Where to find a good Griff motor for my Cobra.
Discussion
Are you sure you want a TVR/RV8 motor. Have you considered the LS3 or similar? I realise it would not be such a straightforward swap but not that hard I wouldn't have thought and has the benefit of being a more modern engine with plenty of spares and accessories and probaly cheaper in the long run.
http://shop.partsworldperformance.com/ls3-v8-crate...
http://shop.partsworldperformance.com/ls3-v8-crate...
He's right about LS3 if you want 450bhp, but for a straightforward and cheap 300 bhp swap check what gearbox you have first - most griff or chim engines after about 1995 (?) have the T5 Borg Warner box - so that the new engine will just mate with its gearbox, and see what you can find. A good 4.5/4.6 is just about as good as a 5 litre power-wise, but a better engine, and the 4 litre is a very friendly engine and huge fun. And you might even find one complete with gearbox.
Depends what your budget is (says he who just got his standard 4 litre back yesterday, having man-mathed it into a V8 Developments 5 litre beast), but you can get a lot of good engine for not very much money if you choose carefully.
Remember that Griff and Chim engines are basically the same Rover V8 lump when searching, and try to pick up one that has all the accessories with it, not forgetting the Lucas 14 CUX ECU and loom
Depends what your budget is (says he who just got his standard 4 litre back yesterday, having man-mathed it into a V8 Developments 5 litre beast), but you can get a lot of good engine for not very much money if you choose carefully.
Remember that Griff and Chim engines are basically the same Rover V8 lump when searching, and try to pick up one that has all the accessories with it, not forgetting the Lucas 14 CUX ECU and loom
If 'twer me, I'd be looking at 4.6 Range Rover lumps, and a T5 box. You've probably got an LT77 in the Cob at the moment? You'll typically pay a hefty premium for a TVR engine, and the TVR 5.0 isn't necessarily the best choice (as I think QB mentioned). Going for a rangie lump also significantly opens your search options... (then fit an aftermarket ECU and SC it 
)
)Thanks for the info on Bell Hill Garage. It's only 10 minutes up the road from where I work, going to visit them at lunch time.
Ref the Cobra. Wrongly there is a "stigma" for having a RV8 in stead of a Yank SBC or SBF. People turn their noses up when they say what engine is in it? and I reply Rover. Most poorly informed people don't know that a Chevvy motor is actually wrong for a Cobra, it should actually be a Ford. That said, SBC's are plentiful and dirt cheap, but very heavy. I always liked the RV8, its light and easy to work on, plus the firing sequence makes for a lovely exhaust note, Yank motors always seem to sound as though they are lumpy.
I could go down the LS3 route, but I want to keep it old school. I will probably keep all the carbs and ditch all the injection system/electronic ECU etc, all i really want is the short motor and heads, I will where possible use as much as I can from my old motor. If that means getting a 4.6 RR motor, then I may have to accept it.
Thanks for all the advice.
Mark
Ref the Cobra. Wrongly there is a "stigma" for having a RV8 in stead of a Yank SBC or SBF. People turn their noses up when they say what engine is in it? and I reply Rover. Most poorly informed people don't know that a Chevvy motor is actually wrong for a Cobra, it should actually be a Ford. That said, SBC's are plentiful and dirt cheap, but very heavy. I always liked the RV8, its light and easy to work on, plus the firing sequence makes for a lovely exhaust note, Yank motors always seem to sound as though they are lumpy.
I could go down the LS3 route, but I want to keep it old school. I will probably keep all the carbs and ditch all the injection system/electronic ECU etc, all i really want is the short motor and heads, I will where possible use as much as I can from my old motor. If that means getting a 4.6 RR motor, then I may have to accept it.
Thanks for all the advice.
Mark
QBee said:
... A good 4.5/4.6 is just about as good as a 5 litre power-wise, but a better engine, and the 4 litre is a very friendly engine and huge fun.
Out of interest what aspect of the 4.5 makes it a better engine. I've heard many arguments about the smaller engines being free-reving but from your comment it sounds as though there may be a technical reason you're alluding to?Mark, out of curiousity what sort of power and torque are you looking for? I considered upgrading my MGB GT V8 a few years ago, common mod for that was a 3.9 block, and if IIRC almost everything off the 3.5 transferred straight across, but the restriction was in the gearbox which was still MGB/C... I even bought a pair of SD1 heads 
In the end I left it original..
