Buick/Rover aluminum v8 to 914 conversion Options

[streetrover]

Hello everyone! OK, I've got an empty 914 in my driveway and a 4.0 liter Rover engine in my garage. A Buick 4bbl intake is en route as is an Edelbrock carb. I've got lots of questions about clearance, most notably about the distributor. The Rover engine came stock with a "crankshaft angle sensor" and individual coils. It'd be great to use this instead of the distributor but I don't know if I can run this ignition system without the "computer" that also controls the fuel injection. If I need to go with the distributor instead that's fine but then how do I overcome clearance restrictions? I would REALLY love to talk to someone with this conversion completed!!!

Thanks,
Bob

[realred914]

you might check with teh VW sand rail folks, they sometimes run aluminum rover V-8s in teh sand rails, my uncle does. that might be a good source for parts info.

[quick six]

you might check with teh VW sand rail folks, they sometimes run aluminum rover V-8s in teh sand rails, my uncle does. that might be a good source for parts info.

That looks like a lot more fun than when I was putting olds or buick 215s in jeeps and dune buggies. The olds and buick heads/pistons were different so the closed chamber head in place of the open chambered ones made for around 11-1 compression without a big budget. Also the other way worked pretty well for a low compression Turbo motor. Now if I could only remember which worked on which. I may have to dig around and see what I can find to put in another body. The availability of the aftermarket pieces might take the fun (?) out of fabing everything.
Thanks guys. Keep up the good work. You may have started another project around here.