Rover V8 - Real Steel Stage 1 Heads

[chris_n]

Slightly daft question. I've got the above heads on the Rover engine in my kit car and can't remember the spec. I went to check my Real Steel catalogue (latest version) and low and behold the Rover Cylinder Head section is blank and just says "Watch This Space" for whatever reason.

I then thought I'd just check back to the old version of their catalogue, that I originally bought the heads out of, but would appear I've been unusually efficient and chucked my old copy out. Does anyone have an old Real Steel catalogue with the description of these heads in? If so could you post up what it says?

I think it is something like equivalent to SD1 Vitesse spec but can't really remember. Reason I'm so interested is I'm thinking of investing in a 4.6L short motor and want to know if the existing heads will flow enough. Any views? I'm after oodles of torque rather than outright power so I'm thinking they might be OK.

Chris

[GreenV8S]

Don't know about Real Steel in particular but the Stage I heads I've seen elsewhere are basic polished standard heads. If you've got any remote interest in performance I would consider Stage III (mid valves, ported and polished) and a decent cam as a starting point. Especially if you're looking at a 4.6, which will be inherently more breathing limited than the smaller engines.

[Incorrigible]

A better (read cheaper) way to more power could be a second hand TVR RV8, you could try some TVR breakers

[350matt]

Typically most TVR breakers want around 4-5K for a 5ltr, 3-4 for a 4.5 and about 3K for a 4 ltr. All of which is a bit steep in my opinion, still far cheaper to build it yourself from scratch.
Matt

[AndyS2]

If your are running a 3.5 V8 at the moment you will have to do some mods to get the heads to fit a 4.6 V8 as the 4.6 heads are different. I seem to remember they have a smaller combustion chamber so if you fit your 3.5 heads the CR will be out and you may have to use different gaskets to get it right.
I'll post more info when I get home as I can't remember the link to the Land Rover site I got this info from.

Andy

[chris_n]

AndyS2 said:

If your are running a 3.5 V8 at the moment

I am

AndyS2 said:

you will have to do some mods to get the heads to fit a 4.6 V8 as the 4.6 heads are different... ... I'll post more info when I get home as I can't remember the link to the Land Rover site I got this info from.

Interesting, I thought I'd seen somewhere (maybe the RPI website???) that everything will transfer straight across from one short engine to the other, but maybe I misinterpreted something because that is what I wanted it to say! If you could post up a link I'd be grateful, I don't want to make any expensive mistakes!

Thanks,

Chris

[AndyS2]

The heads wil fit it's just that you may well have to skim your heads to reduce the size of the combustion chamber, and the 4.6 engines only used 10 of the 14 head bolts as the outer ones were found to be pulling the head over to one side and causing the head gasket to leak.
The link is:-

http://pub105.ezboard.com/foffroaderrantpagefrm18.showMessage?topicID=75.topic

And doubts just e-mail LLSteve, he is very good on V8's

Andy