The official Rover V8 inlet manifold page

This page is my archive of known Rover V8 inlet manifolds. It Seems like just about every form of getting fuel into a rover V8 has been tried at one point or another - some with more success than others.

I never expected there would be so many different types, the list gets longer every month. If you have any pictures of manifold setups or interesting information about these manifolds, please get in touch.

Many of these are copied from other peoples/suppliers sites - Credit has been given where the source is known.

Last updated 3/1/09

Got any more photos? Please Get in contact!

These engines and manifolds were found on many cars including, Rover SD1, Range Rover, Westfield Seight, TVR, Marcos and many kit cars such as the Dax Rush.

Trumpet Bases

Comparison of standard Rover trumpets, ACT carbon fibre and nasty TVR trumpets. TVR and ACT have a 44m id I believe.

JE Engineering Spun trumpets

45mm trumpets, slightly splayed to get them all in.

Act Carbon Fibre trumpet base

Very nice. Replaces the nasty factory TVR 'trumpets' which are no more than straight bits of mild steel out of the scrap bin.

'Trumpetless' bases

Phil Ringwood's hand blended trumpet base, which is similar to the TVR Taraka 500 upgrade:

MEZ MK1 Blended Trumpet base

This is what I consider to be an improved blended trumpet base. By using a piece of Nylon, the inlet tract is slightly longer, which matches flush to the inlet of the plenum and also allows for a more generous flare to be machined in.

Final product, both the 40mm version for standard plenums and the 44mm version for TVR plenums. Remember where you saw it first.

The trumpet base has large recesses cast into the base, therefore for a smooth bore all the way down into the manifold, the base requires sleeving.

Update: Testing has shown that the blended base isn't as effective as the short carbon ACT trumpets (~10 bhp down).

Plenums

'Federal' Plenum

Jonathan Douglas Kindly sent me these photos of this manifold which was thought to be a prototype, however thanks to Chris and Jolyon who got in contact to say it was fitted to US Spec (NADA) TR8', SD1's and Australian Rover SD1's

I Stumbled across these whilst searching around, never seen them before. They came from Rover SD1.com. I don't know whether its home made based on the prototype ones shown earlier or an original factory item. If you know anything about these - drop me a line

If you know anything about these - drop me a line

MGB V8 Plenum cover:

ACT Products

Double and triple throttle plenums - not actually sure if you need three throttle bodys, but they look cool i suppose.

V8 Enhancements

Here is a totaly original idea by Dave Blades dont know if it works, but looks promising. Clive of V8 Enhancements fabricated it.

Triumph Rover Spares

Here's an almost identical version on the original plenum. Made by Triumph Motor Spares (Australia)

OEM Rover GEMS plenum

Notice that the top is square rather than curved on the earlier hotwire systems. This one appears to be bored out, as I have looked at two OEM gems plenums and they are both 65mm

MEZ 72mm Gems Plenum

OEM Plenum, which is 65mm and them same plenum bored out to 72mm by me.

MEZ 72mm Hotwire Plenum

I can bore these out for Ł100 if you send your plenum top to me, see also my for sale section

Grafting on Larger Throttles

Here's a Jag throttle body welded to the std plenum

Martin Midmore Sent his DIY conversion for a 4.7 Rover - nice and tidy. Throttle body is from a Cadillac Northstar.

Westfield

Westfield plenum is rotated 90' so it doesn't stick out the bonnet.Its made from a standard plenum, by cutting and welding. Yet again, ACT have made an much improved one.

More photos of the westfield plenum are here

Peter sent these photo's of his ACT Plenum - uses 75mm Throttle body

Rover SD1 Twin Plenum

Uses twin 65mm throttle bodies. The trumpet base is bigger than the std base.

JE Engineering has provided the following photos showing an original SD1 homolgation trumpet base. Jonathan Douglas comments 'we generally build them with 68 mm throttles, although the standard throttles in SD1 homologation units were 65 mm. With an appropriate engine underneath these will allow well over 360 bhp'.
The trumpets are 41mm. Worth knowing that he has stock of new twin plenum manifolds!

THOR manifold

This was fitted to post MY 2000 rovers with bosch injection. Some people have come up with the idea of fitting a pair of throttle bodies to each plenum. This manifold is good for a 4x4 setup but less so on a car, due to its long thin runners. Uses one large throttle body of 68mm.

Jonathan Douglas Comments: 'the throttle body has a 68 mm throttle as standard and again, we often take this out, in this case to 71.5 mm. The Thor manifold, when used with either a standard cam or a mildly tuned cam, gives a strong torque peak at around 2,000 rpm, much higher than that achievable with the Lucas plenum design, but even with careful gas-flow work the power is limited. We find it difficult to achieve more than around 280 bhp with this manifold, where a similar amount of effort on a Lucas Plenum manifold will yield 320 bhp (but with less torque below 3,500 rpm'

Siamesed Plenum

Nick Smalwood's Siamesed pleum. Consisting of two standard plenums cut and welded together!

Megasquirt Guru Phil Ringwood, who's actually got one running on a 5L tvr

Other Intakes

Bike Throttle bodies

Gavin Parker sent these in, 38mm CBR 600 throttle bodies. Made by Altiss Engineering, going into a Capri

Bike carbs

Fireblade carbs, going into a Jonathan Ellison's V8 Chevette:. Made by Bogg Brothers.

Individual Throttle Bodies

Individual throttle bodies on a TVR - Credit:?

Custom Sheet metal

Found these intakes over at Lanocha Racing Yes, they are Rover manifolds - not Chevy.

4 barrel Intakes

Wildcat
Marcus sent his Wildcat single plane manifold with a tasty MSD 1000cfm throttle body, it will have rails and injector bungs added

Wilpower
Greg Williams sent this Wilpower manifold. He says that Wilpower make several versions - such as this one which is configured for fuel injection.
Looks like the Wildcat one above? - that's because Wildcat sell the Wilpower manifolds!!

BL Motorsport Single Plane
Michael Perkins sent this BL Motorsport manifold in, he says:
"The BL Motorsport Intake is a very rare item. It was produced initially by Huffaker Engineer on the West Coast of the USA. BL Motorsports needed a performance intake to use to develop the TR7 V8 rally program. This particular intake has a British Leyland Swirl cast in. This is the first of many that has the logo actually cast in. Typically if it was a straight Huffaker intake it would just have a round boss and not the BL swirl. The intake has original provisions for the power booster 'gulp' valve, front and rear coolant take offs."

Offenhauser Dual Port
Michael Perkins says: "The JWR/Offenhauser Dual Port 360 manifold was to be an improvement over the dual plane Offenhauser that was made back in the 1960ies. It has divided runner, one for the primaries and one for the secondaries that until the fuel leaves the intake and enters the cylinder head they mix. It was a slight improvement but did tend to run rough and rich. BL Motorsports used this intake with a Repco twin DCOE Weber adaptor until they "Swan Neck" quad Weber intake was developed."

Cross Ram Intake

Michael Perkins says:
"some pictures of Group 44 Inc Triumph TR8s that have a cross ram Lucas, Bosch, Piersburg & Fuerstenau fuel injection"

Many thanks Michael for the interesting info, Eliot.

Carb setups

For those that insist on using archaic carbs, here's a few:

John Eales Developments (JED)

JED TVR Style manifolds (They are not handed, so carbs face in same direction)

JED "swan neck" sidedraft manifold

JED Weber Downdrafts
Peter sent these downdrafts on a Dax Rush, Manifolds are by John Eales - there are two different styles, one that makes the carbs face in the same direction and one where the carbs face one another - which makes the throttle linkage easier to make.