Chim "buying guide" in this week's Autocar
Discussion
SILICONE KID said:
HC stands for HIGH LIFT CAM !
No, asked Dom from Power about this a while back. Its high compression, and was brought about by Rover delivering a dodgy batch of heads to TVR Power with too high compression. To make the best of the situation, the engines were built up with a slightly wilder cam etc and called HC editions. Later on a very bad batch got sent to Power with even higher compression - these became the 400 "250 bhp" special editions. TVR - you gotta love them 
450Nick said:
these became the 400 "250 bhp" special editions. TVR - you gotta love them
How can you determine what cars were 250's? The only reason I ask is that my '99 400 is producing 240bhp on the rollers and is a standard car. Everyone is surprised at the output it achieves, considering the only change is a sports exhaust.
Not sure, I know there weren't very many of them but I thought that they had a 250 bhp logo on the plenum. That said, I think Hamish (bluebottle on here) had a set of those heads on his Griff 500, as it was standard, but when he charged it the thing detonated to hell. When they took the engine apart they found that the standard heads had some silly high compression IIRC, so these could well have been a set.
Garlick said:
How can you determine what cars were 250's?
The only reason I ask is that my '99 400 is producing 240bhp on the rollers and is a standard car. Everyone is surprised at the output it achieves, considering the only change is a sports exhaust.
My '95 400 is kicking out 1 bhp less than that (or was a few years back, the cam is a bit worn now The only reason I ask is that my '99 400 is producing 240bhp on the rollers and is a standard car. Everyone is surprised at the output it achieves, considering the only change is a sports exhaust.
)Apart from a Zertek (?) exhaust an MA remap she is standard.
captaintact said:
On a recent post of mine i was reminded that HC stands for HIGH LIFT CAM. This was from Steve of "the bible" fame!
I'm just going on what Dom @ Power told me. He has a build log of every single engine built for TVR in storage so if you want to clarify, I'd give him a call. He can settle an awful lot of the TVR engine and body myths if you ask him.450Nick said:
Not sure, I know there weren't very many of them but I thought that they had a 250 bhp logo on the plenum. That said, I think Hamish (bluebottle on here) had a set of those heads on his Griff 500, as it was standard, but when he charged it the thing detonated to hell. When they took the engine apart they found that the standard heads had some silly high compression IIRC, so these could well have been a set.
Interesting, never heard that one before. I kind of hope I have got one of their dodgy 450's now 450Nick said:
Not sure, I know there weren't very many of them but I thought that they had a 250 bhp logo on the plenum. That said, I think Hamish (bluebottle on here) had a set of those heads on his Griff 500, as it was standard, but when he charged it the thing detonated to hell. When they took the engine apart they found that the standard heads had some silly high compression IIRC, so these could well have been a set.
Why did his 500 come with 400 small valve heads? 
Dom
They just used what they had at the time.V8D told that they had found so many engine variations .Think it was just pure luck when they were purchased from new.Large valves not ported,ported with standard valves ,different size plenums inlet manifolds etc etc.You can drive different 4l cars and there like chaulk and cheese.
Edited by SILICONE KID on Monday 28th February 22:27
450Nick said:
I'm just going on what Dom @ Power told me. He has a build log of every single engine built for TVR in storage so if you want to clarify, I'd give him a call. He can settle an awful lot of the TVR engine and body myths if you ask him.
Ah, well I called TVR Power some four years ago with my engine # to confirm specification (purely for the purpose of identifying the correct parts to order for the rebuild, o'course 
) and the lady on the phone told me they did not keep any engine build data for engines before 2000something... Edited by 900T-R on Tuesday 1st March 16:00
Garlick said:
They could have taken some pictures of my car if they'd asked. Surprised they didn't actually.
I did wonder about the £500 dash too.
Given that it takes a good few hours to diassemble the dash and put everything back together (that is after you managed to locate the bolts that hold the dash top I did wonder about the £500 dash too.
) that doesn't sound an unreasonable quote for having the dash replaced, though. 900T-R said:
Ah, well I called TVR Power some four years ago with my engine # to confirm specification (purely for the purpose of knowing the correct parts to toder for the rebuild, o'course :angel) and the lady on the phone told me they did not keep any engine build data for engines before 2000something...
Ah well maybe he doesn't have them all them then Gassing Station | Chimaera | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff