I'm back

[Mike S.]

Hey Ya'll I've been away from the forum & my Lotus build for too long. Going to get back into it with a new engine & trans implant. A Buick 215 aluminum V-8 & Porsche Trans.

 

[Jack]

Welcome back Mike! Looking forward to some pic's and reports.

 

[Ron Earp]

The little (and not so little if you want) Buick/Rover 215 is a great engine. To my untrained eye the head castings I've seen need a lot of work, but the engine is light and can be made to perform. Good luck.

 

[Cliff Beer]

Mike, why not use a 4.2 liter range rover engine instead of the 3.5/215? Isn't it roughly the same dimension and close to the same weight? I've heard the range rover engine is a very solid/dependable unit. At least the one in my old Range Rover Classic was!

 

[Ron Earp]

You can take the the 3.5L/215 out to 5L, there are a number of companies and specialize in parts for them. The 4.2L is just a different bore/stroke combo, same engine.

 

[Jeff Young]

Yep, same engine (I run the 3.5/215 in my race cah). Good engine. Very light (300ish dressed out). You can punch it out and stroke it to 5.0 and maybe 400 crank hp.

It's not a big power motor, but it is very light. And relativelyi cheap.

 

[Keith]

It's a fabulous little engine and gave rise to many other very exotic, and somewhat obscure variants including the Brabham Repco F1 engine (with DOHC heads) and with 2 cylinders lopped off formed the base of the 3 litre V6 found in the Metro 6R4 Group B Rally Car (developed I think by Williams F1 from memory). They could chuck out 400 very reliable N/A horsepower sounding glorious, and even as far as the mighty V6 twin turbo in the all conquering Tony Southgate (Le Mans/IMSA?)Jaguars, all had in some way, some DNA found in the the original Buick/Rover.

E&OE

 

[Jeff Young]

Even more to it than that here in the US.

Buick actually tried to buy the design back from Rover in the early 70s when the gas crisis hit, and when Rover refused lopped off 2 cylinders and came up with the 3.8 V6.

That motor had a long history in GM, and motorsports. In turbo form, it powered the fastest American street car of the 1980s -- the Buick Regal GNX -- and then went on to power a number of Indy car efforts in the late 80s and 90s, winning a few pole positions at Indy.

 

[Keith]

Amazing...

Now, you can just "print" one!

 

[Jeff Young]

That is crazy, isn't it?

 

[Mike S.]

Thanks guys I picked up one prety cheap & Kennedy makes the whole trans/engine kit for about 600 including clutch. In a little Lotus Europa it (even if left stock form) Will give plenty of horse power compared to the stock Renault non-crossflow engine. i'd been working to put a Ford crossflow with dual Webbers in. But the Buick is about 1/2 the weight & near twice the HP.