BritishV8 Forum

Art, Plymouth were Polysphere,but block could be used with Dodge heads.In addition to Buicks,Pontiacs,Chevy's and Ford,I've had a few early Hemi's. Still have a pair of Red Ram valve covers hanging in the shop. There is 55 270 Dodge Hemi in an old wrecker sitting in the field down the road. I ask if he wants to sell and he keeps saying " I'm going to fix it up someday" Yeah, right. It's been about 10 years now. It would be cool in a T-bucket.

Jim, "one casting, one casting only". Get it ? roverman.

Yes,Roverman (aluminum with new Hemi chamber) or Rotus Brossum 4 valve- actually bathtub chamber,right!

Rotus=pentroof.  MGB=bathtub. Modern/smart hemi,aka. 5.7 and 6.2L Mopar ,has relatively shallow chamber, squish, quench, turbulence and a fast burn. Of course, it's not a real hemi.

Didn't know where else to dump this for ya!
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1581985.htm

Clan, Where does the time fly to ? It was back on Feb 19, 2009, Mike Jr. at TA, felt the tooling for the heads would be done in April-09. If their NOT in an exclusive with "OZ", the end result, sure seems the same ? At least we have Rover roller cams, in eager anticipation,Perhaps then, we could "possibly" , make over 400 hp., all motor. ? roverman.

Yep, we've been waiting patiently. And now, since I've heard that you, Art are to be shipped a set of bare TA Rover style heads, at least a few of us are very curious to see some photos of them.

As the matter now stands, it appears that an engine based on the 300 Buick block, using a 350 Buick crank, the TA heads, possibly a Willpower or one of the intakes on this page: http://www.mez.co.uk/ms12.html
along with a suitable set of rods and pistons with a short pin height around 1-1/4" would result in about the strongest and most durable engine  available in this weight range for the MGB, displacing 350 ci or 5.7L with a .050" overbore (sonic check cylinder walls of course). Roller cam and possibly roller rockers eliminate the need for zinc additives in the oil and neoprene front and real seals used. EFI and crank trigger/COP ignition optional. The price wouldn't be too bad either, the fit is good and the weight is within about 50 lbs of stock.

JB

What "irks" me, is some magazines. I give kudo's to Hot Rod Mag. for even doing an article on the sbb.  I buy Engine Masters Mag. for motor builds but they tend to be Big 3  Only. How many hundreds of different builds can you build with those-why ? Sales, thats why. Just like" Dear Abby", their recyling articles, for motor builds,(shamefull) ! I would like to see a sbb/Rover build-off. Anybody ?  Jim B., it's doubtfut anyone will change your mind about cast iron 300 blocks, and that's ok. It leaves more Rover blocks left over, for those of us, who don't know any better, lol. In a lengthly talk with Mike Sr. of TA., it appears the TA ports are cast quite small, with potential to become quite large, ie. lots of porting. This way you get to pay for his cnc porting, to save many hours of hand work. I wish I could get a drawing, of intake ports/heights, so I could build a suitable manifold. Cheers, roverman.

How relative a term is "small" in Mike's vocabulary though? Small in relation to their V6 ports (which are kinda huge), or what?

JB

Jim and clan, aluminum 300 size or smaller. This head makes no pretense of being a street head, so why so small ? Why not cast net-size ? No one could seriously consider these for a 3.5 OR 4L. There's "real $'s" in cnc porting. Nuff said. roverman.

I just spoke to Mike Jr. today, there's been a delay. I'm as shocked as anyone. It seems it's tough to find good machinists these days. He said to call back in a month. roverman.

Well, I just called, another 4-6 weeks. So "maybe" a hemi, not so crazy ?  roverman.

Seems that delivery schedule has slipped just a tad, eh?

Jim

A few sets have been sold here  in Australia over the last 12 months...

IMHO, The first person to successfully electron beam weld the Stage II Buick V6 aluminum head together, for the Rover V8, will conquer all. Onward, roverman.

