TVR Standard head work

[virgil]

Does anyone know how much work (if any) TVR did on the heads of the 500 engines. I'm guessing they may just have chucked in a big bottom end with standard Range Rover heads to save the 'tuning' costs associated with big valves, ported heads, 3 angle seats etc.

Also are the valves on the 4.3BV head bigger than the standard 500?

Cheers,

Virgil

[pebbledash]

the 500 heads have Big valves, same as the Bv's + other head work.

not exactly sure what but is not a STD rover one.

[virgil]

pebbledash said:

the 500 heads have Big valves, same as the Bv's + other head work. not exactly sure what but is not a STD rover one.

So no easy power gains with a dremmel and a valve seat cutter then?

If we all believe a 500 puts out around 300 genuine HP, 60hp/litre is a fairly rubbish output. Especially when the engine's dry sumped!

[GreenV8S]

Rather less than 300 I think, and it isn't dry sumped. But that isn't bad for a 2-valve pushrod engine this size. The power can be increased substantially, but people charge serious money for this, and the reason they can do that is because it is hard to do.

[IPAddis]

IIRC, the heads have already been ported and gas-flowed to Stage 3/4 level. Somebody actually told me that TVR's ports are actually too big for efficient gas flow.

Details on "alleged TVR engine work" in the bible.

Ian A.

[JonRB]

IPAddis said:

IIRC, the heads have already been ported and gas-flowed to Stage 3/4 level. Somebody actually told me that TVR's ports are actually too big for efficient gas flow.

Yep. That's what I was told too when I had a cracked head on my 500.

One of the options I had was a used head off a 400 that could be modfied "up to 500 spec".

Another option was Stage 3 heads, to which I was told that the 500 heads were equivalent, and if I wanted anything better than that it would be serious money.

In the end I had TVR Power do a weld repair because that was the most cost-effective option.

[pebbledash]

The TVR RV8 500 heads are as good as they get without going Realy silly. Aparently the Valves are a little to large for the amount of air that the inductions system can flow, but i think its all a bit marginal.

there are aftremarket heads for the RV8 wich can flow lots more, but they are expensive..

[JonRB]

pebbledash said:

The TVR RV8 500 heads are as good as they get without going Realy silly. Aparently the Valves are a little to large for the amount of air that the inductions system can flow, but i think its all a bit marginal.

Yep. That's my understanding too.