Rover SD1 building history

Introduction and a brief history.......

This is the 1986 Rover SD1 site.....with lot's of gallery pictures and tips on how to optimize your Rover SD1 in nearly all areas. If you want your SD1 be a real performer regarding power, economy and noise reduction levels, this is the site for you. You can pick the mods that you find interesting for you. Some of the mods are accompanied with schematic drawings, for you to print out.

I bought my first SD1 (1979) in 1988. Before that time I had a Range Rover V8. In 1996 I started looking for a newer SD1. The old car had run for nearly 8 years and 90.000 km (total 235.000 km) without causing any trouble at all, but it was starting to get a little to rusty here and there.
Some of my fellow workers told me that a SD1 was for sale, and I decided to have a look at the car. It was a bit early for me to buy another car, but this one was in an such excellent concour condition, thanks to the previous owners. The car had 200.000 km on the clock. No doubt about it, this was the car I was the car for me, so I took it with me home.

The car was born as a 1986 Vanden Plas SE 3500 V8 to a mix of European/Middle-East/US specification. I don't now for sure. It has a Middle-East/US specification extra ride height suspension and Middle-East spec. air-condition. It was mounted with a US spec. buzzer (marked Land-Rover) that came into action when exceeding about 110 km/h. The car had a 8.13 compression (I discovered this much later) and was sporting twin SU HIF44 electronic controlled carburettors. Maybe it was build from some left over parts ?

After running the car for a couple of weeks it seemed to me that the car was lacking of power and the extra ride height gave the car a bad handling and a wave motion ride like a big American car. I could not get the GM180 3 speed gearbox to work properly. When downshifting it often gave a big CLUNK sound. Up shifting through the gears was not as smooth as in the older Borg Warner 66 fitted to the SD1 up to 1981-82. This really annoyed me. A lovely car punished with a lousy gearbox like this. I also missing a higher overall drive, like in the 5'gear in a Vitesse.

The power was down because of the 8.13 compression (I first discovered this when planning an engine rebuild) and the fuel economy was lousy (7,0 to 7,5 km pr liter, my previous SD1 did 8,0 to 8,5) at all-round driving. I went to a rolling road but to no avail. Believe me I tried everything to get a better fuel economy. So I thought the last thing left could be a worn camshaft. Time for a change. I tried a Piper H270, but with no change in economy and only a power increase to 167 HK. The engine still felt much more lazy than my previous SD1 from 1979.
When measuring the original camshaft I discovered that it was just as good as new. Something must be wrong. On the rolling road the cylinder balance was checked and found reasonably. After this I started thinking about rebuilding the engine, so I took a look at the engine number and to my horror I discovered that the compression stamp said 8.13. So this was the cause of all my problems, problem solved !!!! Engine rebuild was an reality.

Well, how about trying to make this car really perform like a expensive luxury car by fine tuning and adjusting it with standard, and if necessary competition, parts. In the winter period there is time to do these things, one step at the time. Removing road and transmission noise without using extra sound deadening material (no extra weight), selecting the right tires and looking closer at the suspension mountings, prop shaft, bearings, etc. carefully, selecting the right parts to be replaced.

And believe me it can be done...........

I have used many, and I mean M A N Y, hours in receiving this, and the car now performs like an expensive luxury car, and for sure, much better than when leaving the factory.

Here is some facts of the summer 1999.

Engine outputs 227 BHP from Fuel injected 3.5 litre on rolling road
4 speed auto gearbox
Cruising at 80 km/h at approx. 1750 revs
Cruising at 100 km/h at 2000 revs
Mixed driving fuel consumption is approx 9.4 km/liter
Long journey at 110-120 km/h (2 adults+2 children+packing), fuel consumption is an easy 12.1 km/liter
Engine always starts very easy when cold, just by looking at the key
Very light on throttle, when driving part throttle, thanks to MSD ignition
Very strong low rpm torque,
Much of this is because of the forceful MSD ignition
No, oil dripping from gearbox and engine
Limited wind noise thanks to BMW door sealing

Here is some additional facts of the spring 2004.

Engine outputs 330+ BHP and 510+ Nm from supercharged 3.5 litre engine
Mixed driving fuel consumption is approx 8.4 km/liter
Long journey fuel consumption approx 11 km/litre
Fully programmable EFI
Drives and sounds like an ordinary Rover SD1, just much more punch....
76.000 km covered since engine rebuild

If you like to build a car like this, from your own SD1 then please read on.....or take the free tour....