With the engine number you provided - it was not the original engine in that RRC - 3.9s were not around in 1976.
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With the engine number you provided - it was not the original engine in that RRC - 3.9s were not around in 1976.
So according to wiki that motor would be 1990-1994ish.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lionelgee
Rover V8 engine - Wikipedia
Morgan Plus 8 - Wikipedia
It makes you wonder why Land Rovers were still using 3.5's at that time, not introducing the 3.9 until later.
Hello 101RRS,Quote:
Originally Posted by 101RRS
Yes, from the number stamped on the engine suggests that it was sourced from another vehicle and transplanted into the 1976 Range Rover Classic. What year did the 3.9s come out? As the engine identification sites that say Morgan 8 had the 47A0001 motors do not include a date of manufacture.
Compared to the original 1976 Range Rover Classic's 3.5 V8s is a 3.9 a step up or a step down in performance and reliability? Which of the two capacity engines would be considered as the better option?
G'day Slunnie - your post must have come in when I was writing this message! Thank you.
Kind regards
Lionel
The 3.9 came out in 1989 in the RR and in early 1994 in the Disco 1 (interim).
The 3.9 is a development of the 3.5 (just bored out) and is considered as good as the 3.5 but has more power. I would go a 3.9 over the 3.5.
Don't confuse the 3.9 with the 4.0 which has the same capacity - the 4.0/4.6 is a newer development with bigger crank, braced block and cross bolted mains.
Rover V8 engine - Wikipedia
I dunno why you're losing sleep over this Lionel.
I assume it goes, fits, has a LT95 behind it, etc.
The 350 in my pos has a weird short engine number......... it was re-coed 700k kms ago, it is registered to the chassis (vin) number............. all good, ..........try doing the conversion these days.
It certainly wouldn't show up on a LR heritage website and life is too short for caring.
LR never cared about details............ I remember Dougal (NZ) having a 90's RRC that had a 10 spline diff at one end and a 24 spline diff at the other, from the factory.
Must have been during the changeover period of the parts bin on the assembly line.
DL
Hello DL,Quote:
Originally Posted by 350RRC
Thank you for the post. No loss of sleep here at all. I am a researcher and I like chasing information down. New motor type for me equals new areas to explore. Finding that the source of the transplanted engine could have been from a Morgan 8 was a very unexpected turn of events. Also that I bought an engine described as a 3.5 and it turns out to be a 3.9 was unanticipated. So I am asking questions to learn more about a previously untapped area of interest. Umm I was once told I was insatiably inquisitive by nature. Go figure!
Plus, I need to know what the engine actually is and what modifications were made to it so I can order the correct parts for it in the future. For example, to avoid things happening like buying a new starter motor only to find out it does not fit the flywheel housing adapter that goes between a Perkins 6-354 six cylinder diesel and the International T-17 four speed gearbox. However, that is a different story - also a total PITA too. Also, that two years ago I should have bought T-34 five-speed gearbox with 5th gear as an overdrive instead of the T-17. Mumble .... mumble... something about Engine RPM by gear ratio by differential ratio and tyre circumference = road speed. Mumble ... mumble.
Kind regards
Lionel
Hello All,
Just a couple of photographs of the engine I picked up last weekend. The first photograph looks a bit weird because it should have been positioned as a portrait shot and somehow it was loaded on the page as a landscape shot.
Kind regards
Lionel
Its got extractors on it.
Hello All,
To fill the gaps in my knowledge of the Rover V8 I searched online and found a couple of different articles that I found very interesting. The first article Range Rover Australia traces the arrival of Range Rovers in Australia and then follows through to more current times. Accessed 8th October 2022 from, Range Rover Australia - Range Rover Classic. The second article A Quick History of the Rover V8 – One Of Britain’s Most Important Performance Engines traces the engine from its American origins to the story of how it was 'discovered' at Mecury Marine in the USA by a visiting Englishman. Then a description of how the engine was subsequently imported to England and Rovers' negotiations with General Motors to buy the license to produce the motor. A brief side-track occurs in Australia where Jack Brabham developed the Repco Formula 1 V8 engine that won the 1966 World Championship, which was based off the cylinder block of the Oldsmobile variant of the “BOP215” (Buick Oldsmobile Pontiac 215 cubic inches) The article then returns to the motor's further development in the UK. A Quick History of the Rover V8 - One Of Britain's Most Important Performance Engines.
I hope you enjoy reading the articles
Kind regards
Lionel
Attachment 181275 My old Sahara Dust 84
