TVR V8- drilling the head
Discussion
Spoke to a bloke who races ajeep with a TVR V8 engine. When I asked him how he managed to keep it running cool he told me that he "drilled the head". He explained that you drill a hole in the head and run a pipe to the water pump. Was he winding me up and if not, does anyone have any details on this subject please?
Fact is most 'tuners' could write their knowledge of engines on a postage stamp. Unless the guy works for Cosworth, the base engine development section of Lotus / Land Rover / Rover / Jaguar / Ricardo / Tickford / TVR Power or JE Developments he probably doesn't really know.
Consult the experts if you can.
Consult the experts if you can.
Drilling the heads does work espeicially on the rover and chevy v8's DO NOT DRILL THE BACK OF THE HEAD you will lose all flow round the motor, at the front there are core plugs into the water jacket knock these out and run directly into top of the radiator, although this method works on race cars it's not that practical on a road car you will lose a lot of hot water to your heater. Forgive me for being obvious have you tried a lower stat and fan switch?
v8 racing said:
although this method works on race cars it's not that practical on a road car you will lose a lot of hot water to your heater. Forgive me for being obvious have you tried a lower stat and fan switch?
It's for a SWB Land Rover that is used for racing so the heater is not important. We've put manual switches and the fans run constantly while racing but it still runs hot. Thanks for the advice. We'll have a look.
Hi gugne, i race a rover sd1 with a genuine 447bhp beleive me its far from standard and have bills for £20,000 to prove!!! anyway went through the useual stuff ally rads etc but the one thing that made the job complete was an electrical water pump, peice of cake to fit and runs around 75 deg not sure if real steel still sell them but demon tweeks do, ps dont fit contoller you dont need one just cut the centre out of the stat.
So you drill the head to get some extra flow. I can see some logic here but what about the stat and warm up and cruising temps. I assume you are bypassing the stat otherwise the mod wouldn't make any difference to flow. I had problems with a turbo engine and in the end the cure was to slot the bonnet and get more air flow through the rad. As an experiment I took out the stat and it wouldn't go over 64 degrees on the bypass at full chat. Air flow cured the temp problems though.
Sounds like there is some truth in the story.
Gavin where you at Land Rover during the JED 4.2 programme days? Some of the organisations as Gavin states are well adept at main stream new engine designs though IMHO to get the real feel on an RV8 go to someone who has worked with this engine and tuned it for years, this could be the little ole guy in a shed though preferably people such as Ray at V8 Dev't, Real Steel, etc will know. Some of the American race guys who've worked with V8's for years would also know how to increase head cooling though many of these have become mainstream engine E, R & D companies that now compete with Ricardo, e.g. Roush. Alternatively find an old SD1 (£200 from a scrappy) and have a play!!!!
Good thread.
GB
Gavin where you at Land Rover during the JED 4.2 programme days? Some of the organisations as Gavin states are well adept at main stream new engine designs though IMHO to get the real feel on an RV8 go to someone who has worked with this engine and tuned it for years, this could be the little ole guy in a shed though preferably people such as Ray at V8 Dev't, Real Steel, etc will know. Some of the American race guys who've worked with V8's for years would also know how to increase head cooling though many of these have become mainstream engine E, R & D companies that now compete with Ricardo, e.g. Roush. Alternatively find an old SD1 (£200 from a scrappy) and have a play!!!!
Good thread.
GB
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