The V8 Owners Forum -

Hello all I have a rover 3500 in a ford pop auto , will be building another engine for it over the winter that hopefully don't leak as much oil .
Now just for a little extra power can I
Put 4.6 heads on a 3500 with a cam , also I have a 390 holley and a edelbrock inlet ?
Do they fit ok ?
How much power should it make?
Cheers all

The 4.6 heads will not give you a huge power increased, they are more or less the same as the late 3.5 heads but the combustion chambers are around 28cc rather than 36cc. This measn that you can go for composite head gaskets and maintain your current CR. You could use tin gaskets which will increase your CR put personally I would not use tins. If I wanted more CR I'd skim the heads but really you need to burette the pistons and heads so that you can then work it all out.

As to your question of BHP, really we are going to need to know more about your setup, for starters what is the spec of the cam, the ignition system and the exhaust setup is also going to come into play. Really if you want a decent BHP increase the heads will need gas flowing too.

Ok thanks , may not have explained correctly I have not got a cam yet , will get one when building the engine , so just collecting bits at moment , I'm getting a 4.6 engine to use my buick 300 heads on , so was wondering if using the 4.6 heads on a 3500 would give a slight benifit , not after setting world on fire , it has sd1 headers and electronic dizzy at moment.