ROVER V8 FITTING GUIDE?

[plastic_orange]

Both the Toyota and Datsun option in the UK is pretty limited these days. You may get lucky and find one, but rwd datsuns in particular disappeared in piles of rust years ago.
I still think that a good compromise is the Ford kent engine, but even they are getting harder to find. I think Jonathon has it about right with his use of the K series, or the Ford Zetec, and possibly the duratec (loads lighter apparantly) in the future.
It all depends really on your budget, what you want from the car, and your ability to do things yourself.
A lot of people are unrealistic with their ambitions (and their pockets). That £3k V8 on ebay recently was a steal (assuming ad was accurate) and looked to only need a bit of tidying and personalising here and there.

Pete

[jonathon]

Morrisman, I agree with you that getting traction can be an issue, however we have about half a dozen Minors on the road all with 170bhp or more, none of which have any problem putting down the power. Infact our 310bhp track car is fine and not quite the handfull you might expect, given its weight and short wheelbase. Mind you , one can loose traction with 45bhp if the car is not set up correctly.
We are putting our track car on the road next month, albeit with a de tuned 240bhp, I'm not anticipating any problems except for kerbing my enthusiastic right foot. In the good o'l modifiers thinking you can never have too much power, for some 45bhp is enough, and for reasonable road pace 100bhp is fine, but its not a patch on anything above 150bhp, so long as you have the car set up to do this , which includes the right handling ,brakes ,axle etc etc

[MartinB]

Jonathon, why are you detuning it for the road, 310 bhp is just about right for the road

Martin

[jonathon]

Thought you might say that
We are trialing a new engine from Omex. This is a std 2L Zetec with uprated headbolts and the addition of the same supercharger we had on the 310bhp engine only this time running .5 bar to give a safe 220-240bhp. We are develpoing the suspension packages with AVO and this de-tuned version will hopefully be a bit more forgiving of my right foot. Might offer pretty decent mpg too , usefull when piling on test miles. I think Richard (Mr Omex) is intent on producing a mega Zetec of about 500bhp, but I think I'll reserve that for the full spaceframe racecar next year.

[MartinB]

That should be a good package, especially if you can use basically a stock new Zetec, with the price of those new Zetecs, I can't understand why more modifiers are not using them, I think you would struggle to refurb a Fiat twin cam for the price of one of those and even then it wouldn't be anyway near as efficient.

Are you doing anything trick with the rear suspension?

[jonathon]

Its a 4 link rear on an Escort MK2 axle, with a simple panhard rod at the moment. This was all we had time to fit. think I'll just swap to a Watts linkage and channel the boot floor to lower the car the desired 2.5", cannot go any more due to the sump.
This might cause issues on the road but will be great for the track. Might also bring forward the front double wishbone still based on the std kingpin, again this is a cheap alternative for us, atm, as this car is really just a taster of the 'proper' racer to hopefully come on line next year.
The Zetec motor is as you say brill and well suited for the Minor, the supercharged version will be slightly cheaper than the std 200bhp normally aspirated motor, but will have almost 100ftlbs more torque, throughout the rev range.

[Kevin]

The Zetec motor is as you say brill and well suited for the Minor, the supercharged version will be slightly cheaper than the std 200bhp normally aspirated motor but will have almost 100ftlbs more torque, throughout the rev range.

Standard 200bhp Minor, think I have been missed out on the series rocket spec