I worked for West Yorkshire Foundries and was responsible for Foundry tooling approval and all dimensional Engineering reports of the Rover/Landrover Aluminium V8 Block and heads from 90 to 05 when Ford at the time had Landrover kill the Engine, This Engine even went in Boats before going to Solihull the Landrover cast into the head and blocks was removed same for TVR & Morgan. Working with it for so long I knew it dimensionally inside and externally for head and block in my head without looking at Hugh sheets of Engineering drawings, basically thousands of dimensions. For fool approval of a die before block going into production it took me 4 to 5 months, Probably 6 weeks for the Aluminium V8 head.
Buick 215 aluminum V8 actually started about 1950 and used in early 1950's Buick/Harley Earl one off concept cars... some supercharged to 335 HP... big HP for those days...
I also worked at West yorkshire foundry in Leeds around 1970. As a Contract electrician for Shaw Dale electrical.They were making the Jaguar V12 blocks & mini heads then. I now have a 4650cc rover engined TVR Chimaera that goes like a bat out of hell. Small world.
Strangely enough I was also responsible for mark-off tooling approval of the Jag V12 block & left & right hand heads + AJ straight six block & head from 90 to 2000ish when Jaguar killed off both engines. In the 15 years or so I worked for West Yorkshire foundries all electricians worked for the company not contractors. It also went from Rover to Hydro which are huge in Automotive industry.
@@jeremywentworth1833 Hi Jeremy. I can assure you we worked as contractors We installed lots of large cabling around the factory. In fact I got into trouble for being in the compressor house. I was in awe of the huge compressors. There was one being rebuilt. A huge single cylinder one with a Ammeter on a pedestal. From memory it went up to 400 Amps. Worked in pressure Die. Gravity Die. Shake out. There was a huge woman that worked i think in the sand casting dept. We were give oxalic acid to wash our cars with due to all the fallout. I used to watch the guys with the long oxy torches repairing casting from behind a screen. I think the Manager that we answered to was called Doug. Regards. Steve.
My friends dad had a little Buick Special wagon with one of these engines. Every summer, he’d load up mom and four kids and drive from Iowa to Colorado and back for vacation. It was a great car, kinda nice looking too. Baby blue with a white top.
Even when (Land) Rover 'killed off' the engine, they actually sold the rights to another UK company with the simple aim of keeping production going for rebuilds, repairs, kitcar manufacturers and the small number of specialist manufacturers still wanting this brilliant power plant.
yes, if they overheat, they can drop a liner. All rover had to do was machine a small lip in the block and tophat the liner and the 4.6 would have never gotten the reputation it did. I love that engine in my 2003 D2, though, I do wish we had gotten the TD5 with the manual. That combo might have been slower, but it would get better than 14 mpg.
Great vid & you are correct; one of the best engines in history. Imagine a world where GM didn't give up and improved casting QC. The US might have had a real winner & we might have never had the Rover V8......
The world needs more small displacement high revving v8s, we have the modern tech and materials to make it happen. By small displacement i mean 4 liters and less, like back in the 60s when v8s were 2.5 liters and revved to 9000
@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 Daimler made a 2.5 litre V8 used in the Jaguar Mk2 shell and their Dart model. Same engine was used in drag racing with a blower to get into the lower displacement class.
I worked with a guy with an older brother that worked in a junkyard. He built a car from salvage. It was a TR6 with a baby V8. I knew about the 215. His 215 had a dual 4 bbl manifold. It was also running a 5 SPD overdrive transmission. This car would get opened up out on the desert highways. All built from things he collected at work.
I had a Rover P6 3500 V8-69, this was back in -82 to -84, I drove it very hard but I never had any problems with the engine, I enjoyed it very much. I then sold it to a friend who had a big dog, I saw the car a few months later and it made me want to cry, the dog had totally destroyed the interior, seats door panels, the whole thing,it was so sad to see what had become of a totally intact and well kept car 😢
When Jaguar were working on the XJ40 in the early 1980 British Leyland who owned Jaguar at the time tried to put the Rover V8 into it. The Jaguar engineers hated the idea of a Rover V8 powered Jaguar so much that they made the engine bay to narrow for an engine with a V configuration. At around the same time Austin were developing the Metro 6R4. the measurements for It's V6 were originally taken from a Rover V8 with two cylinders removed. That engine would go on to be used in the XJ220 when Jaguar realised that the V12 would be too heavy, so what is sort of a Buick/Rover 215 made it's way into a jaguar in the end.
It was also fitted to the Leyland attempt at producing a big car rival to Ford and GM Holden in Australia. It was an option in the P76 and some would say the best part of the whole car as it turned out to be the swan song for Leyland in Australia. The V8 was a 4.2-liter variant.
I've got a 4l rover V8 in my discovery 2 and love the thing, even though it's decided to blow a head gasket and hydro lock. I'm still gonna spend the time and money in finding a 4.6l and rebuild it from the ground up. They also sound amazing with the right exhaust set up.
Dont forget about the jetfire. Oldsmobile took the 10.25 compression 215 and put a turbo on it with methanol injection, available in auto and standard transmission. The first production turbocharged vehicle in the world.
First production turbocharged aluminum V8 car... my daily driver in early 1960s... ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html WWII fighter planes had similar turbo setups... plus WWII hemis... WWII nitrous engines...
