Rover V8 History

[Ron Earp]

I like the Rover motors. I haven't spent as much time working on them as some on the forum, but I've got a fair amount of time with one and I feel they're a great bang for the buck. Still not convinced a 5L version of one with only around 150 cfm of flow per hole is going to make 450 hp though. A 302 Ford or 305 Chevy is tasked pretty hard to generate 450hp with far better heads available.

Did any companies ever produce "modern" aftermarket heads for the engine?

 

[Ian Anderson]

Hi Ron

Yes there are a few. Wildcat does a fair set. But the£2000 price tag is excessive for about 50 hp over stock like for like.

There are also other heads that have been manufactured with varying degrees of success.

For a reliable 450 hp I would be gping Ford stroker347


Ian

 

[Malcolm]

Tony Marsh had a monster bhp twin turbo 4.5 ltr rover based engine, over 600 bhp if I remember correctly, that he ran for many years, first in a hill climb single seater and then in his GTD Mk2. But nothing was near standard and no idea how much it cost. But I don't recall how much greif it caused him, never seemed to be fiddling with it at events, except playing with his traction control. Most likley didn't do too many road miles in it as he was competition minded (multiple hill climb champion and successful racer including some F1 in late 50s). Car recently was up for sale after Tony died. But he showed you can get high BHP out of a Rover V8

 

[Russ Noble]

you can get high BHP out of a Rover V8

There's no doubt about that, but over 300ish hp it is easier and cheaper to do it with something else. And by the time the block etc is beefed up with cradles etc and with bigger heads it's not likely to be that much lighter or cheaper than an alloy block 302 Ford derivative.

What about one of those turbo Jappos, probably lighter , more powerful, more reliable and cheaper than any of the other options...... There, I've said that horrible J word! Worse than the P word! Now flame me....

 

[David]

I've been told that ~550ish is achievable out of an UNOPENED boosted Lexus/Toyota 1UZ-FE and 800ish if you modify it first. Very very expensive to NA tune them though.