The V8 Owners Forum -

My brother wants some more power for his 110 V8[for towing a boat] and is thinking of getting a 4.6 swapped in.
I was just wondering if there is a slightly cheaper way of doing it.I was thinking of putting a pair of suck through turbos on the current 44hif carbs.Has anyone done this on the 8.13 cr 3.5?
The other alternative was putting a chevy V8 in but I am not sure how easy it would be to mate one up with the LT85 gearbox.
Any advice welcome.
Nick

If its for towing I would stick a 4.6 in there !

Perry

Why not put the chevy and a pair of turbos....

Just get a relinered 4.6 short engine, and swap over all the ancillaries.
There are a few nuances, like having to fit a spacer over the end of the crank before fitting the pulley, and counterboring one of the crossbolt holes to clear the oil pump.

But it's much easier than farting around with turbos or insanity like Eliot is suggesting!

Chris.

Sounds like the 4.6 is the way to go.I was aware of the need for the crank spacer but didn't know about the crossbolt interfering with the oil pump.
He is thinking of getting a long block from John Eales[good idea?].
As he can't use the 4.6 cam which one would you recommend?
Also will the HIF44 carbs be up to fuelling it or would he be better off with something like a Weber 500?

""But it's much easier than farting around with turbos or insanity like Eliot is suggesting! "" Ha Ha!!! With Eliot and Mike the Brain worm on here you will be able to get lots of advice about how to build a nutter V8 if you want to ?

When I fitted my pre sd1 timing cover to the 4.6 I ended up grinding a chunk off the bolt head at an angle to clear the oil pump. This still left enough flats on the bolt for it to be removed. And it was removed and re fitted many many times in the first 3 years of developing the engine

Carb wise, Weber 500 or maybe a Holley 390. Some of the guys on here have vast experience of setting up the 500 on a 4.6 so dont worry about the conversion as you will get all the help you need on here.

Perry

I have used a Torquemax from RPi and a Piper 270 in my 4.6's. I would go for the Torquemax for towing.

I used 1.75" SU's to start with, but found right at the top end they struggled. It might be possible to tune this out, but I decided to go for a pair of 2" SU's which can definitely keep up! I had it rolling roaded to get the right needles in there.

If you are buying a long engine, specify to the builder what timing cover it is going to be used with so it all fits up nicely.

Chris.

There's a 4.6 P6 running around on SU's. Don't underestimate their capacity to fuel and engine, the main detractors are those who don't understand them well.

My other brother has a 4.6 in his 109 stage 1.That is running with 1 3/4 SUs and it seems to go well.
I think he wants a bit more oomph for towing and probably sibling rivalry is involved as well!

Well, he could explore two small turbo's like off the Nissan EXA Turbo to give him intake restriction loss compensation.
About 3-4 psi to overcome losses and get the engine breathing as if there was no intake system in the way, should liven it up nicely with little or no lag.

For towing, if you want seriosly cheap grunt then a 350 chevy 2 bolt block with stock heads with the castings cleaned up and a three angle valve job, stock pistons, crank and rods, but with arp bolts in the rods and cleaned up and shot peaned. A roller cam/roller rockers kit off comp cams with a cam of about 205 degrees of timing at .05 lift a set of long tube headers, if you can fond one a TPI manifold and an afetrmarket ECU, or a 600 holley on a dual plane manifold. This will produce about 280 to 300 real bhp and loads of torque from properly low revs and for less than 2k.
A core engine for this build would be about 200/250 pounds ( I have just bought 2 at that price) which would need a strip and clean, hoan and re ring about 120 quid, gasket set 40 quid, new shells 60, 75 to 100 quid on the rods, new oil pump 70, the cam kit is about 850 pounds off ebay but that is the lot, cam, roller rockers, springs, retainers and chain set with push rods. 200 for the headers 120 for a carb inlet and 100 for a second hand carb 75 for a dizzy. Please note this includes dizzy and carb.
If you have to rebore then that costs 350, but you don't have to pay for the hoan off the original budget, and a set of hyperutetic pistons with rings are less than 180 off ebay deliveredand for 250 pounds on a core engine it should not need a rebore, infact you should be able to get a sub 60k mile engine for that in which case it won't need the hoan and rings!
best regards
Mike

I think he would like a chevy in it but we are not sure of how to link it up with the LT85 gearbox.He doesn't want an auto 'box.