“Merlin F85” heads for the Rover V8 from Real Steel

[DonkeyApple]

An interesting read. It does appear that none of these later solutions can be called game changers.

My gut feeling is that we really have gone as far as we are going to with the RV8 in NA form. Just seems to be a huge amount of money for small if not non existent gains now.

[rev-erend]

When we talked with Al Melling at the now infamous Middle Wallop - I'm pretty sure that his initial meeting with Peter Wheeler was because PW wanted him to design better flowing heads but AM said that the block would limit the heads potential and also that the block was actually the cheaper bit to design / make.

He did say he designed many cam profiles for testing too but I would guess NCK being RV8 experts already had done many cams before Melling got involved.

Plus we are fairly certain he had the AJP V8 design already to go .. just needed a customer.

[Kokkolanpoika]

Any update? I like to see dyno graph with those Vizard heads..

[Else]

Literally just found a guy this week to map my Motec but waiting for some dry weather! Once its done I'll probably take it to SRR to see what it produces. Looking for a long flat torque curve rather than out and out BHP.

Andy

[Hoofa]

Ah which motec do you have , I have the m800 and need a mapper too ! Who r u using ?

[Else]

I have a M4 which is a bit overstretched on a V8 using up all the spare outputs but I am going to persevere with it for now.

There is a guy in haverhill, suffolk that is experianced on motec mapping particularly turbo/supercharged installations for drag racing, cars and bikes.

[Hoofa]

Haverhill isn't too far from me, could you pm the details please

[MPoxon]

Hoofa said:

Ah which motec do you have , I have the m800 and need a mapper too ! Who r u using ?

Mark Adams would be a good shout... I am fairly sure he maps Motec for some of his desert racing clients. There are not many people that know more about mapping the RV8 than Mark.

[Kokkolanpoika]

Up.. Still intresting topic..

[Ian215]

“Merlin F85” heads for the Rover V8 from Real Steel
Has any one been able to buy a pair of these in the last 6 years???
I've been one that waiting list at least that long and I haven't even seen a decent photo of them put oneline in all that time.

[Number 7]

MPoxon said:

Mark Adams would be a good shout... I am fairly sure he maps Motec for some of his desert racing clients. There are not many people that know more about mapping the RV8 than Mark.

He re-mapped my very early 2 group MoTeC a few years back, down at Austec. The fact that it is a very old iteration did seem to slow the process - maybe he's more familiar with the later versions. Got the job done though.

[Transmitter Man]

This US forum thread, now rather old thread may be of interest;

http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?6,12170

Phil

[Transmitter Man]

...and a bang up to date thread that mentions the Merlins but mainly discusses problems with TA's heads from down under;

http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?6,39311

Phil

[leerdam23]

Else said:

Matt,

The runners are approx 7" from the back of the valve to the lip of the bellmouth.







You can just see the link tube, -10, at the back of the plenums in this picture.



Jonathan,

Rob at V8D sold me the heads, he explained at the time how the intake should be designed which i have stuck to it as near as i could.

Andy

Bump... What became of this?? Anyone know?

[v8bloke]

Just had my rover V8 4.8 short stroke with merlin heads on the Rollers.


very happy with the results.

Mark

[Else]

leerdam23 said:

Else said:

Matt,

The runners are approx 7" from the back of the valve to the lip of the bellmouth.







You can just see the link tube, -10, at the back of the plenums in this picture.



Jonathan,

Rob at V8D sold me the heads, he explained at the time how the intake should be designed which i have stuck to it as near as i could.

Andy

Bump... What became of this?? Anyone know?

Still in the development phase, i'm a serial tinkerer

[Slow M]

v8bloke said:

Just had my rover V8 4.8 short stroke with merlin heads on the Rollers.


very happy with the results.

Mark

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing the nice results.

Best,
B.

[v8bloke]

New engine and TA heads are ready so Merlins are on ebay!!!!!

[Slow M]

v8bloke said:

New engine and TA heads are ready so Merlins are on ebay!!!!!

I'd love to see the dyno chart for that, as well. No doubt, many others would, too.

Best,
B.

[v8bloke]

My Merlin heads sold on Ebay for £716 which I think was a bargain.
Here is a pic of my new 5.0L engine with TA heads. Nearly ready for fitting back in the MGB.


Hoping to make over 400bhp