Thread: Would the V8 out of a Range Rover Classic be a 'Classic' V8... l

In my experience: I reckon the 3.5 rover V8 was the best motor ever. One of the most bullet proof I've ever had.
Really really early ones could suffer from crank failures(one which I had), and many did suffer from overheating, but not because of the motor, simply due to neglected cooling systems.
Fix the cooling system and never had an overheating issue.

I've had many P6Bs, and SD1s with the 3.5, About 12 all up, and a single solitary RRC(79) .. all of which did many klms in short time frames.

LT95 was a load of rubbish in my experience. Always had some issue. Failed diff, failed diff again, then a weird jumping out of high range issue(where I binned it and replaced with LT77 and LT230).
So I can't say good things about the clunky noisy LT95.

Old Holden sixes .. maybe reliable, but utter garbage in terms of NVH .. THE most horrid engine, up until recently, I've ever had to endure. Ford six were a bit more palatable(in the modern alloy head versions), but my mate killed one with a conrod out the side of the block .. so not entirely 'bulletproof'
Holden v8s .. my experience hasn't been great(via friends/family) on the 308 side. Brother had a HZ and a HQ both 308, both failed .. headgasket on one and some fuelling issue on the other .. flogged off for something "less reliable"(another SD1 .. )
I've had friends with 253s tho .. and I don't ever remember any issues with them .. and the way they used to drive them .. down "Cherry Lane"(back in the day a backwater drag strip 15 mins from the city).

Another engine I had a bit of success with was (funnily enough) the old Lancia 2 lt 4cyl from the 70s'(which I believe was just a Fiat motor). Again many klms in a short time, and only failure was carby got replaced. no issue with electrics, or mechanicals.
Car had to go due only to massive and uneconomical rust issues. Nice to drive, efficient, smooth(when compared to holdens and fords of the era!!).

I had a mate who was into BMW(back in the 80's 90s). They were nice motors, but at every service, the dealer would sting him for some extra work. I used to believe that maybe not so bulletproof, as some would claim and that the stealer was doing their job as in the description!.. but my nephew recently got himself an E30 323 ... and it doesn't sound completely healthy for a 200K klms engine. Not enough experience of them to make a call, but not so impressed.

Originally Posted by AK83

In my experience: I reckon the 3.5 rover V8 was the best motor ever. One of the most bullet proof I've ever had.
Really really early ones could suffer from crank failures(one which I had), and many did suffer from overheating, but not because of the motor, simply due to neglected cooling systems.
Fix the cooling system and never had an overheating issue.

I've had many P6Bs, and SD1s with the 3.5, About 12 all up, and a single solitary RRC(79) .. all of which did many klms in short time frames.

LT95 was a load of rubbish in my experience. Always had some issue. Failed diff, failed diff again, then a weird jumping out of high range issue(where I binned it and replaced with LT77 and LT230).
So I can't say good things about the clunky noisy LT95.

Old Holden sixes .. maybe reliable, but utter garbage in terms of NVH .. THE most horrid engine, up until recently, I've ever had to endure. Ford six were a bit more palatable(in the modern alloy head versions), but my mate killed one with a conrod out the side of the block .. so not entirely 'bulletproof'
Holden v8s .. my experience hasn't been great(via friends/family) on the 308 side. Brother had a HZ and a HQ both 308, both failed .. headgasket on one and some fuelling issue on the other .. flogged off for something "less reliable"(another SD1 .. )
I've had friends with 253s tho .. and I don't ever remember any issues with them .. and the way they used to drive them .. down "Cherry Lane"(back in the day a backwater drag strip 15 mins from the city).

Another engine I had a bit of success with was (funnily enough) the old Lancia 2 lt 4cyl from the 70s'(which I believe was just a Fiat motor). Again many klms in a short time, and only failure was carby got replaced. no issue with electrics, or mechanicals.
Car had to go due only to massive and uneconomical rust issues. Nice to drive, efficient, smooth(when compared to holdens and fords of the era!!).

I had a mate who was into BMW(back in the 80's 90s). They were nice motors, but at every service, the dealer would sting him for some extra work. I used to believe that maybe not so bulletproof, as some would claim and that the stealer was doing their job as in the description!.. but my nephew recently got himself an E30 323 ... and it doesn't sound completely healthy for a 200K klms engine. Not enough experience of them to make a call, but not so impressed.

Hello Arthur,

Thank you for your detailed reply and for sharing your experiences. I appreciate it. Were there any issues fitting the LT77 or the LT230 to the classic's V8?

I was thinking overnight how at the time vehicles like Jaguars and Mercedes also came out with V8 engines. It is just that in my rural/regional New South Wales public high school European cars did not come into the discussion about V8s.

Kind regards
Lionel

The 3.5 goes all the way back to 1959 ( in Buick form ) so well and truly a classic motor, under powered compared to the other American V8's of the era but did ok in various Rover/MG/Morgan/TVR guises.
I had a hi comp 3.5 in my old 85 RRC and even mated to a TF727 it was a reasonable performer and sounded great with its 2.5" single exhaust system.

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello Arthur,

Thank you for your detailed reply and for sharing your experiences. I appreciate it. Were there any issues fitting the LT77 or the LT230 to the classic's V8?

I was thinking overnight how at the time vehicles like Jaguars and Mercedes also came out with V8 engines. It is just that in my rural/regional New South Wales public high school European cars did not come into the discussion about V8s.

Kind regards
Lionel

The LT77 with LT230 TC came standard in the RRC in the 80's - my 86 had this combo. The LT77 is a very weak gearbox in comparison to the LT95 - which is more of a truck box - crude but works ok. Given the LT95 was used in the Perenties - with some mods to the TC, they were quite a good box, but not very refined. I've had no issues with the unit in my 101 apart from when the PO put gear oil in it which shagged the oil pump - it's always been hard to select first in cold weather but no issues apart from that.

