steel Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 (edited) some of you may have seen i bought this from ebay i then decided to buy a poorly exclusive coupe and i had intended to put this into storage but after looking around the shell the other day while up the lock up and after being given a month to get my stuff out the other lock up due to the landlord selling it i decided to start another project thread its actually a very good solid shell when compared to a lot,unfortunately probably means the exclusive is going to go i dont want to spend all summer welding her for it to sit outside undr a tarp through the winter mths if only ide know a week or so ago on a brighter note parts gathering has gone well but cost more than it should we have this and this to fill this after seeing it on the projects page drift car i like the idea of steel flared arches it maybe something i look into Edited June 19, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadog Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 well i like your style, love the sound of a v8 or small block in a manta, its sounds so sweet !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 5, 2011 Author Share Posted April 5, 2011 progress might be slow on this 1 cashflow is going to be an issue and ime going to be doing everything myself for that reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xecoupe Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 Hi Steel, V8's are awesome good luck with it all and keep the piccys coming, Adie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 (edited) glad theres 1 or two v8 fans here anybody know what the above alloys are really like the look of these Edited April 6, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robah Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 glad theres 1 or two v8 fans here anybody know what the above alloys are really like the look of these Wheels are Revolution 5 Spoke link as on craigs 400R. Here is the Revolution website link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 nice i think i might be getting some of those Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) As asked by steel in a pm, I told him i would reply on his project thread, hopefully it will be of benefit to others too. V8 engine mods I did (that I can remember) Block:- ARP mains studs. Very important as you can actually torque the crankshaft down properly by using these, normal V8 crank main bearing caps are bolted into the ally block, due to the soft nature of Aluminium it restricts the torque that can be applied to the original bolts, quite common place for main bearings failure and to find the mains bolts actuaally lose or in the sump. 10.5:1 Cr pistons, I upped the compression ratio by using earlier pistons rather than the 9.35:1 Range Rover Pistons. beefier piston too with bigger rings. You can't up the compression ratio by skimming the block as it means the pitch between the top of the V will be narrower and things will start to not line up. Viper Typhoon camshaft. Rhoads bleed down lifters, these create less valve lift at low revs to help increase port velocity to assist a smoother running on a high lift cam. Cloyes timing chain and cam sprocket, far superior over the original nylon pulley and pressed steel linked chain, apparently the timing with the original set up can be miles out due to stretch and poor original manufacture. Take off for remote oil filter, as the big oil filter I wnted to use would have hit the anti-roll bar. There was also a take off with oilstat for the oil cooler somehwere too. Sump was Range Rover sump, I cut front section out to clear crossmember, then glued this onto the side of the sump to create a wing in an attempt to retain as much oil capacity as poss, windage tray was modified (hacked with angle grinder) to suit sump, can't remember altering pick up pipe, and fitting welded in for oil temp sensor. Heads:- Valve guides machined down on the valve spring side of the head to allow for higher lift of the camshaft. Valve guides were machined down on the port side of head to slightly aid flow. Shortened valve springs fitted to allow for higher lift of cam. NOTE:- shorter bulleted valve guides were and still are available, but I couldn't seem to knock the old ones out of the head, and when ringing round so called V8 specialists to get them to remove my old valve guides and fit new ones, all I got was dopey opinionated old bastards telling me "You don't want to do that" WELL OBVIOUSLY I DID WANT TO DO THAT AS THAT WAS WHAT I WAS ASKING THEM TO DO, GRRRRR really got to me at times cos you mention V8 and everyone was an expert and went on to tell me the best way to do things and they would always be right and I would always be wrong,, TWATS Back to heads. Also smoothed out the ports as best I could as the casting is poor, but not easy to get access through the ports to do a really good job especially when there is 16 of them, had some bleeds on my fingers from doing that lot. Valves, at a later date was going to rebuild heads with waisted stem valves from the Vitesse (i think) again to aid flow through ports. New rocker shafts fitted. New Rockers fitted. Adjustable pushrods fitted, again to me this are an absolute must. Due to the way the Rover valve gear is set up it can be a bit hit and miss to set up the valve clearances. The valve clearances were originally set by having to fit shims beneath the rocker pedastals that the rocker shafts sat on that in turn held the rockers, this meant that if one valve is slightly open you will need to shim the rocker pedastal/s in order to seat the valve correctly, which will mean that over valves will have a lower lift I saw that on the v8 i was rebuilding and on another I stripped down that on a few INLET ports there was black soot. this simply meant that the valves were not seated correctly where others were and the black soot was due to valves not seated especially on the exhaust cycle. Fuelling:- Weber/Edelbrock Carb, and drop base air filter to allow underbonnet clearance. Edelbrock inlet manifold. Accelerator cable from Real Steel, had to make a little bracket to make this work. Composite valley gasket, tin one was crap, would highly recommend getting one of these. Red top fuel pump for carb. looking back now this was possibly extremely borderline for the output I was expecting from the engine, should have just used a Manta Bosch fuel pump and suitable pressure regulator. 