RoverAlex
Active Member
Hello. A few have recommended I sign up here and have a browse around for info so thought I would introduce my project.
For those that like a "pristine" Rover P6 this build might not be for you. And for those that would wince at the thought of the P6 being altered little, stop here
It was very early one Saturday morning just passed that Peter, a friend, and I were discussing the fact that there is an upcoming local club meet at Santapod the next weekend for the RYWB and neither of us currently have a car we can take as they were all off the road. This we both decided was unacceptable. After not much pondering we came to the conclusion that the Rover P6 would be a perfect drag/race/drift car and that we needed to get a 4.6 V8 by the end of the weekend.
So this is the beast. A Rover P6 3.5 V8 which has not been on the road since the 1980s. The body repairs were done before it was taken off the road. Peters friend kindly donated the car - so it seemed the right thing to make something out of it.
We were determined to find an engine that very weekend. After many phone calls we found one fairly close by (well..a four hour round trip) at a reasonable price - we wanted one with fairly low miles that had not been on LPG and of course it had to be the 4.6 V8 nothing else was considered. Late 90s Range Rovers are the best source for these it seems. Not wanting to waste time started stripping the engine while on the trailer.
Our target was to have the car ready to race in 5 days so with no time to slack, we were working in the evenings and I took time off work to attempt our goal. Not wanting to keep the EFI from the 4.6 that had to be swapped over for the carb setup from the 3.5. As did the front case, pulleys, water pump and so on. Thankfully this is a straightforward swap (the 4.6 being based on the 3.5 despite many years between them)
The 4.6 with all the modern gubbins on it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/alex1981/Cars/Rover P6/20140331_210112_zps5c3f5686.jpg
And there we have it - the 4.6 with the manifold and carbs from the 3.5. These are 1.75" carbs which will strangle the engine top end, but they will do for now:
Then the front of the engine had to be swapped over. Not complicated really. Our only setback was that the timing gear and chain from the old engine was seriously worn out and we could not use the one from the old engine due to the design (apparently the gear from the Range Rover P38 was the only one different to every other Rover V8). So we ordered a fancy strong one and it arrived next day
New engine sat on the mounts Bolted straight up to the mounts and bellhousing (had to change the flywheel of course as the engine came out of an auto):
Because race car, interior had to come out. There's a good 60KG there.
Alternator bracket welded back together:
Holley fuel pump and race cell installed with new lines etc:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/ ... 72789a.jpg
And it runs - see link to video below:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=101 ... .698935144
So after a little fettling on the morning of the RWYB day the engine was running very sweet. The first every road test was in order. With a quick whiz around the field we were happy and a little surprised that the brakes worked and it went forwards and backwards.
Upon arrival and a drive around the car park it was evident that the clutch was dead and we had no chance of getting any power down. But we had came this far - to give up now would not be sporting. So took it up the strip gently easing the throttle into what you could only call a gradual increase in speed rather than acceleration. Managed to get to 30MPH. But we can honestly say that we took a car destined for scrap to one with a beefy engine and a run on the drag strip in less than 5 days. Very happy with that.
We thought we might be able to make a modification to the clutch with a big 'ol screwdriver so we took the box out in the car park at Santapod. Nope, as expected clutch is dead and not a lot we can do. At least that is one job out of the way now the box is out.
Shortly after coming back from Santapod we bought this:
It's an Eaton M112 Supercharger, originally from a Jag XKR 4.2 - in that car it produces 420BHP. Now of course our engine is much older and less efficient, it gives some idea that this is something decent. We were going to go down the route of 2" SU carbs and twin turbo. Problem is that the engine bay was pre-determined in a restrictive fashion as we know so there is not a lot of room in there - we could make it work but none of the options we particularly liked.
Details of the supercharger here: http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServ ... PCT_221797
This will come much later on the build - for now it will run without a charger.
After much searching about in the back rooms of the local auto factors found some suitable silencers. Made up some mounting points. Sorted! Just needs some tailpipe trims to finish:
About two weeks into the build did a little more work for the autotest event we were entering that Sunday. Added cords for fire extinguisher and battery isolator:
Made some aluminium door cards. We wanted to keep the wood for a bit of character but cut down on weight a tad:
Sunday saw the Rover going to the autotest day with PMC at Rockingham. It was a first for me. I was fairly useless with getting the route correct but thankfully Peter was pretty good at pointing me in the right direction
The autotest found us a few leaks. Also found out that the oil pressure is zero on idle once the oil gets warm which is not great - uprated oil pump gears will solve that and need to sort the radiator. Nothing fell off or snapped which was a bonus. The amount of body roll is quite alarming (not that we held back) but that will be addressed shortly. We were told by bystanders that the tyres were flexing so much the metal of the rims came very close to scraping the ground
Sorted out the interior. Stripped it out including all the sound deadening - it took a lot of scraping, wire brushing, thinners and farting but we got there:
Door cards fitted and a quick go over with a scotch brite pad to give it a brushed look:
Corbeau bucket seats fitted. I think it's rather nice
Now towards the end of April 2014 did a taster session at Rockingham on the day that Retro Cars had a bit of a thing on. Was great fun giving it some beans round the track. Clearly we need to do some more work...it...well...as you can see from the pics leans a little! With the recently fitted Avo adjustable shocks turned up to also max that helped things a little. Brakes were pretty rubbish and didn't have much grip. But of course we will work on these things
A few pics from the day:
For those that like a "pristine" Rover P6 this build might not be for you. And for those that would wince at the thought of the P6 being altered little, stop here
It was very early one Saturday morning just passed that Peter, a friend, and I were discussing the fact that there is an upcoming local club meet at Santapod the next weekend for the RYWB and neither of us currently have a car we can take as they were all off the road. This we both decided was unacceptable. After not much pondering we came to the conclusion that the Rover P6 would be a perfect drag/race/drift car and that we needed to get a 4.6 V8 by the end of the weekend.
