Sam's new engine build thread!! HELP! :D

[Mr Noisy]

Hi guys

Ok so as some of you know I recently checked the compressions on my original 3.5 efi. Results were quite terrible to terrible.

It's been a decent motor over the last 4 years but I was a little sketchy about stripping it down - time/cost/no experience/can of worms.

Last Sunday went laning and engine began smoking a little, so not getting any better.

Have been scouring eBay recently and this morning noticed a motor about 130 mile away from me in Redcar, northeast coast.

Has been rebuilt by its owner and not fitted to project vehicle. Gave £400 for it. It hasn't run yet, but the work looks/sounds good and I have receipts for parts from RPi and Real Steel for over £400 already and he says there is another one somewhere. So I thought that was rather smashing, hence the purchase within 12 hours of seeing it, after asking fett if it was the right one for me of course (thanks fett!)

So, here 'tis:

And this is what I was supposed to go in but he is now fitting a 5.7 Chevy (methinks it'll be grunty but **** heavy) :

Here is the ebay description/spec list:

"I bought a running Rover SD1 (11A Code, 9.35:1 compression ratio)*earlier this year with the view of fitting this engine into my Cortina.

I had intended to basically clean the engine up, give it a service and fit it. This progressed into removing the sump pan, heads and so on, until I had stripped the whole thing and ended up doing a full rebuild, you know how it is.

The engine wasn't in too bad shape, didn't sound particularly rough, however the crank bearings were showing signs of wear and the camshaft was quite worn which is about par for the course with any used Rover V8.

Details of the work done:

Recon Crankshaft - 0.010" grind on the Big Ends/Mains, new bearings all pre lubed with*Graphogen assembly compound*(Supplied by RPI Enginering)

New Camshaft + Followers + Steel timing gears/chain - Supplied by Real Steel.

Heads cleaned up and valves lapped, new stem seals on the inlets.

Tin head gaskets fitted, head bolts torqued to the later specification.

New gaskets, seals and bolts fitted throughout including conrod/crank bolts. - Supplied by Rimmer Bros.

Bores were lightly honed and a new set of standard rings fitted, I opted for the "Ridge Dodger" type as there was a slight step in the top of the bores.

New plugs, thermostat, distributor drive gear, 20/50 Oil + Filter.

A bottle of Comp cams break in additive has been added to aid with the cam break in period.

All bearing surfaces have been prepared with graphogen assembly compound, this will give you minutes of protection when the engine is first started.

Oil pump was checked for wear and was within tolerances, was packed with vaselene and spun up using an electric drill, pressure was built up quickly and oil was flowing upto the rockers on both sides.

Inlet manifold has been modified for a Weber twin choke carb, Weber 38 DGAS (Manual choke)*fitted with new gaskets and needle fitted.

The only bits not replaced were the pushrods which looked fine and the rocker gear, it is slightly worn as you would expect for a 70,000 mile engine however the tolerances are not as slack as the new aftermarket replacement items, anyone that knows rover V8's will understand where I am coming from. The waterpump also has a slight bit of play in the shaft, didn't leak on the car but is probably something that may need changing in the future.

Basically I got this far and my next step was to fire*it up*outside the car on a test rig*but I have not got this far"

Was for sale for £550 with an inlet and Weber 38 DGAS but we agreed on £400 cash without the inlet.

I will fit my efi, my timing cover and ancillaries and my sump, then decide what to do with my engine which runs very nicely but is evidently in need of overhaul.

At this point I havent got any questions to ask apart from recommended running in procedure and estimated horsepower of this engine, but I'm sure there will be more!!

Also any advice would be great!!

Hope you like, cheers, sam.

 

[Mr Noisy]

I suppose the first thing is that I DON'T want to fit a lightened flywheel I assume? Off roaders want a heavy flywheel to prevent stalling I think...?

 

[jamesmartin]

flywheel assumption is correct ,but since it already has a step in the bore its bodged ,light hone is pointless ,the heart of engiine is pistons qand bores

 

[Mr Noisy]

Yeah we were aware of that but I don't think I was going to find a relinered block for much less than a grand. That's not my scene!!

Considering the mileage this will do and assuming its not completely ****ed already (a risk one takes buying secondhand) it should last me many years.

As far as I know re-linering a RV8 is a dodgy task at best. The geezer that built this was planning for it to last him a good number of years in a low mileage application (I will do around 1500 a year) so in my limited knowledge I reckoned this should do the job at a low cost!

I did look at new liner jobs but I just haven't go that kind of money available!!

Regards spigot bush, will it be possible to remove my current one or do they tend to knacker up during removal?

Thanks JM

 

[jamesmartin]

why new liners ,and not rebore ?its only 3.9 and later, that new liners or rebore can cause cracking issues, fit a new one in crank boss if old one is knackered , i have relinered several 3.5 v8s successfully and 3.9 and made 3.5 into 3.9 but is a lot of work ,and alllways rebore generally and hone the last thou to size to ensure good ring surface

 

[Mr Noisy]

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the job to know what's best!

I could have had my block rebuilt and then built the engine on too of that but it would have cost more for parts than this unit cost.

I saw recon blocks around the 1000 mark so decided it was out of my range.

I guess it's fingers crossed for the time being!

Thanks for the help so far

 

[POAH]

what kind of cam does it have?

