Life’s great with a v8

[stuvy]

Scary how things have moved on, if someone told us back then that in years to come a bog standard 60mpg 2ltr diesel Golf would blow the doors off our souped up 20mpg Capris we would of ordered them a straight jacket.We now have vans quicker than some of these older sports cars

Bob

very true, my dad brought his 1.4tdci brand new in 2003 it’s done 150k and still going strong. He chose that because it was £30 to tax used hardly any fuel and now owning a diesel is criminal

 

[Matchless]

on this theme at one point some 10-15 years ago I had several versions of the "Rover" V8 in my workshop at the same time, not bad going for a dedicated BMW specialist! I was respraying a Buick Skylark for a mate, still in one of his lockups not reassembled! had a Range Rover 3.5 in for a service and in the corner was my 1960's BMW 3200cs V8 Bertone (later sold unfinished), I had heard a tale that the BMW V8 engine was the inspiration for the Buick engine, looking at the BMW engine it did seem quite possible, discuss.

 

[stuvy]

Is the bmw a 3200cc v8?

from what Iv read the Buick engine was surplus to the yanks needs and sent over here

 

[Shox Dr]

Is the bmw a 3200cc v8?

from what Iv read the Buick engine was surplus to the yanks needs and sent over here

Story I read was, someone was in the states and enquired about a block sat in the corner. Unwanted. ‘We’ got hold it it changed the firing sequence and the rest is history

 

[stuvy]

Story I read was, someone was in the states and enquired about a block sat in the corner. Unwanted. ‘We’ got hold it it changed the firing sequence and the rest is history

have read that too but you know what pistonheads is like it make Wikipedia look accurate

 

[fizzy]

I laughed at that too Bob!

V8 LR's are great and I'm glad you're getting reasonable milage stuvy, I used to get 8mpg on lpg out of my 110 3.9 efi . I loved it, but couldnt afford it when I changed jobs and travelled further.

My 3.5 V8 110 on carbs would do 20mpg on a run! Loved it.

 

[stuvy]

My 3.5 V8 110 on carbs would do 20mpg on a run! Loved it.

I filled it up fully on Saturday have done a quarter of a tank since will wait half hour until it’s empty and see what the mpg is roughly

 

[fizzy]

Story I read was, someone was in the states and enquired about a block sat in the corner. Unwanted. ‘We’ got hold it it changed the firing sequence and the rest is history

Bit more to it than that. They had all sorts of over heating problems etc. It was ahead of it's time. All alloy. We fixed that an d many other problems and turned it into one of the World's best engines.
I have had 4 of them.
Still have one in my classic Range Rover.

 

[Matchless]

The BMW V8 pre dated the Buick version, and BMW went bust several times in the late 50's early 60's, may only be a rumour, the Buick to Rover part is quite well known,

 

[minimutly]

When I spent some time looking at and modifying the 4.2 heads, with bigger inlet and exhaust valves, i thought the head was not ideal in flow terms. Ports too big and too flat, from memory, which was why the real steel ones would have been much better.
Smaller ports = higher velocity = better mpg (and power within reason). Like I said, Real Steel heads, 4l bottom end with steel rods and lightweight pistons would have made it a nice engine, oh, once the top hat liners are fitted.
Maybe one day a project car will come allong that needs a heart transplant.

 

[sg66]

Looks nice and clean, when I had the v8 in the 90 mpg was just silly, I was young at the time so contributed to it with a heavy right foot.

 

[Wallace]

Oldsmobile did their own version of the Buick 215ci engine in the early 60's and the Oldsmobile Jetfire had a turbo with water/methanol injection called "Turbo-Rocket Fluid. I have a pair of pressed steel rocker covers off a Buick 215 V8 I found in a scrappy.

 

[stuvy]

After almost two weeks of ownership she’s still running great not bad for a daily

fingers crossed it continues

 

[blackolive (Ste)]

I had an MGZT260 for 7 years which was the low production rover 75 with the 4.6 mustang engine. Was saving up for a supercharger conversion but the pot went on buying the RS2000 instead. It had the loud x power exhausts which were sleeved so even louder. It was fun but let it go as I was only doing a couple of hundred miles a year and it was doing it no good.

When the Navara dies I do quite fancy a V8 disco

 

[Wedg1e]

I read somewhere that the BMW connection was linked to war reparations. In other words, the Yanks nicked it

 

[stuvy]

I had an MGZT260 for 7 years which was the low production rover 75 with the 4.6 mustang engine. Was saving up for a supercharger conversion but the pot went on buying the RS2000 instead. It had the loud x power exhausts which were sleeved so even louder. It was fun but let it go as I was only doing a couple of hundred miles a year and it was doing it no good.

When the Navara dies I do quite fancy a V8 disco

Iv been watching them on eBay for a long time there steadily going up in value and averaging about £2500 for a rough truck I was really lucky to get mine for the money I paid

 

[Wallace]

I read somewhere that the BMW connection was linked to war reparations. In other words, the Yanks nicked it

Are you thinking of the BMW/Bristol 6 engine?

 

[Wedg1e]

Are you thinking of the BMW/Bristol 6 engine?

Hmm, maybe that was it