Thread: Hello from an old member

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That's great.. looks like fun was had by all. (even your wallet!)

Thanks for sharing the pics and your family.. and bringing the smiles.

OH Dear!!!

I found the cause of the screeching noise and it was a white metal bearing as suspected

I dropped the sump today and found the big end bearing caps on 5 and 6 were BLUE !!

When I pulled the caps there were no shells in there? When I pushed the rods up I recovered what looked like 2 shells, but these were only about 10 thou thick and they were melted to the point where the metal had moulded itself outside the journal and down the side of the crank. With these two caps removed the engine was still tight so I loosened all the others and it got better, but still not normal. So the mains be be in trouble as well ?
The crank journal MAY be recoverable but from what I have seen today, if I cant find some +20 shells it may be trashed. And I will need two new Chevy rods at least. Thats a bummer because the Chevy 5700 rods have been modified extensively to suit my engine. There is metal everywhere in the sump. Its settled on every horizontal surface I said to my mate when we pulled the bottom off "I would be vary happy if I saw this and was a miner panning for white metal"

So I've now shelved my plans to be running next January and have moved the date to next July / August for shakedowns if this crank can be saved??
In the meantime the engine will come back down AGAIN to the last nut and bolt for a thorough chemical clean of everything. The block will be crack tested and oil system will be chemically cleaned and flushed. If I'm very lucky the crank will be useable and I'll have to buy some more rods and get them modified to match what I have done with the other Chevy rods. On the UP side I'm happy that all the rods are still INSIDE the engine where they should be, so that shows they are up to the job at the moment

I'm no stranger now to having to take the odd break to rebuild and modify / improve during my quest to find the 8 second pass from the Rover V8 ! So I'll get my head down over the next 6-7 months and try to make the engine even better ! I'm not sure that anyone has gone this far with the Rover engine now. She pushing over 600hp with god knows how much torque now. All I know is that the BIG Wheelie run would have easily been my sub 9.5 or better. So I guess I should have just one more attempt at rebuilding to see if that 8 is in there somewhere??

Regard to all

Pel

Wow bad news Pel. Sounds like you are persevering well. We support your 8 second Rover V8 quest!

X2, that is bad news.. but you've got all winter to sort out the needs and wants and I'm certain that like a phoenix, she'll rise again.. carrying the front wheels of course.

Ha Ha ! Thanks guys..
I will certainly have the Rover V8 repaired and ready to roll next year. Hopefully by June. I know that if I was to have my "grown up" head on that I would be calling it a day and retiring the old Rover V8. But something is niggling me about this half a second that I need to run my 8 with the Rover. I did say last year that this would definateley be the last time I rebuilt the Rover as I was fed up with melting pistons and blowing head gaskets and throwing rods out of the block. But none of this has happened with this engine so far. So maybe the big wheelie was the cause of my current problems. If that is the case then I would be silly NOT to rebuild the engine, despite all of the damage, as I can stop the wheels up action with wheelie bars to see if this engine will make my 8 or damn close to it. So I'm going to get my head down and dig in for the next 6 months to get this engine ready for one last attempt at my 8 second goal. I do however need to get real at some time and see that pushing around 650hp from a Rover 3.9 / 240ci engine is good going so far. So I have now started my back up plan for 2016 which started with todays purchase of a 350 SBC with 4 bolt mains. ??

Gasp!.....

Originally Posted by 34_40

Gasp!.....

Thats kinda what my best Rover buddy said last night when I told him about the small block His chin dropped a little and he said "But Pel, its just about only me and you left now mixing it up with the big boys with our Rover engines" !

Dump the Rover---you want to go as fast as you can----not just run an 8 with a Rover-hell, skip the 8s and go right to the sevens----------------


Once you have run in the eights or sevens, sixes----and have the handling /setup of the car sorted out for that level of performance, you can put the Rover back into the car knowing you and the car are capable of that performance and the net result will be whatever the Rover can put out------

I hear you Jerry
And I intend to make the car even quicker when the Chevy goes in for testing in the future. But I do need to see if there is an 8 in the Rover engine. I cant really do much with the handling of the car as I dont have much to adjust. The MGB is still running cart springs with slapper bars and all stock front suspension and steering on its 39 year old body ?? The body and chassis (what there is of it) is still in good condition given its age though I have a simple roll cage welded in which helps to brace the old girls body. Thats about it really. She's all steel and all original (apart from the fibre glass bonnet) and has full glass fitted. So over here the MGB doing what it does with the Rover fitted makes folk smile So I'll hang on to that until i cant go any further with the rover engine. Having said that I have been getting some experience with the SBC on the digger I help with. And I have a MSD Digital 7 on the shelf waiting for the Chevy engine in a years time. I have no doubt that the SBC in almost stock form with boost and nitrous will push me into the 8's when its fitted ?