As for the 3.5 V* - it was a very good engine as previously noted. They sound great too and I think this is to do with the firing order as I've found they all sound heaps better than a Holden or Ford V8 - that said, the Rover V8 doesn't have all that pesky power getting in the way of the great sound though...

If you don't need to go very fast or care too much about fuel, a 3.5 with LT95 is a good combo IMO.

Hello All,

I also remembered yesterday, that after I left school one of my mates had a Purvis Eureka fitted with a V8 out of a Leyland P76. I never got the chance to have a ride in it. The car was not kept for very long.

Kind regards
Lionel

Hello All,

Pardon my ignorance towards Range Rover V8s - were the Range Rover Classic 3.5 V8 without ECUs, PCMs and similar computer electronics to run them?

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

Hello All,

Pardon my ignorance towards Range Rover V8s - were the Range Rover Classic 3.5 V8 without ECUs, PCMs and similar computer electronics to run them?

Kind regards
Lionel

Twin stromberg carbs up until late 85 then the old flapper lucas EFI.

I never had issues with the LT77, and I ended up doing about 200K klms with it.
My RRC ended up with about 660K klms on it, I got it at about 148K .. so it had done some work for me. The motor was original ... needed a ton of work, but still got me to Darwin and back without major issues. as the bearing were probably shot to pieces, it leaked out of the front main seal if revved too hard(very rare).
In the 300K klms with the LT95, I had two diff problems and the final straw of it jumping out of high range .. but as is common knowledge like homestar said, the LT77 had limited reliability.

Jags didn't have v8s until the mid or late 90s(I think) .. Daimler had a small v8 in the 60's, but not Jag. Merc had v8's for years.

Of the roughly dozen v8 rovers vehicles I had, only one my of my early P6 engines snapped a main bearing cap. Apparently this could be a common issues on hard worked early v8's(about pre 74 .. maybe).
I think later ones had either 4 bolt mains or cross bolted .. or something. Not too sure, maybe a RV8 expert could enlighten. But back in the day(about 30 something years ago now), only this one P6 let me down in this major manner.

All other RV8 issues were Lucas' infamous 100% unreliability record, I had them all I reckon .. all sorted and the v8s went on for many klms unperturbed(with correctly supplied electrical energy! ).

Two particular incidents stuck out to me as to the almost indestructible nature of the earlier RV8s .. both cooling system issues.
My RRC one day on a long drive decided it was time to red red hot. The early RRC had a gauge that showed a black band and then a red band at about the top 1/4 of its range. It just suddenly started to run in the red range. I'm about 3000klm from home and began chasing my tail trying to figure out what happened. I ended up pulling the thermostat. there were no leaks, and more importantly no loss of coolant(nor any excess pressure) .. just that the usually non functional(ie. just sat in the normal black range of the gauge) .. started sitting in the red range. In the end, and to get me home, I used an old carton to prop up the bonnet by a few inches to allow more air into the engine bay .. and needle back in the black .. and got home. But still zero luck working out why it suddenly ran in the red. Not being able to figure it out for two or so years, one day the actual reason got revealed .. it was the otherwise ok looking radiator disintegrating into dust if touched! replaced rad .. back in the black, so to speak. For many thousands of klms and 2 years, the rad wasn't really working as it was supposed too, but never caused any issues to engine like say a blown coolant system in any way.
Awesome!

So a little while later, now with a SD1 in the garage too, one day it decided to lighten it's already lightweight allow motor by not only dropping all its coolant, but also some of the metal in one of the core plugs. No way to hold any coolant, middle of the night and had to get home for work the next day. As this particular SD1 was a bit of a scrap heap / project to play with, I didn't care if it totally blew itself to smithereens .. it cost basically nothing up to this point anyhow.
So a half hour drive, had it's temp gauge far into the red. This model had a gauge temp numbers on it ... it ran 130°C for about 20 odd minutes through empty suburbs. It got to the point that it was running so hot, it lost prety much all power up one final hill before the easier flat part to home, only my moment got it up and over .. from there it was all very light footedness(it literally had maybe 1Hp to move it along). Fluked it home, got onto the driveway turned it off, but it now refused to die! It ran on for a good few minutes on it's own fumes, chugging and choking and spluttering and then finally chuffed and stopped. I thought .. DEAD!
After a few minutes, and having some spares(for the RRC, I think) .. I decided to replace the rusted out holed one. Engine was nice and hot, so should be easier to do it too. Yep.. easy peasy stuff, added coolant but still leaked out its sides .. pulled it out and put in another .. same deal .. but left it at that. I had the RRC to get around so no biggie. But! .. next day started the new half dead SD1 .. started with no problem at all. Ran for about a year .. ran fairly nicely too .. as if this running with no coolant issue may have only been a dream or something.
About a year later, brother wanted to get a car, and decided on a (then quite new) VQ Statesman v8. The deal was they'd give 2K trade in, and knowing what had happened to the SD1 .. it was a no brainer .. that was going to be the trade in
Then, having owned the Statesman for a while, by a miraculous coincidence I saw the old SD1 parked in Brighton, and slammed brakes on and pulled up to catch up with the driver. Nice young man, who really liked the way it drove. I asked any issues .. other than stupid electrical problems(thanks Lucas!) .. nothing. I told him .. you can thank me for that, I always look after my project cars!

If you talked to "old timers" years ago, they all hated rovers and triumphs and jags and stuff .. as too fragile and temperamental and prone to overheating .. etc. Maybe so, and I had overheating issues .. as said always due to some coolant issues. Always sorted when fixed up properly.