Rover V8 Conversion - It's DONE!, Video added Options

[Cheapsnake]

What started out as a quick restoration of a '73 2.0 for my wife's summer drive has turned into a 3 year restoration and V8 conversion. Even though there's a few quirks to work out, I'm sticking a fork in it and calling it done.


The finished product. This car started out as the usual rust case, with the typical longitudinal and hole from hell replacements. I also stiffened the tub with 16 ga. sheet wrapped around the rear corners.

Cosmetically, the PS sail panel and door jamb and were pretty much eaten away and that was replaced. The driver's side wasn't quite as bad but had a couple holes rusted through forward of the door. Oh yeah, both doors were caved in and creased. Front trunk floor wasn't quite rusted through but I replaced it anyway. I found out after I had gotten into it that the car had taken a front and rear hit. The repairs were typical collision shop repairs (patch it up and get it out of here). There didn't appear to be any structural distortion.

Paint is a good 5 footer, did it in my garage.


5 lug conversion, boxed trailing arms and 225x15 Falkens on Fuchs all around. Fiberglass flares were an absolute PITA. Bought one set here on the forum that did not fit at all. After days of fitting and a gallon of Rage Gold, I tore them off and replaced them with another set that fit much better. In hindsight, I would definitely have paid the price for steel and saved a lot of time.

Being a cheap bastard, I tried to use as much of what I have and that included the sail panel trim, which was dinged and and scratched like most of it is. I sprayed it with Krylon Hi heat paint and buffed it out to look almost like black chrome. I actually like the look better than the original.


Interior is pretty much stock except for the console. I replaced the black vinyl with brushed aluminum and installed Auto-Meter gauges, volts, oil pressure, and water temp. Believe it or not, that's the original carpet. That stuff is indestructible. The little box at the botom of the console is the Megajolt programmable controller for the ignition system, very cool system from a bunch cool young car guys.


Now for the good stuff. A Rover 3.5L all aluminum V8. I always thought this was an ideal match for the teener. Stock, it puts out 152 HP. I put 4.0 heads and headers on for a boost in compression and better flow, and a 282 cam. Air/'fuel is via a stock intake manifold and Quadrajet carb. I was tempted to do a Holley but the Quadrajet is perfect. Desktop Dyno calculates just over 200HP. Not bad, double the HP with no weight penalty.

The red thing you see just forward and to the left of the air cleaner is where the dizzy used to be. I replaced it with a Ford EDIS ignition system in order to keep the engine as far forward as possible without cutting into the bulkhead. The stuff you see on the left side is the coil pack, one for each cylinder. A trigger wheel and sensor was added to the harmonic balancer.

Everything mounts up to the stock 901 with a Kennedy adapter.

I was obsessed with keeping the axles as close to original location as possible to minimize angular deflection so I also eliminated the water pump pulley to avoid cutting into the bulkhead or moving the engine back. I kept the water pump and removed the pulley and gutted the vanes, save a good 1 1/2". An electric water pump serves the purpose. In the end, I was able to keep the axles within 3/4" of the stock location. I'm happy with that.


Cooling is via an aluminum radiator, vented out the fender wells on either side. I originally ran the cooling lines, Gates 1 1/4" Green Stripe through the longitudinals and origianl heat ducts, but that turned out to be a baaaad idea. Getting past the gas tank and making the sharp bends necessary makes the install a real PITA and severely restricts flow when it's all done. Seemed like a good idea at the time but, I ended up rerouting everything down the centerline and live happily ever after. The black box in front of the gas tank is the heater core and fan from a Ford Taurus. I've got a Merdedes WS washer pump to pump cooling water through the core. Ducting heat into the cabin is a challenge.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out but never imagined it would take as much time, energy and $$$$$ to get it done, famous last words. This project started out as my wife's summer drive, but turned out to be more of a drive than she cares for.

Driving impression: it's a blast. The Rover is a quick revving engine anyway, but mated to the original light clutch and flywheel, it's got instant throttle response. Unfortunately, you have very little flywheel effect to get you off the line so you need to have some revs to avoid killing the engine, but once you're going it's a very streetable car. And the sound from these little V8's is sooooo sweet. And, of course, since there hasn't been much weight added, aside from the radiator and plumbing, the same great handling characteristics remain.

After three years of late nights, skinned knuckles and bad tempers, I;m happy.

Tom