Scottish Elises

I was at my local scrappy looking for an exhaust for a mates car when for some reason I decided to look under the bonnet of a Rover 200 that was sitting there. Hmmm, a VVC...chuft!! 20 minutes later I have it off and I'm handing over my not so hard earned cash. All 30 quid of it

Anyhoo, what bits do I need to keep off this head? I want to start stripping it so I can do a bit of port & polishing. What bits do I need to get for it? I know it needs special cams etc. I still want to to use my original ignition system, so what mods do I need to do that.

I'm not trying to get 200bhp out of it, 160ish would be nice tho.

Cheers,
Kev

Dizzy drive in the end of one of the cams. Also, you'll need a blanking kit for the VVC gubbins - Piper sell one for just over the ton I think.

Converting VVC heads to work on EU2 engines is an expensive enterprise:

You'll need cams and blanking kit. The VVC head uses a camshaft with much larger journals, so there are special cams to replace the moving parts with solid.

Piper sells these, but DVA is the place to get them I think - http://www.dvapower.com - look at the bottom of the page - he has some pricing for this stuff:

solid cams for VVC head: 410
blanking kit for VVC mech: 115

I don't even know whether the solid cams for the VVC have a distributor drive - somehow I suspect they do not because the blanking kit, also made and sold by piper, is designed to blank off that end of the head, which was not designed to take a distributor in the first place.

Converting to wasted spark ignition (thus avoiding the need for a distributor) requires an ECU at xxx pounds.

You'll never get 160 out of it without more investment - in full normal guise the EU2 engine made 143 and the EU3 engine made 156. Remember at full chat the VVC has quite a long duration and already has big valves and a fair amount of lift - changing to cams with more than the "270" profile (264 duration/9.5mm lift ish) is going to take you beyond the capabilities of your ECU. This too would lead you to xxx pounds on a new ECU.

The inlet manifold on your car will mate to the VVC head, but the port matching will be poor, so you'll either want the metal plenum off the VVC engine (perhaps you have it too), or you'll need to fettle the plastic plenum to be a better match.

My advice - fleabay the head, spend the proceeds plus the money you would have spent on cams for the VVC engine on getting your existing head done to the bigger inlet valve Kiwirog spec and plop it back on your car - 145+ BHP on totally standard everything else, very driveable

You can get to 160 by adding cams + verniers; any more and you will for sure need a new ECU (at 160 it will already be running very lean on full throttle and the ignition timing will be dangerously advanced).

Cheers,
Robin

Doing exactly the same as ABZ and spoke to Dave Andrews about getting work done on my VVC head. For 160 brake fit piper 270, VVC blanking kit, spigot drive is available from a number of places but piper do one for £20. This allows the use of the original pick up for the ignition. The piper kit for the VVC has a one piece cam with the larger journels the gets rid of the VVC mechanism. You will also need a set of verniers which are £174.
My car has the B&C conversion which is basically the above without the VVC head, just some light porting to the standard head, original valve sizes, standard ECU , exhaust and plastic plenum with 52 throttle body, it gives 148bhp on the dyno.
According to Dave's K series page the VVC head is a worthwhile upgrade as the port sizes and inlet valves are already larger. Anything above 160 get expensive as you need to look at the bottom end as well, change to forged pistons, machined con-rods etc.
However, I already have a head, throttle bodies, exhaust and emerald and its still going to cost about £1300-1500 to do, which should give 200BHP or there abouts, you will be a lot less for 160bhp but it's still a bunch of cash just for the cams etc.
One thing he did tell me was that even at 160BHP you run the risk of piston failure, that was the reason rover had different pistons in the 160 MG's.

Like Robin said, check out all the info on Dave's page and the K series page, which has an absolute wealth of info and links to everything you need. As well as advice on how to DIY the porting.

Also check out pipers site at http://www.pipercams.co.uk/ on there catalogue page for the rover K series they list the conversion kit with cams for £760 + Vat

Mike

That's my point really - you're spending a lot of money on converting the gubbins when you could just get a standard head ported and fitted with valves easily large enough for 160 and beyond for less money ...

Cheers,
Robin

P.S. And then until you're mad for having new cams, you can keep the standard ones which will keep the car nice to drive

Fair points, but I don't think I'll get rid of the head...might aswell keep it until I have decided what I want to do. My plan wasn't to build it up chuck it straight on. I need to master my 120bhp first But I wanted to be able to take it up 150-160ish then if I do ever get bored of that I could go higher without having change or mod the head again.

If you do want to get rid of it, I'd be interested just to have as a spare for my car.

I'd also be interested in the VVC bits incase mine let go at some time in the future if you decide to strip it.

circling vulture faction

My EU2 VVC pistons are going to be used in a (approx) 200bhp throttle-body conversion soon!

£30 for a VVC head is stupidly cheap! Where was that from, i may want the block/ pistons etc!

Gaz-M wrote:My EU2 VVC pistons are going to be used in a (approx) 200bhp throttle-body conversion soon!

£30 for a VVC head is stupidly cheap! Where was that from, i may want the block/ pistons etc!

Mine is around 185bhp, on standard pistons... That said, I don't have to thrash it anything like the old solid cam engine to get some forward momentum, so I'm not overly worried about the pistons yet....

Are the bottom ends actually stronger?

Rumour is the pistons and liners were graded. Which means the standard bottom ends must have been the cast-offs in anyone else's language

Gaz-M wrote:My EU2 VVC pistons are going to be used in a (approx) 200bhp throttle-body conversion soon!

£30 for a VVC head is stupidly cheap! Where was that from, i may want the block/ pistons etc!

Persleys in Aberdeen. But you have to bring your own tools etc and take the bits off yourself. Then once you've done that you go up to a man who sits in an old transit van, tell him you've got a rover head and he makes up a price. Nothing ever costs more than £50 in there.

I was back there today and the guy let me have a pug 405 spray bar an VW wiper relay for free.

The bottom ends handle 200bhp with little modification. The only reported weak points are the pistons. Cranks and rods hold up quite well.

Robin, don't know that a full porting job with large valves, new seats etc would be cheaper. The cam prices for each are pretty similar so the difference is in the VVC blanking kit. Thats about £120, cost a hell of alot more to get a standard head anywhere near a VVC. Even if you do get the VVC cleaned up a bit thats still only about £300 for a head that can handle any future upgrades you fancy up to about 240bhp.

The pistons won't survive 200BHP for very long; sustained full throttle use with 165BHP kills them pretty effectively

I agree that whichever way you go, you'll spend the best part of 1K

Cheers,
Robin