The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi,

I have never worked on a Rover V8 before so apologies for my ignorance. I have a 1985 Landi 3.5 V8 which is a bit knackered (blue smoke and odd noises, no power), however a friend of mine is offering me a replacement engine from a 1995 Range Rover. It’s a 4.0 EFi which, if possible, I would like to convert to carb using the air intake manifold, SU carbs and the distributor of my old 3.5 engine. Is this possible? And if so is there anything else I need to consider?

Thanks for any advice.

You would be much better off keeping the EFI setup and then, over time modifiying it to make it more robust.

But if you must, all that you say is possible, given the modularity of the RV8. Someone will pop along shortly to tell you which bits need swapping.

Thanks for your advice, I am still very keen to use the carb setup as I'm building an expedition vehicle and it is vital that I can do all the repairs myself and gets parts in some very obscure countries. I have very little understanding of ECU’s and injection systems.

Use your own front timing cover with a 50psi MGB oil relief spring fitted instead of the std 30psi one, as you are feeding larger sized bearings on the crank. (Extra biot of pressure ensures flow increase to larger mains, especially the rears!) Fit an early-style camshaft (4.0 cam has no provision for oil pump/dizzy drive), I'd recommend a Viper Hurricane from Real Steel, along with new followers. That is a cam that works very well with a 3.9/4.0 on carbs - good low/midrange torque and a healthy top end power increase. Fit your own carbs and manifold with BAC needles (needs the airbox fitted also for this needle profile!)
You'll also need to make a spacer to put over the nose of the crank in front of the main front pulley as the 4.0 crank is slightly longer in the nose.

as above or get a 3.9 intermediate front cover. These take a dizzy but have the newer oil pump and will also match up with the 4.0 alternator and stuff if you get that with the engine.

Not sure how much investigating you have already done, but it maybe worth checking that you actually have SU's on your landy rather than Strombergs. I thought they changed in 1986.

You can tell from the size of the 'pot' on top. The Strombergs have a lower profile whereas the SU's are taller. If you post a pic, we can assist.

Also you need to countersink the crossbolt adjacent to the oil-pump (in the same way as the one adjacent to the starter is countersunk), otherwise the oil pump won't fit.

Chris.