RV8 twin plenum

[tweety]

Just been looking at an ad for a Rover Vitesse V8 3.9 with factory twin plenum. Why were these not used on TVR's? I know ACT do carbon fibre ones so if one could be found would it be a worthwhile conversion?

Cheers Al.

[wedg1e]

They were released on road-going SD1s by Rover so they could get race homologation for the factory saloons.

Only about 200 were built, so if you can get it cheap, do so! There are other ways of achieving the same power improvement nowadays (partly due to the efforts of TVR...)

Ian

[boosted ls1]

There have also been replica castings in production for many years. This means that there are 200 odd rareish 'originals' and plenty of replicas which are just as good.

[HarryW]

is this what it looks like has anyone tried fitting one in their TVR?
Is it a straight fit to the existing plenum base?

harry



>> Edited by HarryW on Thursday 21st August 20:36

[tweety]

Yes Harry that's the one, I just wondered why TVR never went that route. I guess Rimmer Bros or some other Rover V8 specialist will have done the copies mentioned.

Thanks for replies Al.

[HarryW]

Looking at the picture again it doesn't seem to have the stepper housing, does that mean its only suitable for flaper type ones ala Wedgies .

Harry

[danny hoffman]

I had heard that the power improvement wasn't that great.

[plasticman]

Al,I am about to fit one on my griff with an emerald ecu so i can remove the air flow meter.I will keep you posted on my progress, Dave

[HarryW]

How does the emerald get over the idle/stepper bit, does it also combine ignition maping as well .
Keep us informed of the progress/result either way.

Harry

[boosted ls1]

They have a different lid and base assembly IIRC. Most of the tuners can get the copies done so long as the patterns are still being made available. Not sure about Rimmers as they're not really tuners in my book. Ray at V8 can get them so can John Eales, JEM, Ian Richardson etc. If you ask in these places you should unearth one.

[wedg1e]

HarryW:
I believe the base was slightly larger as well.
Yeah, sorry, I knew that copies were available, should have mentioned that - although I didn't know where to ask for one!


Ian

[plasticman]

Harry,looking at the instuctions there is control of the stepper motor in the ecu.It has mapped ignition aswell and they are currently writing the software for wasted spark.Five weeks ago i was told it was two weeks from completion but two days ago it was still two weeks ! David

[TaSmania]

Base (Intake side) was unique to the Twin Plenum. They all came with the 4CU (Flapper) ECU. Tweaks can be made to suite later ECU's - no probs. Copies were made though are generally tweaked a bit and are sand castings, in general. If you can find an original one get it and hang on to it - they are rare. You can get the tuning these days by other means - a la ECT Carbon Plenums, etc but the originals look the part on a Rover V8. The SD1 never came as a 3.9 so the engine's been tweaked.
GB

[tweety]

Thanks again everyone, yes the SDi has been played with. Will probably wait for Tim to do a carbon one for mine, if its not sold.

Cheers Al.

[shpub]

danny hoffman said:

I had heard that the power improvement wasn't that great.

Correct. The biggest issue is the air flow meter which needs to be thrown away and a fully throttle based mapping system used. The other issue is getting enough fuel into the engine to cope with the additional air flow which means new injectors, pumps etc.

To be honest the bigger throttle body plenums are a cheaper and easier way to go.

Remember when playing with engines there is no such thing as a free lunch!