Or just MAYBE... go the OTHER way and weld it together like a SBB 350 head and CONQUER ALL!!!

Jim

Jim and clan, I defer to the flow bench. Approximately everybody and their sister-in-law, can make about 340 cfm at .600" lift. Your 350 sbb heads flow ?? EB weld cast iron ? Got Grudge Race ? Cheers, roverman.

No silly, cut and weld the alloy V6 heads the opposite direction so they FIT a 350.

The English Wildcat heads look like Buick stage 2 based to me??

Sam & Issy @ C.O.M.E here in Melbourne had some fancy V6 heads almost at the production stage a few years ago....They said an 8 cyl version would be possible, too.
Would I be correct in assuming 3.8 buick/Holden pattern would be more 350ish than Rover? These guys already have runs on the board producing aftermarket Holden V8 alloy heads.

Aw, it's just a joke. Those Buick 350 guys have been crying about alloy heads for so long it's gotten monotonous. "How come the BBB guys have heads and we don't?" "How come the V6 guys have heads and we don't?" "How come the Rover guys have heads and we don't?" "Wah, wah, waaaah!!" They feel like 2nd class citizens.

I totally understand though, just nothing I can do about it.

For the 350, Buick took the incredibly "understandable"? step of changing the port layout to siamesed center exhausts like on the BBB. Why? Well, why not? But in doing so they split the line and orphaned both ends. Now it is possible to put Rover heads on a 350, but nobody makes the cam you would need to do it, and nobody seems to understand why that would be a good thing. The 350 guys have this idea stuck in their heads that the 350 port layout is somehow inherently "better", and the Rover guys haven't caught on to the idea that there are a blue million big capacity blocks out there just waiting to be snatched up for pennies on the dollar.

But hey, it's all good. In a perfect world, TA will make the 350 heads next week and we'll all be happy forever more. (Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.)

Jim

There is sound engineering why exhaust ports work better when separated from each other. Wet intake manifold engines must be tuned to the "hottest" cylinders,(companion exhaust ports). Case in point, Penske Camaro, sbc powered, had large pyrometer in the car,(center cylinders), for the driver to watch. Bbc oval port heads flow 20% less on 1/2 of the cylinders, (intake) because the charge is aimed at the cylinder walls. Chevrolet LS has isolated exhaust ports as do nearly all, made for racing engines. I suspect sbc and sbb went with paired exhaust to help the inlet side,(longer/more equal runner lengths and better fuel distribution). Stage II Buick V6 head is built as (3) indentical cylinders for pure racing performace. Almost 28 years after is debut, this head is still one of the best flowing inline valve heads for given valve/port size. They were so good, back in the day, to be used on sbc's, for Nascar. I suspect TA might have considered, it's port layout, but "knew", there would be whiners about having to buy an intake manifold to match. Onward, roverman.

The ever-elusive TA heads are scheduled to arrive, this week. "OZ" is claiming 300 cfm with a 1.94" intake,.600" lift ? 3.7" bore, not likely. Plan is to build a suitable sp 4bbl intake manifold. Reportedly, intake port roof will go .5" taller. 2.02" intake, is on my list,(3.9" bore).  Onward, roverman.

jim,
i don't like the 350 top end either. heads are old world and not much can be done to them. at least i can make a single plane intake to alleviate half the induction problem.
if i could afford 2 pairs of the aluminum v6 heads, you know i would be cutting them up to fit the 350. you would think t/a would at least make a single plane intake............
john

I know Johnny, surely the numbers are there. But oddly there seems to be this idea that 350 guys don't have any money. Maybe that is supported by their buying patterns, I dunno. It's really too bad. A big aluminam head and single plane would transform that engine.

Jim

Another problem with the 350 sbb head, besides exhaust ports paired together, is the intake runners paired in four corners. This creates unequal swirl within the cylinders. Unequal swirl means different burning, tuning and power output, between cylinders. Onward, roverman.