1996 TVR Griffith 500

[dnb]

Another Rover v8 project.
The aim was simple - remove every Lucas part on the car and replace with something nicer...

The car has run as a daily car for about a year with VEMS, but is now undergoing some chassis and cosmetic work so will be off the road until Feburary   I'm missing it already.

Arty shot from last year's hols.


View of the whole car


The engine bay


Spec:

TVR "sports" ARBs (factory fit)
Adjustable suspension
Slightly upgraded brakes.
Huge injectors configured for fully sequential operation
8 coils, again fully sequentially fired
Huge aluminimum radiator from Radtec
Custom made JP exhaust manifolds
Custom made fuel rail with FSE regulator
Plenty more, but I can't remember it all... 

All in all, VEMS has turned this already quick car into a slightly quicker, but much smoother car.  I'm impressed anyway

[rob@vems.co.uk]

A complete torque monster

[dnb]

Current projects happening on the car - most are unfortunately non-VEMS.

Strip and refurb the chassis - to undo the damage of 104k miles
Change the cam - I need at least 350ftlbs
Retrim the interior - again, 104k miles worth of wear to fix.
HID headlamps - TVR don't have a clue what a headlamp shoud do...
Traction control - My pet VEMS project, using Ford wheel triggers and my own algorithms

[200KriSX]

Very nice car mate. Would love to see those manifold colloctors joint and feeding a nice sized turbo  But the sound of that must be awesome Learn something new everyday but I didn't know they had the Rover V8 lump 

[dnb]

TVR used the Rover v8 until about 2000 when they had a full set of models to use their own engines...  The TVR v8 is an awsome thing to see and hear.

I won't be turbocharging it.  But there is space under the bonnet for a nice blower.

[dnb]

After 10 years and 104k miles the newness had worn off the Griff.  Here's a short update on progress.

So, what started out as an engine refresh has turned in to a large refurb project. The goal is to have an as-new Griffith 500, but taking advantage of the 10 years of development that have happened since the car was new.

In no particular order, here's what I'm doing:

Body-off chassis refurb - strip and paint with POR15 products
Replace all the ball joints and fit polybushes
Fit the braided brake hoses that have sat in the cupboard for the last year
Refresh the fuel system, including new fuel pump and plumbing

New stereo stuff
Repair the heated seats. (I like them and I use the car in the winter)
Retrim seats and door cards etc.
7" reflector lamps and HID kit

Cam shaft (H404 is most likely), followers, rockers, chain
Ceramic coated manifolds
Generally tidy the engine bay where I haven't already done so
New clutch - it seems sensible while everything is apart

And whatever else I find is broken along the way...

Here's a few pics of stuff that's happening.







It looks like I caught the metalworm just in time...

[dnb]

Had some trouble with getting photos off my phone and camera.  Finally got the camera sorted, but there's still a load on the phone.  I will get round to it eventually, but the build is more important right now.

I painted the chassis in the lounge (the photos that prove this are stuck on my phone )

Here is the chassis in the garden awaiting transport to the garage.


New brake lines from Speedflow.  I didn't like the nasty snaky things that were there before.
Note the rubber sleeves to stop all the metal on metal contact.


Fitting this bush is troublesome to say the least.  Here's my solution - jack it in.

[dnb]

A bit more pictureless progress...

I stripped the engine over the past couple of evenings. 
The bores are all good - amazingly after 104k miles you can still see the honing marks!
Pistons are good too - no sign of any det.

Heads are OK, and they should clean up nicely.  All of the valve stem seals were dead and the inlet valves covered in yuck.  No wonder it struggled to pass emissions & ran a little asthmatically.

I also got my new suspension fitted   All looking good now that I am at the state of having a rolling chassis again.

[dnb]

It ran!

But I found a fuel leak, so had to abandon things.