rover 3.5 on bike carbs?

Jono FD3 · Post by **Jono FD3** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 6:36 am

Hi guys, I'm about to rebuild a rover 3.5 but I need to get an intake system sorted.... basicaly the engine has a crane 286 cam and I'm going to be porting the heads to improve flow, tubular manifolds and a single 3" single box exhaust system...... now to feed it I was looking at getting the twin SU setup, but the guy I got the engine from sujested a holley setup as this should give the engine around 200bhp, but looking at the prices I was wondering if it would be more cost effective to run it on bike carbs with a custom intake manifold(s) (making the manifolds isn't a problem as I would make them out of stainless steel tube)

has anyone done this before, and what carbs would you recomend?

Cheers
Jono

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:18 am

Hi
It has been done, however the carbs are not designed to work at there best in the capacity/rev range that the 3,5 rover operates at. This makes them hard to set up and get stable, it can be done but it is not easy.
Why not use the SUs? They can easily handle 200 bhp as is, they are good for 230, and with a few basic tweeks you can get them to fuel 250 bhp. They are much easier to set up and someone will be able to find you a needle that is in the ball park for the tuning you are intending.
Best regrads
Mike

Jono FD3 · Post by **Jono FD3** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 12:45 pm

Sweet, cheers mike

Looks like SU's it will be

Jono

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:04 pm

Hi
SUs are very underrated on the rover, they need to be in good condition, jets and needles for instance, but that is easy to do, they are easy to overhaul, they last well and you can do alot to tune them yourself.
Best regards
Mike

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:58 pm

Then you go and visit Pete Baldwin at Wimpole and he'll rolling road it and get your SU's running properly for whatever engine configuration you have.

My SU's are running 250BHP on a 4.6. They are 2" SU's mind you.

Chris.

Jono FD3 · Post by **Jono FD3** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 2:18 pm

I thought the SU's were 2" on the v8's anyway??
Well used to the old SU's..... spent about 4 years playing with mini's

so no probs in pulling them apart and tweeking them!!!

Jono

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:23 am

No, the RV8 uses 1 3/4 or HIF44 SU's. The 2" were used on the 6-cyl Jags and the Rolls Royce V8. Probably elsewhere too, but they are pretty rare.

Chris.