Silly v8 idea for my P38

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dnb2001

New Member
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12
I am lucky enough to have 2 v8 engined vehicles in my fleet.

Assuming I remain gainfully employed, I am looking to build an interesting new engine for my TVR Griffith (5 litre with "stage 4" big valve heads, whatever they are ;) ) It produces over 320bhp and 350 ftlbs at the moment, and the new engine should push this to over 400 & 400.

This will leave me with a pair of very nice modified TVR heads. I'm tempted to use these on my Thor P38 if they'll allow me to achieve better performance and economy - I think I'll win on lowering pumping losses and be able to achieve better torque at lower RPM - therefore a net improvement in economy through efficiency. Plus there should be a decent gain of power which is always good.

The heads will be spare, and I'll be doing the work myself so there's very little cost to do this (other than the price difference between standard and modified heads when I sell off the spare parts.)

There's nothing actually wrong with my P38, so I am reluctant to do anything that won't yeild the right results.

My questions are:

1. Does this sound like a good idea?
2. Anyone tried anything similar?
3. Has anyone successfully remapped the Bosch ECU in found in the late P38? I think it would be needed since the ECU can't be expected to sort out everything by itself. The BECM prevents most aftermarket ECUs being used, so keeping the Bosch is the only viable option.

Thanks
 
right are the tvr heads 10 bolt fixing or 14 bolt fixing?
10 bolt is 28cc heads
14bolt are 36cc heads
so if the heads are 14 bolt they will lower your compression unless you have the heads skimed down!
 
LOL at the solution looking for a problem comment :D
Nail hit dead centre.

They're 10 bolt heads, and they started out the same as my P38 heads before TVR got hold of them. Not sure how much bigger than 28cc they made them, but the static CR as standard was supposed to be 10:1

On the TVR at the moment I use tin gaskets so I have roughly 10.8:1 static compression. Dynamic is way down on that because it's got a wild cam.
 
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