The V8 Owners Forum -

Sorry, not really been making myself that clear. I think the dyno operator said 2-3bhp with a bit more advance, so I don't think there was all that much more to have from it. That's why he was happy to suggest setting it back a couple of degrees and making sure no pre-ignition. I think you've basica...

Cheers for the info and advice. Carb and dizzy are nearly new so no probs there. Ok, so it sounds like no easy additional gains (not that there were ever likely to be any) without some reasonable expenditure and time/effort. With the engine running pretty well and me getting to grips with the car I ...

Yeah can't get away with a taller manifold unfortunately. 210lbft is at the wheels. So I am assuming that would equate to around 240lbft at the flywheel if I apply the same losses as there are for bhp? So if that's right then its 20lbft more than the 3.5 at 500rpm lower in the rpm range. Is that sti...

Hi guys, Got my car rolling roaded on Friday. Result was 187bhp (at 5300rpm) and 210lbft (at 3500rpm) at the wheels after a session adjusting the carb fuelling and a small amount of tweaking to the timing. I understand my LT77 transmission and associated running gear to have around 35bhp transmissio...

Update for you.... Managed to get hold of a near new Mallory with Unilite conversion for a very good price off someone I know so now heading down this route.... Decided if possible I'd still like to keep the vac advance for mpg, but also for pick-up and not sure I could have done that with the Lucas...

Cheers for the info Dave. Yes I may well give in and go down the programmable ignition route at some point but for the short term I just want to do a few fiddles to get it running 'relatively' well so I can just get out and enjoy the car. So far all I've done is swap the rods/jets with the advice fr...

A bit of a long delay before another update but got to check the ign advance this weekend. I had the static at 12deg with about 750rpm idle, I then measured 25deg at 2000rpm and 30deg at 3000rpm (all with vac advance disconnected). Didn't want to rev the engine higher in the garage, the neighbours w...

They are hydraulic and work as hydraulic for most of the time.... what the guys have been trying to explain is that at high rpm (and possibly with high oil pressure) the lifters finally pump up and start acting a bit like solid ones, therefore the valve is never fully shut because they've extended t...

Hi Tom, Yeah I'd read that thread a few weeks back thanks (your info was really useful) and based on that I bought the rocker shafts from island4x4 to try. Just waiting on some rockers to arrive (new) and then when I have those I'm going to sort through all of the rockers I have, two sets of 2nd han...

Hi Pete, Great stuff, just the info I needed! Good news that I shouldn’t need to prime (will watch the oil pressure light and pressure gauge of course), also good that I should be able to adjust/check the pre-loads without removing the valley gasket/intake manifold etc… What I might do is calculate ...

Hey guys, I’m about to do a couple of fiddles on my RV8 and wanted to get some advice up front before I commenced. Firstly I am running with the uprated oil pressure relief spring, but I’m getting quite high oil pressures even when warm so I’m thinking of refitting the original spring. When I fitted...

Just a very quick update - Got the 68-55 rods off Jim, fitted and short test drive done, the car has now lost it's hesitation and generally seems to drive pretty well considering I've still not found the time to sort the ign timing/advance etc yet... That's the next mod to do.

My 3.9 also has a similar ticking, maybe not quite as bad, but it's quiet as anything on cold start, no ticking whatsoever, but then warmed up it ticks, mainly from the RHS bank. Sounds like lifters as you guys have also said. My preloads were set to 20thou, oil pressure is 25psi at hot idle, more w...

Got an Odyssey PC625 for my 3.9 and it turns it over pretty well and will crank it for a fair amount of time (certainly much longer than the engine would ever need to start) before it shows any signs of struggling. Not sure how my PC625 compares to the one you're considering though... Haven't had to...

Sounds like a nice build. I'm not really sure what my exact spec is in terms of compression ratio etc. The engine is an early 3.9 conversion - the block is actually an SD1 3.5. Was converted to 3.9 by JE. Got 93.5mm Omega pistons in it with the 'eyebrow' recessess. The heads are 14bolt ones, but not...