If you want to use 300/340 heads I would build a 300/340 engine and scrap the 350 all together. Aside from the flow, the cumbustion chambers on the 300 aluminum heads are awefully small for a 350 CI engine. Aside from other problems you will need to run dished pistons.
300 alum. heads have a 54cc combustion chamber Rover heads have 37cc combustion chamber, some say late heads that come with composite head gasket are smaller still. Intake port openings are about 1.6 square inches. Maximum porting gives only 175cfm @28" if you're lucky.
Found this at another site for anyone who is interested Ported Buick 300 V8 alum. heads @28" 1.775" intake 200 cfm @ .550" 1.5" exhaust 153 cfm @ .550" Ferrea V6 Stage 1 valves
So what do the numbers look like for TA's aluminum V-6 heads? I'll bet they are as good as the 350 iron heads or better. Mike said taking the forms for two V6 heads, cutting one cylinder off and gluing the other ends together was all it'd take. There's not much of a dish in the 340 10:1 pistons. Jim
The 350 heads are truly amazing. I've been looking at an old magazine article with a 408 ford windsor with dart iron heads 2.02"/1.6" valves prepped by Joe Sherman, they flowed 259 and 182 cfm @28". The ported Buick 350 heads are a shade better from smaller valves! This is what I like about Buicks, they have extremely good cylinder heads. The valves are more upright than the sbc, the intake/exhaust balance is better and the spark plug is in the centre. It all adds to efficiency and is the reason why Buicks are often followed around by smouldering strips of rubber.
Here is what I found for flow from an aluminum Rover head. Porting by Peak Performance Cylinder Heads in Fenton, Missouri: <DL><DD>A local (St. Louis, MO) MGBV8 owner Devin Davis, had Peak Performance port some Rover 3.9L and Buick 300 heads. <DT><DD>Porting by Peak Performance Cylinder Heads (Robert Stiden or Woody) in Fenton, Missouri: <DT></DT></DL><TABLE width="60%" summary="" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD>Lift </TD><TD>Rover 3.9L aluminum heads Baseline </TD><TD>Rover 3.9L aluminum heads Light Port</TD><TD>Rover 3.9L aluminum heads Stage 4 Porting</TD></TR><TR><TD>0.200 </TD><TD>92.2 72.2</TD><TD>101.4 78.7</TD><TD>96.7 80.1</TD></TR><TR><TD>0.300</TD><TD>132.6 85.7 </TD><TD>136.5 94.0</TD><TD>143.9 106.6 </TD></TR><TR><TD>0.400 </TD><TD>143.3 89.5</TD><TD>149.8 100.6</TD><TD>177.1 127.0</TD></TR><TR><TD>0.450 </TD><TD>145.7 90.5 </TD><TD>152.7 102.5 </TD><TD>180.6 134.3</TD></TR><TR><TD>0.500 </TD><TD>147.7 91.3</TD><TD>153.0 103.5</TD><TD>181.0 139.7 </TD></TR><TR><TD>0.550</TD><TD>148.0 91.6 </TD><TD>153.0 104.4 </TD><TD>181.0 142.8 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> It looks very restrictive. I was hoping for closer to the numbers Sean posted, but out of aluminum. Well, I guess I will have to port the iron ones.
There is a specialty shop called Wildcat Engineering that makes heads for the V8 Rover. They might have solved the restriction issues. Intake Port is 1.25" x 2.100 whick is almost indentical to the 350 head. Intake valve is the same 1.95 which is bigger than the 350 Exhause valve is 1.6 which is bigger than the 350
Wildcat heads are very expensive and they might not be very easy to get hold of, probably because they get pre-ordered by racers and made in batches although I don't know that for certain. I do know that I have seen them on a Triumph parts website in Australia and I think they wanted $3400au each. Not for a pair. Each. 1.85" In. 1.5" exhaust. If I had a squillion dollars I'd buy a pair. No one talks about them because it's too depressing, and most people would prefer the 350 port layout. Even so, some folks would be happy with the early port layout which is why there is talk of using the tooling for the V6 alum. head to create a V8 head at a better price than the Wildcat to serve both markets.
OK, how's this for a reason to ask TA to do the 300/340 heads. Specs on their V6 heads show flow ratings as high as 275/200. That's on the Street Eliminator head with .650 lift. At .500 it is 213/178 and the Street Intimidator is slightly less. You fellas think this compares favorably with a ported iron 350 head? I'd say it does. I keep hearing you guys whine about no aluminum heads for the small block but it seems to me this is your answer. Why don't you guys pick up the phone and do something about it? Jim
Jim, those V6 heads would seem like a slam dunk, with how many cars used this engine over the years. 1961 Buick/Olds right through to later model Rovers could all benefit from these heads. I'd like to experiment with these........... http://www.chevroletls1.com/rover_v8.html Brian
It makes sense from my perspective, although the 350 guys probably won't see it the same way which is understandable. To me it seems strange that I have sitting in front of me a highrise single plane intake for a P76 engine. It is similar to the Willpower intake except it has a water jacket under the plenum. I know for an absolute fact that there were less than 20,000 Leyland P76's built which is nothing by U.S standards and yet there are 2 aftermarket performance manifolds. At the end of the day the manufacturers are the ones who must decide which way to go, personally I am reading books about metal casting.
Why don't you guys pick up the phone and do something about it? Sean has been dealing directly with TA / Mike and i've been over all of my justifications and marketing workarounds for the 215 / 300 / 340 / Rover port layout with Sean. he's got the PM's if he wants to put them directly in front of Mike or he can rephrase / edit as he sees fit. as he seems to be the primary money guy on this i figure it's best to leave it up too him. Mike and several of the other TA guys are also on here on a regular basis. if they're paying attention they'll have noticed my yapping as i've yapped in their threads. and their understanding of the engineering/design/production issues will be much more thorough than mine. I keep hearing you guys whine about no aluminum heads for the small block but it seems to me this is your answer. yep, all we gots ta do is wait for TA to convert the v6 head to a v8 head instead of designing an aluminum 350 head from scratch. which is scheduled to happen after the aluminum BBB block and 350 SP intake. let me know when you see the Al block. [turning blue]
Well my aproach is custom forged rods, pistons and worked 350 heads with turbocharger on each side so stock con rods are not even in the picture over 700 hp. My 350 has a powerband of 1500-5500 rpm na and 2000-7500 with 1.65 rockers and the twin turbos.
Not many 700hp engines use stock rods, however it is possible to make 700hp or even more with 1 set of Buick 350 rods and a set of mildly ported Rover heads that only flow 164 cfm @ 28" H20. and at a lowly 6200rpm.
By my calculations your twin turbo 350 could put a 9000lb Winnebago into the low 11's. Keep the keys in a safe place.
Jim ( or any of the rest of you Rover guys for that matter ), you wanna help? get us some round figures on how many Rover / BL v8's were made worldwide from 1965-2004. you need that number to demonstrate to TA Mike what kind of a market he'd be looking at overseas.
I've posted a request on the British V8 forum. I've seen the stats somewhere, perhaps in a book I've got. I'm pretty sure the numbers are less than GM's production totals for '61 to '63 but we should know soon. So what were the production totals for the 215, 300, 340 and 350? Obviously the 350 was the highest but the others should be significant. Still no word on bolting the 340 head to the 350? It's a question we really should answer. I'd happily provide a 300 head for test fitting to a 350 block. Come to think of it, Dale has a set of my '64 300 heads. I should ask him if he has a 350 block he could try them on. Jim
