View single post by 907heaven
 Posted: 04-03-2010 09:01 am
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907heaven

 

Joined: 04-01-2010
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I've heard of people threatening to do this conversion; I once supplied a guy a couple of heads to try it but never heard the outcome, I would imagine though that you would have a very wide V8 - maybe hard to fit in an engine bay?

I've ported several Zeus heads; they are a nice head "as cast", and are better formed in terms of internal cooling passages - supposedly having 30% more cooling capacity.  Bear in mind also that the Zeus head has a bigger chamber - 42cc versus the 36-38cc of the earlier heads.   Do you have two zeus heads?  They are much rarer than the early heads.  Ultimately in terms of airflow you can achieve just as much from the early heads; you just have a bit more grinding to do. 

The flow under the curve is excellent - a match for much more modern heads. Obviously you'll appreciate that describing port shapes is virtually impossible; but as a general guide - try and work with the existing port shape; they have a slight curve in plan view; which many people try to straighten out; in my experience with poorer results than working with the basic shape.   If you need some 38mm valves let me know - I keep them on the shelf.

Can't you get a flat plane crank and run the engine like a pair of siamesed 4 cylinders?  I know it wouldn't sound as nice; but Ferrari manage to make that firing order sound OK - I also hear that flat plane cranks produce more HP?

There are quite a few Jensen Healey's in the UK running around with Rovers in them; maybe 4 Jensen Healey cam covers under the bonnet (hood) wouldn't look so out of place?  After all the 907 was always built as half of a V8 engine; the prototype V8's made good power - they just couldn't get a cam belt to stay on them.  Are the bore centres on the rover the same - the Lotus is 4.25".  I would be interested to hear how you get on.  Good luck.

GARRY

 

Last edited on 04-03-2010 09:02 am by 907heaven