My year old project.... not for the purists! - Rover V8 Mini Clubman.

mad for speed

New Member
My first post - please be easy on me!
After some web browsing, a couple of years ago, I was inspired by a guy who has transplanted a rover v8 engine into a mini clubman and so I had to have a go myself! This guy had done this before, but with little detail on how it was fully accomplished. Anyway, he had transplanted a rover block onto an Austin Princess gearbox converting the gearbox from inline, rear wheel drive, to a transverse front wheel drive layout. This, as you can imagine, resulted in considerable machining, fabrication of attachment plates and lots of patience working out how much material to remove to allow the gearbox input shaft to marry up with the crankshaft. Looking back on this, the overall project so far has not been too difficult. The next phase has proven to be quite testing to say the least! I have found myself an old clubman body, which is a little worse for wear.... initially I was not too bothered with the condition as the plan was to use this one as a pattern, however in hindsight it may have been better to get hold of donar in better condition. I have had to remove the front of the car, not including the wings and inner wings, to assist with the general siting of the unit in the engine bay. So far I have manufactured 2 engine mounts for the rear of the engine, and now I working on the cradle to support the front of the engine which will attach to the back of the subframe. I am guessing that I have probably completed about 30% of the work and hope to have the car finished some time next year. It's my 50th birthday and the end of 2008 and hope to have it completed by then. Cheers, Mad for speed.
 
You've certainly taken on a job there, it'll be interesting to see the results.

Interesting point about the gearbox, are you using manual or auto? The Princess auto is a development of the 35box as used in the early Rover V8, designated the 35TA IIRC.
 
Hi HarveyP6, The gearbox is the manual as used in the 1700/2000 models. By the look of it, it has been over engineered so I guess it should take the additional hp. I guess, time will tell.... :;):
 
The engine and gearbox do share the same oil.... the engine sits on the gearbox in the same manner as a mini. I will try and post some images this weekend. Is there any instructions on the sire explaining how to do that?
 
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