I did my time on Rovers and we used to pick up 215’s and put them on the workbench to run them up😂 when rebuilding them the remote oil pump has to be filled with vasaline or assembly grease or they don’t pick up oil and run bearings aside from that i like them.
I'd like to see you do a video dedicated to the Repco version of this V8. This is the engine Jack Brabham used to win the 1966 F1 drivers championship and followed it in 67 with Denny Hulme.
Repco used the Oldsmobile version of the block, that is all they used, the rest of the engine was engineered and manufactured by Repco, of course this is when Repco was a proper engineering and industrial company, tacky spare parts is all they are good for, and are now owned by the Americans!
if you do an engine/transmission swap, don't forget the rear sub floor, rear suspension and differential from a sunbeam tiger also a different front cross member/suspension, steering and brakes will be advised !
The car at the 4 minute point is mine. All MGBs made after 1974 were configured to accept this motor but were only made for the British home market as British Leyland didn't want them competing with Jaguars etc in the USA.
It was also used in the Australian Leyland P76: "The top-of-the-line 192 bhp (143 kW)[5] aluminium 4416 cc V8 unit was unique to the P76, and was a derivative of the ex-Buick V8 that was powering the Rover 3500 and Range Rover."
It was a long time ago but, from memory, the gearbox was strong enough so all you needed was an adaptor plate and some engine mounts. The only other issue was that with the V8 in place, the front rode something like 9-12 mm higher than standard. Either the spring seats neede adjusting or the springs required resetting.
Hello Rare Cars, Great video....good idea doing specific engines. Could have added sound v8 sound recording too. These engines were fitted with twin 6 inch headers and with up to 5 litre capacity in the TVR's 1990's to 2003. Very few cars sounded like that right out of the factory! Flat plane crank too so at 4-6 thousand rpm the howl is real! Also you could add details like basic cam info how many an engine has where they are mounted and basic valve details. Links to more info. Fb has a big "Rover V8 enthusiast" page. Getting good quality parts for rebuilding these is challenging now. Thanks for all your videos. 😊
Great video! As an owner of a 1975 MGB, I've considered a swap to one of these engines. The ony thing holding me back right now is that the original 1.8 litre engine that's in it is running great, and it's hard to justify the money and time required when there's nothing wrong with the current powerplant.
One more use for this engine deserves a mention: In the late 1960s, aircraft designer and race pilot, Steve Wittman, adapted an Olds engine to power one of his Tailwinds. I believe several other Tailwind owners used them as well.
In the early 1980's a guy in California designed an all-aluminum kit plane that used the Olds 300 V-8, sounded like a sweet hotrod cruising by at 180mph.
@@buzzwaldron6195 I haven't seen those ads, but they were almost certainly referring to Steve Wittman's airplane. Ford and Plymouth both certified aircraft engines based on automobile units in the 1930s, and a small number of Ford model A, model B and V8 powered fully certified engines aircraft were produced. The Model A based unit in the Wiley Post biplane, the Model B in the Funk ( yes really) and the Arrow Model F with the V8. The Fahlin Plymo-coupe was certified , I believe, with a geared Chrysler 6 of some description, but if I remember correctly, only one prototype was built. A good number of homebuilt aircraft in the 30s employed the Model A, B and even the T. Chevrolet built a racing engine at one point as well.
Great episode, I love this engine. I have one in my Land Rover Disco1, plus two spare long blocks. One is going in my 72 MGB GT to build a V8 clone. The Rover V8 is actually 50 lbs lighter than the iron 4 cyl. it's replacing. The other one will eventually end up in my Super 7. 250HP in a 1200 lb car should be quite entertaining! Cheers from the right coast of Canada!
Hey, bro, you turned me on to Auto Tempest & I really liked having all those choices. I'd been looking for a pickup for 2 years & after 2 weeks with Tempest, I found one! Bought it. I really like your channel
My dad won a 62 Buick Special at the fair, let My sister drive it to Purdue for school, gave it to my brother and I when she graduated we had to make it faster blue printed it offenhouser 4 barrel ,our buddy was so mad it would run with his new 396 chevelle
This engine, the small block chev, the 4.0litre I-g Jeep six, and now the Toyota 1UZ DOHC V-8 seem the standards now. Some examples to look at. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I once into the machine shop at the parts store, Steve tells me to hand that engine block. I almost threw it over my head, bare block barely weighed 10 lbs. It ran great but were blowing oil smoke at 50K miles. original engines did not have iron sleeves. Pontiac's OHC straight 6 ate it for lunch too. PS longest production run of any US engine ( besides Briggs and Stratton ) was Chevy's 262, forerunner to 283. UPS ran it for decades.
Back in the late '90s I was thinking I'd put an Olds 215 into a Volvo P1800E. I bought an engine, had the Volvo in my driveway for a few weeks, then decided to move 600 miles away, it didn't happen. They were good engines, there were some differences between the BOP engines, the Olds was thought to be a bit better. At the time people were putting Ford 289s into the Volvos, there were manuals detailing how to do it. I still look at P1800s with some longing, they are quite beautiful in my opinion, especially without bumpers.
I got to drive an MGB that was converted from it's anemic 4 to this engine it was transformed. Not Cobra fast but a huge improvement and it sounded great.