SD1s had 155hp on carbs and ment to have 190 using EFi but no idea about other differences between the engines. the original engine would have been rated at 155hp

 

[Mr Noisy]

Hi

It's running a standard cam from Real Steel, AZ754 was their part number and it cost £51.30 plus vat

It was originally a carb engine I believe but as far as i know it's the same engine as is fitted to the efi discovery. I think perhaps the 190bhp sd1 was the vitesse? Which had better heads?

The lad I bought it from said that real steel said they only supply one standard cam now and it was the better spec version, regards the output though it's hard to say!

 

[jamesmartin]

Unfortunately I don't know enough about the job to know what's best!

I could have had my block rebuilt and then built the engine on too of that but it would have cost more for parts than this unit cost.

I saw recon blocks around the 1000 mark so decided it was out of my range.

I guess it's fingers crossed for the time being!

Thanks for the help so far

that price would be later 3.9 ,4 and 4.6 top hat linered block ,not needed on 3.5

 

[jai_landrover]

build up as standard if its built up as new (shane it has wear) If it was all refurbished it should run rings around many a bodged over cam'd engine.

 

[jai_landrover]

aka lightened flywheel, the std upgrade was to fit an SD1 as it a few Kgs lighter than a RRC.

Depends what your fitting it into and what you want expect of it.

 

[fett]

I did have a spare sd1 flywheel, now where did I put it ?

regarding the bores, I did say that too however for the money its worth it just for some of the parts- if the guys telling the truth that is which I said too.

I think as it was close enough to collect it may well be ok for what sam wants and if its no good its a good base for further work compared to his current engine.

Sam have you the gear/parts to test it out of the car?

 

[POAH]

be about 165hp with EFI

Hi

It's running a standard cam from Real Steel, AZ754 was their part number and it cost £51.30 plus vat

It was originally a carb engine I believe but as far as i know it's the same engine as is fitted to the efi discovery. I think perhaps the 190bhp sd1 was the vitesse? Which had better heads?

The lad I bought it from said that real steel said they only supply one standard cam now and it was the better spec version, regards the output though it's hard to say!

 

[jai_landrover]

Why does everyone rave on about bhp figures??

Nobody even gets them dyno'd so surley its a complete guesstimate on what they were when new. SD1 was a way different engine than a RRC yes both rover v8 variants but lots of differences lots of that makes them way different. Building a mixture like myself the only way to get bhp is to dyno it. Feck it I may even get my series 1 done to actually get a figure.

Nobody these days even bothers as its not too cheap and finding somone decent is hard.


Most people fit a new v8 because theirs is seriously knackared of they go from a knackared **** poor condition 2.25 petrol. A new V8 which is less knackared seems a great improvement over the old because its not on its last legs or it feels twice as powerful as a knackared 2.25 even running on 6 cylinders.

So why all the hype on bhp figures??

Come on then who wants a build off max bhp with a minimum torque figure (as we love offroading and not road racing, nopoint revving to 7K and producing max torque at 6K for our motors) from a 3.5 only may be honed or upto 40thou over any takers??? BHP figures on headed paper confirmed by a rolling road company??

 

[Mr Noisy]

morning fellas

firstly thanks for the help so far!

have just ordered an engine stand, thought i could get hold of one yesterday but the fella sold it years back!

anyway!

jai, regards flywheel, this engine belongs in a disco, and it will be a low speed off roader. as much as i like the v8 performance and power on and off road, it spends a lot of its time crawling, so a big fly is probably the better option?

fett, i fully believe what i have been told about this engine, i can see it is a new crank, and i will get some more pics up when i get this stripped down a bit for you guys to look at. i have receipts for over £400 already so this must have been a decent deal!

like you say, it's definitely better than my current engine PLUS its full of new bits

unfortunately i do not have the provision to run this outside of the car, he kept the inlet and carb. tbh im thinking very positively, i will get more pics along the way so you guys can check it for me and then it'll get built up, thrown in and then i'll cross my fingers and turn the key!

i expected it to be around 165bhp because thats what the standard efi disco engine is. i noticed someone saying the sd1 and disco engines are very different, i was under the impression they were the same!! although this is a 10A engine and the disco is a 24D iirc so maybe theyre right!!

i hope it'll be ok anyway!

 

[johns90]

are ya gonna make a coffee table outta the old block?

 

[jamesmartin]

your new engine may be far better than old one ,but have you priced rebore and pistons ,personally doesnt seem right to tune the rest while bores are worn ,

 

[Mr Noisy]

John, Have to say I regard coffee tables as a waste of a good engine, so probably not. Would much rather a v8 lawnmower or similar...

James, thing is mate are we saying the bores are worn or are we saying they're guaranteed to be knackered?! Take your point entirely, just can't see that this lad who built the engine (and it's not his first engine build apparently) would go to the effort if he thought the bores weren't worth using!

Obviously there's no way of finding out, but at 70k would it really have needed a rebore?!

 

[Mr Noisy]

Bearing in mind my plan for the old motor was to strip it, hone it and ring it (on the advice of my old man who said for what I want the vehicle for he didnt think it was worth reboring, just keep it going and fit the new cam/followers it needs)

If this one will be a good runner for a few years and considerably better than my old motor for 400 quid I'd be happy

 

[Mr Noisy]

I fully accept that if the bores/rings are worn then any other engine work won't matter cos it's already ****ed. Im just assuming that the bores in this motor are serviceable and with new rings will make good compression for a few years to come...