre 32-valve twin-turbo beast...)

I've often wondered about using the APC system on a v8

Boosted.

[stevieturbo]

Nice...but old technology.

Just do it right ;-)

[Pigeon]

A top enhancement

[wildoliver]

Pigeon said:

Seasider said:

love machine said:

How about a Triumph V8 out of a stag. A bit rare but rev nicely.

Rare for a reason

Yeah, but the aftermarket has now done the development that Triumph didn't get to do, and Stag V8s can be reliable now.

(Though I don't know if it'd cope with the idea which has tickled me for a long time, of using an amalgam of Stag, Dolly and Saab parts to produce a 4.6-litre 32-valve twin-turbo beast...)

To quote a t-shirt I like:

I'D RATHER BE PUSHING MY MG THAN DRIVING A TRIUMPH

Ok ok maybe I'm getting tempted back towards the RV8, its just such a cliche though!

[//j17]

Go Ford.

The Rover V8 isn't a cheap power source - moderate power is easy enough, but big power tends to be expensive.

As Ford have made millions of their V8s for everything from tumble dryers up tuning parts are plentiful and because of the ecomonies of scale, cheap.

[wildoliver]

I think I've found the solution, in the way of the lexus v8, bit unusual but its alloy block by the looks of it so nice and light, and very reliable!

[Tony427]

Might be worth checking the height and the width of the Lexus......will your engine bay take a 750mm box especially above the chassis rails? The sump of the Lexus V8 is much the same depth as a Rover, suprisingly, but with the twin cam heads and the starter motor sitting in the valley on the top of the engine, which in turn necessitated Toyota designing a tall inlet manifold, the height of the engine was an issue in my Cobra replicas.

This was solved by sawing part of the accelerator bracket and mounting off the inlet manifold but its still tight.......and cruise control will now be a beggar to retrofit.

Cheers,

Tony

[wildoliver]

Hmmmm, it should fit between the rails, the height with an inlet manifold may be an issue, god its getting to be a pain in the bum this, there really is no simple solution.

[//j17]

A few other V8 options that you might like to consider...

Audi - 200mm shorted than a Rover and 190Kg250BHP for the 3.6, 280BHP for the 4.2
BWM - Only 140Kg, 235BHP from the 3.5 up to 340BHP for the 4.6 or 158Kg/400BHP from a 4.9 M5 engine
Lexus - 260 to 280BHP but with lots of bolt-on upgrades
Merc. - 155BHP/3.5 240BHP/4.2 300BHP/5.6
Jag. AJ-V8 - 200Kg, 290BHP/4.0 - 390BHP in supercharged R form with another 20BHP available with a free flow exhaust.

[Marquis_Rex]

//j17 said:

A few other V8 options that you might like to consider...

Audi - 200mm shorted than a Rover and 190Kg250BHP for the 3.6, 280BHP for the 4.2
BWM - Only 140Kg, 235BHP from the 3.5 up to 340BHP for the 4.6 or 158Kg/400BHP from a 4.9 M5 engine
Lexus - 260 to 280BHP but with lots of bolt-on upgrades
Merc. - 155BHP/3.5 240BHP/4.2 300BHP/5.6
Jag. AJ-V8 - 200Kg, 290BHP/4.0 - 390BHP in supercharged R form with another 20BHP available with a free flow exhaust.

Can we stop quoting weights will-nilly please! You're NOT comparing like for like.
This kind of thing annoys me, because people start to claim that the Rover V8 is the lightest engine on the planet. It was a respectably light engine in it's day- that's it but quite often it's heavier than modern V8s and it's unfair to compare it. Last time i got a breakdown of weight info for it-it was similar if not slightly more than a Jaguar V8- when comparing like for like.
In the above there's no way the BMW V8 weights 140 kgs, you probably got the info from unix nerds site, which is only quoting an engine without intake of exhaust manifolds, let alone any fluids or ancilliaries The BMW V8 is more like 210 kgs, very similar to the Jaguar V8 infact.
It is true however that the Audi V8 is short because it has small bore centres of 91mm and a long stroke.

[leorest]

Apologies for a very quick thread hijack

Marquis_Rex said:

...Can we stop quoting weights will-nilly please!

You sound like you might be able to help with a question I was just trying to Google an answer for. Screwfix sell a hoist with 250kg Max capacity. Is this sufficient for lifting a 3.5efi RV8 including SD1 5speed box? The only number I found was 170KG dry for the engine which doesn't answer the question.
Leo

[Marquis_Rex]

leorest said:

Apologies for a very quick thread hijack

Marquis_Rex said:

...Can we stop quoting weights will-nilly please!

You sound like you might be able to help with a question I was just trying to Google an answer for. Screwfix sell a hoist with 250kg Max capacity. Is this sufficient for lifting a 3.5efi RV8 including SD1 5speed box? The only number I found was 170KG dry for the engine which doesn't answer the question.
Leo

The 170 Kgs sounds about right, here's a link to a fuller breakdown

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=296476&p=5

Should come up on my post on page 5.

Oh, I didn't see he Gearbox bit. I don't know how much the Gearbox bit weights. Could you take that off?