GM still make the most versatile engines , the world over . We knew these as " Rover V8,s " , & with a little creativity they still shift faster than a ferret up a drainpipe . Lovely engine note .
We just got done refreshing restoring a Buick special wagon with all original 215 V8. What's the original transmission which is air-cooled the offense on the torque converter which is rebuildable.
My FIL had the Olds. And, living up to the rule of never buying something the first year of production, it was a lemon that randomly stalled while on the highway and which the dealer could never fix.
One forgotten tid bit of 215 V8 history is the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire. It was based on the F-85 and was the world's first turbocharged production car, alongside the Chevrolet Corvair turbo. It used the Olds version of the 215 with a turbo on top of it and a single carb, and they called it the "Turbo Rocket". These cars are extremely rare, even more so because most people took off the turbo, due to the fact you had to fill up a reservoir with "turbo rocket fluid" to prevent detonation, since intercoolers were not a thing a back then. Olds only built them for '62 and '63, and it predated the first european turbo car , the '72 BMW 2002 Turbo, by a cool ten years! You just gotta love '60s american cars 🇺🇸
Buick 215 first appeared about 1950 in one off Buick/Harley Earl concept cars... so about 74 years old now... '62 Jetfire was my daily driver back in the day... ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
In the 1970s my cousin who is building these engines for dirt track midget and Quarter Midget Racing they were getting just under 400 horsepower. He put one in a street legal bug-eyed Sprite. 0 to 60 in under 5 Seconds in 1976. Imagine a proper little British sports car leaving Corvettes and almost every hot rod it went up against in the dust
you missed the big one, the Repco Brabham formula one engine which won the F1 world championship. Repco was an Australian engine rebuilding firm still in business today but only sells parts
They did mention the Brabham engine. They didn't mention that only the block was used. Repco fitted their own liners and special block stiffening castings as well as their own ohc cylinder heads. It was also only 3 litre displacement.
A classmate in high school got a Buick Special for free bc it had a non-running 215 V8 in it. I helped him remove the engine for overhaul. I returned some days later and he had lifted the entire engine into the basement of his parents home where he had a heated space so he could overhaul it himself.
I have a LH8 which is a Gen 4 LS based engine (all aluminum).. but it doesn't have AFM, VVT, or flex fuel.. they only made them for a year or so. It's a great running v8 engine.. all the modern upgrades/revisions with no tech on it.
Slightly surprised since stateside it features as an incredibly advanced engine for its era, even if it did only last about four years. Of course, the other side of the pond it really made its mark being in production with (Land) Rover alone for 37 years...
The Buick 215 aluminum V8 actually started about 1950 and used in early 1950's Buick/Harley Earl one off concept cars... Back in 1960s, my daily driver was a '62 Olds Jetfire that used the turbocharged Oldsmobile version of Buick 215... ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
I have a 1980 stage one V8 landrover which I've owned for nearly 30 years, I had to park it up in 1999 for various reasons (it wasn't broken in anyway) and it was left untouched until about 2013 when i had to move it, I put a old battery in it dumped a half a gallon of petrol in the tank and turned the key 10 seconds later I was driving it out, it's now back on the road and I take it for a ride now and then (at 8 to the gallon it won't be going to the coast anytime soon) you can't kill a Rover V8, I doubt my Ford ranger would do the same if I left it for 13 years.
They modified the engine so a different casting technique could be used, particularly how the cylinder liners were fitted. Did not work so well when they enlarged the bore though. The 3.5s were pretty bullet proof, the 3.9/4.2/4.6 not so much...
My 1963 Buick Special had the 215 V-8 with the Dual-Path 2-speed automatic transmission. Under hard acceleration it could run up to 60 mph in 1st gear. Being a very lightweight Uni-body sedan, this would only take about 7 seconds. My 1970 Chevy Nova 250 L6 with 3 speed manual took at least 9 seconds & 2nd gear to get to 60 mph. I no longer have either car, but if I had my choice, I'd rather have my Buick 215 V-8 back, hands down!
The old man put one of these in a CJ2a Willy's flat fender jeep. It was before my time , but over 50 years later people around here still talk about it.
Ive always loved the sound of a big block American v8, but id love a small sub 4 liter v8 for the better fuel efficiency. Never heard of a buick 215, thats a small v8 for America, thats only 3.5 liters. My first truck was a ranger and had a 4 cylinder that was only 1.2 liters smaller.
Great little engine and, had the mighty Ford not put the kybosh on it, it would still be in production today with all the bells and whistles on it. An engine which would run for hundreds of thousands of miles provided proper and thorogh maintenance was adhered to.
Yep good Donk..Timing Chains would stretch and you needed to run it on Premium Gas to stop it Pinging. But It was reliable as 3.5 liter when they started to up it to 3.9 it would drop sleeves. Probably the best Engine GM ever made overall
I tried to make a silk purse out of a Chevrolet Vega. The 215 engine was a logical choice. I built the engine in a storage room, then picked it up by the exhaust manifolds, stuffing the water pump into my belt buckle and carried the thing out and loaded it into my pickup. The engine was great, but the Vega still was not.
4 decades ago, i stuffed a 215 into an Opel GT...my nephew saw it/lusted for it & his father begged/threatened/convinced me to sell it to him (And i gave Numerous warnings)... Within 2 months my nephew was married to a hospital bed for 6 weeks and the GT was married to an Oak tree... And they've never really spoke to me since (2.5 decades)..
