4.3BV research
Discussion
I'm doing some research on the 4.3BV Griffith (after just buying one!!) and wondered what knowledge exists on these cars.
I've got Steve Heath's book, so have some information from that. There's also similar information on the Griffith Pages, but apart from that i've got little information. Can anyone help?!?!
I've got Steve Heath's book, so have some information from that. There's also similar information on the Griffith Pages, but apart from that i've got little information. Can anyone help?!?!
I don't know of a definitive resource. The question of 'what is a BV' comes up from time to time on PH and always seems to get a different answer!
Some say it's just BV heads.
Some say it's heads and camshaft.
Some say it's heads, camshaft, finer balancing and lightened flywheel.
The answer may be that it's whatever the customer paid for. Your best bet has to be to contact TVR Power - who built the engines. Trouble is, I'm not sure they kept records. You could try the TVRCC archivist.
Finally, there seems to be at least one genuine 430 BV Chimaera in existence, so the plot thickens...
There's some suggestion that my 4.3 might be a BV, but I gave up trying to prove it a long time ago. Basically, without irrefutable (ie factory) documentary evidence or taking the heads off, you just don't know.
Some say it's just BV heads.
Some say it's heads and camshaft.
Some say it's heads, camshaft, finer balancing and lightened flywheel.
The answer may be that it's whatever the customer paid for. Your best bet has to be to contact TVR Power - who built the engines. Trouble is, I'm not sure they kept records. You could try the TVRCC archivist.
Finally, there seems to be at least one genuine 430 BV Chimaera in existence, so the plot thickens...
There's some suggestion that my 4.3 might be a BV, but I gave up trying to prove it a long time ago. Basically, without irrefutable (ie factory) documentary evidence or taking the heads off, you just don't know.
griffter said:Some very good comments there.For me,if i were to find big valve heads on a 4.3 i would still want a lot more evidence that it was a factory big valve.I too read the thread on the chim forum about the guy who found he had big valve heads on his 4.3.Its very easy to put big valve heads onto any RV8,so it doesnt mean much really.The only people who count for a real opinion are TVR themselves,if they say it was a BV when it left the factory then it was,if in any doubt then assume its not imho.
I don't know of a definitive resource. The question of 'what is a BV' comes up from time to time on PH and always seems to get a different answer!
Some say it's just BV heads.
Some say it's heads and camshaft.
Some say it's heads, camshaft, finer balancing and lightened flywheel.
The answer may be that it's whatever the customer paid for. Your best bet has to be to contact TVR Power - who built the engines. Trouble is, I'm not sure they kept records. You could try the TVRCC archivist.
Finally, there seems to be at least one genuine 430 BV Chimaera in existence, so the plot thickens...
There's some suggestion that my 4.3 might be a BV, but I gave up trying to prove it a long time ago. Basically, without irrefutable (ie factory) documentary evidence or taking the heads off, you just don't know.
mine is a big valve cus I put them in 
If you pay TVR £35 odd they will tell you exactly what it was sold as, along with service history. From what I have found they should have an engine no with 43P in the middle and V at the end.
I would be interested to know of other mods, i.e is the chip the same, or the airlfow meter, etc. My car is a 4.0L but was converted to 4.3BV in 1993, in its first year. So I am really not sure what it is, except it goes well.
Nic
I would be interested to know of other mods, i.e is the chip the same, or the airlfow meter, etc. My car is a 4.0L but was converted to 4.3BV in 1993, in its first year. So I am really not sure what it is, except it goes well.
Nic
There's some info here ...
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=9&t=166124
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=9&t=166124
nicbowman said:
If you pay TVR £35 odd they will tell you exactly what it was sold as, along with service history. From what I have found they should have an engine no with 43P in the middle and V at the end.
I've not had this done, but the previous owner did and mine's an original factory spec one...and it has 43P in the middle and a V at the end...!
barreti said:
There's some info here ...
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=9&t=166124
Cheers for that - i'd tried searching the forums but the search doesn't seem to like searching for "4.3 BV".
As i have mentioned on a different thread the BV has been upgrades as follows.
Gas flown and polished heads,reprofiled cam upping the compression ratio,lightened and balanced fly wheel plus remapping the management system and fuel injection system.My 4.3 BV is a factory original and not a retrofit and i have the original order from TVR. The source of my information is an Autotest report of 1993 covering 4.3 and 4.3 BV.In the book 'The Griffith Story'on page 92 it states that only 4 factory 4.3 BV'S were built so the genuine ones are very rare indeed.
Gas flown and polished heads,reprofiled cam upping the compression ratio,lightened and balanced fly wheel plus remapping the management system and fuel injection system.My 4.3 BV is a factory original and not a retrofit and i have the original order from TVR. The source of my information is an Autotest report of 1993 covering 4.3 and 4.3 BV.In the book 'The Griffith Story'on page 92 it states that only 4 factory 4.3 BV'S were built so the genuine ones are very rare indeed.
nicbowman said:
If you pay TVR £35 odd they will tell you exactly what it was sold as, along with service history. From what I have found they should have an engine no with 43P in the middle and V at the end.
This certainly is the case with mine, which I have had verified by TVR as a factory original engine (Barreti's old one). I find it hard to believe that it would be one of only four though, surely more than 4 buyers of 702 Griffs would have specified BV ?
>> Edited by TEGRIFFIC on Friday 31st March 19:04
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