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.
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.
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.
In 2006 the British engineering company MTC Mitchell Cotts licenced the rights to build the engine in crate form. I don't know if it still exists today.
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......
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.
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... ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
The 215 V8 used by Australian F1 champion Sir Jack Brabam was the Oldsmobile version , 20 blocks were imported to Australia and Repco Australia and engineering firm designed Over Head Cam Hemi Heads and dry sump oiling among other mods to survive 11 000 rpm . The Olds version was specifically used as it had different block casting and an extra head bolt each cylinder . Sir Jack Brabam built his own car, drove it to win the Formula 1 championship against Ferrari, Lotas, BRM, BMW, Mercedes with a little pushrod based GM V8 . Leyland car company Australia built a tall deck 270 ci 4.4 litre version, and installed it in the Leyland P76 car in Australia. There was a 5.0 litre 303 ci version also designed in Australia that never came to production . The Alloy 215 ci V8 of Buick had bigger Buick engines in the family , the 300ci , 340ci kept the alloy 215s head design but when the last 350 ci Buick V8 came out it used new head design very simular to the 455 design Buick Big Block . The 215 V8 was also the basis for the longest running GM V6 in history , the Buick V6 is just the 215 with 2 cylinders cut off , even the last versions of the Buick V,6 in 2006 still retained the 215 v8s 90 degree bank angle and bore spacing. Ever wondered why the V6 Buick had a strange unbalanced 90 degree bank angle? Because it started life as a little 215 ci alloy V8 .
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 😢
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.
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'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!
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... ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.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.
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!
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."
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.
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.
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. 😊
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.
Great video. I’d heard the story from the British perspective, but getting the whole US story completes the picture! My dad had a Rover P5B Coupe auto (white with black Everflex roof) and I just loved that V8 ‘burble’ (not so common in the UK in the 1970s) - quite incongruous for a car that was basically a comfy wood+leather+plush carpets English sitting room on wheels 🤣
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
For a number of years Santa Pod drag strip in the UK ran a "Rover V8" championship in a number of classes. If memory serves at least one street legal car managed a seven second pass. British hot rodders loved the engine, particularly for its light weight which made it ideal for shoehorning into small cars without making them nose heavy.
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.
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.
Fascinating stuff, especially the technical aspects of an aluminum engine vs. iron. I was aware of its long life cycle, but why was there no mention of it coming back across the pond for use in Kaiser Jeep products. I'm not absolutely certain of this, but I have heard about it from several sources. Now, as for other engines to cover like you did this one, how about the Corvair flat-6, especially the turbocharged version, since it was the world's first successful turbocharged production car. Or maybe a cautionary tale about the Chevy Vega 2300, with its unsleeved aluminum block and cast iron head. It was actually a decent little engine if well maintained, but who bothers with maintenance on what was basically a disposable car?
The Corvair or Vega engines could be great topics thank u for that! And this video was aimed at just the aluminum 215 which to my knowledge didn’t make it back into the jeeps but if they did please let me know and I will issue a correction!
The Fireball V6 tooling was sold to Kaiser Jeep and used in the CJ and Jeepster, plus the Wagoneer was offered with the cast iron Buick 350 V8 for a few years in the late 60s before Jeep switched to AMC engines fully
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.
TVR had a 5.0L variant. there are larger bespoke variants available in the UK, just like you can get a 572ci Chevy. . and the F1 engines were OHC variants with the 6 bolt / cyl Olds block. if somebody is looking for the records, it's called the Brabham Repco and it has 2 F1 championships. Repco is an Australian company that did the race development.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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... ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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...
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.
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
@@joeedwards627 And I am sure someone somewhere has supercharged a THOR 4.6 V8. I always though the GEMS engine management system was under appreciated for just what Land Rover actually achieved.
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.
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
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...
Yes more engine episodes please
Glad you enjoyed!
yes i second that
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
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!.
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.
In 2006 the British engineering company MTC Mitchell Cotts licenced the rights to build the engine in crate form. I don't know if it still exists today.
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.
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. ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
love the meeting, flat screen tv !! wow they were ahead of the times
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...
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...
ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
The 215 V8 used by Australian F1 champion Sir Jack Brabam was the Oldsmobile version , 20 blocks were imported to Australia and Repco Australia and engineering firm designed Over Head Cam Hemi Heads and dry sump oiling among other mods to survive 11 000 rpm . The Olds version was specifically used as it had different block casting and an extra head bolt each cylinder . Sir Jack Brabam built his own car, drove it to win the Formula 1 championship against Ferrari, Lotas, BRM, BMW, Mercedes with a little pushrod based GM V8 .
Leyland car company Australia built a tall deck 270 ci 4.4 litre version, and installed it in the Leyland P76 car in Australia. There was a 5.0 litre 303 ci version also designed in Australia that never came to production .
The Alloy 215 ci V8 of Buick had bigger Buick engines in the family , the 300ci , 340ci kept the alloy 215s head design but when the last 350 ci Buick V8 came out it used new head design very simular to the 455 design Buick Big Block .
The 215 V8 was also the basis for the longest running GM V6 in history , the Buick V6 is just the 215 with 2 cylinders cut off , even the last versions of the Buick V,6 in 2006 still retained the 215 v8s 90 degree bank angle and bore spacing. Ever wondered why the V6 Buick had a strange unbalanced 90 degree bank angle? Because it started life as a little 215 ci alloy V8 .