The engine that inspired GMs 3.8l V6 in 1962, later the 3800 V6. Both, absolutely brilliant engines. Edit-I might add that the first iteration of the 3.8l V6 had many drawbacks. Including roughness/vibrations, as it was an oddfire engine due to being literally an engine designed with 2 cylinders "lopped off". Adding the split journals and balance shafts, really brought this V6 to the next level. Hence the reason why so many 3800s are reacing 300k+. Such a shame that GM killed this engine off.
HI, I had an Olds Cutless with a 215 that I rebuilt. the Buick version had better heads. many made it to the junk yard by 40K miles due to soft cams (Gm at the time was not hardening them and the dealers were not running them in), and owners were cross threading the plug holes as the heads were aluminum too, they were used to the cast iron ones.
283 Chevys were "truck motors" before they were "car motors". STRAIGHT-TRUCK MOTORS. That's a REAL "high performance" application and one no BOP engine ever "matched" on an "ongoing basis". GMC did use some Pontiac "small blocks" as "truck motors" to "compete" with Chevy trucks with Chevy engines before finally giving in and "adopting" Chevy engines when it was that or "go under". And it was using car engines as "truck motors" that was primarily responsible for getting GMC to that point.
Matter of fact they even put a turbocharger on and the Oldsmobile version and the real difference was just an extra head bolt on the Oldsmobile version
I worked for West Yorkshire Foundries and was responsible for Foundry tooling approval and all dimensional Engineering reports of the Rover/Landrover Aluminium V8 Block and heads from 90 to 05 when Ford at the time had Landrover kill the Engine, This Engine even went in Boats before going to Solihull the Landrover cast into the head and blocks was removed same for TVR & Morgan. Working with it for so long I knew it dimensionally inside and externally for head and block in my head without looking at Hugh sheets of Engineering drawings, basically thousands of dimensions. For fool approval of a die before block going into production it took me 4 to 5 months, Probably 6 weeks for the Aluminium V8 head.
Buick 215 aluminum V8 actually started about 1950 and used in early 1950's Buick/Harley Earl one off concept cars... some supercharged to 335 HP... big HP for those days...
I also worked at West yorkshire foundry in Leeds around 1970. As a Contract electrician for Shaw Dale electrical.They were making the Jaguar V12 blocks & mini heads then. I now have a 4650cc rover engined TVR Chimaera that goes like a bat out of hell. Small world.
Strangely enough I was also responsible for mark-off tooling approval of the Jag V12 block & left & right hand heads + AJ straight six block & head from 90 to 2000ish when Jaguar killed off both engines. In the 15 years or so I worked for West Yorkshire foundries all electricians worked for the company not contractors. It also went from Rover to Hydro which are huge in Automotive industry.
@@jeremywentworth1833 Hi Jeremy. I can assure you we worked as contractors We installed lots of large cabling around the factory. In fact I got into trouble for being in the compressor house. I was in awe of the huge compressors. There was one being rebuilt. A huge single cylinder one with a Ammeter on a pedestal. From memory it went up to 400 Amps. Worked in pressure Die. Gravity Die. Shake out. There was a huge woman that worked i think in the sand casting dept. We were give oxalic acid to wash our cars with due to all the fallout. I used to watch the guys with the long oxy torches repairing casting from behind a screen. I think the Manager that we answered to was called Doug. Regards.
Steve.
My friends dad had a little Buick Special wagon with one of these engines. Every summer, he’d load up mom and four kids and drive from Iowa to Colorado and back for vacation. It was a great car, kinda nice looking too. Baby blue with a white top.
My grandfather bought a mid 60's Buick Special wagon with the 215 V-8, I learned to drive with it in the mid 70's.
Marlin Blue and Arctic White. Absolutely beautiful combo
Back in 1960s, my daily driver was a '62 Olds Jetfire that used the turbocharged Oldsmobile version of Buick 215...
@ 5:49
"Lowered the profitability"
BEAN-COUNTERS running the business into the ground
Yes more engine episodes please
Glad you enjoyed!
yes i second that
I do have an MGRV8 with this engine. 3.9/5 speed/quaife diff. Chipped up to 220hp. 4:10 0 to 100km in 5.9 seconds.
Brilliant engine.
And I have a '75 MG Midget with Buick 215 and BW 5 speed...
You forgot the 4.4 litre alloy version developed in Australia for the Leyland P76, basically the same engine but with deck height of the Buick 340
Even when (Land) Rover 'killed off' the engine, they actually sold the rights to another UK company with the simple aim of keeping production going for rebuilds, repairs, kitcar manufacturers and the small number of specialist manufacturers still wanting this brilliant power plant.
Had the 4.6 in my 04 LR D2, solid engine. Always kept an eye on my coolant temps though.
I have a TVR 350i with this engine, if you can source a race cooling system instead of running stock it makes the world of difference.
The radiator hose almost touching the a/c pulley was bizarre
yes, if they overheat, they can drop a liner. All rover had to do was machine a small lip in the block and tophat the liner and the 4.6 would have never gotten the reputation it did. I love that engine in my 2003 D2, though, I do wish we had gotten the TD5 with the manual. That combo might have been slower, but it would get better than 14 mpg.
