30-50 HP!

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Author Message   Grady Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 01:31 am:    Whats it take to get 30-50 extra ponies out of a 3.9 without swapping engines?   Leslie N. Bright (Leslie) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 08:27 am:    Uh.... Tying 30 or 50 horses if front to pull you along faster? Actually, though... a lot of the Buick's stuff should work on a Disco. For example, the Buick's GNX turbocharger 'supposedly' will work. You should probably spend some time perusing this site: http://www.rover-v8.co.uk/ IMHO, though, a swap would probably be a more economical way than trying to do anything to the block in situ.... IHMO, YMMV.... -L   Bill Bettridge (Billb) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 09:26 am:    Blower! Bill   PerroneFord Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 09:52 am:    Several of the D90 guys have installed a supercharger. I think it adds about this type of power. Have a visit over to www.d-90.com -P   gil Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 10:08 am:    there are also alot of guys who have removed their superchargers.. fwiw   PerroneFord Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 10:32 am:    You could always install a K&N... ;)   JMcD Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 01:09 pm:    funny perrone, real funny JMcD Nitrous foggers?   Paul T. Schram (Paulschram) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 01:23 pm:    Nitrous=mechanical heroin. Feels great (or so I'm told), then you die sooner than expected.   kyle Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 01:27 pm:    Nitrous actually came from the industry you are in Paul.... Kyle   Bill Bettridge (Billb) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 01:37 pm:    Nothing wrong with either nitrous or blowers - just gotta be used in moderation and in conjunction with the right parts all around them. Contrary to popular rumour around here - neither makes your engine mysteriously just die or fly apart. Everything has a cause and effect. It's more times that the stupid pedal causes terminal problems (yes, even with a stock motor) than any bolt-on goodies Bill   JB Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 03:52 pm:    Hey Randall S. - if possible will you take a moment and outline the mods you have done to increase performance on your rover's 3.9 ...and what results you have attained.. Thanks! JB   Robert Mann (Oldscout) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 04:07 pm:    It's all about flow. Just think of your engine as a pump and make it move more air/gas and you will have more power. I like these: http://www.roverv8engine.co.uk/ or a set of 1964 Buick 300 heads   Lawrence Tilly (L_Tilly) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 04:10 pm:    Couldn't you just put one of those "Tornados" in front of your air cleaner? Sorry, I was up late last night watching infomercials. L_Tilly [email protected] 96 Disco "Beowulf" NH, USA   Curtis Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 04:16 pm:    L Tilly, I dunno about that. Maybe if you combined the Tornado with a K&N and used Amsoil mixed with Slick 50....oh yeah - don't forget that magnet thing on the gas line. Seriously though - I would think that 4.11's would be the best way to "get more power". Curtis   E Snyder Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 05:27 pm:    I like the gearing idea, not only will it increase "power", but it will slow down the disco on hill descents (stock gears with autobox aren't exactly crawlers). I guess the only drawback would be higher RPMs at highway speeds, but that can vary depending on tire size and how you drive. Haven't done it yet on my truck, but it's moved higher on the list...   Brad Bradford (Brad) Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 05:49 pm:    Adding gears doesn't give the engine more power. All it does is screw with the drive ratios. The engine is still pumping out around 180hp.   Curtis Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 06:05 pm:    Brad, That is why "get more power" is in quotes. I know it would make my rig perform better due to larger tires. In any event, it will also narrow the overall gear ratio. There are a lot of benefits to this: closer ratios in the gear box, better throttle control and engine braking, more responsive accelleration. It can also have a profound effect on how much effective torque reaches the ground. It is probably worth mentioning that when they say 180HP, that means at the output shaft. The proper way to measure is at the wheels. Lower gearing will effectively put more power to the ground at any given speed as opposed to higher gearing as the engine is turning faster. Curtis   Kyle Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 08:33 pm:    Oh Cntraire Brad , i dont think the guy wants some HP just to brag that he has it. I think he wants to feel it. Gears = more horsepower to the ground. True , they do not bump the HP rating on the engine but instead make more out of what you got... Efficiency is the name of the game and gears are just one step towards that. Kyle   E Snyder Posted on Monday, March 11, 2002 - 11:22 pm:    Thanks Curtis. "power" is in quotes. But as Kyle says, you get more power where the rubber hits the road. If you can live with the higher rpms at high speed, I think it's the best way to go. Particularly when you think about all the other advantages lower gear ratios give you off-road, as Curtis describes.   Ho Chung (Ho) Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 03:42 pm:    hmm.... i dont' know much about the power/gear whtaever you guys are talking about. all i can say is, the 4.11 gears give me a big smile .... all the time... catch me if you can.   Brad Bradford (Brad) Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 05:27 pm:    This is one of the main reasons I love my 5-Speed. I love to be able to drop it into 4th. Yes i agree that if I had 4.11s i wouldn't have too, but I would rather save that money for something else.   eburrows Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 05:43 pm:    Sorry for the newbie question, but which gear are you guys talking about swapping when going 'to 4.11s'? Is that in the t-case, or is that the differential ring gear?   