buick v8 history and a couple of questions??

Cast iron Buick blocks will not bolt up to a Rover bell housing.On the V6 side I had the fortune to have a brief look at some of the Land Rover Factory experimental area/vehicles in 1979 (had organised a visit through the main factory which fell through on arrival - expermental was the substitute!).Later on I was talking to an employee who had a 90 deg. alum. Rover V6, an item from their experimental engineers (a V8 minus a pair of cylinders) that he was supposed to take to the scrappers but had `liberated` it instead.

Opens the door up also to the BMW M60 4.6L V8 as these IIRC also used the ZF4HP22/24 gearbox which would make them a direct fit using the BMW bellhousing.

Now that WOULD be a nice donk!

Cheers

Andrew

The cast iron Buick 300/340 engines are much the same as the original all alloy 215, and all the heads are interchangeable, though the 1965-67 iron heads require a bit more work to sort out the water ways. The 1964 only Buick 300s had alloy heads that outlfow any of the Rover heads even 4.6 and will support over 400 hp.

I know of a couple of Rover SD1s with 340 motors in them in the States, but I think they run GM auto trans as well, not the LT77. There is a lot of interchangeability between the Rover and later V6 Buick front engine covers, water pumps etc, but not bell housings. And yes there are bloodlines to the V6 Commodore engines, though little direct compatability with the Rover engines.

TA Performance in the US are about to release new Rover head castings based on the successful Buick V6 design that will flow huge amounts of air putting them up with the Wildcats but at a more realistic price than those monsters. Cylinder heads have awlays been the RV8s achilles heel, so a 4.6 with decent big valve heads should be able to match the performance potential of the other Yank marques. These will bolt straight on and cost much less dollars and pain than doing a Chev / BMW transplant .

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Originally Posted by Sprint

another thought is the 3.8L V6 from a VN-VR commodore..... essentially 3/4 of an evolved rover V8

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No it's 3/4 of an evolved Buick V8. That design programme never went anywhere near Rover.

As I understand it Buick canned the V8 alloy engine in the early 1960s there were too many failures for the American auto industry. They did do V6 steel blocks which were based on the same designs and which were successful. It is from these engines that the Commodore V6 was developed.

Which trans do you have? A Chev conversion can be quite cheap to install and run on gas. Been done heaps of times so there is plenty of info.

DL

GM got out of aluminium engines because the then state of foundry technology made them an expensive proposition. Mass production of complex aluminium castings was then not easily achieved. High casting reject rate, slow production rate, high warranty costs were all experienced by GM with the BOP V8 and the later Chev. Vega. When I say "mass production" and "high warranty costs" I mean by GM standards. At one time GM was making 10,000 Chev. small block and 7,000 iron V6's per day.

To their credit they continued research and development of aluminium castings in high volume and made the current widespread use of aluminium engines possible with their developments. The US motor industry also led the world in foundry technology with their work on thin wall iron castings leading to the quite light weights achieved by Chev, Chrysler, and Ford with their small block engines in the 60's.

By the mid 60's the fad for compact cars had just about passed. Fuel was cheap and big cars with big engines were in vogue. GM marketers had no need for the little aluminium V8.

It is interesting to note that Rover had to do some redesign to be able to manufacture the engine in their antiquated (1928) engine plant.

Mass production numbers were the reason GM had Mercury build the engines for the ZR1 Corvette. Estimated annual sales were less than a morning's work at Chevrolets engine plants. Not worth the bother and disruption so it was subbied out to Mercury. Until quite recently Cadillac claimed to be the only mass producer of luxury cars in the world. Once again the definition of "mass production" was by GM's standards. Most others were cottage industries in comparison.

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Originally Posted by 350RRC

Which trans do you have? A Chev conversion can be quite cheap to install and run on gas. Been done heaps of times so there is plenty of info.

DL

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how cheap is cheap? the engine in my disco has packed it in and im looking for other more powerful options

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Originally Posted by jazzaD1

how cheap is cheap? the engine in my disco has packed it in and im looking for other more powerful options

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Hi Jazza,

Most common is Chev with LT95, don't know how you'd go mating to a ZF or LT77.

Used Chev $1500 ish, new crate motor $3500 ish, engine mounts about $300 from Marks or make your own, adaptor plate kit from one of the rod shops about $500 (less second hand). Need a motor with gas iron heads, or alloy heads if you're going to run gas. Engineering $ ??

Cheapest way is to find a RRC with a Chev already fitted and strip it.

Mine has done about 400,000 k's and gets around 4 k's to a litre of lpg, which works out at 10 - 11 cents / k.

Rovercare might be able to help you out with some of this stuff.

cheers, DL

[QUOTE=350RRC;1054963]Hi Jazza,

Most common is Chev with LT95, don't know how you'd go mating to a ZF or LT77.

Used Chev $1500 ish, new crate motor $3500 ish, engine mounts about $300 from Marks or make your own, adaptor plate kit from one of the rod shops about $500 (less second hand). Need a motor with gas iron heads, or alloy heads if you're going to run gas. Engineering $ ??



marks adapters do a kit for ally chev to ZF
you can also get a kit to put the ally chev and 4L80E box behind it to the landrover transfer case.

approx 4k for a crat engine 4k for a modified 4L80E - lower first and second plus stronger sprag clutch and plates 2k for the adapter kit, then you have to fit it

I looked long and hard at doing this but in the end i couldn't justify the cost of it into 10 year old car.

Blythe

P.S. the BMW heart transplant may really be a good option

well on the note of BMW engines, albiet a little on the large side, but the 5.0l and 5.4l v12 7 series also use zf 22/24's, you can get a whole smashed 7 seies 89-94 for bugger all these days, actually a good one isn;t worth much either.

bmw v12 - 29.25"L x 19.5"W x 25.5"H

rover 3.9 v8 - 28.00L x 26.00W x 27.00H

So it would actually have no problems fitting in there, if a different bellhousing was used on the bmw, you could just use the bellhousing off that and bolt it to you'r ouw zf you already have and presto - haha that makes it sound easy