THE ROVER SD1 FORUM

rod baker · SD1 User Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Posts: 37

hi all i hae just bought aa sdi and i have been offered a 4.4 leyland motor and i was curious what is needed to fit it into my sdi and am i able to retain my injection
thanks rod

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1982 sd1 se 3500 runs reasonable lots of electrical gremlins was real cheap and lots of fun

Mad_Dan_Eccles

rod baker wrote:

hi all i hae just bought aa sdi and i have been offered a 4.4 leyland motor and i was curious what is needed to fit it into my sdi and am i able to retain my injection
thanks rod

It's a while since I even saw a P76 but you can use the 4.4 in an SD1 and even a P6 - there was reportedly a handful of P6B s fitted with the 4.4 and sold by Leyland Australia as Rover 4500s and there have been some conversions using these over the years

It's basically the same engine made larger and should bolt right in. Just keep the SD1 accessories including the bellhousing.

The injection system will need to be reworked to suit the P76 motor - it will likely tend to run lean on the 3500 engine and the bigger engine will tend to make things worse.

v8driver · Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

According to David Hardcastle's Tuning Rover V8 engines book,you would be best off keeping the SD1 heads (P76 heads have no performance potential) but most importantly, you would need spacer plates for fitting the SD1 manifold as being a taller block the heads are spaced further apart than a 'normal' Rover V8.

The block itself is a straight swap though.

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rod baker · SD1 User Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Posts: 37

yeah have read and read and read some more lots of work for limited gains was thinking of going a supercharger in stead but realy to need th do something with the 5 speed first
rod

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1982 sd1 se 3500 runs reasonable lots of electrical gremlins was real cheap and lots of fun

traco · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:35 am Post subject:

A lot of 4.4 litre P76 V8s found their way into Range Rovers, SD1s and TR7s here. The long stroke provides good torque while power was rated at about 190bhp with puny 2 barrell carb.

The block is a bit taller than the RV8 but can still fit under an SD1 bonnet. Can't be revved to high and not as smooth as the Rover engine. They can be taken out to 5 litres with Holden or Volvo pistons. The bottom ends are generally ok but have been known to crack around the mains.

Heads are same as P6 Rover, so a change to SD1 or beeter still Buick heads is worhtwhile, though you'll need to sort oiling to the rocker gear because the P76 used the same set up as Chevys with oiling via the pushrods.

The advent of the 4.6 RV8 engines really made this conversion redundant.
There is a very good P76 owners website which provides lots of info on these engines.

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TRACO
300BHP PER TON