Is the Rover V8 really so fragile

[xain]

Hi all,
I was reading the bumpf on rpiv8.com (don't look, it'll just worry you!) and they seem very knowledgable chaps.

However, they talk about the Rover V8 like it's made of glass. Everything, apparently, is just seconds from wearing out and taking the entire engine with it.

In particular I was concerned by two things:
1) They reckon that these engines' blocks have a habit of cracking. This, they claim, is caused by the ECU running the engines very lean. This coupled with cheap or low octane fuel is pretty much guaranteed to crack the block where the cylinder liners sit. Does this mean that all 95 octane users are condemning their engines?

2) If the camshaft/followers are even slightly worn then they are toast, and so probably is your entire engine.
Now I've got the old Rover 3500 Haynes manual, and they show a nice circular wear on the cam followers as "Good even wear, OK" So why now are they super-critical?

I'm assuming that all this stuff is just so they can sell their uprated ECUs and camshafts, but it does worry me because they clearly are knowledgable.

Anyone have any thoughts? Peter? Steve?

[GreenV8s]

quote:they talk about the Rover V8 like it's made of glass. Everything, apparently, is just seconds from wearing out and taking the entire engine with it.

I haven't dealt with these RPI so I can't speak from personal experience, but I'd bear in mind they are in the business of selling uprated engine components. If they can convince you there are many potential problems, and they (RPIv8) are the only people who understand them fully, that's half their marketting job done. The reality is these engines are very under stressed, the basic mechanical components regularly last hundreds of thousands of miles in production vehicles, and there are dozens of specialists who take them up to relatively high states of tune - which would not be practical if the engines were inherently fragile. I'm not saying they're wrong, just be aware that their technical advice isn't impartial.

[douglasr]

If its so fragile why have Rover and Range Rover used it since the 50's ?

Sounds like rubbish to me - maybe a 5 litre TVR Power engine is pushing the reliability envelope a little, but even at that, 80bhp per litre is not a highly stressed engine.

I'm sure any design faults were ironed out long ago.

[pbrettle]

See previous thread about mine, but the AA chap that was looking at it earlier has a Range Rover himself and has not had any troubles with his (or experience with the Rover V8 in general) other than simple problems with the V8 - mechanically the engine is solid and not very stressed. It tends to be the anciliary components that fail - electrics, cables that type of thing.

All in all not an overly complicated engine that has had its reliability confirmed in the fact that so many people use it in so many different installations. Ok, so the TVR variants are a little more stressed than normal, but still, you dont hear of that many major problems with them - pretty good engine really...

Cheers,

Paul

[RCA]

I ran mine through a flood and filled it with water (duh!) It came to an abrupt halt which in most engines would snap conrods or even put a piston through the top but after disposing of all the water and there was a lot of it!!!!! It started up pretty much straight away and was mint, fair enough I was very lucky but if these engines are so fragile then how come it did not break!!!!!!!!

[kevinday]

250,000 miles in a Range Rover towing a car trailer, one top end rebuild at 185,000. Nuff said.