Stock Rover V8 head flow numbers?

[Dan Jones]

Does anyone have head flow numbers for stock Rover V8 cylinder heads? I've recently updated to the latest version of Dynomation and am building a simulation database. I've flow ported Buick 215 and ported and unported Buick 300 and have numbers for Olds 215 heads but have not flowed any stock or ported Rover heads.

Thanks,
Dan Jones

[cfarmer]

Dan -

I've got a spreadsheet that I keep with various head flow numbers for Rover and Buick 215/300 heads with various levels of porting and different valves (some of the numbers are yours I believe).  Just info I've gleaned from the web over the years, so I can't really verify them.  Anyway here's what I've got for stock Rover 3.9L heads with standard valves:

<table border="3">
<tr> <td></td> <td>Intake</td> <td>exhaust</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>0.200</td> <td>92</td> <td>72</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>0.300</td> <td>132</td> <td>85</td>  </tr>
<tr> <td>0.400</td> <td>143</td> <td>89</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>0.500</td> <td>147</td> <td>91</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>0.550</td> <td>148</td> <td>91</td> </tr>
</table>

Sorry I don't remember the source, but I probably have it in some of my notes if you really want it.  Flow is at 28 inches of water.  Thanks to Curtis for the table HTML code...

Cliff

PS - If you want the numbers I have for the Rover 3.9L with "light" port and with a "stage 4" port, I can post them as well.  IIRC they are from the same source as the stock numbers.

[roverman]

Got Zeus, anybody ? I would appreciate a lead, to flow bench data, on the latest/greatest, evolution of the Lotus 907 head.Thanks, roverman.

[Dan Jones]

Thanks Cliff.  Those Rover 3.9L numbers are indeed from me from a local porter who is now out of business.  I had to track him down, coming out of his house, and physically threaten him to get my parts back.

Dan Jones

[al mackenzie]

Hi. I browse an English webforum called The V8 Owners Forum. There's a chap on there who recently built his own flowbench and has begum comparative testing of Rover V8 factory heads, modified stage versions and aftermarket heads such as the Merlin from Real Steel. Check out this thread;
http://www.v8forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6613
I reckon he'll have what you're after.
Regards from Berlin, where I'm about to swap a mildly warmed over 3.5 from a rusty '73 Rover P6 3500 into my freshly restored corroseion-free '72 project over the Easter weekend... Standard '72 high compression 10.25:1 P6 heads, twin SU HIF6 carbs and bog standard exhaust, 'fast road' cam.

[MGBV8]

I've been popping over there for years lurking & searching the archive for info. Great website.

Looks like Peter Burgess (burgesstuning) chimed in on the thread that Al linked.

[roverman]

Would be good to hear #'s for, smart ported F-85's. Spending that amount ,to gettum-here, I would "halft" to takum to the next level. roverman.

[Dan Jones]

Thanks for the link to the V8 Owners Forum.  Just what I was looking for.  The first set of flow numbers are mine.  The second set are on his bench with some additional numbers from catalogs.  Looks like the Merlins in stock form do not flow as well as my ported Buick 300's.  The stock Rover numbers look a little lower than the others I had which I suspect were on an optimistic flow bench.  It will be interesting to see how well Dynomation predicts trends with the Buick/Rover.  I previously ran a street stroked Ford 351C on the dyno.  The heads were factory iron closed chamber and, with short side radius work only, they flowed 322 CFM @ 0.6" lift.  With a factory dual plane intake, it made 468 HP at 5500 RPM through the mufflers on a dyno that is known to be 5% conservative.  I input all the cam, flow bench and other data (header and intake dimensions, carb cfm, etc.) and the program predicted a peak of 470 HP at 5500 RPM.  Pretty close.  Next month, I'll be dynoing another stroked 351C with a bit more cam (optimized in Dynomation) that the simulation predicts 525+ HP for.  We'll see how well it matches.  Later this spring, I hope to have a Rover 4.2L on the dyno.

Dan Jones

[castlesid]

Dan,

Good to hear from you and to see you visit the V8 Forum on which I'm a regular.

Be keen to see how your 4.2 performs, hoping to get some miles and fun out of my 4.35 which has the 77mm (4.2) tuftrided crank.

What cam are you going to run in it? I noticed that you've been looking at Crowers cams, I ended up with the 50232 and it's a good cam for fast road use and managing the high density traffic where I live.

Regards,

Kevin.

[Dan Jones]

> What cam are you going to run in it? I noticed that you've been looking
> at Crowers cams, I ended up with the 50232 and it's a good cam for fast
> road use and managing the high density traffic where I live.

I have both Crower 50232 and 50233 cams on hand but I will most likely
go with a solid lifter grind.  I plan to let Dynomation design the cam
for me.  Dynomation has built-in optimization loops that will iterate
on intake and exhaust duration and lobe separation angle.  You have to
specify the lift limits, lobe type (hydraulic, solid, roller, flat)
and ramp rate.  You can run the iterator to optimize peak HP or torque
(at a specified RPM) or to optimize the area under the HP (or torque)
curve between RPM points.  I'll optimize the cam for area under the
HP curve between my shift points which results in maximum acceleration.
I've done a few cams like that already and will be dyno testing one in
April.

This 4.2L has cross-bolted mains, Wiseco forged pistons, Carrillo
rods and roller rockers.  Heads are the GM race heads developed
for Mickey Thompson (Buick 215 chambers and bolt pattern with
Buick 300 ports).  We should have the heads on the flow bench soon
to see if further porting is desired.  Have several different
intake manifolds to dyno, including one GM's dual 4 barrel setups
with Carter 9400 (400 CFM) carbs.  The big question I need to answer
is what RPM do I want to spin it to.  It's a street car so I want
decent street manners but the long block is built to rev.

Dan Jones

[roverman]

Dan and clan. Just found these numbers from (2) heads I had intake flowed. First #'s are 3.5L Rover, Prepaired by Huffaker for GT-1 racing. Jaguar int. in Ti.,44mm. dia. Flowed @ 28" through a 3.75" bore. .1" lift=45cfm.,.2=81.8, .3=125.3,.4=167,.5=172,.6=172 and.7=175cfm. Next, Buick, alum. V6 Stg. II,2.02" int/1.55"exh. flowed through a 3.75" bore. .1"=58.5,.2=112,.3=175,.4=215,.5=247,.6=275,.7=295,.75=299,.8=306 cfm. This was a "home port" job. I believe a "pro", like Duttweiler, etc. could improve these #'s, with same valve sizes,(max. for 3.7 bore). Obviously, this head want's a mech. roller cam. Cheers, roverman.

[MGBV8]

More Rover head flow numbers from Dan Jones & others.

http://www.leylandp76.com/technical/tech-headflow.html

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46460

[Wilitrun]

Carl, thank you very much for digging those up.
At worst-case it looks like at .550 the 300 exhaust is at 106cfm and the 215 is 91.6 so I'm not sure why block-huggers would be acceptable for a 215 and not for a 300 (or at least not significantly worse as to be worth worrying about for a street application that might see 5000RPM for less than 10% of the time). Am I reading that data correctly?
Thanks again, cheers.