Regards
Perry

Hi Guys!!
Please bear with me. This is one of my rambles again

Back on the 13th I said I had done the deal on a SBC engine. Well my friend and I went up north to meet the seller who is a friend of a friend. It turned out that the seller is not only a very nice guy, but he is also an accomplished engine builder to boot ?

My friend Dave who put me onto Richard ( the engine builder) is having his SBC engine built there for his Land Rover. And this is where the story got quite interesting ?? We got to site and met Dave who was there having some work done on his own SBC. I saw my 4 bolt engine in the shop and started to ask some questions. Because when I saw the 4 bolt motor I could see that the bottom end was new ? And then I saw another two SBC engines with 2 bolt mains on the floor. All the engines were painted Blue ? And then I noticed that Daves new engine was Blue also. So the story was then told. There were 4 engines in the shop. Richard (the shop owner) had built 4 new SBC's for one of his clients. 2 of them were 4 bolt and two of them were 2 bolt. The 4 SBC's were out of Richards clients Chris craft boats. The boat owner is a "no expense spared kind of rich guy" So after Richard rebuilt the 4 motors the guy ran them for an hour or so and then decided he wanted bigger engines. So the 4 SBC's came back to his shop for free as he was building new motors for the boats. In the mean time the engine shop guy gave us a tour of his facility. He showed us every machine he had and demonstrated each one in action. I saw valve seats being re cut, I saw heads being skimmed, I saw blocks being decked, I saw a crank being re ground, I watched and engine block being centre line bored, I saw several vintage engines in various states of refurbishment as this guy does everything. One of the vintage engines was a Rolls Royce from the 1930's I think. Richard made a pint of asking me to find the dipstick for the engine ? I looked but could not see one. He then showed me an exposed needle on the side of the engine block. This old Rolls engine had a float in the sump which operated a needle outside the block against a scale cast into the block to indicate sump oil level Amazing !!
So back to the plot now!
We had arrived and had spent a good deal of time making friends. Richard had been shown video's of my MGB and my friends Slingshot. He likes both of our cars. Mainly because my friend Dave is a good friend of the engine guy and he spends a lot of spare time in the guys shop working on his own SBC for his Landrover. My friend Dave is a real petrol head and he loves drag racing. In real life he is a Brain Trauma specialist who has to do what he can to keep folk with serious head injuries alive in the first stages of them getting to hospital in a bad way after serious accidents tht involve head injuries. Its an unlikely pairing of friends, but if you went to school with someone and became friends, then friends is what you are despite what you end up doing for a living eh ?
So we are now in Richards shop drinking coffee and talking Drag racing. He then says " I really dont need these other two engines laying around taking up floor space, are you guys interested in a deal" ? I was going to pick up a single block and heads for $450.00 and I was not expecting the 4 bolt block to have a new stock bottom end. Mike and I ended up going halves on a deal for $1100 or £700.00 for all 3 engines with all new stock cranks, rods and pistons + 8 SBC iron heads with new valves etc and a big box with 4 new cams + a host of rockers, push rods and all the stuff that goes with it. So we loaded up the Jeep with all this stuff and on the way home we came to a conclusion. And that was .... My garage is full of junk and I only have enough free space to get my Rover V8 on the stand. Mikes garage is almost empty apart from the digger because he is close to moving house. So I had to make a call to another friend to see if we could dump this load of iron in his workshop for a few weeks? Luckily Ian said yes and we went there to off load the metal.

Now I have some sort of plan. My friend Mike only wants a spare SBC block that he can convert ot 4 bolt mains so he said I can buy the guts from his engine for $100.00 That gives me a full 4 bolt SBC + another 2 cranks + rods and pistons and 8 cast iron heads to play with for the next year !!
Regars to all
Pel

I guess Christmas came early at your house Pel.... sweet!

Crikey!
A good deal indeed!
Good for you...pleased for ya!

Just goes to show that sometimes it's not what you know; but who you know!

Pel, sorry to hear about your Rover engine. That is a bummer. But, it will be cool to see it in the 8's. That does sound like a great deal. That would make it hard to stay Rover now.

Nice score Pel. Extra parts too!

Added congratulations to the mix. What a deal!