Thread: P76 4.4 engine in a Classic?

A 4.4 is getting to be a very old engine, last cast about 1974. They also don't have the fittings on the RHS head to hang your A/C pump.

The longer bore makes the block wider than the 3.5 and requires special/modified headers to clear the chassis side rails if you're not going to use the OEM manifolds.

The extra width of the head position, means that you can't use the 3.5 valley/inlet manifold or fuel injection manifold/plenum without using spacers which will then mean the top of the plenum will hit the underside of the bonnet.

agree with lotza landies, however - if in re-building you can 're-new' it they are a much better engine than the 3.5 for all sorts of reasons including: double valve springs; pressure lubricated top end rather than splash feed up the push rods; lower revving (long stroke delivers its tourque at much lower revs, you dont have to rev them like a 3.5. I remember well idling in circles around my brother in his 3.5 in deep sand - he was just spinning his wheels as he had to keep his revs up); you can get a Wolf 3D injection system for them; or you can do as I did with mine and fit a very simple Stromberg carby with LPG - I would save the LPG for off-road as there are no fuel feed on slope issues [not many with a Stromberg anyway]; and a few more advantages too. It is a simple and reliable engine and with the WW Stromberg (same as Holdens) it cant get much simpler. Being lower revving should give a better engine life?? Anyway, I loved my 4.4 in my classic - wish I still had it as a toy, it was awesomely powerful and sounded fantastic. I had extractors on mine - not custom made either but cant remember what they were, Genies I think off the shelf at that time.

There were a lot of 4.4s in rangies back in the late 70s and early 80s so likely the headers came off the rack. The issue is that you need to have them closer to the block instead of knocking on the chassis rails which is what can happen with the 3.5/3.9 and 4.6 headers.

GuyG has one in the family in regular, everyday use. Perhaps PM him.

James.

Roverparts have an adapter milled from billet alloy for the Rover inlet manifold to bolt up to the 4.4 heads, so you could go mad and fit an Edelbrock manifold and carby set up or the fuel injection Rover manifold and a bonnet bulge.....

I have a 4.4 in my RRC 2 door. I have fitted an '82 3.5 timing case with some special bracketry to fit my a/c pump and alternator to it without needing rover heads- unfortunately whoever made the alternator one made it a little wonky

I'm running a 350 holley modified for gas and for offroad. Has performed brilliantly and hasn't skipped a beat. Does flood when on silly angles but I'm on gas offroad so it doesn't bother me. Hitech headers manufacture headers off the rack or you can fit the standard rubbish.

Great low revving engine, I run 35s and an LT95 with county high range gears. Is pretty good at 100, low range could be lower but its ok for most things. I did however have issues with over heating but that is now solved with a bigger alloy radiator and shrouded thermofans.

There are many issues in fitting a 4.4, some of them alluded to below. The 3.5 heads can be used on the 4.4 block, then the rocker shafts will be fed by the hollow pushrods from the lifters (NB you MUST use Holden style lifters with oil holes!!!). The 4.4 heads normally have splash fed rockers, not pressure fed. You could drill the block for the oil feeds as the casting allows for this. Never done it though. (A very long thin hole, you need to be extremely accurate!) 4.4 heads have smaller valves than the EFI 3.5 engines.

Inlet manifold adaptors are available, but are expensive for EFI. Main bearings are again available, ACL recently did another run of them. They are unique to the 4.4. Big ends are stock Rover. The crankshaft needs to be crack tested, they occasionally fail catastrophically. (Yeah, I did one at 5500 rpm, the harmonic balancer did another 100m along the road before stopping.).

The crankshaft rear end is bigger than the 3.5, you will need to machine and redrill a manual flywheel, the auto is more complicated. If you shave the mounting flange of the exhaust manifolds at a slight angle they will fit with more clearance.

Originally Posted by rainman

GuyG has one in the family in regular, everyday use. Perhaps PM him.

James.

Ah, not any more James, we stupidly changed to a 3.9 with flapper injection and a ZF auto, we should have just bought another rangie.

However we have acquired a 2 door with a modified P76 and LT95 with high ratio gears, just haven't decided what to do with it. PM me if you need parts as we have quite a few - the adds are in the markets. The aircon compressor can be fitted to the bottom left hand side of the motor.

The adaptor plate to mate the auto to the motor and the spacers for the heads to the manifolds were available off the shelf a couple of years ago. There is a thread somewhere on the forum from when I was researching fitting a P76 to my rangie. Several people have done it successfully and several haven't had success.

Good luck, they are a fun motor