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 😢
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.
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.
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.
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!
Interesting! I never heard of the aluminum GM 215 V-8 before.
Been around since 1950...
ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
And yes knowing about the 215 Is why I'm watching,,you have great content
Carmugeon and Jason cammisa have tons of Buick rover history, as always great material and channel
Love this as my 2004 Land Rover Discovery 2 is powered by the 4.6L V8...Great engine and reliable if you properly maintain it...
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!
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...
ua-cam.com/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/v-deo.html
WWII fighter planes had similar turbo setups... plus WWII hemis... WWII nitrous engines...
I drove a Rover SD1 here in England in the late 80s with this engine. The Dogs Bollocks then and now!!!!
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...
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TVR had increased the capacity to 5L in the Griffith and Chimera before it went out of production.
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.
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 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!
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."
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...
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.
Great video. I have two 4.6l sitting on stands in the garage.
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.
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. 😊
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.
Great video. I’d heard the story from the British perspective, but getting the whole US story completes the picture! My dad had a Rover P5B Coupe auto (white with black Everflex roof) and I just loved that V8 ‘burble’ (not so common in the UK in the 1970s) - quite incongruous for a car that was basically a comfy wood+leather+plush carpets English sitting room on wheels 🤣
I had a 1963 Olds cutlass with the 215, yes it had different heads, and it seemed like they liked to eat Cams, but, peppy when they ran right.
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
For a number of years Santa Pod drag strip in the UK ran a "Rover V8" championship in a number of classes. If memory serves at least one street legal car managed a seven second pass. British hot rodders loved the engine, particularly for its light weight which made it ideal for shoehorning into small cars without making them nose heavy.
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.
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!
Great content my brother!! Bravo!!!
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.
I Love small block V8s; even better than the big ones! 😎👍👍👍
Agreed I am a small displacement guy!
Fascinating stuff, especially the technical aspects of an aluminum engine vs. iron. I was aware of its long life cycle, but why was there no mention of it coming back across the pond for use in Kaiser Jeep products. I'm not absolutely certain of this, but I have heard about it from several sources.
Now, as for other engines to cover like you did this one, how about the Corvair flat-6, especially the turbocharged version, since it was the world's first successful turbocharged production car. Or maybe a cautionary tale about the Chevy Vega 2300, with its unsleeved aluminum block and cast iron head. It was actually a decent little engine if well maintained, but who bothers with maintenance on what was basically a disposable car?
The Corvair or Vega engines could be great topics thank u for that! And this video was aimed at just the aluminum 215 which to my knowledge didn’t make it back into the jeeps but if they did please let me know and I will issue a correction!
The Jeepster Commando used the Buick V6 iron block motor, until replaced by the AMC 304 V8.
The Fireball V6 tooling was sold to Kaiser Jeep and used in the CJ and Jeepster, plus the Wagoneer was offered with the cast iron Buick 350 V8 for a few years in the late 60s before Jeep switched to AMC engines fully
A number of Jeeps were modified to use the 205/215 V8.
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...
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 .
TVR had a 5.0L variant. there are larger bespoke variants available in the UK, just like you can get a 572ci Chevy.
.
and the F1 engines were OHC variants with the 6 bolt / cyl Olds block. if somebody is looking for the records, it's called the Brabham Repco and it has 2 F1 championships. Repco is an Australian company that did the race development.
Another good episode Musto.
My friend had a 3.9 straight piped Disco and could hear him coming from 2 miles away 😂
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..
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.
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
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.
We had a Buick Skylark 215 ci when i was younger.
Thanks!!!
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.
Thanks
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.
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
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.
To this day, it's still the best engine I've ever owned.
My Rover V8 changed gear at 7,200 rpm! When you booted it.
215 , same cube as my 3.6 high feature V6
Thats interesting. Who made it and when? Any idea of what it was used for? Thanks. Great video.
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...
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My brother put this engine in an Alfa boat tail, a 1970 Alfa GTV and a Lotus Europa.
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.
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
Yep, you are on to something here. More engine specific thanks.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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
Do one on the Lampredi twin cam!
I had a 1962 Skylark convertible with one in it. I really wished I had kept it.
No mention of the mighty Rover SD1, with fuel injection ?
Gud vid 💯💥👌😃
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.
TVR actually made a 5.0 and a 340hp 5.0 HC (high compression) version
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.
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...
@@Titan604It was fine up to 4.0 in my experience. The 4.6 is where things went wrong. Great engine when it isn't running hot!
ok but what coolant type should be used in this engine?
Got one in My 914
Had a p6 Rover with one of these things. Came with a spare motor and had to carry it from the second floor of the house out to the car. 😂
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.
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
Owned two 62 starfires
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
@@joeedwards627 And I am sure someone somewhere has supercharged a THOR 4.6 V8.
I always though the GEMS engine management system was under appreciated for just what Land Rover actually achieved.
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.
And of course, this engine was also the basis of the best V6 engine GM ever made: the 3800 V6!
Yes please
Dont forget the great hemi Daimler 250 SP V8!
NO mention of the olds jetfire turbo.
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.
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.