Odd Rover V8

[paulmanta]

I have just picked up a V8 Rover engine taken from a discovery, it has all the serpentine belt system on it except the alternator and has the 3.9 injection manifold still on it. The odd thing is that the heads look new and do not have the full compliment of head bolts in them, in fact some of the bolt holes in the heads dont seem to have holes in the block and this has puzzled me greatly, all my other V8 rover engines have no misalignment or redundant bolts, the bolts that are missing are the outer bank of bolts nearest to the exhaust manifolds, sort of above the plugs. Both sides are like it.

My question is what on earth has the previous owner done ? wrong heads ? if so what has he used, wrong block ?

Either way i wont be running the lump till i have stripped it and found out more, i suspect i might break it for spares but i am still keen to know what i have head/block wise.

[sidecar]

I have just picked up a V8 Rover engine taken from a discovery, it has all the serpentine belt system on it except the alternator and has the 3.9 injection manifold still on it. The odd thing is that the heads look new and do not have the full compliment of head bolts in them, in fact some of the bolt holes in the heads dont seem to have holes in the block and this has puzzled me greatly, all my other V8 rover engines have no misalignment or redundant bolts, the bolts that are missing are the outer bank of bolts nearest to the exhaust manifolds, sort of above the plugs. Both sides are like it.

My question is what on earth has the previous owner done ? wrong heads ? if so what has he used, wrong block ?

Either way i wont be running the lump till i have stripped it and found out more, i suspect i might break it for spares but i am still keen to know what i have head/block wise.

People in the "know" leave the outer row of head bolts off (the ones near the spark plugs). These bolts cause the head gasket to blow into the valley area of the block.

It sounds like you have 14 bolt heads but a later 10 bolt block, this is perfectly OK!

HTH,

Pete

[katanaman]

if it still has a dizzy it could be an intermediate engine. They were a transition from the old 3.9 to the new 4.0 4.6. If the holes are in the heads but missing bolts then they are still the old heads and it maybe just has the newer front cover on. Bit confused with your description really. As sidecar said the outer bolts are useless anyway and although I put them in its just to fill the holes. They are only lightly torqued to about 20lbs. Its common enough for people to leave them out altogether and some even blank the spare holes with alloy slugs.

[TVRleigh]

The newer 10 bolt heads are said to be the best standard design.
They will have the smaller chambers and should be fitted with comp. gaskets.

The very latest ones had the blue oil seals.

It quite normal to have these fitted to a 14 hole blocks, as an upgrade or replacement

as said the method of filling the holes vary, so no need to strip the engine, for this reason.

If you don't want them I can always do you a swap for some 14 bolt heads.

[paulmanta]

It is the intermediate engine because it does have the dizzy hole and drive.

The 10 bolt bottom end makes sense as does the 14 bolt heads explanation, i have never come across this combination before as i mosly run 3.5 engines from SD1's.

Many thanks for the info folks now I just have to decide if i sell the good bits or re-build. The guy I got it off says it had a misfire and he was suspicious of a liner.

[Coops]

If you sell for spares i could be very interested in the intermediate timing cover etc,

[paulmanta]

It might be best to send me a PM, I could be persuaded to sell the lot as one lump.

I could keep it "just in case" and all that but I could also use the money to finish the last few small jobs on the re-build of the Manta.