Distributor swap for electronic ignition.

I'd put money on those being 3500S manifolds. They are a larger internal diameter than Auto manifolds.

If your engine has good compressions, doesn't blow oil and there are no evident issues with the cam/followers, then I wouldn't be too worried about a rolling road. As guidance, my standard 10.5:1 engine (with the addition of K&N type filters instead of the originals - say +5BHP) produced 112BHP at the rear wheels. The "standard" upgrade of SD1 heads to reduce the CR to around 9.5 would produce about the same or very slightly less (the bigger valves in the SD1 heads compensate for the loss of CR). SD1 heads, a fast road cam and either injection or a Holley/Webber is known to produce around 150 - 160. All quoted at the back wheels as the lack of lock up on a Borg Warner precludes getting an over-run power consumtion figure with which to calculate flywheel horses.

Unstable Load - that's fascinating! I knew there was a V6 version of the Buick in the US - I'd never made the connection with the Vauxhall/Opel V6 in Europe. I don't know a lot about that engine but I'd always assumed it was iron?

Chris
 
tvr_v8 wrote,...
Now there's an Aussieism I've never really fully figured out Ron, what's the destinction between exhaust manifolds and extractors or are they one in the same?
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Hello Al,

Exhaust manifolds imply cast iron, whereas extractors refer to custom mild steel or stainless steel systems of either 4-1 or 4-2-1 design. The OEM cast iron P6B manifolds are a 4-1 design, which your engine has fitted. Thanks for the pics too... :D

unstable_load wrote,...
The front cover off the Opel/Vauxhall Commodore V6 should bolt straight on and has the uprated capacity oil pump.
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The Australian 6 cylinder Holden Commodore of recent years runs a 3.8 litre V6 which is a Buick engine. Some of the Buick timing covers will fit the Rover V8 and some even have the same water pump footprint, but the V6 Commodore has a completely different water pump footprint along with a different nose on the pump, so it isn't really an option.

Ron.
 
I found this while looking for something else in the same thread:

http://forums.eurocca.net/showthread.ph ... ne-rebuild

Plus if you take a buick V6 dizzy and a oldsmobile V8 dizzy. Put the guts and top of the Olds dizzy into the buickV6 dizzy you have a HEI buick dizzy that ups your torque by about 20 and removes your rev limiter.. Plus you can still use a fireball amp system or such.
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Interesting. This is what caught my eye:
it is quite ewasy to mod a AU ford faclon altenater (110amp) to fit in the same spot so the lights don't dim when you indicate around a corner.
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I think I'm going to do some more research as my "ign" light stays on for a little while when I start the car and it seems to be harder to start each day. I think it's not charging the battery again.
 
Easy money, Chris; all NZ assembled P6B's had 3500S exhaust manifolds
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Where on earth did you here that? The only 3500S manifolds I have ever come across have been fitted to 3500S motors! Even the really late NZ assembled cars still had the small bore manifolds as far as I've seen.
 
Thanks for clearing that one up Ron, makes sense. Now if you wouldn't mind giving proper translations for the meanings of "bonzer", "fair dinkum" (what precicely is a dinkum?), and the reason for calling bedding "Manchester" it will finalise my familiarity with the Aussie lexicon for the moment.... :)

Would make sense that these are 3500S in that case as they were noticeably different externally from the ones on the red car, I've never removed them from Foosty though to see what the internal size is like. The ones on the red car were much flatter, not the rounded pipes.

So if i have the P6 oil pump, does that mean i should also be wary of the priming issue if left standing for a long time, or by having the larger diameter spigot you mention is this not a problem? I haven't had any issues so far through the months of inactivity but forewarned is always forearmed.

Cheers,

Al
 
tvr_v8 wrote,...
So if i have the P6 oil pump, does that mean i should also be wary of the priming issue if left standing for a long time, or by having the larger diameter spigot you mention is this not a problem?
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The Ryco Z160 shows that your oil pump front cover is a P6 item Al, but that does not guarantee that your oil pump is also P6. The oil pump gears reside within the base of the timing cover, and the dimensions of these determine the specifics of the oil pump. The original timing covers that the P5B and P6B were fitted with had what are referred to as short oil pump gears. With the introduction of the SD1, the depth of the oil pump gears increased with Range Rover timing covers also seeing the increase in gear depth. No further changes were made to the oil pump gears until 1994 when the crank driven oil pump was introduced.

