The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi, Newbie here. Anyone built one of these? How about low cost hydraulic roller cams conversions for push rod Rovers? Belt drive conversion for same? These are some of the topics to peep at the British V8 forum. I welcome your chat, roverman.

Hi
For the roller cam conversion, comp cams and Isky do steel blanks for the buick 215, both have loads of profiles for roller cams, get them to grind the one you want onto the blank ( this was very reasonably priced on my chevy custom cam grind from comp cams) when you receive your cam you will need to turn on a stepped shoulder to receive the later style cam retainer and convert your block to use it. Find out the base circle used for the grind and again from either manufacturer select the right roller tappet (after market type, chevy ones are the right diamiter body). Push rods from the comp cams cataloge, mopar roller tipped rockers and shaft, make up your own pillers, titanium retainers and toolroom springs from Isky (they are cheeper and better than comp), you can use jessel shaft mounted rockers on a suitable shaft, if you want higher ratio than 1.6 to 1 sourced from e-bay sellers selling on used NASCAR ones,. You can save alot of initial cash doing the whole thing using Chinese copies of the chevy bits off Australian e-bay shops, bear in mind alot of US tuning suppliers buy in the Chinese stuff, re package it and stick a US made lable on it and charge you US made prices, Isky and comp to my knowladge don't they make their own stuff. You will need to work out the right length for the valves as no rover valve can take the lift of a roller cam, but again Manley have an extensive cataloge. You will have to work out the off sets for the rocker shaft mounting pillers yourself but if you are thinking of doing this in the first place it shouldn't be a big deal to you.
Best regards
Mike
PS Moderators any chance of making this a sticky topic, this must be the fifth time I've typed this up in one form or another, and my fingers are getting sore

Belt drive conversion, use a chevy kit as a base and adapt with your own back plate and bush/ bore the pullys as needed and use a rover oil seal in the back plate, you will probably need to shorten the harmonic ballancer, again if you are building a rover engine to make any use of this type of kit it should be well within your capabilities.
Mike

Thanks Mike. So you haven't actually priced an 8620 billet roller from Isky or Comp.? Used a belt drive? 907 heads on a Rover? Anyone? So far, over in the British V8 forum, were looking at about $250. ea. on custom billet hyd/mech. rollers cams ,based on an order of 50. Were using Chev. 60^ V6 hyd. roller lifters and sbc."dogbones" and shaft mounted roller rockers. It's time street use Rovers got "rollin". roverman.

have you got a direct link, there seems to be a lot of british v8 forums

Using Google in US. it's ,British V8.org. Good Luck, roverman.

"So you haven't actually priced an 8620 billet roller from Isky or Comp.? "
no because I am a chevy man, though I have one in my chevy engine (please have a read of some of my other posts).
I did price the whole conversion up about 5 years ago when deciding which engine I would put in my Mclaren, that is one reason why I went chevy, to get the power out the rover I decided it would be a granade waiting to go off.
"roller lifters and sbc."dogbones" "
wouldn't go to the hassel of making up the spider and mounting it as the dogbone retainers limit the lift too much to warrent the conversion (unless you just want to say "I've got a roller cam")
As I implied (but confess I didn't spell out as it has been in previous posts), if you are coverting to a roller cam you are building a pretty high spec rover (certainly over here you are), you will already have bought either wildcat or at least merlin heads, any rover casting and the conversion is a waste of money, the conversion is only worthwhile of an engine in a very high state of tune.
"Were using Chev. 60^ V6 hyd. roller lifters"
again posted about these, chevy ones are available over here without importing, most of the guys over here baulk at having to import everything, the duty and VAT we pay on the shipping and handling charges mounts up pretty quickly so we try and only import what we have to, also many palces in the US don't understand our accent over the phone which means it is a pain in the bum to have to order less common bits, I agree they would probably be easier to use.
Yes I could have mentioned using SbC shaft mounted ones, CastleMGB was going to go down this route when we had a thread running about it and he went as far as getting the Jassels as it gave him a better ratio. In typing up the first reply I went as far as typing up about chevy shaft mounted rollers, but deleated it as it was just too long when it was in another thread already, anyway the shaft in most of the chevy shaft mounted ones is intended to have it's mounting right next to the rocker, convert it to a rover and you have a load of complication around the pillers to get the support needed to stop it flexing with the springs needed.
Please don't take offence at this, I think this is a topic that needs discussion on this here, but a good read of some of the past threads on here will show we have discussed this alot, It would be a good idea to take this topic further, but not just to go over what we have covered already.
Most of the guys on here are in the UK, Newzeland or Australia and parts availability and logistics (read order handling fees, shipping and import duty) have a big effect on parts choice.
I have no idea what 907 heads are.
A belated welcome to you and a happy Christmas. Please lets discuss this further, You will probably find I and Castlemgb are the only ones on here who has costed this conversion out so why don't you tell us how you would do it, rather than shoot me down. Please don't just dismiss my reply because you don't agree with my first post after yours, there are alot of things to consider when the parts supplier is 6000 miles away and 5 to 7 hours.