@@sailingspark9748 - My '62 Jetfire 215 averaged 25 MPG (USA 4 quart gallon) in gentle driving. ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
Great vid & you are correct; one of the best engines in history.
Imagine a world where GM didn't give up and improved casting QC. The US might have had a real winner & we might have never had the Rover V8......
Their loss is our gain.
The world needs more small displacement high revving v8s, we have the modern tech and materials to make it happen. By small displacement i mean 4 liters and less, like back in the 60s when v8s were 2.5 liters and revved to 9000
I can't think of a single V8 from the 1960s that was 2.5 liters and certainly not one that turned 9,000 rpm.
@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 because you are thinking of american v8s and tells me a lot already..but alfa romeo 33 stradale is an example
@@km6832Yeah, the little European V-8's from Italy maybe high revving, but American V-8'S aren't so bad!😆
@@billyfoster3223 they arent when you really think about it.
@@nonyadamnbusiness9887 Daimler made a 2.5 litre V8 used in the Jaguar Mk2 shell and their Dart model. Same engine was used in drag racing with a blower to get into the lower displacement class.
I worked with a guy with an older brother that worked in a junkyard. He built a car from salvage. It was a TR6 with a baby V8. I knew about the 215. His 215 had a dual 4 bbl manifold. It was also running a 5 SPD overdrive transmission. This car would get opened up out on the desert highways. All built from things he collected at work.
I have a '75 MG Midget with Buick 215 and BW 5 speed...
@@buzzwaldron6195 You must get a lot of stares when your car launches like a rocket!.
The Fame Buick 215 V8. We need more of them. ❤😊
Such a Gem,hydraulic tappets way back then.The recent Honda v6 needed 24 valves adjusted every major service.
See the Buick 215 aluminum V8 actually started about 1950 and used in early 1950's Buick/Harley Earl one off concept cars...
I had a Rover P6 3500 V8-69, this was back in -82 to -84, I drove it very hard but I never had any problems with the engine, I enjoyed it very much.
I then sold it to a friend who had a big dog, I saw the car a few months later and it made me want to cry, the dog had totally destroyed the interior, seats door panels, the whole thing,it was so sad to see what had become of a totally intact and well kept car 😢
When Jaguar were working on the XJ40 in the early 1980 British Leyland who owned Jaguar at the time tried to put the Rover V8 into it. The Jaguar engineers hated the idea of a Rover V8 powered Jaguar so much that they made the engine bay to narrow for an engine with a V configuration. At around the same time Austin were developing the Metro 6R4. the measurements for It's V6 were originally taken from a Rover V8 with two cylinders removed. That engine would go on to be used in the XJ220 when Jaguar realised that the V12 would be too heavy, so what is sort of a Buick/Rover 215 made it's way into a jaguar in the end.
It was also fitted to the Leyland attempt at producing a big car rival to Ford and GM Holden in Australia. It was an option in the P76 and some would say the best part of the whole car as it turned out to be the swan song for Leyland in Australia. The V8 was a 4.2-liter variant.
4.4 litre
The P38 ...... 1/2 a car.
My first car, a 62 Buick Skylark convertible, had the 11:1 compression ratio V8 in it. It hauled butt.
I had the '62 Jetfire... neighbor had the '62 Skylark convertible w/ 4 speed manual... in burgundy...
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
love the meeting, flat screen tv !! wow they were ahead of the times
You are talking about a 60 year old V-8 while showing pictures of the Bentley W-12, WTF?!
I was waiting to see a gas turbine and a steam locomotive in that sequence
@@PaulG.x LMAO
74 years old since it started about 1950 in Buick one off concept cars..
Interesting! I never heard of the aluminum GM 215 V-8 before.
Been around since 1950...
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
I own a 1986 Rover SD1 with a fuel injected variant of this engine. Great Sound, very revvy and especialy fun mated to a manual 5 Speed gearbox!
The 215 aluminum Olds was in the very first McLaren race car as well, the M1A.
I just saw the M1A video on Jay Leno - amazing car!
Always had a soft spot for this engine. The TVR variant is just fantastic. Sounds awesome and always puts a smile on my face when I turn the key.
I've got a 4l rover V8 in my discovery 2 and love the thing, even though it's decided to blow a head gasket and hydro lock. I'm still gonna spend the time and money in finding a 4.6l and rebuild it from the ground up. They also sound amazing with the right exhaust set up.
Dont forget about the jetfire. Oldsmobile took the 10.25 compression 215 and put a turbo on it with methanol injection, available in auto and standard transmission. The first production turbocharged vehicle in the world.
First production turbocharged aluminum V8 car... my daily driver in early 1960s...
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
WWII fighter planes had similar turbo setups... plus WWII hemis... WWII nitrous engines...
I did my time on Rovers and we used to pick up 215’s and put them on the workbench to run them up😂 when rebuilding them the remote oil pump has to be filled with vasaline or assembly grease or they don’t pick up oil and run bearings aside from that i like them.
I'd like to see you do a video dedicated to the Repco version of this V8. This is the engine Jack Brabham used to win the 1966 F1 drivers championship and followed it in 67 with Denny Hulme.
Repco used the Oldsmobile version of the block, that is all they used, the rest of the engine was engineered and manufactured by Repco, of course this is when Repco was a proper engineering and industrial company, tacky spare parts is all they are good for, and are now owned by the Americans!
