The V8 Owners Forum -

Hello all, I am new to british v8's; but not to v8's (especially sbc). I have a 66 cobra replica with a 383 sbc(drives the ford guys nuts). Also a blown alky injected 56 chevy truck and a blown carb gas in a 70 truck. if you wanted to see them all but the 56 are on youtube under my name toolman243. I have had porsches and mgs over the years as well and currently have a mgbgt that i would like to do a v8 conversion on. I initially wanted to do a SBC (small block chevy) but am leaning very hard toward a range rover. wanted to do a 3.5 or 3.9....they seem to be almost non existant in western NC. there are plenty of 4.0 and 4.2 but I want to stay with a distributor instead of a coil pack or computer controlled ignition system. I am very old school. any help would be appreciated concerning range rover v8's.

Hi,

The Last Rover/Range Rover V8 distributor engine were in the Range Rover Classics 3.5/3.9/4.2 up to 1994. plus LR Discovery series 1 upto @ 1998.

I believe the P38/2nd generation Range Rovers went pack from their introduction, but I could be wrong.

They were also used in 3.5 form in the Rover SD1, but there wasn't many sold stateside.

No Buick variants over your way?

toolman243 wrote:Hello all, I am new to british v8's; but not to v8's (especially sbc). I have a 66 cobra replica with a 383 sbc(drives the ford guys nuts). Also a blown alky injected 56 chevy truck and a blown carb gas in a 70 truck. if you wanted to see them all but the 56 are on youtube under my name toolman243. I have had porsches and mgs over the years as well and currently have a mgbgt that i would like to do a v8 conversion on. I initially wanted to do a SBC (small block chevy) but am leaning very hard toward a range rover. wanted to do a 3.5 or 3.9....they seem to be almost non existant in western NC. there are plenty of 4.0 and 4.2 but I want to stay with a distributor instead of a coil pack or computer controlled ignition system. I am very old school. any help would be appreciated concerning range rover v8's.

I have a 4.6 Range rover engine in my MGB GT. I just fitted the early front timing cover to take the dissy. And you will need the mocal oil pump adaptor plate so you can fit a remote oil filter.
My car is actually a factory built MGB V8 but I wanted a bigger engine. I fitted the 4.6 block and heads and bolted all my other stuff straight on. You will need to grind a little metal off the front X bolt behind the oil pump housing as it fouls a tad. If its a conversion you may need to buy a simple engine mount conversion from Clive wheatley or another MGB specialist.

I actually ditched the original MGB gearbox and fitted a TH350 with an adaptor kit from Mark Lagrou at D&D fabrications here:
http://aluminumv8.com/

Regards
Perry

The Range Rover classic was the one with the distributor. The timing cover changed on the P38 Range Rover to accomodate the lack of distributor.

The main difference between the 'car' and '4x4' versions of the Rover V8 is the timing cover and ancillaries. The blocks didn't differ for the application.

Your best bet is to get a later block, and fit either a 'car' or '4x4' timing cover of the right era to give you a distributor.

Note that the difference between 'car' and '4x4' is the height of the water pump / fan assembly. It's quite a bit higher up on the '4x4' version.

Chris.

Hi
For my 2 pence/cents worth If you have access to a supply of 4.2 engines I would start with one of those. As you are in the US I would add sone chevy rods with the smaller 2" big ends and some chevy 305 pistons (3.736" bore) it produces an engine of a little over 4.3 litres, and judging from Kevin's (castlemgv8 on here) experience produces a really good engine without the issues asociated with the large bearing engines of slipped liners. Just use the front cover from a distributor engine (if you must use a distributor).
Best regards
Mike