Rover V8

[eddy]

Work mate has a Rover V8 he wants rid of, its the aussie version from the Leyland P76, I would appeciate any feedback on the pros or cons of mounting this motor in the beddie campa for every day use and more importantly for towiing a 21 foot dual axle caravan long distances  ....  please ?

[hammers_spanners]

Ed the Leyland 4.4l V8 is a great motor. Being alloy they are lightweight and reliable. My concern would be parts?

[eddy]

yep that is my concern as well,  imagine a posh Rover business and the beddie campa pulls in coughing and spluttering, just as it gets turned off lets out a big fart from the exhaust. Eddy MAC gets out and enters the reception area looks around thinking, "this is flash' sees the salesman and says. "Gday howzagoen? do yous do mates rates?" Salesman in posh Engwish accent, "My good man, acquaintances to this establishment are informed forthwith that no consideration will be given to the acquiring of periphials pertaining to engineering beit standard or non standard  and moreso sir that the area your box of allsorts is stopped in is reserved strictly for clientele who are favoured to show renumeration for the services of this company and furthermore if you desire to remain in that position then I have no option but to inform the constabluary of your unwantedness. Good day to you sir" Eddy MAC, "Yeah cool, but do yas do mates rates?" ..... umm guess I better head over to the P76 sites and ask around ......... 

[Marishka]

lol, that made my laugh,
are they high content aluminium motors as ive heard?
 
marty

[Clance]

Hi Eddy, I believe that the Rover v8 is only 3.5L but the ones out of the p76 were the 4.4l's. the little ones make great sprint car motors as they are light and rev their ring out! the 4.4 is a tough and powerful donk, a mate in Tassie had one in his drag car running supercharger and methanol injection in a ford capri that did 9.8 1/4 mile! should tow the caravan!!  biggest dilema I have heard with them is keeping them cool but I guess we all have that dilema in Beddies sometimes!
Cheers
Clance

[booga]

i have some info on the 4.4 alloy motor

orig a buick motor, at 3.5 ltr bought by english as the americans didnt like the technology used,

used in the rover as a 3.5 fairly reliably from memory.  bored out a few years later for the p76.

unreliable due to heat and pistons cracking (car wasn't in production long enough to find faults)

the over heating in the p76 was due to under bonnet positive pressure ( it didnt help anyway)

the pistons cracked due to a metallurgical fault in the alloy combination (cant remember what)

so, if your putting the engine into something that really doesnt have an engine bay, and your using aftermartket pistons, you should be sweet.

also i have some parts for these motors kicking roung the shed.

plus if you plan on using the original cast manifolds, they are prone to cracking, mine literally dropped sections out. you can get a great set of performance tuned headers from somwhere in ringwood i think bout $475 made a huge difference to my land rover.

Ben

[BlackBedford]

G'day

A bit of extra guff...

The motor was originally designed by Mercedes Benz during WW2 for a 2 door sports car. The motor was taken as war reparations back to the USA where GM used it in the Buick until Big Blocks became the norm in the 60's. It was shelved by GM but was still being used by Mercury for their Mercruisers (I used to be a Mercury outboard mechanic). It was known as the 215 in the states and is still very popular there.
One sunny day in England a manager of BMC? Motors was playing with his boat when a boat mechanic showed him a boat from USA with a Mercruiser in it. The Mechanic suggested it would be an ideal motor for the Manager's Triumph? sports car to give it a bit of get up and go. The Manager went back and told his bosses, who did a deal to buy the rights to the 215 from GM.The Poms sorted out a lot of issues to make it a better motor and it was put in the Rover and MG amongst others. The P76 is an underdeveloped extension of the Rover motor with many interchangeable parts. The P76 has a longer stroke so the block, crank and con rods are the major differences. For many years there was a big trade in selling P76 cranks to people in Europe wishing to stroke their Rover motors. All of the issues with Rover and P76 V8s have been sorted out by now. The solutions are on many club websites.
When the Fuel crisis of the 70's kicked in, GM released a Buick V6 version of the 215 motor with a lot of the development work done by Rover in it. Rover kicked up a big stink, but GMs response was that they only sold rights to the V8 version and that they did not use any of the Rover improvements and if they did then tough tities!. And you thought GM were nice guys (watch the movie Who killed the Electric Car).

GMH put the V6 Buick motor in the Commodore, so a Rover motor is a very close cousin to the Commodore.
Some parts are interchangeable, eg cam bearings. The front timing chain covers are so very similar it is scary. There is a bloke in NZ who modifies the Buick oil pump to fit the Rover motor. And there is a reason for doing it, and another as to why I found out about it.

The Rover motor has always been a very popular conversion in England. If you want to put the work in you can get good results. Here is an example:

http://www.anmat.co.uk/thevan.htm

The Rover 3.5 litre motor does come in many varients and was used in Rover sedans and 4WDs. The main concern I would have is the history of the motor you are considering using.
Has it been overheated?
Has it had a hard life?

If I was going to put a Rover motor in a CF I would go for a 3.9 litre out of a Discovery or Range Rover running a Commodore V8 wiring loom and computer. I hear it works very well in conversions in other vehicles.

Regards
Chris

[booga]

the boat part rings a bell, but i i didnt know about the benz

i thought they ran bigger pistons but could be mistaken as i have never had the rover motor apart.

also did you know about the pistons cracking? what do you think.. also the underbonnet pressure?? what is your take on this.

i havent been around long and like to hear and learn what ever i can, trying to keep it correct at the same time... most of this info i get from word of mouth which cannot alyways be trusted and somme from old literature from racing fans. anyway good to see someone can shed more light

Cheers
Ben

[BusyKiwi]

The old rover v8 is a good solid engine, I used to have one in a stock car, never gave any problems. the nz army used these motors in the jeeps etc, another stock car driver used to work for the army and "borrow" the engines for his race car and when they got tired return them lol - shhh i didn't tell you that

[BlackBedford]

most of this info i get from word of mouth which cannot always be trusted and some from old literature from racing fans.

Cheers
Ben

G'day

I don't know that much either.
In the car scene there is so much baloney and so little truth in comparison. But there is a lot of good stuff in the truth (and some in the baloney as well).

There were a lot of problems with the P76 that are not talked about, but I do remember something about pistons ( Holden pistons were used as a replacement) and the pressure problem, but a small spoiler fixed that.

I used to have a P76 (I still have a dead one and a few motors). Rust killed mine. When sorted out they were an awesome machine especially when traveling across country roads at speed. I can remember night drive on a long valley road and outrunning a vicious thunderstorm with lots of lightening. The P76 was WAY ahead of anything that Ford or Holden had at the time.

I have considered putting a P76 motor in a CF just for fun.