I wish my MGB moved and sounded like that clip!
😂😂 yeah I was looking for another car to come into frame.
if you do an engine/transmission swap, don't forget the rear sub floor, rear suspension and differential from a sunbeam tiger
also a different front cross member/suspension, steering and brakes will be advised !
The car at the 4 minute point is mine. All MGBs made after 1974 were configured to accept this motor but were only made for the British home market as British Leyland didn't want them competing with Jaguars etc in the USA.
And yes knowing about the 215 Is why I'm watching,,you have great content
The 215 V8 was lighter than the ancient B series 1800 and made much More Power WIN WIN!!!!!
Also lighter than Triumph Spitfire/MG Midget 1500cc 4 banger... and vastly smoother...
I have a '75 MG Midget with Buick 215 and BW 5 speed...
Great content my brother!! Bravo!!!
Carmugeon and Jason cammisa have tons of Buick rover history, as always great material and channel
It was also used in the Australian Leyland P76:
"The top-of-the-line 192 bhp (143 kW)[5] aluminium 4416 cc V8 unit was unique to the P76, and was a derivative of the ex-Buick V8 that was powering the Rover 3500 and Range Rover."
I would love to put one of these in my MGB
A neighbor has one in a Triumph that he bought new. He loves the car.
It was a long time ago but, from memory, the gearbox was strong enough so all you needed was an adaptor plate and some engine mounts.
The only other issue was that with the V8 in place, the front rode something like 9-12 mm higher than standard. Either the spring seats neede adjusting or the springs required resetting.
.Get a TR8... a great car
The aluminum LS is great for that now.
A 5.3 from a 15 year old truck...
Have one with BW 5 speed in my '75 MG Midget...
Great video. I have two 4.6l sitting on stands in the garage.
Hello Rare Cars, Great video....good idea doing specific engines. Could have added sound v8 sound recording too. These engines were fitted with twin 6 inch headers and with up to 5 litre capacity in the TVR's 1990's to 2003. Very few cars sounded like that right out of the factory! Flat plane crank too so at 4-6 thousand rpm the howl is real! Also you could add details like basic cam info how many an engine has where they are mounted and basic valve details. Links to more info. Fb has a big "Rover V8 enthusiast" page. Getting good quality parts for rebuilding these is challenging now. Thanks for all your videos. 😊
That was a very good and dependable motor I wish I was able to tear one apart and rebuild it I never got to build one of these engines.
Great video! As an owner of a 1975 MGB, I've considered a swap to one of these engines. The ony thing holding me back right now is that the original 1.8 litre engine that's in it is running great, and it's hard to justify the money and time required when there's nothing wrong with the current powerplant.
One more use for this engine deserves a mention: In the late 1960s, aircraft designer and race pilot, Steve Wittman, adapted an Olds engine to power one of his Tailwinds. I believe several other Tailwind owners used them as well.
In the early 1980's a guy in California designed an all-aluminum kit plane that used the Olds 300 V-8, sounded like a sweet hotrod cruising by at 180mph.
I think Oldsmobile itself experimented with their V8s in planes... had them in ads...
@@buzzwaldron6195 I haven't seen those ads, but they were almost certainly referring to Steve Wittman's airplane. Ford and Plymouth both certified aircraft engines based on automobile units in the 1930s, and a small number of Ford model A, model B and V8 powered fully certified engines aircraft were produced. The Model A based unit in the Wiley Post biplane, the Model B in the Funk ( yes really) and the Arrow Model F with the V8. The Fahlin Plymo-coupe was certified , I believe, with a geared Chrysler 6 of some description, but if I remember correctly, only one prototype was built. A good number of homebuilt aircraft in the 30s employed the Model A, B and even the T. Chevrolet built a racing engine at one point as well.
To this day, it's still the best engine I've ever owned.
Great episode, I love this engine. I have one in my Land Rover Disco1, plus two spare long blocks. One is going in my 72 MGB GT to build a V8 clone. The Rover V8 is actually 50 lbs lighter than the iron 4 cyl. it's replacing. The other one will eventually end up in my Super 7. 250HP in a 1200 lb car should be quite entertaining! Cheers from the right coast of Canada!
My brother put this engine in an Alfa boat tail, a 1970 Alfa GTV and a Lotus Europa.
Hey, bro, you turned me on to Auto Tempest & I really liked having all those choices. I'd been looking for a pickup for 2 years & after 2 weeks with Tempest, I found one! Bought it. I really like your channel
I Love small block V8s; even better than the big ones! 😎👍👍👍
Agreed I am a small displacement guy!
My Rover V8 changed gear at 7,200 rpm! When you booted it.
My dad won a 62 Buick Special at the fair, let My sister drive it to Purdue for school, gave it to my brother and I when she graduated we had to make it faster blue printed it offenhouser 4 barrel ,our buddy was so mad it would run with his new 396 chevelle
3:50 GM installed a cam with the 4 barrel carb to make 185 hp.
The engine fitted in the Rover P5b with twin su carbs was rated rated @ 184hp
@@chipmonk12 Your point
@@blackericdenice 2 ways to arrive at the same result
@@chipmonk12 Name the two ways
I had a 215 in a '73 Vega GT , Edelbrock intake, Crane cam , not much bottom end torque but easily revved to 7200 rpm which helped .
