Chimaera 4.0l V8 engine.

[Gresh]

I've just acquired a 4.0l engine from a burnt out Chimaera, sadly the ECU went up in smoke, would a Range Rover ECU work?

[daz the plumber]

theres plenty on ebay

[P100]

The R/R ecu will work, but it will not give the same performance as the original.
I understand that every ecu had an upgrade from the standard item
HTH
Roy

[Gresh]

Cheers chaps.

Checked eBay, and they cost more than the engine cost me! Not being a cheapskate here, but I have a RaRo one!

Regards

Gresh

p.s. I lied about being a cheapskate.

[dwgriffith]

Windley's?

[Gresh]

Could be!

[johnbear]

The ECU is Rover but I understand from the Steve Heath book that it has been modified in a number ways.

You can buy replacements from BellHill garage. They have an ebay store.

[GreenV8S]

The EPROM will have a TVR map in it but I wouldn't expect to find any other hardware/firmware changes from the RR standard. The EPROM will cost about 10p but expect to pay a thousand times that much for a one programmed with a standard TVR map and an extra few hundred if you get one mapped specifically to suit your engine.

[nicktowe]

Track down user Blitzracing. Mark has access to a 4.0l TVR map. The TVR map is very differentbfrom the Range Rover map. The RR map will underfuel at high revs leading to possible lean running damage. It is also likely to have the road speed limiter switched on.

[Gresh]

Cheers folks.

Think I found blitzracing, hopefully it was his email address I sent the email to!

[JR]

Any tune that you want???

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?memberId=1...

[dwgriffith]

What are you planning to fit it into?

[blitzracing]

As far as I know all the 14CUX family are physically plug compatable, although there have been both hardware and software changes over the years. The only modification I have found so far on the TVR one is the ECU fuel map. How badly damaged is the orgional ECU ? The TVR chip may still be in one piece, in which case you can simply tranfer it across to the Disco ECU, and give it a go. If you open the ECU up there will be a chip in a socket about 1" x .5", and on the TVR it will be marked 3.9 cat or the like and this is the one that needs swapping (with care !!). If the chip is no good, the fuel pump just runs constantly, as the CPU in the ECU has not started to run its program. If it runs, it is still possible you may get some fueling glitches like flat spots if the fuel map is not 100% compatable with the ECU revision. Otherwise I can supply you a TVR 3.9 chip to try, but I only have one version, although it runs perfectly on my 1992 3.9. Personally I think the price being asked for some 20 year old hardware is O.T.T, And as for the cost of after market chips- dont get me started!

Mark

Mark

[Gresh]

It's going in a Discovery.

(sorry folks!)

Is it possible to tell (without stripping the engine!) whether it's the 3.9 or the 3.9HC?

I have both the engine number and chassis number, but can't find an online resource to help me out :'(

Oh how I've been spoilt with Land Rovers!

Thanks for all help.

[dwgriffith]

At this stage just find out if it runs OK at all. The engine was subjected to a lot of heat from the fire and it's history is unknown?

[Gresh]

Yep, that is tomorrow's plan. The fire appeared to be interior based, although it did melt a couple of hoses and a couple of HT leads. The engine does turn over. Tomorrow's job is the fit and see if I can make it run.

[dwgriffith]

It may be prudent to remove at least the rocker covers and apply lots of oil to everything in there. The air flow meter had totally melted on that car. I took the wiper motor from it, ALL the grease inside had melted and drained out and some of the internal plastic parts had melted. The fire looked like it started in the battery area of the footwell hence the bulkhead and bonnet corner damage. Hopefully you will be lucky and have a decent engine out of it?

[Gresh]

dwgriffith said:

The fire looked like it started in the battery area of the footwell hence the bulkhead and bonnet corner damage. Hopefully you will be lucky and have a decent engine out of it?

Hmmm, yeah, hadn't considered that it started in the battery area. Thanks for that. The rockers were coming off for a clean anyhoo, I'd considered removing the sump, maybe a good idea too?

[Gresh]

Well, the engine is in. It's a beautiful motor, opened her up and there was none of the black sludge I've always associated with V8's. You could have very nearly eaten off it.

Just a shame that I forgot to change the phosphor-bronze bush! So engine came out again and sounded even better. The Discovery ECU runs it fine, probably a little under powered, but I can look at swapping the chip into another ECU when I find a spare.

Now all I need to do is build a decent exhaust as I reckon the standard disco one may be choking the engine.

Out of interest, does anyone know how TVR improved the V8 over the standard Rover set up?

Thanks for your help.

Gresh

[350Matt]

I think the only mods TVR did to the 4 ltr was a better cam and re-programmed ECU, Oh the manifolds and exhaust are probably better for power than the range rover ones as well

Matt