Ho Chung (Ho) Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 05:46 pm:    diff ring and pinion. it'll put a real good smile on your face. and brad, think twice about the "other stuff" you can spend money on. gears is down the list anyways.   Mel A. Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 06:14 pm:    I have an assumption...it's probably wrong but oh well: If you get bigger meats on your disco, without swapping gears, wouldn't that negatively effect the lowness of the transfer cases gearing. On a stock Disco, we have like a 40-something crawl ratio that kicks the living shit out of pretty much anything on the market. But if you put on bigger tires, wouldn't it make it higher which makes it worse? Maybe I'm a complete idiot.   Blue (Bluegill) Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 06:30 pm:    check out: http://greatbasinrovers.com/rpgears.html http://www.autoconv.com/ http://addie.home.mindspring.com/tech/gears.htm   JMcD Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 06:31 pm:    yes and no, a higher NUMERICAL gear ratio is in fact a lower gear, so you are right.. Example, a 4.11 is lower than a 3.56, think upside down JMcD   JMcD Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 06:36 pm:    sorry, lost my train of thought,it's all the drugs.... Yes, a larger tire will adversely affect your overall ratio, which is why if you went to, say 33 inch tires you would have to lower your dif gear ratio just to stay the same as with stock tires and gears. However even with stock gears the other benefits of having larger tires ussually outweigh the higher gearing, get it? now I am confusing myself..... JMcD   JMcD Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 06:52 pm:    However, because the higher gear you go to (usually) the weaker the gear is, structurally speaking. So even though a 5.12 is a super low gear(high numerically) it is in most cases not as strong as a similiarly made 3.56 gear. This is due to the fact that in order to get low gears you must usually lower the teeth on the pinion gear, because the ratio is calculated by dividing the ring teeth by the pinion teeth. Which is why super low gearing usually includes the dif gears, t-case gears, as well as aftermarket underdrive units. Not that any of you care, Hell, I don't even care!!! But since I already typed it, I'll post it.....JMcD   grady Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 10:33 pm:    Sorry, didn't mean to start a fight. I've already thought about changing gears, but I do alot of long freeway driving, and its nice to cruise the flying brick at 80mph. In fact I just recently drove to and from the Olympics, where I stayed at Bill from G.B.R.'s house. Of course he recomends gears too, but at $1,700 parts and install, I was thinking maybe I could put that into the engine and get my power back and keep the tall gearing.??? Sorry for the ignorance, but I come from a family of friends where $1,700 can get you +50hp from a small block.   Steve Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 11:06 pm:    $1700 that's just about the cost of a set of gears or a blower. Unfortunately, blowers need sustained high revs to make horsepower. They work best when they are operated at a constant or over a small rpm range. Most automotive units don't start making noticable hp till over 2000rpm and dont reach peak till between 3500 and 5000. Rock crawling is done at the lower end of the rev range or with short burst of power. The blower won't get anything to the ground at that rate. It won't be pushing much air or it won't have time to "spool up". Keeping the engine on the boil is hard to do short of running in the Baja 1000. So for my money I'd go with shorter gears and taller tires. Your effective "horsepower" to the ground can be increased where it will be used most. With all the combinations available you can pick at what speed you want the horsepower. Then as Ho says "the 4.11 gears give me a big smile" Steve   PerroneFord Posted on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - 11:29 pm:    Steve, When you say "blower" are you talking a Turbo or a supercharger? If you are talking supercharger, I thought their big advantage was that since they are belt/gear driven, they provided noticible boost over the entire RPM range unlike the turbo. But I have to agree, that regearing will probably give the biggest bang for the buck. And the 4.11s will still allow for a 75 mph cruise on the highway. At least it did on 33s. -P   Bill Bettridge (Billb) Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 10:19 am:    Steve, Absolutely not true about a supercharger not producing boost from the get go. Turbos have that problem because you have to have a high flow of exhaust gas to spin it, but a supercharger, being belt driven, produces boost immediately and all the time. Admittedly, the more RP's the more air it compresses, but there are also lots of options with pulley diameters to have more boost earlier. Of course then the downside is having the fuel supply keep up with the air supply. Bill   Kyle Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 11:01 am:    ping ping ping..... Kyle   Bill Bettridge (Billb) Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 03:31 pm:    Yeah - I didn't say it came without a price - especially with cast pistons! Bill   Dee Cantrell (Disco_Dad) Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 05:46 pm:    This my be old news to some but Chris Crane has some useful information about superchargers on a 4.0 4.6. http://www.rpiv8.com/engine-3.htm go 1/2 down on the page Dee   Matt Milbrandt (95discovery) Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2002 - 07:08 pm:    In my opinion, if you try to compensate for your big tires with more horsepower, then you will end up breaking things in your stock drivetrain. Matt   Jake Posted on Thursday, March 14, 2002 - 06:38 pm:    Grady, I don't know about 30-50 hp, but you certainly can add some hp by changing cam (Piper, Crane has them) and doing some head work. I understand there is a Brit company that offers a chip upgrade also. Headers can help, as can a freely flowing exhaust. Try not to move the power curve too high up the RPM range, so that you can get that power out on ther trail. I agree that gearing is great help also. Do the mods AND get the 4.11s and have some fun!