First Rover 3.9 V8 Engine ReBuild

[Eurostang]

Hello all,

I'm in the process of my first car build. I've had a 2ltr Capri for the past 5 years and finally decided to go for it!

So far I've got the car and engine totally stripped down and I'm in the process now of planning how to go about rebuilding this V8.

I've never done anything like this before (other than installing bike carbs on a Ford Pinto) so a few pointers in the right direction from you guys would be amazing! I'll begin with my current situation;

The bare engine block is currently with an engineer having;

The cam bearings replaced.
The core plugs that cover the oil galleries etc. replaced
The cylinder bores checked.
The cylinder head mating face and height checked see if it needs skimming or not.

I have removed the valves from the head and will be fitting new stem seals + springs.

I have a full engine rebuild set including all the crank and conrod bearings, gaskets etc. I'm going to re-use the bottom end bolts but use new head bolts.

Real Steel Hurricane camshaft idle-6000 rpm powerband.

Standard lifters, I think this will let me rev the engine to around 5500-5800rpm safely?

Standard rocker assembly.

Holley 390 carb on a modified SU intake (internals have been ground into a single plane style setup).

If you like, you can follow my channel here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SsWAWZv_Ps

I guess my question is; is there anything I'm missing here? Do you have any tips for me to ensure it goes as smooth as possible.

Cheers all!

[sidecar]

You should consider getting the block pressure tested as they can crack behind the liners. (Some sizes of RV8 are more prone to this than others). Really it is worth getting this done before you spend any money on the block.

The standard lifters will rev to the rev range that you want to run the engine at. If you set the preload on the low side (maybe 20 thou) this also helps. This is easy to achieve with adjustable pushrods but they do cost a fair bit of money!

[DaveEFI]

It's the heads which restrict thing most. Decent heads are likely to give more of an improvement that a different cam. Assuming the cam is good, as they are the first thing to wear.

[Eurostang]

You should consider getting the block pressure tested as they can crack behind the liners. (Some sizes of RV8 are more prone to this than others). Really it is worth getting this done before you spend any money on the block.

The standard lifters will rev to the rev range that you want to run the engine at. If you set the preload on the low side (maybe 20 thou) this also helps. This is easy to achieve with adjustable pushrods but they do cost a fair bit of money!

The pressure testing is a great idea thank you. I will ask about that before any further work happens on the block.

[sidecar]

It's hard to give you specific advice on this sort of stuff without knowing your budget and how you intend to use the engine but like others have said a gas flow job on the heads is worthwhile as is a head skim in order to get the CR to around 10:1. Even better is a light skim on the heads and a heavier skim on the block, the reason for this is to get rid off or at least reduce the massive chamfer at the top of each cylinder bore. The chamfer reduces the support of the head gasket fire rings. You could go for bigger valves in the heads but this may allow the engine to want to rev well past your safe limit. I had a 3.5 engine like this and it was not all that nice to drive, it could have easily revved to the point where it would blow itself up, I had to watch the rev counter like a hawk. The same heads on a 4.6 engine only allow it to rev to 6k, the power drops off at this point and I change up a gear. Of course you could change the rods, pistons and a load of the valve train and then you could allow the engine to rev to 7k but it all gets a bit expensive! Use composite head gaskets, they are better but also because they are thicker you can get more skimmed off the block which again improves the fire ring seating. Of course when you go down the root of skimming stuff it opens another can of worms such as piston to valve clearance, the pistons may need 'eye brows' cut into them in order to create the clearance. You need to think long and hard about this, if you are not prepared to do the extra checks then don't push your luck by just skimming the heads and fitting a long duration cam. I have seen idiots do this and then pay the price! Rover made all the clearances so large in this respect that they could just 'lob' an engine together and it would be fine, as soon as you start eating into this safety margin you have to build the engine carefully taking lots of measurements (dry builds).

I would also consider an Arp main bearing stud kit and head kit. If you don't go for the head studs then be careful where you source the stretch bolts, there are some cheap nasty ones on ebay which should be avoided. Personally as a preference I'd go for Arp studs first, then the older non-stretch bolts and finally stretch bolts.

If you have the bonnet clearance then the Edelbrock manifold is a good choice, its a medium rise manifold, basically any low rise manifold will cost you some BHP. Personally I like the Edelbrock 500 carb but your 390 will probably flow well enough. There are formulas on the web that can help here.

Edit...Re-reading your first post I think that your inlet manifold is going to be restrictive, there is probably not much point in going overboard with any other tuning mods if you use the standard-but-modified manifold.

AJMHO!

[Eurostang]

It's hard to give you specific advice on this sort of stuff without knowing your budget and how you intend to use the engine but like others have said a gas flow job on the heads is worthwhile as is a head skim in order to get the CR to around 10:1. Even better is a light skim on the heads and a heavier skim on the block, the reason for this is to get rid off or at least reduce the massive chamfer at the top of each cylinder bore. The chamfer reduces the support of the head gasket fire rings. You could go for bigger valves in the heads but this may allow the engine to want to rev well past your safe limit. I had a 3.5 engine like this and it was not all that nice to drive, it could have easily revved to the point where it would blow itself up, I had to watch the rev counter like a hawk. The same heads on a 4.6 engine only allow it to rev to 6k, the power drops off at this point and I change up a gear. Of course you could change the rods, pistons and a load of the valve train and then you could allow the engine to rev to 7k but it all gets a bit expensive! Use composite head gaskets, they are better but also because they are thicker you can get more skimmed off the block which again improves the fire ring seating. Of course when you go down the root of skimming stuff it opens another can of worms such as piston to valve clearance, the pistons may need 'eye brows' cut into them in order to create the clearance. You need to think long and hard about this, if you are not prepared to do the extra checks then don't push your luck by just skimming the heads and fitting a long duration cam. I have seen idiots do this and then pay the price! Rover made all the clearances so large in this respect that they could just 'lob' an engine together and it would be fine, as soon as you start eating into this safety margin you have to build the engine carefully taking lots of measurements (dry builds).

I would also consider an Arp main bearing stud kit and head kit. If you don't go for the head studs then be careful where you source the stretch bolts, there are some cheap nasty ones on ebay which should be avoided. Personally as a preference I'd go for Arp studs first, then the older non-stretch bolts and finally stretch bolts.

If you have the bonnet clearance then the Edelbrock manifold is a good choice, its a medium rise manifold, basically any low rise manifold will cost you some BHP. Personally I like the Edelbrock 500 carb but your 390 will probably flow well enough. There are formulas on the web that can help here.

Edit...Re-reading your first post I think that your inlet manifold is going to be restrictive, there is probably not much point in going overboard with any other tuning mods if you use the standard-but-modified manifold.

AJMHO!

Many thanks for this.

You're correct the inlet manifold does look restrictive, the ports are much smaller than the ports on the head :/

I think I'll grab the 4 barrel edelbrock intake, are these less restrictive?