The only way to know for sure which timing cover and thus which oil pump gears you have is to first look closely at where the oil pump front cover meets with the timing cover. If there is no spacer plate between the two and upon lifting out the distributor the gear is the same as fitted to your spare 35D8, then you have a P6 timing cover and short oil pump gears. If there is no spacer plate but the gear on the distributor is a wobby drive, then you have an SD1 timing cover and tall oil pump gears. One more..if there is a spacer plate, then without lifting the distributor, you have tall oil pump gears.

The spigot accepts the oil filter, and up until the change over to the SD1, both the P6 and the Range Rover would use the same specific oil filters. After that the spigot dropped in diameter and the filter bypass valve was deleted from the oil pump front cover. Filters designed for the SD1 and Range Rovers / Discovery have the filter bypass incorporated within. The spigot diameter won't affect the likelyhood or otherwise of not picking up oil when left standing for an extended period, but if it won't that usually points to a problem that needs investigating.

Onto specifically Australian terms...."Bonzer" means tops, or excellent, "fair dinkum" means serious or seriously or honest depending on the context. Sheets and bedding items we always call Manchester as in the early days that is where it used to come from. So rather than saying where did you buy your sheets and pillow cases and towels, we just say...where did you buy your Manchester? :wink: :D

Ron.
 
Chris,
The V6 Opel engine is the same casting mould as the V8's but with 2 cylinders lopped off and cast in Iron instead of Ally. The V8 heads bolt straight on, for example. A mate of mine used to Drag one of those engines and he says it was good to over 500 hp. That's was how he discovered the fact that the front cover is a fit, via correspondence with Kenne Bell in the US.
 
Hey,
I just left it as is on the points at the moment. It runs very nicely anyway so I'm not worried about swapping anything out overly urgently at this stage.

Will maybe have a further look at it when I get back from the US and get a chance to pull the distributor out.

Cheers,

Al
 
slightly o/t.

I had a look at my distributor today and it has

41573 E

stamped at the top and then

35DE8 3775

stamped underneath it.

So what's this type of distributor and can you get a luminition kit for it? I had a look and it appears that 35DE8's are already electronic? Mine has points.
 
That's interesting Geoff...!

The 41573 number is a Lucas code that corresponds to a 35D8 distributor. There were slight variations of Lucas 35D8 distributors fitted during the production run of the P6B. Each variation had a different code number for such things as rate and total mechanical advance and vacuum advance specifics. The early 35D8 models also featured a different base plate design. The 41573 was the final Lucas 35D8 for the P6B.

Now 35DE8 is a later Lucas distributor known as 'Opus' but received the nickname of 'hopeless'. It was the first Lucas electronic distributor for the Rover V8 and was fitted to the SD1. There is a Lumenition kit available for the 35DE8 so obtaining one is not a problem. Are you sure that the second code that you have quoted is absolutely correct?

Ron.
 
Hi Ron

Yep, triple checked the stampings a few times. I had a look today while I had the top of the fan shroud off.

I took some snaps as well, I'll see if they load into photobucket.

ps. 5 hours to replace one engine mount. :eek:
 
Five hours for one mount... :shock:

Hope that the pics will load into Photobucket.

The Lumention parts for the 35DE8 are C FK114 which is the optical eye, PMA50 which is the power module and CEK150 which is the chopper. The only difference between this kit and that for the 35D8 is the optical eye, the power module and chopper are the same for both.

Ron.
 
I didn't have my mirror on a stick or a magnifying glass with me, so these photos with my point and shoot camera are the only ones I have at the moment.

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is that the dwell adjustment screw on the side?
 
Hello Geoff,

That is indeed the dwell adjster on the side.

Hmmm,..I am quite prepared to be wrong, but that really doesn't look like a 35DE8 to me... :? They didn't have points or dwell adjusters. I suppose like most things they could have been retro fitted, not to mention removing the wobbly drive and fitting a fixed distributor gear, assuming of course that the oil pump was never altered.

The felt wipe is missing too.

Ron.
 
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