Southeastern Finecast Rover/Morgan/MG V8 Engine Kit

[lordairgtar]

Got an email from Southeast Finecast. My order is now processed and on it's way

[Bob Ellis]

This is the old GM aluminum 215 ci V8 sold to British Leyland back in the '60s? I mean it should fit into a Johan 1962 Cutlass, right?

Edited August 11, 2014 by Bob Ellis

[jbwelda]

isn't the johan 1/25? but aside from that discrepancy, should fit, I suppose. would have to or want to use completely different induction though and not sure why you would want to waste all the UK stuff for the sake of a motor you can get four of in the Showboat.

jb

Edited August 12, 2014 by jbwelda

[kitbash1]

I have one of their Lotus 38 kits, Really nice kit, castings are very well done, but the decals are not the greatest but you can get replacements from Indycals.

[Bob Ellis]

I guess because GM offered that 215 with the turbo charge in the Buick and Olds. The 215 in the Johan kit is simple and a carburetor version that is boring.

[om617]

Hm i have this early version Esci Range Rover 2door,this engine would be nice.

[dimaxion]

Deep breath .. GM did originate this chunk of trouble . It was a good design . The Bean Counters got hold of it ..period .

The Factory Loaded the Cooling Systems with Glycol Base Anti Freeze . This chemical mix causes the Aluminum Engine to melt down with a small amount of heat . Plugging up the Radiator , causing overheating , causing the Steel Cylinder Liners to drop out of the Block , causing BANG . The Powers that were , decided the 12 / 12 Warranty gamble was worth it in the day . The first winter these hand grenades had a 99% Survival . Most all did not make it into Warm/ Hot Weather . When this time passed , the Power Plant quit . All the Owners at this point , as well as the premature failure 1%'s were offered a Substantial Trade in . A Huge Repair Bill would make me think I was being treated well .

Reality happens as Buick could not give away a V/6 sometime in the '70's . Buick could not Sell anything with a Skylark , Special or Sky Hawk either . Sold to AMC for Jeep use . AMC fixed the maraud of problems and sold Jeep V/6 until the Engine was so Obsolete , the Tooling was Warehoused . British Leyland and AMC made a deal and off to England went the Tooling /process , Sold again . More Problem Prone Fixes were done . Somewhere was the archaic (and Prone to wear - leakage) External oil Pump went away . FoMoCo was appalled to find the Ralphie V/6 alive , well and fixed upon the acquisition of Range Rover .

Again in the 70's , "Buick Engineers" create a New V/6 from a clean sheet . Complete with ..an external trouble loaded Oil Pump . The Bean Counters were still at Junkie Motors . The last count I have is 16 generations . One good one was made and immediately ruined with a Counter-shaft . This made this a Mechanical Clunker so equal with the others .

A couple more facts for you to ponder . Across town MoPar made / sold all Aluminum 225 hp , 225 CID Hyper Pacs . Alcohol Based Coolant . There were well spelled out danger Warnings about Glycol Coolant complete with clearly spelled out results . At least three in the Owners manual . One on the inside of the Glove Box Door . At least one on the Core Support near the Radiator . GMC Trucks had V/6's since early in the 1960's , some were Aluminum . Oldsmobile had a Better designed V/8 , All Aluminum . Yet these Engines did not have the problems Buick V/6's had . I just wonder if the lack of Glycol Antifreeze and the use of Alchol Based Coolant made the difference .

My sources ; School of Hard Knocks , exchanging experiences with others in the field with me , reading mountains of Interviews - Tech Bulletins - Histories - Books - Magazines (on in Particular ; 'Autoweek" printed this rundown of this clunk when FoMoCo bought Land Rover) . Thanx ..

[jbwelda]

nice history aside from all the capital letters, which makes it very hard to read. what I did notice is you seem to be confusing the buick V6 with this engine. this engine is a V8. it may or may not have anything at all to do with the motor you are referring to. I do seem to recall that maybe the V6 was the V8 with two cylinders sliced off but not at all sure that is the case.

at any rate these engines just look kool...I don't really care how they ran, I am building models here not running cars. I think that's how many of us think as well.

Chevy V8s run well (well, that's not my experience but perhaps that was an isolated case) but are boring boring boring as sculpture if you ask me. hence my enthusiasm for this kit.

jb

[Chuck Most]

I do seem to recall that maybe the V6 was the V8 with two cylinders sliced off but not at all sure that is the case.

It is- what John pointed out in his post is correct, pretty much blow-by-blow as far as the historical content. I can't vouch for all the commentary on its reliability and problems, but I don't have a lot of first hand knowledge in that regard, but what he posted was pretty much the the history of these engines- 6 or 8 cylinders.

Chevy V8s run well (well, that's not my experience but perhaps that was an isolated case) but are boring boring boring as sculpture if you ask me. hence my enthusiasm for this kit.

You and I may have had similar isolated cases- I've never been too impressed by any of the SBCs I've owed, and I agree 100% that seeing another one in a street rod is about as exciting as drying paint at this point.

[PatW]

Yes great build jb! I remember these as a friend of mine bought the first Rover SDI in the area with this engine. As a race marshall I saw a lot of the V8 SDI's on the track soon after.

[keyser]

215 V8 was aluminum. Shares nothing with V6 Jeep AFAIK. That was steel V6, was in Jeeps in US in late 60's

Alloy V8 sold/shiped to Rover/Rootes Group/British Leyland whatever in about 63-64.
3.5 L displacement still (215ci). Had SU carbs on it. Went into Rover sedans P5, P6, SD-1.

Also crammed into MGB GT V8, TR-8, Defenders, Discoveries, Original Range Rover, P38 Range Rover 1997-2002 (have 27k mile '02 Rhino in garage with 4.6L version), some TVR's, Morgan +8's, IIRC Marcos V8, other Brit bitsas.

Land Rover used longest I believe, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.6L displacements with SU carbs, Lucas/GEMS injection, and Bosch Injection.

We owned a new Calloway tuned 4.6 Range Rover in '00, had ~ 40 more BHP.

TVR and Overfinch punched them to 5.0 but it was pushing it.

Nobody probably cares, but I always liked this motor in our Rangies. Run great, light, just use good oil and run pizz out of them and they're great.

Good luck with kit, they make neat stuff.

PS: Full detail ZZR will be hysterical. I like idea. Kewl on the Coffin Corner. Dual SU's in kit look nice.

Edited August 19, 2014 by keyser

[jbwelda]

thank you keyser. whatever that other cat is smoking, I want some of. but only if it doesn't make me capitalize the initial letter of every other word for no apparent reason. I just didn't know they sent it to England so early...I thought it was more like 72 or 73 but I have no real basis for thinking that.

jb

Edited August 19, 2014 by jbwelda

[keyser]

No prob. Long lived from '61 to '04 in series production, 43 years, still produced now in small quantities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8_engine

I don't have m4D tYp1n6 5k1L2.