The real story on forced induction and RV8s?

Oldskoolrob

Active Member
Hi Gurus,
While I can't afford to do anything about it at the moment, I'd love to have a supercharger in my life. Everything I've heard about superchargers and Rovers has been negative though. Mostly that the head gasket design isn't up to it, or that fuel distribution is bad, to that they 'just don't like it'. I'm only thinking of something like a weiand 142 on a 3.5, running 4-5psi. Thoughts?
 
Could you get the CR low enough to work ?
They put a Paxton on the Ford 289 in period, so it's gotta be doable.
I knew a bloke way back in the 80's that put twin turbos on a Rover, it went like stink for a while, but was dogged with pinking issues.
 
I keep coming back to oldmate with the red MG who put an M90 on a buick 215. Reading the article his static compression was 10:1!
 
Perhaps with a standard CR they used these Wills Ring - Wikipedia

Sometimes all the nitty gritty little bits don't come to light without a lot of digging.

I remember a mate having a Bevan Imp that constantly blew head gaskets, even when fitted with these, we later found the head to be planed far beyond its service limit.

I wonder how you would get on with stock tin gaskets and forced induction ?
 
Buick and olds both put turbos on their 215s without dropping the CR however they also used spark retard and water injection. biggest problem with a P6B is finding enough space to put it! my current thinking is using the Federal SD1 injection lower half and a custom top half with one or two electric superchargers where the air cleaner box goes. Then it occurs to me that a 4.6 would probably be both simpler and more powerful.
 
A friend looked into the maths of CR and forced induction for his P6 and reached the conclusion that it was possible to boost to 6 psi on a good, sound engine in standard trim.
 
If space was the only limitation, you could use a centrifugal supercharger. I’ve thought about this for a future add on to my 4.6..Would need some careful consideration of internals if boosting for good power reliably, and fuelling needs to be able to keep up of course.
Or just nitrous
Jim
 
I'm not allowed nitrous here :(
Centrifugals are good for racing but I just love the look of a proper valley mounted rootes style :p
 
M112 in the V. Flat low profile water-air intercooler, throttle body in front of the heater box. Thought about it a lot. Not done it, because life gets in the way...
 
A few (lot of) years ago I went to a hill climb near Salisbury and saw a Morris Minor with a turbocharged Rover V8 with a Nitrous kit in the boot. It was apparently 500bhp and street legal. He drove it to the event with a pair of slicks stuffed in the back seats.Awesome beast, owned by a chap called Nick Mann IIRC.

I'm sure it won it's class, even up against turbocharged Porsches.

I don't know what other mods he had to make or the CR, but it shows it's possible to get a reliable, very powerful forced induction Rover V8
 
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