Low-revving 3.5 V8

Hi all,

I wondered if someone could perhaps give me some guidance here?

I have recently bought an '86 90 V8 which is a 3.5 V8 fitted with a Holley Carb on and Offenhauser inlet. I was told by the owner that it's also been fitted with a high-lift cam. It's certainly had cam work done, as the top-end of the lump is silent, with no tappet/follower/cam noises. It has covered 140k on the clock but I don't think it's the original engine as I can see injection rails which have been snipped off near the plug leads, so I reckon it's a 3.5EFi that's been transplanted when the original gave up the ghost (the Landy is an original factory V8 btw).

Any way, the engine starts and runs like a dream and sounds lovely. It does smoke on start up and is blowing some smoke up the breather neck though

The main concern I have is that it seems unwilling to rev much over 3000rpm which is according to the fitted rev-counter in the dash. Now this may not be accurate, but it certainly feels like it's not pulling many more revs than this. I've only had diesel-powered 90s before to compare performance too and whilst the V8 is definately brisker, it does not feel like it's coming on cam, especially considering the carb and high-lifter. Does anyone have any ideas, or experience of setting up Rover V8s on Holley's?

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,

Mark.

Check to see if it's getting full throttle,with the engine switched off of course

Will do V8Jon. Thanks for the advice.

V8Jon, if I check it and it's not getting full-throttle travel, what's my best method for adjusting it?

rivers46 said:

V8Jon, if I check it and it's not getting full-throttle travel, what's my best method for adjusting it?

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open throttle and adjust cable lol

check full throttle etc , but if not that then check your timing!

best to have a look around the distributor and coil with lack of rev's.
my 3.5 v8 was failing to rev properly which turned out to be lazy contact breaker in the distributor, £5 later and i was sorted

Yep make sure it's getting full throttle, make sure the timing is advancing properly. static timing should be 0 degrees but mine is far sillier at 6 BTDC and it should be up to around 12 BTDC when you rev it up. Timing curve should be smooth, ideally not jumpy.

Make sure it's getting enough fuel.

Blowing smoke out of the breather is not cool, mine doesn't blow any gas out of the breather/oil cap.

Cheers

I'm going to agree with Playsatan13. My '92 4.2 was having problems during the winter. It would run at low rpms but when I tried to put my foot into the pedal, it would stumble and die. Turned out to be a weak (but not dead) coil found by checking the resistance in the secondary winding.