Thinking of using a Oldsmobile 215 or Rover in next build? Does the 200R4 trans fit? If not what auto trans options do I have? Also I only know that Olds and Buick are different and Rover is same as Olds and that 4 barrel motor better? Other than that?
- Rover is the same a BUICK. - Rover made several generations and displacements of the engine. There is more interchange between the GM engines and earlier Rover engines than there is with the later Rover engines. - These guys can help you with trans adapters. http://aluminumv8.com/ That website also has some basic background info about the engine.
I'd also suggest doing a search, there's been at least two sizable threads about this engine on this board just in the past couple of months.
x2 on searching for threads here. I had a 215 Olds in a '29 A CCPU, loved it. Very light (~320 lbs dressed out). Outside dimensions pretty close to a SBC. Not a tire smoker by any means, but "peppy" is prolly a good adjective here, and gas mileage pretty good. A Holley 390 works well. I can't advise on the auto ****** - I used an S-10 5 speed. That website one poster referenced is terrific. D&D out of Michigan. A wealth of knowledge and parts, both new and used.
Buick and Rover is almost the same, Buick uses steel sleves/cylinder insert. And the stock motors ain't made with the same set-up. Rover runs higher compression, Higher RPM and 2 SU carbs. But most parts Interchage between Buick 215 and Rover 3500 There is a company called West Coast British, they have alot of great stuff. Thats nice stuff and cheaper on most stuff. There is another company selling crate 215 motors 200hp set up, fairly cheap. I'll try finding an adresse. They are light, make good power ad a fair price. Might not be Chevy cheap, but ain't that expesive. Were popular In Denmark, but most V8 convensions ain't allowed to have raids frontaxel load. It's lighter then my cast iron Volvo 4-banger.
Currently building a Buick 215 for my "A" coupe. Running it with an S10 five speed. For now I'm going to run the stock Quad Four. Recently scored a NOS "black cap" Mallory Dual Point. I found a bunch of things from Rover that fit including the cast exhaust manifolds and valve covers. The covers are cast aluminum with shallow ribs on the top. They polish up pretty well. I am using two driver side four into two) exhaust manifolds. They look like block huggers but are cast iron. What's cool is I have a dummy block for mock up. I can easily lift it in and out by hand. While early Rovers uses the twin SU setup almost all of the ones on this side of the pond were fuel injected. Anyone know of a twin SU setup, let me know. Not as efficient as a quad but they sure look cool cleaned up.
I see one in the pick-n-pull about once every blue moon, usually the random older Range Rover. When you run into something like an old Rover 3500S it can be quite an engineering lesson...spend half an hour looking at the suspension...not that you'd necessarily WANT to do it that way, but it's definitely something worth understanding.
http://www.precisionengine.com/rebuilt-engines/buick-crate-engines/index.html 2900usd, is that fair for a crate motor? Just the hop-up parts from the other page summes up to about 1300-1400usd, on top of that i need a rebuilt kit. So that aint fare from a crate motor.
Sorry to pick apart your post, but I wouldn't want people to be misled by incorrect information. Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Rovers all have iron cylinder sleeves, not steel. What set-up are you referring to? GM had higher compression versions of the engine than Rover did. All the GM versions of the engine revved to within a few hundred RPMs of a Rover. On the highest horsepower GM version of the engine the difference in peak horsepower was only 200 RPMs lower than the Rover. Two SU carbs are not necessarily superior to a four barrel.
"Two SU carbs are not necessarily superior to a four barrel." This is true but you gotta admit it's different. Add a little chrome and powder coating and a few copper lines and br*** fittings it almost looks old timey.
Let's remember that the highest-HP version of the old Olds was the turbocharged version, which was a bit of curious engineering - a turbo on a 10:1 engine but long before any of the modern bits (knock detection, per-cylinder spark and fuel control, variable valve timing) that make such a thing readily possible now. Instead, they had a water/methanol-injection setup and, if it were allowed to run dry, the engine was pretty well on borrowed time. No auto maker could get away with something like that now, and in this case we should consider ourselves fortunate. Also, HP numbers in the '60s were SAE gross - that is, not as-installed, not powering accessories, not running production intake and exhaust. Comparing this to the later Rover's SAE net numbers means you've got to subtract 30% or so. Unquestionably true. Or for that matter Stromberg CDs, I think SUs were chased out of the US market in the '70s by smog regs. But stuff like this is: http://www.piercemanifolds.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=K154 Something about independent-runner induction gives me wood on just about any motor. I'd start making noise about EFI throttle bodies and purty little shorty Siemens injectors but I'd get a knock on the door from the purity inspectors...
