Re: Warning: coolant temp. and cracking in Rover blocks

[James Jewell <m1garand@speakeasy.net>]

Carl,
   No mention of the reason behind the delay, but it appears to be 
worth it.  They give some neat tips for improving oil flow and pressure, 
but no pictures or diagrams of the more complicated mods (in other 
words, the mods that really NEED diagrams don't have them).  They have 
great full-scale line drawings showing the max material that can be 
removed for porting all the different British heads, but none for the 
300 heads (damn, foiled again).  They talk allot about the Buick 
engines, and go to great lengths to use terms we Colonials will 
understand, but they make no mention of the Buick 300 heads or crank.  
Interestingly enough, they mention that a small-block Ford crank can be 
modified to fit in a Rover block, which opens up a whole world of custom 
and forged stroker cranks for us Yanks.  This is what Wildcat 
Engineering does on their 6 litre blocks.
Anyhow, a great book all around, despite a few nits.
James J.


Carl Floyd wrote:

> About friggin' time! That book has been delayed since before the 2004 V8
> meet!
>
> Did they mention what the delay was about? I just checked, I first ordered
> that book June 14, 2004.
>
> Sounds like GM's investment casting process was superior even if more
> costly.
>
> Carl
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "James Jewell" <m1garand@speakeasy.net>
> To: <mgb-v8@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 11:43 AM
> Subject: Warning: coolant temp. and cracking in Rover blocks
>
>
>  
> > All,
> >    Veloce just sent me a copy of their latest book for review: Power
> > Tuning the Rover V8 by Des Hammil.  It's a fantastic book, and should be
> > on the shelves soon.  However, it brings up some frightening points
> > about the big-bore (3.9,4.0, 4.2, 4.6L) blocks.  Many of us know that
> > when Rover upped the size of the bore, that the thickness of the
> > aluminum surrounding the sleeves actually got thinner, which led to a
> > cracking problem, with commensurate water loss into the cylinder, and
> > sleeve drop.  What I didn't realize was how bad the problem was:  Fully
> > 25% of the big-bore blocks will develop a crack.  But it gets worse:
> > For a few models, Rover installed a higher temp. thermometer in the
> > engines (opening at around 185 DegF).  On those models, the cracking
> > rate goes over 50%.  So the book recommends that all Rover engines run
> > with the lowest temp Thermometer one can find.  The problem is that,
> > with the small radiators that fit into our beloved MGBs, it's hard to
> > keep the engine that cool regardless of the thermometer setting.
> >    Anyhow, lets do a survey:
> > Who is running a big-bore Rover, what is your thermometer setting, and
> > are you mysteriously losing coolant?
> > Thanks,
> > JJJ
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