Tuning and Modifying the Rover V8



The purpose of this text is to give some insight into the Rover V8 engine and how to rebuild with a view to optimising for better performance, reliability and economy.  There’s some useful info at the end but I’ve deliberately left out the reams of measurements of bearings etc as it’s easy to reproduce it incorrectly and it can be found elsewhere quite quickly.


What if I want more power and don’t want to go and spend lots of money or time doing all the machining and stuff?


If your engine is in good condition generally, you could just change the camshaft.  Its worth a bit of extra torque and around 20bhp on a 3.5L or 3.9L V8.  Tidying the heads and matching the ports will give further gains and accurate ignition and fueling with a free flowing exhaust will top it off.  If you had an EFI system on there instead of the carbs, you could reasonably expect a reliable 200bhp from a 3.5, probably around 210-220bhp from a 3.9.  Go further than that and you really ought to look at fixing up the bottom end with balancing and probably main bearing studs.  Read on…





Master Index

•Part One - Engine Principles

•Part Two - Engine Blueprinting

•Part Three - More Power - we look at changing manifolds and cams

•Part Four - Even More Power - Bigger cams, Bigger Engines, Compression and Timing

•Part Five - In, Out and Bang - Looks at Induction, Exhausts and Ignition

•Part Six - Gems conversion to distributor

•Part Seven - LPG

•Part Eight - Rebuilding V8 Heads

•Part Nine - Installing Lucas Fuel injection

•Part Ten - Forced induction / Nitrous

•Part Eleven - Useful Rover V8 information


Eliots Note:
I take no credit for this document - I found this document on the internet and found it very interesting - but difficult to read.

I have [tried] to lay it out a little better and break it down into manageable sections. If you know who wrote it, please get in touch so I can give credit to them. Get yourself comfy and enjoy.