Best regards
Mike

Mike,

Here's the link to british V8, I'm on there a bit and there's some interesting stuff.

http://forum.britishv8.org/list.php?6

The 907 headsd are Lotus 16v which Roverman and somebody on the Buick forum are looking at dropping onto the rover V8 block, lots of work involved as you would expect, but flow potential very good in comparison to and 8v heads.

Kevin.

Thanks Kevin
I shall have a look in the next few days, for the next couple of days I have family over, lots of cooking to do. Didn't realise there was a 4 pot the right cylinder spacing to convert, be one hell of a wide/ tall engine but an interesting engine.
Happy Christmas
Mike

907 are old thing
a set of ajp8 are better performers if you can fit them and keep to sizes

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2810649 ... 0984FZqqwp

Hi V8man,
thanks for posting the pictures, I always wondered where thy put the ballancer shaft in the AJP. It is a loverly engine design. Do you know if the bore spacing is the same as the rover? just to get it as small as they have I would have thought it was less.
Anyone any idea what the bore spacing is on the Saab 4 pot? just that engine is derived from the stag lump and may have the same spacing as the Rover . . .
Mike

In the dim and distant past on this forum there was at least two people planning to fit the lotus heads. There were lots of enthusiastic posts about re-drilling them to match the rover, unfortunately in both cases it all stopped for whatever reason and so far as I now nothing even got machined close to being usable. Cant remember if it was the forum that we are on now or the old forum but a search might be worth while.

v8man wrote:907 are old thing
a set of ajp8 are better performers if you can fit them and keep to sizes

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2810649 ... 0984FZqqwp

The Melling engine is undoubtably a fine performing road engine, but i would doubt that the 8 Valve heads have as much potential as the lotus 16 valve heads which are said, in fully reworked (race) spec will flow as much as 300CFM.

I dont have any data to prove this but a well designed 16V head must have more potential then any 8V head and the torque curve will no doubt be superior as you have more flexibility with cam design, and can maintain better gas speed velocity and better fuel air integrity.

Not quite sure what you mean by (keep to sizes).

Kevin.

Is the 907 the 4 pot fitted to the mid '70s early '80s lotuses, the 2 litre ish 4 pot in things like the esprit and eclat of that time? From what I remember bit of a kettle that warped heads and blockes on a warm day and was airlock central got them the monica loads of trouble usually serious, If so is it really worth the grief?
Best regards
Mike

Hi
Just out of interest (yes I was board) I have just costed up chevy dogbone retainers and OEM lifters, has to be from the US as no one in uk ebay stocks them, dogbones are $49.99 plus $42 shipping, oem lifters are $110, I cant get a quote for shipping but assume the same as the retainers at $42, total $244, or £150, duty at 5% is £158 parcel force will want £32 for handling on each parcel, so total £212 and gordon will want VAT so total £261 to your door, then you have to make up a spider and mod your block. You can get crane aftermarket mechanical roller lifters for for £125 plus £9.97 to your door from the UK and just fit them, or hydraulic aftermarket from the US for $153 +$67 p &p, total £207 to your door. considering the dogbones restrict the fift you can use they do not make sence to me (in the case of costing up the OEM set up I looked for the cheepest I could find. They are a good solution if you can get them out of a scrap yard around the corner but not otherwise.
Mike