Thread: Project Iceberg

It was put on Iceberg

The longer version is, beancounters got in the way. The bolt on stuff, steel crank and other stuff was a bit too pricey for the estimated volume of sales. Remember that it was the 80's and 20L/100k was easy to handle.

Originally Posted by jbarracl

Was looking through some Rangie stuff on the internet and saw a couple of references to "Project Iceberg". Apparently in the early 80s they were looking at making a diesel version of the 3.5l v8 but canned the idea and used the VM motor instead.

Does anyone have any info on this and why they didnt go ahead with it.

I believe blowing head gaskets was a large part of the reason not to go ahead with it, not enough head bolts holding the heads down. Sounds an awful lot like the 350 v8 oldsmobile and v8 Chev Diesels.

See the Wikipedia Rangerover entry :-

"From 1979 onwards, Land Rover collaborated with Perkins on Project Iceberg, an effort to develop a diesel version of the Range Rover's 3.5-litre V8 engine.[11] Both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged versions were built, but the all-alloy engine blocks failed under the much greater pressures involved in diesel operation. The project was, therefore, abandoned. The effort to strengthen the Rover V8 for diesel operation was not, however, completely wasted; the 4.2-litre petrol variant of the engine used crankshaft castings developed in the Iceberg project"

Although that is probably what you found. It is about the extent of my knowledge of it, although I think there was an article about it in LRO several years ago.

John

As I understand it, JE Engineering bought all the excess crankshafts and then made a JE 4.2, by offsetting the throws as the journals were bigger than a normal 3.5/3.9.
Land Rover then paid JE to use the design for the 4.2 introduced with the long Wheelbase. I am not sure but Land Rover may have even bought back the cranks. Irony.
Regards Philip A

Would have been an interesting motor, ahead of the competition, like most rangie stuff was.