This engine, the small block chev, the 4.0litre I-g Jeep six, and now the Toyota 1UZ DOHC V-8 seem the standards now. Some examples to look at. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
I once into the machine shop at the parts store, Steve tells me to hand that engine block. I almost threw it over my head, bare block barely weighed 10 lbs. It ran great but were blowing oil smoke at 50K miles. original engines did not have iron sleeves. Pontiac's OHC straight 6 ate it for lunch too. PS longest production run of any US engine ( besides Briggs and Stratton ) was Chevy's 262, forerunner to 283. UPS ran it for decades.
Spot on they're weak
Thats interesting. Who made it and when? Any idea of what it was used for? Thanks. Great video.
Another good episode Musto.
Thanks
Back in the late '90s I was thinking I'd put an Olds 215 into a Volvo P1800E. I bought an engine, had the Volvo in my driveway for a few weeks, then decided to move 600 miles away, it didn't happen. They were good engines, there were some differences between the BOP engines, the Olds was thought to be a bit better. At the time people were putting Ford 289s into the Volvos, there were manuals detailing how to do it. I still look at P1800s with some longing, they are quite beautiful in my opinion, especially without bumpers.
I got to drive an MGB that was converted from it's anemic 4 to this engine it was transformed. Not Cobra fast but a huge improvement and it sounded great.
We had a Buick Skylark 215 ci when i was younger.
Thanks!!!
GM still make the most versatile engines , the world over . We knew these as " Rover V8,s " , & with a little creativity they still shift faster than a ferret up a drainpipe . Lovely engine note .
We just got done refreshing restoring a Buick special wagon with all original 215 V8. What's the original transmission which is air-cooled the offense on the torque converter which is rebuildable.
My FIL had the Olds. And, living up to the rule of never buying something the first year of production, it was a lemon that randomly stalled while on the highway and which the dealer could never fix.
One forgotten tid bit of 215 V8 history is the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire. It was based on the F-85 and was the world's first turbocharged production car, alongside the Chevrolet Corvair turbo. It used the Olds version of the 215 with a turbo on top of it and a single carb, and they called it the "Turbo Rocket". These cars are extremely rare, even more so because most people took off the turbo, due to the fact you had to fill up a reservoir with "turbo rocket fluid" to prevent detonation, since intercoolers were not a thing a back then. Olds only built them for '62 and '63, and it predated the first european turbo car , the '72 BMW 2002 Turbo, by a cool ten years! You just gotta love '60s american cars 🇺🇸
Yet somehow nobody at Oldsmobile thought to lower the compression ratio of the engine down from 10.25:1 to
@@mrspandel5737 - High compression was retained to maintain low RPMs torque on the small engine... also averaged 25 MPG in easy driving...
Buick 215 first appeared about 1950 in one off Buick/Harley Earl concept cars... so about 74 years old now... '62 Jetfire was my daily driver back in the day...
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
TVR had increased the capacity to 5L in the Griffith and Chimera before it went out of production.
In the 1970s my cousin who is building these engines for dirt track midget and Quarter Midget Racing they were getting just under 400 horsepower. He put one in a street legal bug-eyed Sprite. 0 to 60 in under 5 Seconds in 1976. Imagine a proper little British sports car leaving Corvettes and almost every hot rod it went up against in the dust
you missed the big one, the Repco Brabham formula one engine which won the F1 world championship. Repco was an Australian engine rebuilding firm still in business today but only sells parts
They did mention the Brabham engine. They didn't mention that only the block was used. Repco fitted their own liners and special block stiffening castings as well as their own ohc cylinder heads. It was also only 3 litre displacement.
Yes please
A classmate in high school got a Buick Special for free bc it had a non-running 215 V8 in it. I helped him remove the engine for overhaul. I returned some days later and he had lifted the entire engine into the basement of his parents home where he had a heated space so he could overhaul it himself.
Yep, you are on to something here. More engine specific thanks.
I have a LH8 which is a Gen 4 LS based engine (all aluminum).. but it doesn't have AFM, VVT, or flex fuel.. they only made them for a year or so. It's a great running v8 engine.. all the modern upgrades/revisions with no tech on it.
Wow guys, I never heard of this V8. None of my GM car guys ever mentioned this engine. Thankz for the knowledge.
Glad you enjoyed the vid!
Slightly surprised since stateside it features as an incredibly advanced engine for its era, even if it did only last about four years. Of course, the other side of the pond it really made its mark being in production with (Land) Rover alone for 37 years...
The Buick 215 aluminum V8 actually started about 1950 and used in early 1950's Buick/Harley Earl one off concept cars...
Back in 1960s, my daily driver was a '62 Olds Jetfire that used the turbocharged Oldsmobile version of Buick 215...
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
I have a 1980 stage one V8 landrover which I've owned for nearly 30 years, I had to park it up in 1999 for various reasons (it wasn't broken in anyway) and it was left untouched until about 2013 when i had to move it, I put a old battery in it dumped a half a gallon of petrol in the tank and turned the key 10 seconds later I was driving it out, it's now back on the road and I take it for a ride now and then (at 8 to the gallon it won't be going to the coast anytime soon) you can't kill a Rover V8, I doubt my Ford ranger would do the same if I left it for 13 years.
