Before I even lay a spanner on the engine I need to arrange my workshop in a methodical and logical manner.

Part 1 Dismantling The Engine:

Right that’s the introduction over, time now to set out my stall.
Before I even lay a spanner on the engine I need to arrange my workshop in a methodical and logical manner.

The Workshop

The Dirty Area

The Clean Side/PartsWasher

This is the “Dirty” area where I’m going to dismantle the engine. Yet to be tidied up.
This is the cleaning and laying out area. Just thought I’d show off my new parts washer.

Re-Assemble Arear

Specialist Tools

The most important area for reassembly. I’ve deliberately kept the dirty and clean areas as far away from each other as possible.
A few of the specialist tools I’ll be using during the rebuild. There are others such as torque wrenches and a few air tools to help matters along.

Ok, so now that I have my engine I can start the dismantling procedure proper.

Engine hoist

Manifolds Off

Using the engine crane to remove the lump from the back of my Jeep. The inlet manifold and plenum chamber have already been removed to make it easier to attach to the crane

I’ll start by removing a few of the ancillaries so that the engine is lighter and easier to manhandle.
Firstly the easy stuff. Alternator, starter motor, flywheel and exhaust manifolds. I’ll also undo the front pulley nut while the flywheel is still attached, as this is done up pretty tight and I may need to jam the ring gear on the flywheel.

Now you can start to see the engine proper.Best way of undoing the front pulley bolt is with an air gun as the bolt is usually very tight. This one finally succumbed with a bit of effort from the gun.

 Now you can start to see the engine proper.Best way of undoing the front pulley bolt is with an air gun as the bolt is usually very tight. This one finally succumbed with a bit of effort from the gun.

This is the state of the exhaust manifold gaskets, once the manifolds where removed. Not one gasket was complete.

Here we can see clear evidence of a blowing exhaust gasket. Note how it’s started to deform the edge of the port. This is fixable, but left for much longer, a new head would be required. The message here is; if your exhaust manifolds are blowing, which is common on TVR’s, don’t be tempted to leave it too long, it could end up being expensive.

This is what a healthy port should look like. Incidentally I had no idea the exhaust had been blowing, as the normal “ticking” sound associated with knackered gaskets was absent.

Now that I’m starting to take bits off the engine, it’s a good idea to make sure I store all the nuts and bolts in such a way as to make them easily identifiable and easy to find. Chinese takeaway cartons are perfect for this. I’ll be replacing most of the fasteners with new or upgraded parts, but it’s always useful to keep the old fixings for comparison. Suppliers don’t always send out the right parts. Good job I like Chinese food.

The parts I’ve removed up to now, don’t need any specialized knowledge or skills, it really is as simple as undoing fasteners and a bit of identification work so that I can find the parts when I want to reuse them. There is no need to mark any of the items for re alignment or anything, as they will only go back one way. The flywheel for example has offset bolts, so it will fit the crank in one position only.
Anyway I’ll go into a bit more detail on the way parts fit back onto the engine at the rebuild stage, but until then you’ll just have to be patient.
Then remove the pushrods. The likelihood is that I probably won’t be reusing these pushrods, but its still good practice to store them in order

So now that the engine’s a bit more manageable, I’ll give it a quick jet wash to remove the accumulated road grime before I get it onto the bench for more dismantling work.
I've removed the distributor cap and put a plastic bag over it; I’ve also used duct tape over the inlet and exhaust ports to keep the worst of the water out.

At last the engine can now go on the “dirty” bench for disassembly to begin. Here it is, in position. I bought the plastic seed tray from the local garden center for less than a tenner, although the fluids have been drained, I think it’ll be useful in containing any residue. This is the bit I’ve really been waiting for, now I can start to remove real bits of the engine.

First to come off are the rocker covers, to reveal the group “A” rockers fitted to my engine. I’ll show you the difference between group “A” and standard rockers in a bit.
Next I undid the clamps at each end of the valley gasket. Now’s the time to start storing parts in such a way that you can put them back into their original positions at rebuild time.
Once the valley gasket’s been removed you can see the lifter gallery and pushrods.
Undo the 4 bolts on each rocker shaft and remove the shafts from the engine. Remember to store them so they can go back into their original positions.

