Engine Rebuild begins!

[debaron]

Hi all,

Just got back from picking up my Range Rover 4.6 engine.



It's looking pretty sorry for itself in the back of my van right now but eventually It's going to be 'converted' to TVR 4.5 spec as a replacement for my 3.9 non-crossbolted aging engine.

It's going to be going off to Rob at V8D for flanged liners, new cam bearings and honed.
Then the crank is going to be reground and the bottom end will be rebuilt with ARP studs and all balanced.

I'll be putting a MC1 or Stealth cam in and topping it off with Stage 3 heads from V8D.

I'll put pics up and will no doubt be bothering everyone with technical questions now and again!

Very excited! if anyone has any tips or advice please let me know

PS - trying to track down a copy of Des Hammill's RV8 book but nobody seems to have stock. If anyone knows of anywhere that has any please let me know.

Ryan

Edited by debaron on Tuesday 3rd May 22:24

Edited by debaron on Tuesday 3rd May 22:25

Edited by debaron on Tuesday 3rd May 22:26

[TV8]

Sounds good. What power are you hoping for?

[debaron]

Well they say about 265 - 275 at the flywheel with those mods - the big valve heads prob making the big difference.

My 3.9 had 220 at the fly on Austecs road so an extra 55 horses will be nice!

[haircutmike]

With heads, cam, trumpets, inlet porting and induction, you should easily see over 300 horses.

[450 Paul]

I have a 450 with V8D stage 3 heads and the inlet ported and matched, opened trumpet base and shorter trumpets, throttle opened up etc and they did a great job.

I went with the original spec cam on the reccomendation of Dom at TVR Power and I am glad I did this as I still have greater torque than BHP and it pulls in any gear. I didnt want a engine that didnt pull from low down or that I had to rev the nxxs off to get max power.

Its making 341 BHP and just over 360 lbs torque and I change at 5500 revs to keep it on max power.

Good luck with the rebuild.

[450 Paul]

I have a 450 with V8D stage 3 heads and the inlet ported and matched, ported trumpet base and shorter trumpets, throttle opened up etc and they did a great job.

I went with the original spec cam on the reccomendation of Dom at TVR Power and I am glad I did this as I still have greater torque than BHP and it pulls in any gear. I didnt want a engine that didnt pull from low down or that I had to rev the nxxs off to get max power.

Its making 341 BHP and just over 360 lbs torque and I change at 5500 revs to keep it on max power.

Good luck with the rebuild.

[anonymous-user]

Very interested in this thread as I will later this year be converting my cross bolted 4.0 to 4.6 with a crank and pitons from a 4.6.

What are you going to do about the ECU ?

David

[Alexdaredevilz]

cliffords said:

Very interested in this thread as I will later this year be converting my cross bolted 4.0 to 4.6 with a crank and pitons from a 4.6.

What are you going to do about the ECU ?

David

I thought that combo with the 4.0 pistons gives a nice higher compression?

[tr7v8]

debaron said:

Hi all,

PS - trying to track down a copy of Des Hammill's RV8 book but nobody seems to have stock. If anyone knows of anywhere that has any please let me know.

Ryan

I have a copy here of the Hardcastle book which is unwanted but there is also a copy on fleabay at the mo.

[debaron]

cliffords said:

What are you going to do about the ECU ?

Megasquirt is the only way to go from a cost/performance point of view.

If not I'd have to build the engine up and then go best guess from MA or get it towed to Austec / MA for RR (£££'s). From what I've read on The Resource Megasquirt is pretty easy to tune - plus am keen to get rid of AFM/Stepper and rest of the troublesome Lucas crap!

Ryan

[anonymous-user]

Ryan

Have you priced up the megasquirt yet ?

[debaron]

cliffords said:

Ryan

Have you priced up the megasquirt yet ?

http://www.extraefi.co.uk/RV8_Kits.html

3rd one down - £580 - should be ideal I reckon

All the bits and bobs plus direct fire coils so no EDIS8 module.

[debaron]

Ok - well stage 1 is done!


Stripped the engine down to block and crank to send to V8D









Engine stand is really handy





Pistons came out no probs





Crank seemed to be in very good nick





Not so for the main bearings - 1 and 3 (counting from front) were in a shlte state













No dramas encountered yet! I guess stripping it is the easy bit.
Going back together will be the PITA!

[debaron]

Well its been a while!

So far have had the block sent off to Rob to be fitted with flanged liners, original pistons pocketed, fully balanced and bottom end rebuilt.
Went with standard main cap bolts and the crank didn't need regrinding in the end.

All came back looking great:







ARP Head Studs went in









Cam wise - went with a Crower 50233 in the end. After much contemplation I decided that I did want a good degree of the power to be 'up top'

Ok so driving around town in the traffic might not as smooth but I guess it makes it a bit more reassuring when you know you're not going to spin the wheels up til you hit 3000.

Makes those tight pull aways from junctions in the wet a bit less hairy!!


Got the Cam nose ground so I could fit the retaining plate (Thanks to Rob again - PS Rob - found the plate in with the inlet manifold - which I totally forgot I'd even ordered!!)












Next up - Heads: Decided on Stage 3 Heads from V8D again - they really are a thing of beauty!









Now to the rocker assemblies. After a bit of debate it was decided to use decent second hand rockers with new shafts due to the trouble (cost) of getting hold of new genuine RV8 items (£40 a rocker!!) and the fact that the steel aftermarket rockers have misaligned oil holes and the pushrod seats are all at different heights. Secured a low mileage set from a nice fella in Bath for £25!













After a nice clean in the dishwasher, assembling the rockers was much easier than expected - a spell in the freezer for the shafts certainly helps.

I used the John Eales outrigger posts - very nice bit of kit and worth considering on high revving engines









Bracket for holding the DTI is sorted









More tomorrow - I'll mostly be getting TDC sorted and timing in the cam

Edited by debaron on Saturday 21st July 00:24

Edited by debaron on Saturday 21st July 00:27

Edited by debaron on Saturday 21st July 00:30

[MPoxon]

Great build thread

[Simon says]

Can i take it you stayed with stock valve sizes then? nice thread

Edited by Simon says on Saturday 21st July 09:55

[SILICONEKID340HP]

450 Paul said:

I have a 450 with V8D stage 3 heads and the inlet ported and matched, ported trumpet base and shorter trumpets, throttle opened up etc and they did a great job.

I went with the original spec cam on the reccomendation of Dom at TVR Power and I am glad I did this as I still have greater torque than BHP and it pulls in any gear. I didnt want a engine that didnt pull from low down or that I had to rev the nxxs off to get max power.

Its making 341 BHP and just over 360 lbs torque and I change at 5500 revs to keep it on max power.

Good luck with the rebuild.

I have the 5l short engine with stage 3 heads ,cant understand why its only making 340hp when mine is another 500cc.Ported everything like yours.

[haircutmike]

Very similar build to mine.

I went for the steel rockers with adjustable pushrods, let's hope they last!

What pistons are you using, 4.6?

I was going to use that cam but the pr*t sent the wrong one and refused to take it back .

[Russell Mc]

This is pretty much the spec I want mine to be. Have the Stage 3 heads already and the 4.6 block so will be keeping an eye om this to see how it turns out. Good luck with the build.

[debaron]

Simon says said:

Can i take it you stayed with stock valve sizes then? nice thread

Edited by Simon says on Saturday 21st July 09:55

Thanks Simon - they should be larger - V8D Website states that the Stage 3's have larger valves.
How much bigger I'm not sure - I'll try and get a ruler across them later