Mercedes 5.4 litre conversion - Thoughts?
Discussion
STR8SIX doing mine but all parts from Power.
I have gone the way I have with all steel and basically new everything because I want ultimate reliability, last thing I want is for the old girl to let me down on the way back from a track day at Spa or further afield, I want to drive her there, spank her for two days solid and drive her home.
We are looking to push the compression ratio as far as we can to leave a reasonable safety margin without detonation being a problem. A lot of cleaning up is also being done on the heads including skimming bigger valves and porting to get rid of the casting slag left in them from new, throttle bodies are being overhauled as the spindles are showing signs of wear and green top injectors are being used.
All new timing gear rebuilt oil and water pumps, again for reliability are being used.
Only old parts are the cams and block, all else is upgraded new parts. Will she be more powerful than a £7K conversion I doubt it but she should never break a major engine part and should provide many years of reliable track day fun.
Her first outing should be the 1st March at Snetterton if I get her run in by then, she should go well I just hope it is dry.
Flywheel is being replaced due to cracks in the old one and while I am at it a new clutch.
Existing ACT balanced headers ceramic coated to help get the extra heat out of the engine bay and the new quiet back box fitted to make sure no noise issues keep me from enjoying a track day.
The cause of the rebuild was the gearbox letting go with a lay shaft failure so that is at Grantura Engineering for a full rebuild and the diff and driveshafts are getting a refurb at the same time to ensure the extra power can be deployed with confidence.
That is about it so far, circa £11+k on parts inc the VAT but not really counting, just can't wait to get her back.
Now I have to pay the labour, that I will be happy to pay if she comes back feeling anything like as solid as my mates 4.3 Tuscan that Jason built him, I went in that and could not believe it was the same car as before, it is so good.
I have gone the way I have with all steel and basically new everything because I want ultimate reliability, last thing I want is for the old girl to let me down on the way back from a track day at Spa or further afield, I want to drive her there, spank her for two days solid and drive her home.
We are looking to push the compression ratio as far as we can to leave a reasonable safety margin without detonation being a problem. A lot of cleaning up is also being done on the heads including skimming bigger valves and porting to get rid of the casting slag left in them from new, throttle bodies are being overhauled as the spindles are showing signs of wear and green top injectors are being used.
All new timing gear rebuilt oil and water pumps, again for reliability are being used.
Only old parts are the cams and block, all else is upgraded new parts. Will she be more powerful than a £7K conversion I doubt it but she should never break a major engine part and should provide many years of reliable track day fun.
Her first outing should be the 1st March at Snetterton if I get her run in by then, she should go well I just hope it is dry.
Flywheel is being replaced due to cracks in the old one and while I am at it a new clutch.
Existing ACT balanced headers ceramic coated to help get the extra heat out of the engine bay and the new quiet back box fitted to make sure no noise issues keep me from enjoying a track day.
The cause of the rebuild was the gearbox letting go with a lay shaft failure so that is at Grantura Engineering for a full rebuild and the diff and driveshafts are getting a refurb at the same time to ensure the extra power can be deployed with confidence.
That is about it so far, circa £11+k on parts inc the VAT but not really counting, just can't wait to get her back.
Now I have to pay the labour, that I will be happy to pay if she comes back feeling anything like as solid as my mates 4.3 Tuscan that Jason built him, I went in that and could not believe it was the same car as before, it is so good.
Sounds exciting and Jason knows his stuff...
May I raise a concern though? AJP heads can become porous and skimming them can make this more prone to happen. I'd be very careful skimming them to raise the compression ratio and get them tested, x-rayed, or something to be sure they were not going to let you down.
Love to see the results though when remapped, I assume as Power, we need the good old AJP to beat off these Speed6 5.0
Oh, and have you considered dry sumping it?
May I raise a concern though? AJP heads can become porous and skimming them can make this more prone to happen. I'd be very careful skimming them to raise the compression ratio and get them tested, x-rayed, or something to be sure they were not going to let you down.
Love to see the results though when remapped, I assume as Power, we need the good old AJP to beat off these Speed6 5.0
Oh, and have you considered dry sumping it?
Yes it was an option but really needed a new block to fit the scavenger pump and the other bits, one was not available at the time we started so we went down the wet sump route. I push her quite hard but never had an oil starvation problem before.
We are getting the heads checked, actually Jason has another engine he is building that does have this issue so he is well aware of the issues around AJP heads. The good news is it looks like my engine has always had good quality anti freeze used in it, all the waterways are like new.
Ultimate goal is not for max BHP but for torque, after all that is what accelerates a car and that is more usable than BHP generated top speed.
We are getting the heads checked, actually Jason has another engine he is building that does have this issue so he is well aware of the issues around AJP heads. The good news is it looks like my engine has always had good quality anti freeze used in it, all the waterways are like new.
Ultimate goal is not for max BHP but for torque, after all that is what accelerates a car and that is more usable than BHP generated top speed.
Edited by gruffalo on Friday 24th January 06:50
gruffalo said:
STR8SIX doing mine but all parts from Power.