Rocker Covers off	Valley Gasket	Lifter Galley/Pushrods
Store in Order

Remember I said I’d show you the difference between group ‘A’ rockers and standard, well here it is. The standard rockers are on the left and the group ‘A’ on the right. The standard arms are made from aluminum and have a small metal pad on the end of the rocker; it’s this pad that makes contact with the top of the valve when it depresses it. You can see on the arrowed arm that there’s a hole that the pad is pressed into. The problem is that these pads can and do come out. It’s unlikely that the pad will do any damage floating about in the engine (it’ll probably end up in the sump, it can’t get back into the engine because of the oil strainer) but loss of a pad will mess up the lifter pre load and eventually ruin the cam and rocker. I’ll explain lifter pre load during reassembly. Standard rockers on the left, and steel group ‘A’ on the right.

Standard Rocker on left

The group ‘A’ rockers on the other hand, are made from solid steel, so there are no parts to come loose. The disadvantage of the steel rockers though is that they’re heavier. This could be critical on a high revving race engine, but on a road based V8 that’s never going to rev beyond 6k, and is going to spend most of its life between 2k and 4k rpm, I think the reliability and piece of mind outweigh the disadvantages

The type of damage you'll see if your engine happens to lose a rocker pad. You can clearly see how it’s marked the top of the valve stem at the top of the picture. Good job I’m not re-using these heads. This is why I had the group ‘A’ rockers fitted a while ago.

Ok, that’s rockers explained, so what next.
Well its got to be removal of the cylinder heads. Unless yours is a very old engine, there are 10 bolts per side holding the heads on. 5 of the bolts are within the head, and the other 5 are outside by the spark plugs.
I would suggest that they are undone in the opposite of the tightening pattern. (This can be found in the Range Rover Haynes manual)
These bolts are pretty tight, so you don’t want to go rounding one off. The best method, is to use a good fitting hexagonal socket rather than a multi point socket, as the hex sockets exert their force on the flat of the bolts, rather than the points, they are far less likely to damage the bolt head.
So a good hex socket and a breaker bar will make easy work of the head bolts.

Internal Head Bolts

This is the wife lifting the head off the block. It was a 2 handed job and I needed to take the photo. That’s my excuse anyway.

Breaker & 5/8 hex

A hex socket and a multi point. Always try to use a hex on critical or very tight bolts, as they give the head of the bolt a much easier time, and are less likely to cause damage or round off. There are 3 off the longer bolts on each head, and they go in the middle 3 holes on the inside of the head. All the other bolts are the same as the short one, although the one’s that have been on the outside will be rusty.

Mrs Quinn to the rescue

That's the first head removed, and everything looks pretty healthy. There’s obviously a bit of carbon build up but a good clean up will sort that out. At least there’s no sign of a blowing head gasket, which is good news.
And again, side 2 this time. The block faces look very good.
Now that the heads are off it’s a good time to remove the alternator bracket. I left it on up to now, as it’s useful as a handhold when undoing some of the tighter bolts.

That’s the heads off, I’ll go into stripping them down later, and I’ll show you the difference between a TVR head and V8 Development stage 3 heads.
Time to tackle the front pulley, water pump, distributor, timing cover, timing gear and finally the camshaft.

Alternator Bracket	Oil Filter
Water Pump	A Gentle Tap

First things first, let’s get the oil filter off and out of the way.
Start by undoing the water pump bolts.
When the bolts are all out, you’ll probably have to give the pump a tap to break the seal. Only use a soft-faced hammer when trying to loosen parts off.
The water pump is in really good condition, which is surprising, knowing the hard time they get on a TVR. Just a clean up and it’ll be as good as new.

Now’s probably a good time to start marking things up to make life a little easier when putting it all back together.
First, get N°1 cylinder to top dead center (TDC) on its firing stroke and mark the position of the pointer. You’ll be able to tell it’s on its firing stroke by the fact that the rotor arm should be pointing to N°1 plug lead, and both of the followers on N°1 cylinder will be at their lowest point, i.e. on the back of the cam, rather than on the lobes.
Marks on front pulley and pointer at TDC for N°1 cylinder.

Water Pump

Now mark the position of the distributor in relation to the rotor arm. Note N°1 piston at TDC. and Image
None of these marks are critical, but they will at least help to get things in roughly the right position and give a good starting point come rebuild time.
Also mark the base of the distributor against its locating hole in the timing cover.

Base of Dizzy

Clamping Nut/Dizzy

Removing Dizzy

Now we can remove the 9/16 clamping nut and clamp bracket from the distributor.
Remember that front pulley bolt that was really tight. Well now’s the time you’ll be glad you loosened it off earlier on. Keep the bolt handy though; it’ll be needed later on to turn the crank.

Front pulley bolt

Pulley Removed

Timing Cover

Now the pulley can be pulled from the end of the crank.
The timing cover is next to come off, but there are a couple of well-hidden bolts and a nut that need to be undone first.
Undo the easy bolts first. Then there are  2 sneaky ones just behind the oil pump.

