Thread: BUICK BITS INTO ROVER V8

Originally Posted by Debacle

Have a look at these

Affordable Aluminum V-8, Team Buick

Olds FAQ -- Jetfire

They mention the Buick 300 aluminum heads being a direct fit on a 215, but I saw no mention of 350 heads.

Originally Posted by Reads90

Yeah that is what the story is

That the rover v8 is a Buick lump anyway. It was too small for the yanks so the poms bought it in the 60's and put it in any thing they could

I was only reading about it a few weeks back, (someone started a thread on the rover P6 which piqued my interest)

I'll try and dig up a link, but IIRC the Buick engine was die cast and the Rover sand cast, the Rover is therefore a little heavier and a few things were changed to simplify construction.

The Buick 215 team leader was employed by Rover to oversee setup and production.

Another bit of trivia is that the basic Buick 215 engine design became the basis for the famous Buick 90* V6 that after a long evolution eventually ended up in production here powering Commodores.

Originally Posted by Debacle

Is the RRv8 a direct copy of the Buick or did they change anything ?

GM passed on it for several reasons.

The fad for compact cars had passed and sales numbers in this class had dropped right off. Buyers of American cars went back to full size cars and this continued until the first Arab oil shock.

High production cost. Rejection rate was unacceptable. Their experiences with this and the four cylinder Chev. Vega engine prompted a lot of research into high volume production of complex aluminium castings. GM's work pretty much made possible the widespread use of aluminium engines today. They also got Du Pont involved in research into sealing porous castings. Du Pont had been major shareholders in GM for decades until anti-trust proceedings forced them to sell their shares about 1958. One time they owned 40%.

GM regarded it as a high warranty cost engine.

About this time American iron foundry research had made available the ability to produce thin wall castings in high volumes. Much cheaper than aluminium castings and of acceptable mass.

Rover had to do a certain amount of redesign to be able to build it on their antiquated engine plant.

Originally Posted by Debacle

Have a look at these

Affordable Aluminum V-8, Team Buick

Olds FAQ -- Jetfire

They mention the Buick 300 aluminum heads being a direct fit on a 215, but I saw no mention of 350 heads.

I have not found any mention anywhere of aluminium heads for the Buick 350. I did find a reference to using 350 iron heads on aluminium blocks and thus getting better head gasket sealing and durability in performance engines at higher compression ratios.

Originally Posted by rick130

Another bit of trivia is that the basic Buick 215 engine design became the basis for the famous Buick 90* V6 that after a long evolution eventually ended up in production here powering Commodores.

GM built about 200,000 of the aluminium V8 during its short production life there. This engine family also included the V6 of which GM ended up making 7,000,000.

Originally Posted by rick130

I was only reading about it a few weeks back, (someone started a thread on the rover P6 which piqued my interest)

I'll try and dig up a link, but IIRC the Buick engine was die cast and the Rover sand cast, the Rover is therefore a little heavier and a few things were changed to simplify construction.

The Buick 215 team leader was employed by Rover to oversee setup and production.

Another bit of trivia is that the basic Buick 215 engine design became the basis for the famous Buick 90* V6 that after a long evolution eventually ended up in production here powering Commodores.

I have 2 x of these 231 CI V6's at home, one is a late 77 even fire stock and the other is a 79 hi port head version with an edlbrock performer manifold and buick turbo alloy valve covers. One is for a 58 FC sedan and the other is a spare - hotrod maybe.

I also modded a spare HEI dizzy to fit a RV8 .

from what I know, A rover guy was in the usa doing a deal regarding rover marine engines and saw the buick V8 and asked about it....told it was a discontinued engine he thought it perfect for their 2 current projects that were under wraps, these being the RR and the 101. both were under development at the same time and one reason the RR got the ag gearbox was that the 101 was pretty much a sure thing with LR's contacts and relation with the British Milatary, and only having the funding for 1 gearbox/t/case developemt made sure it was what was needed for the 101 and used in the RR. This is why it is strong and has the ability to have a rear pto that will operate at the same speed to drive a power drivin trailier.

There also was a SIIA 88 built by a LR dealer in the USA in the late 60's with one of these Buick V8, I think it was named Golden Rod. It had many mods, like seats, wider rims and bigger tyres chrome trim the LWB brakes etc. There was also a seriesIIA test bed vehicle built (red in colour) that was filled with gauges for evealuating the V8, this done in the UK.

anyway regarding buick rover mods, what about:

TA Performance Products Inc.

I thought they were doing their own castings for heads and have done one for the rover v8 that is ment to be on par with the wildcat stuff but 1/3 the price???

did someone mention buick 300 cranks?
BritishV8 Forum: Designing Buick/Rover V8 Cams