Good luck with it, be keen to know which route you eventually go down Fancied a cobra for years, and had a look at Phil Ringwoods just before new year, it's Dax with 5.5 supercharged RV8... Phil writes programmes for megasquirt and he mapped my Chim for me He's on PH (daxtojeiro)
Chilli
In the end I left it original..Good luck with it, be keen to know which route you eventually go down
Fancied a cobra for years, and had a look at Phil Ringwoods just before new year, it's Dax with 5.5 supercharged RV8... Phil writes programmes for megasquirt and he mapped my Chim for me He's on PH (daxtojeiro)Chilli
This may sound odd!!! but I am not overly bothered with BHP, I guess 275 would be nice. My Vitesse is about 220BHP. I live in Shepton Mallet, Somerset so most of the roads are rural, so speed isn't really a consideration, I want a bit more low down grunt. Plus I am bored and want something to play with and to increase the value.
I want to increase the value of the Cobra, by putting a TVR motor in as opposed to a RV8(although essentially the same thing) Joe Public will think they have a better deal when it comes to sell it. If you put 2 x Dax Cobra's side by side and both were built to the same standard, the one with a Yank motor would command a premium of £5K, although you wouldn't necessarily be getting a better car!!!
I have also considered selling it and buying a Tuscan, there is a lovely Orange one on PH for £18K, but horror stories of the engine being brittle is putting me off. Plus the Cobra has zero depreciation, so is worth doing the work to upgrade it.
Mark
I want to increase the value of the Cobra, by putting a TVR motor in as opposed to a RV8(although essentially the same thing) Joe Public will think they have a better deal when it comes to sell it. If you put 2 x Dax Cobra's side by side and both were built to the same standard, the one with a Yank motor would command a premium of £5K, although you wouldn't necessarily be getting a better car!!!
I have also considered selling it and buying a Tuscan, there is a lovely Orange one on PH for £18K, but horror stories of the engine being brittle is putting me off. Plus the Cobra has zero depreciation, so is worth doing the work to upgrade it.
Mark
302 SBF and T5 box all the way. The correct looking, sounding and performing engine for your car and also much cheaper to build tune, buy bits for etc etc.
290hp without any major overboring, or unreliability issues, wearing cams etc etc etc.
Don't waste time with a rover for that particular car.
A core engine to rebuild can be had for as little as £300.
A good cooking crate engine £3000.
The reason to go for Ford is cost, reliability, spares availability, tunability. It is a bit heavier but a great little engine.
The amount of tuned rovers I used to blow into the weeds with my smoky old worn SBF was always comical. You could also build yourself a very powerful 331 stroked SBF for the price of an old breaker V* that happened to live in a griff once upon a time??
N.
290hp without any major overboring, or unreliability issues, wearing cams etc etc etc.
Don't waste time with a rover for that particular car.
A core engine to rebuild can be had for as little as £300.
A good cooking crate engine £3000.
The reason to go for Ford is cost, reliability, spares availability, tunability. It is a bit heavier but a great little engine.
The amount of tuned rovers I used to blow into the weeds with my smoky old worn SBF was always comical. You could also build yourself a very powerful 331 stroked SBF for the price of an old breaker V* that happened to live in a griff once upon a time??
N.
Edited by heightswitch on Wednesday 3rd April 13:12
Edited by heightswitch on Wednesday 3rd April 13:18
RichB said:
It's one hell of a problem. I get 'blown into the weeds' so frequently in my Griff 500 that I almost wet myself every time I take it out for a drive! 
I was talking cobra replica to cobra replica here 
Out of interest is it a very early Dax or a later chassid car??
I had a natter with Dave Johns of DJ sportscars once and told him all about my attempts to sort the front anti dive and cambering out problems on an early Dax I re-built with a mate..I told him that no matter what I tried I just could not get it to handle....Funny he said, we couldn't get the early cars to handle either....DJ have come a long way from the first cobras they built in the early to mid 80's.
This was the supermarket trolley in question. looked pretty and in a straight line would out drag most grifts. Cornering was a different matter though!!
N.
RichB said:
Out of interest what aspect of the 4.5 makes it a better engine. I've heard many arguments about the smaller engines being free-reving but from your comment it sounds as though there may be a technical reason you're alluding to?
The 4.6 is a strong, well designed Range Rover engine, hundreds of thousands made. The TVR 5 litre engine was a lengthened stroke on a 4.5 lump, not cross bolted and not internally balanced, and rougher and more fragile as a result. The one I have bought from V8D is a TVR 5 litre short engine, both cross bolted and internally balanced, with a complete ported induction kit and stage three heads. Done 250 miles in the last 24 hours running it in, and it's awesomely smooth , powerful and free revving.
You are welcome to come and see what it's like.....I am in the Cambs/West Norfolk/north Essex area
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