Behind the oil pump

2 more here

Cover Removed

And finally 2 more hidden underneath at the front of the sump pan.
The cover can now be removed to reveal the timing chain and gears in all their glory.
Again now’s a good time to do some marking up, although not critical it gives a good starting point when the rebuild begins.

Marking Up

Drive Gear

2 Gears Removal

Undo the center bolt, and remove the distributor drive gear from the end of the cam. Note which way around it goes. The groove goes to the inside and then the spacer.
Then the 2 gears and the chain can be removed as one from the relative shafts.

Once the gears and chain are off, you can remove the woodruff keys from the camshaft and crankshaft. Don’t get them mixed up as they are slightly different to each other, and the camshaft key groove also acts as an oil way for supply to the distributor drive gear.
Before the camshaft can be removed the followers have to come out. I use a magnet to pull them out of their bores, as they’re slippy little beggars.
No it doesn’t say sex. It’s 5 EX, or in other words, cylinder N°5 exhaust follower. Again I’m not sure yet if I’ll be reusing the cam and followers, but it’s still good practice to keep parts in order just in case.

At last, the camshaft can now come out. Be extra careful when pulling the cam out, as the bearings it runs in are very soft and easily damaged. I’ll be replacing mine anyway as they’re only about 20 quid a set.

At last, the camshaft can now come out. Be extra careful when pulling the cam out, as the bearings it runs in are very soft and easily damaged. I’ll be replacing mine anyway as they’re only about 20 quid a set.

Although up to now, the engine seems to be in pretty good order, I thought I’d show you the state of the timing gear. The  gear is pretty worn, you can clearly see how hooked the teeth are. The other gear was the same and the chain wasn’t too clever either. Components this worn will have a disastrous effect on the cam timing. This could be a contributing factor to my recent pinking problems.

Worn Timing Gear

Upside Down

Sump Bolts

Well that’s about it for the top end, time now to turn the engine over, remove the sump, pistons and the main bearing caps.
Ok that’s the engine turned upside down, bit of a struggle as it’s still fairly heavy with the crank still in it. Thank god the block’s aluminum, I’d hate to have to deal with a cast iron block.
Then go around the sump undoing all the bolts.

Sump pan

Oil Strainer

oil strainer

Then lift the sump pan. Look at the amount of sealant that’s been used to seal the sump. I wonder why TVR use this when there’s a perfectly good cork gasket available that’ll do a better job.
Next undo the oil strainer and lift it away from the block. The oil strainer1 image above  should be a good enough reason not to use too much sealant when rebuilding an engine.

Time now to undo the big end bolts, remove the caps and slide the pistons out of the bore. Do them one at a time, and turn the crank into a position that gives best access to the bolts. Be careful when your hands are in the block, there are a lot of sharp edges in there.
When Pulling a piston from its bore. They should come out fairly easily, but if one does get stuck, just use a wooden hammer handle on the inside of the piston, and gently tap it out.

All the pistons are now out, so we can now undo and remove the main bearing caps. Again these bolts are tight, so use a hex socket and a breaker bar to loosen them.

Once the bolts are out you’ll probably have to use a hammer to get the caps out. Only a soft faced hammer will do.

Bearing Caps

Lifting caps out

Crankshaft

Simply lift the caps away. Don’t worry about keeping them in order, as they are numbered I to 5 and an arrow on each cap shows that they all face the front.
And there we have it, the crankshaft waiting to be lifted out. I’m not going to remove it until I’m ready to work on the block, as it’s in the safest place at the moment and being supported on its bearings.


So there you have it, a pretty comprehensive look at stripping down a V8 TVR Rover engine. Up to now I’m pretty pleased, with a cursory glance, as I’ve been pulling it apart, shows no real horrors. In fact the engine is pretty clean inside. This must be due to the fact that I use good oil and change it pretty often.
The next stage is going to be all about cleaning, measuring and inspection of the components in a bid to help me decide what I’m going to reuse and what I’m going to replace.

Before I get to that though I thought I’d show you the main difference between a standard TVR block and an X Bolted block.
If you look down the side of the main bearing caps on a standard block, you can see a gap either side of the cap. This is the front cap, but it’s the same on the other 4.

Now look at an X bolted cap and you can see how it’s a snug fit in the block. I’m sure this makes little difference on a road engine, but on a race engine it will give the crank more support. As I have an X bolted block though I may as well use it, so long as it checks out when I inspect it.

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