BillZ260 Posted February 27, 2003 Share Posted February 27, 2003 Does anyone have any info or ideas on this? Have always wanted to put one of these little V8's in something. I have found very little on where they are obtainable, perf parts. I do know that Buick sold their casting eqipment to Land Rover. Any help would be appretiated. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike kZ Posted February 27, 2003 Share Posted February 27, 2003 First off, welcome to HybridZ!! Try to use the "Search" button up top you may find your answer.I used it and found this older post: http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2828&highlight=buick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepenguin99 Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 The Buick 215/Land Rover engine is a very popular swap for the MGB. You might try doing a search on that swap as it will yield some info relevant to swapping the motor into a Z. For the Z car this swap doesnt seem at all cost effecient unless you just want to be different. Nathan 71 240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbeech Posted February 28, 2003 Share Posted February 28, 2003 After first building a 2180cc V-dub motor for it, I then put an 215 into my Kelmark GT kit car (ca. 1977). It was nice, but not that powerful. I soon thereafter swapped it out in favor of a Mazda rotary (whew, that was a rocket). A year later the car caught fire (took about 2 minutes to be completely destroyed) and that was that (sob). The following week I lucked up on a 73 Z-car with only 35k miles and kept it until 1999. In my opinion, the 215 in the Z-car would be technically interesting, but much more expensive to create, quite a bit less powerfull, and frankly, IMHO, not as much fun as a SBC powered derivative. It's your car though, so do what floats your boat - life's too short. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted February 28, 2003 Author Share Posted February 28, 2003 I suppose what I am really wanting is a light tourqy power plant with a good rumble. I read on another post that the 4.3L Chev 6 is a good motor for this but it sounds just awful in my opinion. So SBC it is? will a 327 will spin up a bit quicker than a 350? I don't want anything too radical, proabaly <2000 build up on the engine, w/ 4 spd toploader? I am in no hurry and my 260 runs pretty good. I am wanting a street car that I can take to the local autocross events and just have some reasonalby inexpensive fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moridin Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 The 327 may have a little less torque, but it won't necessary spin up quicker. From what I understand, it depends a little bit more on the weight of the internals. Scat has some really light weight stuff that is already balanced (Crank, rods, and pistons). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 If it is low cost and high torque you want look at the tpi motors. A tpi 350 is tough to find in good shape/reasonable$ but the 305's are out there. I gave $2k total for my 305tpi with a T5 tranny with 58k miles on it. The tpi motor runs out of breath above 4500rpm but for auto cross you never get there anyways. Big bag fulls of low end torque. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike C Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 Dan is exactly right. The 305 will run circles around the 215. It will be heavier, but as is well documented, a SBC V8 Z isn't significantly heavier than an L6 powered car, especially if running some aluminum engine components. (Intake, water pump, etc.) In the announcement posts at the SE Hybrid meet, a 305 powered car was running high 12's I believe? My buddies 305 powered '74 Corvetter convertible ran 13.90's with an SLP flat tappet cam, headers and an Edelbrock intake base because the stock one was warped. This was in 1988 he did the swap, first TPI conversion I had seen. About 5 years ago I bought an '86 305 TPI Trans Am with TH 700 for $1175. It was lightly smacked on the drivers front. I pulled the motor, trans, radiator, wiring, computer, electric fans, driveshaft and air intake stuff. I sold the shell for $1000. The TPI is probably the neatest looking induction system around, but the Vortec 5.7 from a truck or van 96-98 makes tons of power and can be had reasonably cheap as well. Even the Vortec 5.0 would run fine in a Z. If you are intereted in a manual trans, a TBI 305 T5 camaro can be had for much less than the TPI cars and it would still run circles around the 215. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted March 4, 2003 Author Share Posted March 4, 2003 I think the 5.0 Ford is probably a better engine than the 5.0 Chevy. Didn't see anything on the JTR site as far as a SB ford bolt in kit. I assume I could similarly buy a 5spd mustang and a painless wiring kit. I also hear the Ford is lighter than the L6. I also just have to say that this site will be my savior when it comes to actually tearing in to the car. There is so much information and everyone seems genuinely interested in each other's progress. Too COOL! Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZROSSA Posted March 4, 2003 Share Posted March 4, 2003 I think if i were starting over again i would have a good look at the ford windsor. Once it has ali heads its very light. I get the felling that its not as easy to get lots of H.P. out of them as the chevy. It might be wiser to base your final choice on a power figure you want and then work back to see what the costs will be. I am guessing that a 400 hp chev will be a lot less then a 400 hp ford. Another light weight engine is the buick 350. There was talk about the aftermarket making ali heads for these as well wich would bring it close to the fords weight with a extra 48 C.I. to play with. From what i have read these have excelent low end tourqe as well. Happy hunting. Douglas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Juday Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 The 5.0 Ford is a great motor. But, like you've noticed, there is no kit for the sbf. With the kits the Chevy swap is easy. There are a few guys here that have fabed the mounts for the Ford but I don't hear much of them these days. Alsil, Jumbo240Z, SCCA. If I do another swap it will be with a late model 5.0 efi Ford motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted March 5, 2003 Share Posted March 5, 2003 The Rover motor has gone far beyond the original Buick 215 that it was based on. Check the web. There are now performance parts out for this V8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jens Posted March 6, 2003 Share Posted March 6, 2003 Its the 225 hp 4.6 rangerover version you want. The 215 is only 700 cc bigger than a L28 = waste of money and they have corrosion problems because they are old. But the ford with alu heads is better if you want more than 280 hp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl327 Posted March 6, 2003 Share Posted March 6, 2003 no v8s for me under 454 cubes, thats my vow, unless its a numbers matching sbc stingray vette, then no small block under 380 cubes is allowed-but numbers must match. ive officially sworn off small blocks of any make and model with that one exception. the only american motor that even makes me want to drop into a z is the buick 3.8 gn motor, and it sucks because there is one in front of me every day staring at me in the face, next time, next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240SBB Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 no v8s for me under 454 cubes, thats my vow, unless its a numbers matching sbc stingray vette, then no small block under 380 cubes is allowed-but numbers must match. ive officially sworn off small blocks of any make and model with that one exception. the only american motor that even makes me want to drop into a z is the buick 3.8 gn motor, and it sucks because there is one in front of me every day staring at me in the face, next time, next time. I used to be a big block-only kinda guy too. At least until late-model small blocks began giving them a run for their money about ten years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nic-Rebel450CA Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 I suppose what I am really wanting is a light tourqy power plant with a good rumble. Wrong engine! You cant get much torque from an engine with the shortest stroke known to V8's. Torque comes from stroke. There is also a thread that I started about the 215 as a conversion a while back ago. I was looking at it's revving ability since it is such a short stroke. Ultimately I decided against it because I just dont think the bottom end of such an old engine would hold up to the revs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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