No mention of the mighty Rover SD1, with fuel injection ?
It would be interesting to know how Rover reduced the rate of blocks scrapped due to porosity.
They modified the engine so a different casting technique could be used, particularly how the cylinder liners were fitted. Did not work so well when they enlarged the bore though. The 3.5s were pretty bullet proof, the 3.9/4.2/4.6 not so much...
I had a 1962 Skylark convertible with one in it. I really wished I had kept it.
Dont forget the great hemi Daimler 250 SP V8!
My 1963 Buick Special had the 215 V-8 with the Dual-Path 2-speed automatic transmission. Under hard acceleration it could run up to 60 mph in 1st gear. Being a very lightweight Uni-body sedan, this would only take about 7 seconds. My 1970 Chevy Nova 250 L6 with 3 speed manual took at least 9 seconds & 2nd gear to get to 60 mph. I no longer have either car, but if I had my choice, I'd rather have my Buick 215 V-8 back, hands down!
'62 Olds Jetfire: ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
The old man put one of these in a CJ2a Willy's flat fender jeep. It was before my time , but over 50 years later people around here still talk about it.
Would love to see modern EFI , distributorless ignition and a Buick style Eaton roots supercharger with intercooler on one .
Range rovers were, less the supercharger unfortunately
The Brits also bought the Buick V-6, and Buick had to buy the rights back, maybe touch on that on in a future video???
Ive always loved the sound of a big block American v8, but id love a small sub 4 liter v8 for the better fuel efficiency. Never heard of a buick 215, thats a small v8 for America, thats only 3.5 liters. My first truck was a ranger and had a 4 cylinder that was only 1.2 liters smaller.
we had a 64 Buick with a 310 and 210 hp
Great little engine and, had the mighty Ford not put the kybosh on it, it would still be in production today with all the bells and whistles on it.
An engine which would run for hundreds of thousands of miles provided proper and thorogh maintenance was adhered to.
I had 350 rocket in a 79 Regal
Yep good Donk..Timing Chains would stretch and you needed to run it on Premium Gas to stop it Pinging. But It was reliable as 3.5 liter when they started to up it to 3.9 it would drop sleeves. Probably the best Engine GM ever made overall
No
I tried to make a silk purse out of a Chevrolet Vega. The 215 engine was a logical choice. I built the engine in a storage room, then picked it up by the exhaust manifolds, stuffing the water pump into my belt buckle and carried the thing out and loaded it into my pickup. The engine was great, but the Vega still was not.
I had a V8 71 Chevy Vega. It had a little engine, must have been one of these. It was hella fast, but I didn't keep it long.
4 decades ago, i stuffed a 215 into an Opel GT...my nephew saw it/lusted for it & his father begged/threatened/convinced me to sell it to him (And i gave Numerous warnings)... Within 2 months my nephew was married to a hospital bed for 6 weeks and the GT was married to an Oak tree... And they've never really spoke to me since (2.5 decades)..
Do one on the Lampredi twin cam!
ok but what coolant type should be used in this engine?
The max Buick/Rover 215 V8 was actually 5.0 litres.
The engine that inspired GMs 3.8l V6 in 1962, later the 3800 V6. Both, absolutely brilliant engines.
Edit-I might add that the first iteration of the 3.8l V6 had many drawbacks. Including roughness/vibrations, as it was an oddfire engine due to being literally an engine designed with 2 cylinders "lopped off". Adding the split journals and balance shafts, really brought this V6 to the next level. Hence the reason why so many 3800s are reacing 300k+. Such a shame that GM killed this engine off.
Most importantly, 215 V8 pistons are a direct replacement for Panther 650cc motorcycle engines.
Look up Mickey Thompson Indy car with this V8
Sounds like a great engine. At the same time, the 225 Slant Six is probably more durable.
yeah the 225 would have been a workhorse for sure
HI, I had an Olds Cutless with a 215 that I rebuilt. the Buick version had better heads. many made it to the junk yard by 40K miles due to soft cams (Gm at the time was not hardening them and the dealers were not running them in), and owners were cross threading the plug holes as the heads were aluminum too, they were used to the cast iron ones.
Aluminium engines should have been a US specialty but consumers did not care enough about weight's effect on performance, handling and economy.
Agreed - now ford exclusively runs the aluminum coyotes
283 Chevys were "truck motors" before they were "car motors". STRAIGHT-TRUCK MOTORS.
That's a REAL "high performance" application and one no BOP engine ever "matched" on an "ongoing basis". GMC did use some Pontiac "small blocks" as "truck motors" to "compete" with Chevy trucks with Chevy engines before finally giving in and "adopting" Chevy engines when it was that or "go under". And it was using car engines as "truck motors" that was primarily responsible for getting GMC to that point.
Ever notice how many great engines Buick has designed?
BTW: did you notice the wiring in the English cars? Wouldn't have any problems with that.
Matter of fact they even put a turbocharger on and the Oldsmobile version and the real difference was just an extra head bolt on the Oldsmobile version
Oldsmobile had a turbocharged version of this as well.
Actually went up to 5 litre in the TVR Griffith & Chimaera
They’re just a bit of a hassle to upkeep especially the efi models Land Rover bored and stroked (and for some reason put different sleeves into)