4.0 250 MODEL DO I SELL OR KEEP??????

[3024E]

Did not intentionally by a 4.0 for any reason, other than it was the best car i had seen out of 16 i looked at,,,, now is it worth the hassle to sell it and start again looking for a decent 500, mine is the 250bhp gas flowed model, (non cat so great noise) Only had it for 6 mths,first thing i would do is fully polly bush it and fit a set of 'Red' shocks, brakes have been up graded by previous...

What extra power would i get from fitting k&n filter and a big valve head, or a 500 head????
are there any problems with fitting a 500 head if any????

Do i fit a 5.0 and leave the cat off

cheers in advance

andy

[450Nick]

Fit a supercharger... Best thing I ever did to mine! www.sc-power.co.uk

[900T-R]

450Nick said:

Fit a supercharger... Best thing I ever did to mine! www.sc-power.co.uk

That does involve converting to the serpentine front end (& as a consequnce swap all the ancillaries) though - SC Power as yet don't plan to offer a conversion to fit pre-serp engines.

[griffter]

3024E said:

Did not intentionally by a 4.0 for any reason, other than it was the best car i had seen out of 16 i looked at,,,, now is it worth the hassle to sell it and start again looking for a decent 500, mine is the 250bhp gas flowed model, (non cat so great noise) Only had it for 6 mths,first thing i would do is fully polly bush it and fit a set of 'Red' shocks, brakes have been up graded by previous...

What extra power would i get from fitting k&n filter and a big valve head, or a 500 head????
are there any problems with fitting a 500 head if any????

Do i fit a 5.0 and leave the cat off

cheers in advance

andy

5 litre heads are big valve spec. Do you have a pair available? When I was sourcing BV heads, 5 litre heads were asked at £1500 a pair...

Personally if you know and like the car you've got, I'd stick with it and improve it. OTOH if you're dead set you want more torque, your best bet financially is probably to get a 500.

BVs on a 4 litre engine are a bit of an unknown. You'd have to get it remapped to get the best out of it, and you'd need to know your cam was in good shape. There'd be no point in going to all that effort only to strangle it with a cat.

[jimed]

Hi Andy - can't help you with the decision but if you are thinking of changing I may be in the market for a red Griff 400 and am in Lancs so send me a Pm.
Jim

[chedder]

Hi Andy, not too difficult to supercharge a pre serp if you are reasonably handy with a spanner.
If you are going to the West Lancs TVRCC January meeting you can have a look at mine and decide if it's worth doing!

[Pasco]

If it was me i would sell the 4ltr and buy a good 5ltr then when you realise you want more after a good summer then look at all of the options open to you and there are plenty because trust me you will want too

[Chimjunkie]

Would you not need pocketed pistons with the big valve heads? Cam dependent of course.

[griffdude]

All IMHO of course......

Keep the car & upgrade to your satisfaction/specification.
Your car is a known quantity to you.
Do a ride drive course, you can get more out of what you've got.
The 1st thing you'll do to a 5ltr is try & make it sound like your pre-cat.
Sell you 4.0 engine, put in 4.6; should have similar/more grunt than a std 5ltr with a few tweeks on the way.
At this time of year it'll take you ages to sell your Griff unless you really price it 'keenly', then sod's law says the 5 ltr car you want is just above your budget.

[spend]

CJ's right if you want BV heads, you must have the pocketed pistons, correct cam and high compression... Its a whole load of pain stripping your engine to bits to find out what of these additions you need. At the end of the day you are still not guaranteed a great hike.

A 5litre engine swap is the easiest way to get to 5.0 territory, but if you want more a later 4.0 (serp) swap and SC/Turbo may work out a better cost alternative. If you want more without swapping the engine Boosteds Turbo conversion is getting closer, it doesn't care if you are serp or pre-serp, but you would prob need another ecu thats all.

Its all a lot of work, and you have to be sure the basic car is what you want before you start. Any doubt about chassis etc.. easier to swap I would be biased as I do like to see the earlier cars restored and developed, our longevity as a marque is like sticking 2 fingers up at the World IMHO

[tvralfagtv6]

With the risk of being totally controversial :-). a griff can't put the power down any way ! due to the overwhelming torque, a 5.0 adds even more torque the last thing you need, what you need is power, i.e more torque at a much higher rpm and less torque at low rpm. Trouble is you are limited to 6k rpm ceiling both by port size and engine strength. I have said it before on here if your 400 is well sorted you will not think about needing a 500.In fact you will positively avoid it, When I first got my precat 250 it was SLoooowwwww. when they are on the money trust me they are quick, reason for mine being slow (relatively). plug gap 25 thou, timing 8 degrees at idle, co way too high 3.8 at idle wrong, throttle pot setting incorrectly set throttle butterfly not correctly set, coil tired,distributor worn, coolant temp sensor out of spec and air temp sensor reading incorrectly add to that a cam chain that may have stretched and allowed the the cam to become retarded and you have a good recipe for a torquey 170bhp all in motor, or 1.8 k series equivalent except a k series is 150kg or two people lighter revs freer smoother etc and is generally nicer to live with. iF YOU JUST ADD CAPACITY all you do is emphasise the torquey nature of the 4x4 v8 we all love. Big valve heads (although still small in comparison to any other modern car)are the way to go, but again you must at least check that it is correctly set up.

[Tildo430]

I think you have the right idea getting the suspension and bushes sorted before looking at extra bhp. I have a standard 4.3 dyno'd at 240hp and fitted with good after market shocks and it gets the power down just fine.

Its always going to be cheaper selling than modifying. I would suggest a rolling road session with a performance speacilats who deals with RV8's to make sure that your car is performing as it should. In my experience the 4.0 cars are only usually good for 200-220 hp is standard form anyway.

I have had this dilema myself and personally i think chasing HP is a bit of a mugs game. There will be plenty of people who would dissagree and if you have money to burn and a real interest in performance tuning then i don't see why a 4.0 would be any less tunable than a bigger capacity engine and at least starting from a 4.0 any perfomance gains should be felt the most.

Good luck either way.

P.S. Sell yours for 8k - add 4k christmas money and buy a tuscan. This thought keeps returning to me. Do your homework though...

[3024E]

Thats what i was pondering/thinking tildo,

Sell mine for £8k, someone locally has already shown interest in mine i add £4k and get a 500......as i could easily throw £2k at mine with not much to show???????????????


Then having spent half what it would cost to buy a 500 has already been spent????????

...........Ive even thought of buying a Noble M12,NOW THATS BAD.....I love my griff



''''I used to be indecisive but now im not sure'''''...lol

[450Nick]

It would cost a bit more, but what about selling just your engine for £1-2k and buying a nice 4.6L for £2/2.5k?

Then when you'd got used to it, you could bolt on a supercharger kit and turn your car (which is a good solid car that you spent a good deal of time choosing), into something which can leave a Tuscan S, Cerb 4.5 or Noble M12 in the dust. That way you get the best of both worlds - open top, V8 roar but with all the power you'll ever need.

...If you do this, get hold of the ACT decat manifolds and cherrybomb exhaust as well. Combined with a supercharged RV8, I think it makes the best noise I've ever heard!

[900T-R]

Indeed - given that all of our cars are getting on a bit now I wouldn't swap one that I know to be 'proper' for an unknown quantity of mostly the same. In reality, at about 260-270ish an average 500 isn't that much more powerful and its delivery is an acquired taste.

[Bluebottle]

It may be an acquired taste Eric, but its a very additive one ..especially when when you have 450 of this pescy little torques to play with .

Go large, Go supercharged