FAO: marinanut and other marina nuts.

[tigran]

Friend of mine who owns several RV8's has asked this question on another forum I visit:

"Anyone out there got any information / weblinks / contacts regarding building a V8 Marina? Been wondering about this idly for a little while.

All I can find is this Wikipedia quote: "In 1974 Foden commissioned a Rover V8 engined Marina to compete in the London-Sahara-Munich rally. This stormed through several stages before suffering rear-axle failure in the desert".



M."

Any info on it? How hard is it to do, anyone done it before?

Thankooo for any gen.

[rmad]

Custom Car actually had one built (by BL special tuning I think!) a long time ago...but they ended up putting the radiator in front of the grille! We do of course already have a V8 Marina pick up on the forum!

[tigran]

woof

[trg1984]

rmad said:

We do of course already have a V8 Marina pick up on the forum!

us RRer's are spoilt rotten on here haha

[malcolmp]

Thanks Tigran. Found my own way onto here now

As Tigran says I'm a bit of an RV8 nut and looking to build a Marina pickup or coupe. So who's got the V8 Marina pickup then? Do tell....

Malcolm.

[bstardchild]

malcolmp said:

Thanks Tigran. Found my own way onto here now

As Tigran says I'm a bit of an RV8 nut and looking to build a Marina pickup or coupe. So who's got the V8 Marina pickup then? Do tell....

Malcolm.

Welcome - I spy with my little eye a couple of very nice wedges

[madmart]

hi there
marina v8 ;D heres some pics i have, all the conversion's done that i know off were done by bl special tuning the rads mounted the other side of the front panel because they used the original water pump un modified, robs pickup in the readers rides bit has two small rads joined with pipes plus electric fans, the st ones had a water pump driven fan viscous? located where the original rad was! I'm rambling heres the pics,





www.madmods.co.uk/images/V8_Marina_rally_engine.jpg
[/img]http://www.madmods.co.uk/images/V8_underbonnet1.jpg[/img]

might have seen most if not all as there ones ive found on the net or in books i believe its the setup out of the mgb v8 and gearbox though the lt77 sd1 v8 box will fit in the marina providing the tunnel is raised up at the front to the heater box

[madmart]

robs pickup,
[ftp]http://retrorides.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=1152658174[/ftp]
and some Australian v8 ;D[ftp]http://www.leylandp76.itgo.com/marina/index.html[/ftp]

[malcolmp]

Thanks Madmart, that's got me off to a great start. I had seen a picture of Rob's twin rads!!

Malcolm.

[Rob]

oh yeah... just bosh it in !

the steering rack is the major problem... switching this to a box under the engine would solve A LOT of problems...
(hence why the CC one has a wierd front end !)

I split the rads so that I could keep the rack where it was.
If I was to do it again (or improve mine) I would switch to Viva or similar front end and cut the bulk head WAAAAYYYY back...

[Rob]

Planning on tidying the engine bay up - would you be interested in pics to show how things fit ?

-
Rob

[marinanut]

Here ya go, have a gander arround this site as they have shedloads of gen and some real nutters on there as well.....me included!
com2.runboard.com/bmorrismarinanetmarinaanditalresource.f3.t627

As far as I know, the Rover P6 V8 is shorter thanm the others so IF you can find a P6 water pump you're laughing....I know someone who did a V8 van; slammed and on steels - wasted just about every hot hatch in Norfolk at some time or another! He also developed a Ford Escort Mk3 caliper conversion for it.....that worked!

[Rob]

my engine is the SD1 later engine but with the P6 water pump - much shorter. the long 'nose' on the SD1 pump would poke through the grill I think :s

[malcolmp]

robche said:

If I was to do it again (or improve mine) I would switch to Viva or similar front end and cut the bulk head WAAAAYYYY back...

Thanks for the pictures and advice so far. Not an easy job, but you've not put me off quite yet.

And Viva front-end? Why??

Also (spot the person who has a lot to learn about Marinas) would it make any difference which year the Marina is?
*Wonders why Rob has a late car, but with Mki front panel*

Cheers
Malcolm.

[tigran]

Malcolm i think he means the viva HA cart spring front - dunno why but a load of hot rod builders use them.

[malcolmp]

Seriously

M.

[tigran]

Yuppers.

[rmad]

I think he probably means an HB or HC IFS set up, you can take it out with all the mounts and geometry in place ready to go in your new ride! I think.

[marinanut]

One geezer I knew put a Ford 2.8 V6 into a coupe complete with Cortina front clip - big problem being ground clearence! The Marina chassis front is built to take the torsion srms and the main anchorages for the lower links and so is quite low down to start with, though seeing as BMC used a Viva HB as the mule for the Marina I suppose a retro-fit is feasible, but bloody hard work!
All Marinas/Itals have the same size of engine bay apart from the straight six Aussie ones that had a extended front crossmember to clear the front of the engine.