The most complicated part of the system was how the boost was limited if the fluid ran out. There was redundant sensing and safeguards. If the fluid ran out the turbo was prevented from making boost, so no harm done. Most people never bothered to diagnose a malfunctioning with the low fluid system, so when something stopped working what often happened is that it was just byp***ed. At that point, running out of fluid, and folooring it enough to generate boost, could easily result in engine damage.
Should be noted that the MG RV8 ran a Buick-based Rover V8 w/ MGC gearbox (fully Syncronized) from 1973-76.
I'm building a modified with an Olds 215. I will be running a Camaro T-5 on a modified stock 3-speed bellhousing (basically the same as a stock 215 3/4speed bellhousing, there is one for sale on ebay right now BTW). To be honest, the threads on this forum don't really offer that much info. British V8 has loads of write ups, conversions and information. D&D also offers just about any adapter you can imagine, you just need to get your wallet out. I have come to learn that 215's are kind of a pain in the ***, but I think the final product is what matters. I like it because my friend had one for cheap, it ran, and I knew what it needed. It's light and small so it'll fit in my application nicely. http://www.teambuick.com/reference/library/affordable_aluminum_v-8.html Here's all the info on this forum for the Olds 215- http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...pw.r_qf.&fp=d6947c89b83a8fba&biw=1024&bih=653 Here's all the info for the British V8 site for Olds 215 http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&t...pw.r_qf.&fp=d6947c89b83a8fba&biw=1024&bih=653
The '61 buick 215 that I have came with the stock auto powerglide behind it. I read somewhere that the 215 has an odd bellhousing bolt pattern and is therefore not very interchangeable with different transmissions.
Altho you can just go out and get a later model Range Rover engine (4.6 litre/280cubes version of the old 215 engine), or an Australian Leyland P76 engine (the 4.4 litre/270cube version) I do recall that Repco in Australia did build some engines with a SBC crank for about 4.5 litres. They were used for racing back in the late 60s from memory, and maybe able to be duplicated
Correct. You can only use the stock auto's without an adapter and they are terrible. Parts are scarce. Adapters can be had for Ford and Chevy T-5's. The stock 215 3-speed bellhousing is similar to some old Jeeps. I believe that pattern is the same as a T-56 for the 3-speed. Some of the stock manual clutch bellhousings are drilled for 3 and 4 speed Chevy patterns, and a smaller amount drilled for 4 speed only. I heard a rumor of there only being about 15% of the production cars that ran the 215 even having a manual transmission (that could be total ******** but it sounds about right). The stock manual transmissions with the 4-speed bolt patter will allow a GM T-5 to bolt right up. D&D offers an adaptor to use the same bellhousing and bolt a Ford T-5 pattern (which includes S-10 T-5's, but their ratios are no good). Adapters to run a Chevy 350 trans are available. As seen here...my buddy should have bought this... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Buick-Olds-...pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr The weird spring torque converter things are junk and parts are not available for them. Olds 300 parts are used to hop up the 215's. Again, lots of info on that other site about that.
The Brit specialty-car biz used shedloads of the things with all kinds of different crank setups, I think someone (TVR?) did a run that was as big as 5.3L but I know nothing about how they did it. In the US the Buick 300 crank was commonly used to get bigger displacement out of the 215 since the 300 was just an iron-block derivative of the 215.
I think you mean Buick 300. D&D got their start putting 300 cranks in 215s. I think they might have used the heads, too.
Correct, I'm using aluminum 300 heads on my 215. Kenny Bell Cam, Melling High-Volume Oil Pump, Buick 300 short water pump, Mallory dual point, Neoprene main seals, Rover cast headers, D&D bell housing, Quad Four carb, T5, SJ6 rear end. What's neet about the motor is I I didn't have to recess the firewall and lose any foot room. With the 300 short water pump and a shallow pitch fan all I needed to do was bump in the area below the toe boards.
Yes, odd bellhousing pattern. Your trans may have looked like a Powerglide, but it was a downsized version of the Buick "Turbine Drive" trans. Buick and Olds used different automatics on the engine, but unfortunately neither of them is very good.
D&D has done many 300 crank and head conversions. But, their start was putting 215s in Vegas. They did a lot themselves, and they sold a lot of Vega swap kits and parts to do-it-yourselfers. Their bread and ****er today is MGB swaps, building engines, and selling parts.
The PO of my engine put the short water pump on mine but I don't have the correct pulley so a spacer had to be made. I had to recess my firewall a couple inches, but there is still plenty of foot room.
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