Hi all! I have a 1971 Vega Wagon with a 215 in it and i am looking to build some H.P. with the Motor I know im not going to get much out of it but i would like to make it a pretty Sweet little Street Car. I have a set of 64 300 heads and was wondering if anyone ahd ever done anything with these to build them up. also i have a 300 crank. Please Let me know what you know about this little Lean Mean 215. Thanks Garrett
I don't know anything about a 215 but when I lived in England they had a special class at the drag strip (Santa Pod) for these motors (Rover V/8 powered). Yes the cars were smaller than a normal size american car (not a Vega though) and some ran in the 9's. The potential must be there but I can't tell you which way you need to go. Good luck with your build up and I'm sure someone will give you some positive comments. Dare to be different!
Welcome to the list, Garrett! I was in your same position a few years back. I have a '73 Vega GT 215. It had a 215 installed by the guys at Steve linked. They installed it in 1978. I've actually got the original documentation for it! There is a lot you can do with the 215 to improve performance with the 300 head even without stroking it. The 215 has a really long 1.72:1 rod ratio. That means it can make better hp at higher RPM with marginal intake ports and smaller valves. It does need better exhaust ports though. The limiting factor is the weak valvetrain. The guys at D&D can help you there too: The two places that are the biggest issue are the rocker shaft end breakage at high RPM and the dist./oilpump drive gear wear. D&D sells rocker shaft end retainers that fix the shaft breakage problem. I think they also sell tougher dist drive gears. I saw a trick in a great book by Des Hammil: How to Power Tune the Rover V8. They tapped an oil gallery and installed a braided line to a fitting that sprayed a jet of oil at the gear. There are a bunch of solutions here... The connecting rods are stock forged and the crank does ok. So what it needs is higher compression or (So BobK doesn't come after me) forced induction. Turbocharging the buick 215 and 300 heads could be a potent combo. The stroker 260 is a bit more torquey. Not as necessary for us Vega owners. That said you can make pretty good power and get that seat of the pants feel. I'm actually working on a stroked version of the late Rover cross-bolt block derived from the 215. If you're interested in reading more my build page link is in my sig. I'm also in the process of building a MegaSquirt EFI for fuel management.
Thanks For the Info! every Bit Helps. I was Thinking about doing some kind of Forced Induction (like a Blower would be sweet) turbo would be kool to but i am getting ready to to do some extensive head work soon so the info on that was very helpful. Thanks nix :beer
OK. The head is where you'll probably spend the most money. Here's a link to my head work page: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2357894/2 Consider the end bore so you don't shroud the valves. I used VW valves (Manley P/N11659-4 Volkswagen 38mm (1.496) (updated part #) ) and Iron Duke valves (1988 - 92 Pontiac "Iron Duke" 151ci 4-cylinder engine (Federal Mogul p/n V2530). If I was to do it over I might try to fit all VW valves. Or have the VW intake valves turned down a bit and rehardened... Maybe go with Manley valves for the Iron Duke. The stock 300 exhaust valves are an anemic 1.313" and the intake valve profile is really outdated tulip shape. Great for exhaust side. Not so good for intake. I have heard of guys using Corvair valves. The point is with the stock bore you might have to settle for stock vavles... Not sure. Anybody else on this? Jim? Another option is to import valves from the UK. Like Rimmer Bros: http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/cgi-bin/rimmer?findpart&PartID=ERC9089&Page=rover/v8engine/heads http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/cgi-bin/rimmer?findpart&PartID=614088&Page=rover/v8engine/heads Not cheap but the correct size. On a stock 215 bottom end DON'T increase the intake port volume. Smooth the transitions and optimize the volume that is there. The exhaust side can get a bit bigger. This is because the piston dwell time is longer and is slower to accelerate from TDC while being quicker to accelerate from BDC. This gets the exhaust gases moving quicker so port volume can be a bit larger on the exhaust side because you don't need to rely on fluid dynamic inertia as much. Hope this helps.
I'm thinking you could go with those valves I linked for size. They are marginally bigger than stock. I just realized that the linx I posted had no information about the product. Here's a better one: http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/rimmer/rover/v8engine/heads THey list "big valves" as 41.45mm (1.63" a tiny bit larger than stock 300 1.625") and 35.5mm (1.397" pretty nice upgrade from stock 1.313") My bet is this is the biggest you would want to go without shrouding for the 300 heads. Do you have an Olds or Buick 215? I guess the Olds head flows marginally better than the Buick because of more central valve placement and better exhaust port configuration. You could port your Olds heads if you have one... I think the valves are the same dimentionally. Anybody know for certain? The one thing that bothered me about the 300 heads on 215 combo is that the chamber is a bit larger (about 3.65" dia) than the bore. I thought this would have to have a detrimental effect on flow but a lot of guys have done this successfully for years and years. It was part of the reason that I decided to build a larger bore version.
In my opinion, the best 215 mods are Edelbrock manifold, 500cfm Edelbrock or 600 Holly carb, ported and polished heads, crower cam. James Taylor
