1997 fairway london black cab (hotrod)

[v8taxi]

Here we have my black cab project!!
Basically I'm re-making the interior in a hot rod style with rocker switches and all new dash gauges and dropping a rover 3.5 v8 into it with a borg warner 35 auto gearbox.
Started the project january 2014 and am hoping to finish by the end of the year as it is an evening and weekend project

[v8taxi]

Right ive now worked out how to put some pictures on I think
These are pictures of when i went and picked it up (it came with no engine)

[v8taxi]

[v8taxi]

[v8taxi]

Anyway thats the cab paid only £400 for it next I bought the engine and gearbox from ebay it came from a rover sd1 paid £300 but had virtually no compression didnt matter to me as was doing a complete rebuild. Pictures of engine below

[v8taxi]

Next was to make sure the
Engine and gearbox would go into the taxi (which it did) and then i made the engine mounts

[v8taxi]

[micrat]

Awesome, a fairway is on my want list, although for me as a comedy drift car, they have great lock and are rwd...so that's a start haha!

Look foward to seeing how this turns out.

[v8taxi]

Then the engine came back oot for rebuilding and i contacted rpi engineering for advice on what parts to buy
I went with all new bearings for the engine, new piston rings, sport camshaft, new hydraulic tappets, new push rods, a duplex vernier timing chain and pulleys, mocal new oil pump for remote filter, mocal transmission snd engine oil coolers, rpi stage 1 heads, new rocker shafts and steel rockers, JWR offenhauser inlet manifold for four barrel single carb, weber 500 carb, edelbrock rocker covers and air filter, rpi's a&r ignition amplifier with a new distributor and new spark plugs, magnecor competition ht leads, holley electric fuel pump and many more!! Expensive part of project!!!! Below are some pics of some of the parts:

[v8taxi]

[v8taxi]

[v8taxi]

Right engine was completely stripped and hot jetwashed boiled up degreased freeze plugs out etc until block was lovely and clean. I honed the bores to deglaze them and started the build. I painted the block red below is a picture of the start

[v8taxi]

New bearings went in coated them in assembly lube and put the ARP main studs in put the main caps on lubed up the studs and bolted and torqued them down

[breadvan]

awesome project

[v8taxi]

Next got the pistons which i had labelled which bore each one had come from and removed the piston rings i cleaned out the ring grooves and installed the new rings then fitted the new big end bearings coated the bores and rings in new engine oil and put the piston ring compressor tool on pushed the pistons in a fitted the big end caps and torqued them up

[v8taxi]

Next was camshaft, smothered it in assembly lube and fitted it into the block i then installed the timing chain and torqued it up

[v8taxi]

Next fitted the ARP head studs put the head gaskets on and fitted the heads. I had to have a little bit skimmed off the heads as i used composite head gaskets which are a bit thicker but more reliable

[v8taxi]

Next i fitted the tappets and push rods and fitted my new rocker shafts and steel rockers.









Next i checked the cam timing i put a degree wheel onto the crank and a piston stop in cyl 1 I turned the crank till the piston made contact and made a not of the degrees and then turned it back till it hit the other way and made a note and then worked out the centre point and spun the crank round to there. This is absolute top dead centre i the loosened the degree wheel and set the tdc mark to the marker. Then i set a DTI to the inlet valve on cyl one and spun the crank until it was nearly at full lift and made a note of where it was on the degree wheel and DTI and kept turning the crank past full lift till it started to drop the valve and I turned it till the lifter was at the place on the DTI it was and made a note of ehere it was on the degree wheel and worked out the centre point this is then absolute top lift on inlet and i checked the cam spec which was spot
On needing no adjustment (108degrees)

[incarsolutions]

top stuff. well done

[v8taxi]

Then i fitted the valley gasket and inlet manifold