100 BHP NOS system Red top fuel pump for NOS system. Ignition:- MSD Blaster 2 high output coil. Mallory Unalite distributor, very overpriced in this country. also had a MSD 6 or 7 whatever electronic ignition that gives multiple sparks for 20 degree of crankshaft rotation, i fitted this then removed it during problematic trying to get the engine to originally fire up, and never re-fitted it. Plug leads were made by myself, as I wanted them all to be the correct length and to run neatly over the engine, I've seen some right nasty ignition lead messes on the Rover V8's, I bought bits from the US that consisted of crimp terminals, a vice mounted crimper thing, rubber boots and a length of low impedance Thick Red Spark plug wire. Will say that......... After all the work, research, effort, time and money that went into this, that one of the best moments in my life was when that V8 of mine roared into life with open headers on my drive, Neighbours didn't know what was going on Damn shame my V8 topic thread got deleted "Somehow " as there was a lot of good info in that, and some of the comments that I had put in whilst actually driving the car. Due to the noise this car made it always cught attention, and some of the best times were at the local Tesco petrol station, especially hoodie type boy racer who pulled in in his noisy exhaust dropped on the deck Peugot 106 feckin shat himself when I fired up my Manta as he stood filling his car all I thought at time was "this is what a proper car sounds like so here's your education t0sser" Set me off now thinking back, I want a V8 again Edited April 7, 2011 by opel2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) excellent,, thank you m8..gutted your project thread got deleted looking forwaed to driving through the narrow streets of town centre with the shop windows vibrating and setting parked car alarms off while i pass what gearbox and bellhousingb did you use m8 Edited April 7, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 The best advice I could give is to read as much as you can. Look on/at websites/catalogues such as Rimmer Brothers Real Steel, (Real steel didn't have a website when I built mine) RPI Engineering have good website for info, but a lot of info is sales biased + a lot of stuff is expensive from them. The engine was originally made by Buick and fitted into the Buick Skylark If I remember correct, as such the Buick 215 Cubic Inch is searchable on US websites such as http://www.summitracing.com/ I was constantly buying parts from there at a fraction of the cost of the same parts in the UK. But if you do go that route just make sure your parts do not end up in the hands of Parcel Force Worldwide, I had parts travel 4 thousand miles in a matter of a few days, and took me 3 days to get the stuff only a mile away from my house from these clowns. Here you go just take a look at this link for instance, you will have to pay a bit of import duty, but will work out cheaper than buying from RPI http://www.summitracing.com/search/year/1963/make/BUICK/model/SKYLARK/Engine-Size/3-5L-215/Department/Air-Fuel-Delivery/Part-Type/Intake-Manifolds-Carbureted/?Ns=Rank%7cAsc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adz the stig Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/opel-manta/77050185 v8 manta for £1000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 8, 2011 Author Share Posted April 8, 2011 belfast bloodyhell thats a trek lol ,, think i will sink the 1000 sovs into the v8 lump i have, but a bargain for someone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo16n Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 mine still for sale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 (edited) had to go to the garage get some things thought ide get some pics of the shell only managed 2 then the battery died typival Edited April 15, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 (edited) got some decent rices for adjustable fron and rear suspension and full bush kit from tj motorsport which i will be following up just thought ide show you a few pics of the work i did on my m8s mk1 golf gti as it sort of brought me back to owning a manta [give me the bug to take on my own project] it looked mint due to having a respray but i ended up replacing inner wings wing mounting rails outer cills scuttle corners ..you can see in pic i have his 1 left to do and the repair i did on the p/s and had to rebuild the front lower 16 inches of drivers door pillar Edited April 23, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 23, 2011 Author Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) i know theyre not manta pics but though its fitting as its how the red coupe project came to life getting the shell on the drive this weekend cant wait Edited April 23, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve price Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 go for it im working at the car sales all weekend not much choice though as its mine lol steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 (edited) stripped the excl coupe of everything thats in serviceable condition the front and rea crossmember/axle ect will be stripped blasted coated and rebuilt with new everything then its a case of unbolt the old from the red coupe and refit the new,... lets hope they come off easier when time comes as every bolt had seized in side every bush sleeve which meant i had to cut chunks out of the chassis rail to remove the crossmember oh joy going to get the rear locating arms panhard ect replicated in thick wall stainless steel tube for a bit of added bling Edited April 30, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mototechnics Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Thanks for posting this info. My Manta/V8 project has stalled a bit due to pressures of work, doing an MA and family. Your post makes me more determined to get on with it. Possibly PM you at some point in the future for advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 if theres anything i can help with ask away bud ime on a learning curve myself but always happy to help where i can..red coupe is now on my drive so work will start bright and early friday moning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 15, 2011 Author Share Posted May 15, 2011 (edited) got a few bits today crossmember strengthened and modified including lower centre to clear sump of v8 solid top mounts out of aluminium and custom eng mount brackets to take i think sd1 mounts bias pedal box with linkages and res pots and brand new girling master cylinders manta 400 springs poly bushed panhard rods polybushed and new balljoints on top arms rear crossmember to chassis arms with solid aluminium bushes custom adjustable and strengthened front anti rollbar with aluminium blocks that mount it strengthened lower arms also rebushed with new b joints long day but well worth the 400mile round trip Edited May 24, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 15, 2011 Author Share Posted May 15, 2011 (edited) all needs a clean up been stored since the late 80,s early 90,s so dusty and slight surface rust coming but once cleaned and repainted will be spot on and save me loads of pissing about :thumbup Edited May 15, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 got an hour spare this morning so cut out the rot from front floor pans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 chassis well and truly shot will be replacing full length rails Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steel Posted May 25, 2011 Author Share Posted May 25, 2011 (edited) bit more work done today cleaned up inner wing and removed shite mot patches Edited May 25, 2011 by steel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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