The V8 Owners Forum -

I see some talk of Carl Hansens TVR here. I have seen the car race on many occasions, and it is insanely fast, holding many outright lap records at NZ tracks. I can easily believe claims made that it is the most powerful N/A RV8 in the world.
However, he has been rebuilding the car, and in its new configuration will feature a 401 cu.in Ford V8! So end of the Rover sadly. I guess if anyone wants a stonkingly fast RV8, you could send him an email:)

http://www.hansenproducts.co.nz/sponsor ... icle01.htm

conrod wrote:I see some talk of Carl Hansens TVR here. I have seen the car race on many occasions, and it is insanely fast, holding many outright lap records at NZ tracks. I can easily believe claims made that it is the most powerful N/A RV8 in the world.
However, he has been rebuilding the car, and in its new configuration will feature a 401 cu.in Ford V8! So end of the Rover sadly. I guess if anyone wants a stonkingly fast RV8, you could send him an email:)

http://www.hansenproducts.co.nz/sponsor ... icle01.htm

I have seen that engine in Des Hamills book and it certainly looks impressive. I wonder if any of the components that make up the engine actually came out of a Rover factory, some how I doubt it. I think that it can only be called a rover engine due to the fact that the bolt pattern on the heads is the same as a Rover head.

My mate has a similar 427 SBC engine in his Cobra replica, he calls it a Chevy lump but in fact not a single component in including the block was made by Chevy!

Wildcat block, heads and manifold, and all internal parts custom. Probably no original Rover parts in there as you say. Still, plenty of "Ford" and "Chev" race engines that could claim the same too!

Hi Timo
the chevy should be about 550 to 600 bhp on petrol in the base spec as designed. The spec is as follows.
1974 +30" 4 bolt main block with 2 piece oil seal, £150 as a core, £670 worth of machening to get it square and ready for the rebuild kit.
a CNC motorsport all forged 383 bottom end kit with flat top pistons, £1400 importedand taxes paid.
Custom 4/7 swap cam shaft on a fresh forged steel blank 252, 263 at .05 lift with .688 of inlet lift and .630 exhaust, after market roller mechanical lifters £750 for that lot.
A belt drive cam conversion, £450
shaft mounted lifters, £295 by I had it all sorted
Push Rods £120
Dry sump pump £275 to my door
oil tank £150
sump £150
Heads, RHS ally 235cc inlet port heads flowed at 320 cu feet/ min £1700 by they got to my door ($580 of postage is in this!) plus exhaust manifold plates, £80
Sheet metal inlet manifold, $550 Au about £470 by it got here it has been thoroughly re-worked
Mechanical fuel injection bird catcher Enderle top Enderle idle valve, enderle pump £700, Kinsler select a jet £270
Coil pack ignition and ecu £850
I have also spent about £1600 on pipework and fittings
total of about £10,000 If I did the engine now I could probably save about £700 on the parts from the US and have CNC ported versions of the heads into the bargin and I could save about £1500 on postage if I bought all the US bits at once and shipped them in a surface crate.
This is a methanol drag race engine, the 550 to 600 is designed output based of research of many SBC engine specs on petrol and is estimated without allowing for the dry sump set up (probably worth 15 bhp) the belt drive cam has been seen to gain another 15-25 BHP and the 4/7 swap is meant to be worth 30 to 35 BHP finally no distributor should save 10 to 15 bhp.
There is no water pump or altinator so that should show a gain of 15-20 bhp over a road going SBC
Methanol should be worth about 13% to 20% on top of all this.
Seriously I think I am looking at over well 700 bhp when it is all tuned up at about 7400 to 7600 revs and a red line of 8000 revs. When I finally get it to run on the strip this should see me into the low 8s to very high 7s. This is not high for an SBC when used as a drag race engine, bearing in mind that SHCs can be cammed and have heads that will take them to 10500 revs red line and have heads that flow well over 360 cu ft/nin without getting into SB2 parts.
Best regards
Mike

Hi
I've just thought of about another £850 to £1000 of bits in the engine, rev kit, gaskets ARP studs and valve covers etc.
This is however pretty much everything on the engine appart from the battery (£29 imported form hong kong)
Best regards
Mike

Those of you hungry for dyno figures. My 4.8 with Merlin heads and 45mm Jenvey throttle bodies is just about ready for mapping. Will be on the rolling road next week.
Im using a Canems ECU. Her are some pics.











Really looking forward to getting it finished.

Nice..

Can you use bigger air filters? My Jenvey dealer recon that at least +30-50mm distance for air horn to filter roof.. With smaller distance it will make turbulance and resist air flow.

Timo
There is about 30mm clearance but as I have to rework my bonnet bulge I was thinking of making more room for larger filters.
The domed ones from ITG look really nice.
Cant wait to drive it.

Mark

Can't wait for the Dyno figures!:-) what are you hoping for??

Well the previous figures were 326bhp at flywheel, Dyno sheet is in here somewhere.
I don't think it will be much more but throttle response and drivability should be greatly improved.
I always get nervous seeing the car at full chat on the rollers.

I always get nervous seeing the car at full chat on the rollers.

That´s not too bad, imagine the car exiting the rollers during the run

I see that you have added some spacer flanges to the valve covers as well as rubber gaskets. Which cam are you running now ?

Hi Jukka
I am on my second M238 cam but next time might go for something hotter!
Originally I intended to do all the work myself to fit the throttle bodies and ECU etc. In the end I bottled out and got these guys to do the work for me.
http://www.lloydspecialistdevelopments.co.uk/
They have made a really nice job.
Did you get the mini pickup finished?

Are you going to the same dyno rollers ??
Otherwise you cant compare the previous figures...

According to some blokes on this forum, the Merlin heads are worth nothing...

In my personal case, they where the best bang for buck.

Could you post up the new and old figures when it's dyno'd ?
I'd be really interested to see them

Yes going back to the same rollers. Previous dyno sheet is on page 11 of this thread or there abouts.
I really rate the Merlin heads excellent value for money. Just a few design niggles that should have had more thought put in.