So this is the beast. A Rover P6 3.5 V8 which has not been on the road since the 1980s. The body repairs were done before it was taken off the road. Peters friend kindly donated the car - so it seemed the right thing to make something out of it.
We were determined to find an engine that very weekend. After many phone calls we found one fairly close by (well..a four hour round trip) at a reasonable price - we wanted one with fairly low miles that had not been on LPG and of course it had to be the 4.6 V8 nothing else was considered. Late 90s Range Rovers are the best source for these it seems. Not wanting to waste time started stripping the engine while on the trailer.
Our target was to have the car ready to race in 5 days so with no time to slack, we were working in the evenings and I took time off work to attempt our goal. Not wanting to keep the EFI from the 4.6 that had to be swapped over for the carb setup from the 3.5. As did the front case, pulleys, water pump and so on. Thankfully this is a straightforward swap (the 4.6 being based on the 3.5 despite many years between them)
The 4.6 with all the modern gubbins on it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/alex1981/Cars/Rover P6/20140331_210112_zps5c3f5686.jpg
And there we have it - the 4.6 with the manifold and carbs from the 3.5. These are 1.75" carbs which will strangle the engine top end, but they will do for now:
Then the front of the engine had to be swapped over. Not complicated really. Our only setback was that the timing gear and chain from the old engine was seriously worn out and we could not use the one from the old engine due to the design (apparently the gear from the Range Rover P38 was the only one different to every other Rover V8). So we ordered a fancy strong one and it arrived next day
New engine sat on the mounts Bolted straight up to the mounts and bellhousing (had to change the flywheel of course as the engine came out of an auto):
Because race car, interior had to come out. There's a good 60KG there.
Alternator bracket welded back together:
Holley fuel pump and race cell installed with new lines etc:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v162/ ... 72789a.jpg
And it runs - see link to video below:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=101 ... .698935144
So after a little fettling on the morning of the RWYB day the engine was running very sweet. The first every road test was in order. With a quick whiz around the field we were happy and a little surprised that the brakes worked and it went forwards and backwards.
Upon arrival and a drive around the car park it was evident that the clutch was dead and we had no chance of getting any power down. But we had came this far - to give up now would not be sporting. So took it up the strip gently easing the throttle into what you could only call a gradual increase in speed rather than acceleration. Managed to get to 30MPH. But we can honestly say that we took a car destined for scrap to one with a beefy engine and a run on the drag strip in less than 5 days. Very happy with that.
We thought we might be able to make a modification to the clutch with a big 'ol screwdriver so we took the box out in the car park at Santapod. Nope, as expected clutch is dead and not a lot we can do. At least that is one job out of the way now the box is out.
Shortly after coming back from Santapod we bought this:
It's an Eaton M112 Supercharger, originally from a Jag XKR 4.2 - in that car it produces 420BHP. Now of course our engine is much older and less efficient, it gives some idea that this is something decent. We were going to go down the route of 2" SU carbs and twin turbo. Problem is that the engine bay was pre-determined in a restrictive fashion as we know so there is not a lot of room in there - we could make it work but none of the options we particularly liked.
Details of the supercharger here: http://www.eaton.com/Eaton/ProductsServ ... PCT_221797
This will come much later on the build - for now it will run without a charger.
After much searching about in the back rooms of the local auto factors found some suitable silencers. Made up some mounting points. Sorted! Just needs some tailpipe trims to finish:
About two weeks into the build did a little more work for the autotest event we were entering that Sunday. Added cords for fire extinguisher and battery isolator:
Made some aluminium door cards. We wanted to keep the wood for a bit of character but cut down on weight a tad:
Sunday saw the Rover going to the autotest day with PMC at Rockingham. It was a first for me. I was fairly useless with getting the route correct but thankfully Peter was pretty good at pointing me in the right direction
The autotest found us a few leaks. Also found out that the oil pressure is zero on idle once the oil gets warm which is not great - uprated oil pump gears will solve that and need to sort the radiator. Nothing fell off or snapped which was a bonus. The amount of body roll is quite alarming (not that we held back) but that will be addressed shortly. We were told by bystanders that the tyres were flexing so much the metal of the rims came very close to scraping the ground
Sorted out the interior. Stripped it out including all the sound deadening - it took a lot of scraping, wire brushing, thinners and farting but we got there:
Door cards fitted and a quick go over with a scotch brite pad to give it a brushed look:
Corbeau bucket seats fitted. I think it's rather nice
Now towards the end of April 2014 did a taster session at Rockingham on the day that Retro Cars had a bit of a thing on. Was great fun giving it some beans round the track. Clearly we need to do some more work...it...well...as you can see from the pics leans a little! With the recently fitted Avo adjustable shocks turned up to also max that helped things a little. Brakes were pretty rubbish and didn't have much grip. But of course we will work on these things
A few pics from the day: