Rover V8 3,9 Tuning

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GrowlerOffroad

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1
Hello,
I am thinking of buying a Rover V8 3,9 engine from a Range Rover Classic, but what is the max hp you can get from it? and what tuning can you do to it?

Best regards
Kristian Antonsen
 
If you go the carb route, holley or webber 4 barrel and play with all the jets, accel cams etc. Decent inlet manifold, good headers, ported heads, high lift cam, duplex timing etc etc. As said what's your budget. Oh and Rhoads lifters. Got this lot for my kit car, well once it is reassembled.
 
Buy a TVR engine 4.5 or 5ltr. I used to work at TMS in Melton Mowbray and we fitted them in land rovers (Litchfield), suited them very well. the 4.5 is 285 bhp and 310 lb ft. you can't build one for any where the price you can pick up a good secondhand TVR unit.
 
Buy a TVR engine 4.5 or 5ltr. I used to work at TMS in Melton Mowbray and we fitted them in land rovers (Litchfield), suited them very well. the 4.5 is 285 bhp and 310 lb ft. you can't build one for any where the price you can pick up a good secondhand TVR unit.

Tuning the rover v8 is big money and the gains are small because they don't start out with much BHP per cc in the first place

My discovery 2 is a 4.0 but its only got 185bhp the Jap's and germans can get more than that out a 2.0 diesel

For a off roader I'd be looking more at tuning it for torque not power

But as owl said buy a second hand TVR engine the 5.0 would be the one to get but they are very rare and go for good money so the 4.5 may be the best option or a 4.6 from a p38 off the top of my head I think they have around 240bhp and good torque and readily available

One thing I've found with tuning cars over the years is its better to fit a more powerful engine in a slow car than it is to tune a slow engine
That and tuned engine don't last long
 
Then watch it go boom as the old design pushrod engine tries to cope with the power. Between 200 and 250 would be a more cost effective bet, although still not cheap. Still, with all the torque from the V8..lots of fun.
 
Looked into this alot my d1 3.9 will be tuned but looking at 300 ish bhp and 450 ish ftlbs. About 3k get a decent 4.0 tvr lump for 1800. Tvr lump is the way forward really, I may supercharge that after but then you need to check gearbox and so on.
 
4.6 lump, too. Better heads, but still the limiting factor. My mate has done alot of head work on his flow bench and is still pondering the best options. He has a Ginetta with a 3.9 and 4k worth of receipts and it puts out 234bhp. It was in a V8 shoot out in cars and car conversions (I think it was). It goes like a bullet, although we reckon it is the lightened flywheel that makes such a difference to it's ballistic performance. It is a tad lighter than any Land Rover it has to be said.
 
Then watch it go boom as the old design pushrod engine tries to cope with the power. Between 200 and 250 would be a more cost effective bet, although still not cheap. Still, with all the torque from the V8..lots of fun.

If done correctly there is no reason for it to go boom.
It will cope with it there is nothing wrong with a pushrod engine its the rest of the running gear thats less likley to cope.
The point is that the engine can produce the power but it will cost loads.
Look at a lot of the old yank motors pushing 500 bhp plus and they take it.
Check the V8 forums mate this engine has been around for a long time and people have been getting good power out of them for years.
 
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