I have gone the way I have with all steel and basically new everything because I want ultimate reliability, last thing I want is for the old girl to let me down on the way back from a track day at Spa or further afield, I want to drive her there, spank her for two days solid and drive her home.
We are looking to push the compression ratio as far as we can to leave a reasonable safety margin without detonation being a problem. A lot of cleaning up is also being done on the heads including skimming bigger valves and porting to get rid of the casting slag left in them from new, throttle bodies are being overhauled as the spindles are showing signs of wear and green top injectors are being used.
All new timing gear rebuilt oil and water pumps, again for reliability are being used.
Only old parts are the cams and block, all else is upgraded new parts. Will she be more powerful than a £7K conversion I doubt it but she should never break a major engine part and should provide many years of reliable track day fun.
Her first outing should be the 1st March at Snetterton if I get her run in by then, she should go well I just hope it is dry.
Flywheel is being replaced due to cracks in the old one and while I am at it a new clutch.
Existing ACT balanced headers ceramic coated to help get the extra heat out of the engine bay and the new quiet back box fitted to make sure no noise issues keep me from enjoying a track day.
The cause of the rebuild was the gearbox letting go with a lay shaft failure so that is at Grantura Engineering for a full rebuild and the diff and driveshafts are getting a refurb at the same time to ensure the extra power can be deployed with confidence.
That is about it so far, circa £11+k on parts inc the VAT but not really counting, just can't wait to get her back.
Now I have to pay the labour, that I will be happy to pay if she comes back feeling anything like as solid as my mates 4.3 Tuscan that Jason built him, I went in that and could not believe it was the same car as before, it is so good.
Hi MartinI have gone the way I have with all steel and basically new everything because I want ultimate reliability, last thing I want is for the old girl to let me down on the way back from a track day at Spa or further afield, I want to drive her there, spank her for two days solid and drive her home.
We are looking to push the compression ratio as far as we can to leave a reasonable safety margin without detonation being a problem. A lot of cleaning up is also being done on the heads including skimming bigger valves and porting to get rid of the casting slag left in them from new, throttle bodies are being overhauled as the spindles are showing signs of wear and green top injectors are being used.
All new timing gear rebuilt oil and water pumps, again for reliability are being used.
Only old parts are the cams and block, all else is upgraded new parts. Will she be more powerful than a £7K conversion I doubt it but she should never break a major engine part and should provide many years of reliable track day fun.
Her first outing should be the 1st March at Snetterton if I get her run in by then, she should go well I just hope it is dry.
Flywheel is being replaced due to cracks in the old one and while I am at it a new clutch.
Existing ACT balanced headers ceramic coated to help get the extra heat out of the engine bay and the new quiet back box fitted to make sure no noise issues keep me from enjoying a track day.
The cause of the rebuild was the gearbox letting go with a lay shaft failure so that is at Grantura Engineering for a full rebuild and the diff and driveshafts are getting a refurb at the same time to ensure the extra power can be deployed with confidence.
That is about it so far, circa £11+k on parts inc the VAT but not really counting, just can't wait to get her back.
Now I have to pay the labour, that I will be happy to pay if she comes back feeling anything like as solid as my mates 4.3 Tuscan that Jason built him, I went in that and could not believe it was the same car as before, it is so good.
Is it wise to use your old cams?
I had a snapped cam on mine which knackered the engine.
Just a thought
Anthony
gruffalo said:
I thought the Aston V8 was a Jag engine modified by a German tuning company.
Yes sort of. Wiki can explain it better than me."Though based loosely on Jaguar's AJ-V8 engine architecture, this engine was unique to Aston Martin and featured race-style dry-sump lubrication, which enabled it to be mounted low in the chassis for an improved center of gravity. The cylinder block and heads, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, camshafts, inlet and exhaust manifolds, lubrication system, and engine management were all Aston Martin designs and the V8 engine was assembled by hand at the AM facility in Cologne, Germany, which also built the V12 engine for the DB9 and Vanquish."
The days of each manufacturer producing their own in-house engines have long gone, unfortunately. The modern day costs are just way too expensive, hence why AM have aligned themselves with AMG.
They simply could not afford to replace the very old V12 to meet today's emissions. The only way forward is by boosting although there has been a delay, called for by manufacturers, to postpone the next round of EU emissions targets.
Any new TVR is going to be powered by an available off the shelf unit be it an LS, or who knows, even possibly an AMG derived one.
V8 GRF said:
N7GTX said:
Any new TVR is going to be powered by an available off the shelf unit be it an LS, or who knows, even possibly an AMG derived one.
Never say never 
shake n bake said:
Looking at it from a resale value if the conversion were to take place, I personally would never even consider looking at a Cerb without a tvr engine, the engine is its soul, without it its just another kit car. Anybody with half a brain knows what they are getting in to with a tvr, especially a cerb.
Keep the AJP along with the Merc engine. Better resale value to an interested buyer. Gives him options and retains authenticity. Retains "TVR heart and soul" The RV8 in Chims and Griffs and Ford V6 were never TVR engines but put TVR on the map, for a while. Methinks now and future with LS.Edited by EGB on Tuesday 28th January 22:43
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