32 valve Rover V8

[planman350i]

Mindless trivia I know but has it ever been tried??? Just reading about the Metro 6R4 engine (24v) which is apparently related to the Rover V8.

[eliotmansfield]

ive heard that too, hoever Ive seen a 6r4 engine and it looks nothing like a rover. Apparently williams developed the engine. (although an early prototype was based on a v8 cut down - apparently)

[greg55_99]

Actually, that's been done before many years ago. Sir Jack Brabham drove to a world championship in the mid-sixties with a Repco designed OHC conversion for the Buick-Oldsmobile 215.

Greg

[2 sheds]

A good friend of mine who does all my engineering, has designed an OHC conversion for the Rover V8 and has all the drawings, however nobody these days wants to invest in this project.
Tim

[roop]

Wasn't the Wildcat head a 32v affair or am I barking up the wrong tree...?

Roop

[greg55_99]

Nope, Wildcat is a big valve head but not OHC. Try these folks:

www.jacobengineering.co.uk/

Greg

[boosted ls1]

It's a shame the Rover never got decent heads in the first place. The Buick had loads of good factory stuff and I believe the Wildcat heads are very similar to the Grand National turbo v6 heads.

Was the Repco Brabham 32v or OHV? You can get an OHV kit as far as I'm aware but like has already been posted it's all very expensive and why bother nowadays when there are other options. Fit turbos, use a bigger rover or change engines. There just seem to be simpler options. I'd have loved to have had a 32v RV8. Its like the cosworth 24v versus the 12v ford. Not a huge difference between them and the cosworth weighs in at over 400lbs. That's more then an ls1.

[Planman350i]

I'm sure I read that Rover has designed a KV8 but it never seems to have been released. Now that might of been an intesting engine for TVR...

[TaSmania]

KV8 - there's an interesting thought. 2 x K4 heads on an extended KV6. The early V64V (6R4 engine) was a cut down pushrod RV8. With the RV8 being an engine for a low rpm high torque requirement car (Range Rover) the need to go multi valve and hence multi cam never made economic sense. However, I met with Graham Nash at NCK racing (early 90's)before it became TVR power (NCK have now set up seperately again who had a Rover V8 with twin cam heads. They were Lotus items (off a Lotus Sunbeam if I remember correctly). Same Bore spacing and inboard head bolt pattern but needed bosses welding on the outer side of the block for the other head bolts. It was in an advanced state of build with the FEAD in place but I never found out if it ran. If looking for a multicam V8 you used to be able to get the 32V Ford Cobra unit from one of the Ford Power Product sales outlets. This came with the trans, ECU, immobiliser, etc and a stock 320 bhp.
GB

[350matt]

Unfortunatly the Ford 4.6, 4 cam is 'ing enormous! and whould never fit under the bonnet of most tivs. Intrested in the note about the Lotus heads, presumably these would be off the the 2.2 ltr 'Four' Also the outer row of head bolts on the RV8 were deleted on the later blocks as they actually distort the heads!.

Hmmm.. Where can I get some cheap lotus heads then?


Matt

[chrisj]

How's about putting a small block in with some of these?[url]www.araoengineering.com/[/url]

[350matt]

Nice!
Unfortunatly 'small block' is an American small.. they're still 'ing huge and heavy, best option for alertantive engineso far is the LT1 Corvette V8, smaller than the Rover and only 15Kg heavier for an easy 400Bhp, however its also an easy 5-6 grand to buy and fit one.

Matt

[Fatboy]

Er - isn't the LT1 Corvette engine just a chevy small block?

[TaSmania]

Matt,
Give Graham at NCK Racing - Coventry a ring, if interested in the Lotus jobs! - The boy's at work (Technicians) looked at the Cobra we've got and thought with a bit of "feckling" (probably means cutting and bashing and loadsa £) they could get it to fit but for £7.5k to buy plus the installation costs - Hummm. Ray @ V8 Developments could do a lot to an RV8 with £7.5k.
Alternative is a Roush version of the Ford Alley blocked SV push rod 5.1 - 6.0 l GT engine, Lighter and over all smaller than an RV8 and 765 hp in N/A unrestricted form - but thats just silly Follow the threads on the Roush websit or see MG owners club ref the engine in a Rover 75!!
GB