Murray's Jet Boat 4.4 ltr motor

Landrover EFI manifold onto Repco (p76) 4.4 V8

Photos at the bottom of page

Sent: Wed, October 20, 2010 8:15:02 AM
: Subject: Landrover EFI manifold onto Repco (p76) 4.4 V8

: Hi Adrian,
: You may have some input on this subject or know someone who has done this - I
: have a Landrover EFI inlet manifold I wanted to use on the Repco (p76) 4.4 V8.

: I know GM designed the first Aluminimum V8 but discontinued its production in
: 1964 (after selling 734000 of them) because of excessive wear problems but they
: thought a steel sleaved bore was too complex for a production engine. Jack
: Brabham imported one of the GM engines, put in steel sleves, and a stiffner
: plate and raced it. The next year, Brabham and Repco designed a new aluminium
: casting to overcome the weaknesses of the GM casting and Jack Brabham won the
: Formula 1 world drivers championship. It did have quad overhead cams, mechanical
: fuel injection - the bores were 89mm and the stroke was 60 mm making it 2996 cc
: to comply with Formula 1.

: I understand the 4.4 litre to be the 89mm stroke version with pushrods for the
: 4.5 litre Tasman formula - a lower cost open wheel racing formula - later
: replaced by Formula 5000. Leyland Australia sourced these engines from Repco.


: Repco & Brabham had sold the design to Rover. Landrover had modified the bore
: and stroke of the engines. The ports and bolt holes still line up but the
: Landrover manifold is narrower because the Landrover V8 has a shorter stroke.

: The Landrover inlet manifold needs two packer/adaptors about 25mm thick to mate
: with the Repco (p76) V8 but on both engines the tapped holes in the heads are at
: about 15 degrees to the normal.

: Has anyone you know:-
: - bolted the adaptor to the heads and bolted the inlet manifold to the adaptor
: using the original inlet manifold holes and parallel tapped holes in the adaptor
: plate?
: - bolted the adaptor to the heads and bolted the inlet manifold to the adaptor
: using new holes drilled at different locations in the inlet manifold and tapped
: holes in the adaptor plate?
: - bolted the adaptor and inlet manifold to the heads using long bolts through
: new holes or slots in inlet manifold?
: - some other method?

: -- Regards, Murray Peterson VK4JMP Kuttabul, Qld Tel: 07 4954 0486

Reply

On 21 October 2010 06:51, locost_bryan

: Slightly different version of the V8's history than normally told. Wasn't aware Brabham or Repco had any involvement in BL buying the design off GM, but I wouldn't be surprised if Repco did a lot of the engineering work on the 4.4 for Leyland.
: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8_engine

: I have seen adaptor plates being sold on Trademe (Kiwi Ebay), but have no idea how they resolved the alignment issue.

: It's interesting that when Rover stretched the motor to 4.2 and 4.6 for the Range Rover, they don't appear to have changed the block deck height.

: Cheers,
: Bryan
: Auckland

Reply

Landrover EFI manifold onto Repco (p76) 4.4 V8
: From: Mark Ellery melleryp76@gmail.com

: My undestanding of the Repco involvement is different thant that in this thread and history of motor varies as well .. The alignment isssue I have sseen addressed as straight bolt thru arrangements with gashets on all joint surfaaces, the idea of fasting the adapter plates is a good idea bur would express concerns re weakening surfaces and heating cycles of materials.

Update

----- Forwarded Message ----
: From: Murray Peterson
: To: Adrian ; Jilden Reichardt ; Rick
: Sent: Thu, October 21, 2010 10:23:27 PM
: Subject: Landrover EFI to 4.4 V8 _ Thanks

: Hi Adrian, Jilden, Rick and anyone else,
: Thanks for the feedback. The direction I have chosen is - bolt the adaptor to the heads (counter sunk allen head bolts) and bolt the inlet manifold to the adaptor using the original inlet manifold holes and parallel tapped holes in the adaptor plate. Others have done this commercially so I know it is possible.

: I note Jilden's warnings and he may be right, but in the meantime, aluminimum adaptor plates machined top and bottom, assembled carefully should get this engine running again. I'm sure there are better options but this is the minimum cost option for me and it still may work quite well. In a jet boat there are no shock loads like dropping the clutch. Engine load is proportional to the square of the engine rpm. The 3 litre Repco-Brabham V8's were good for 330 BHP so the basic 4.4 which is the same block with a longer stroke is unlikely to have difficulties. See page two of the attached file - particularly note the green curve (Load Torque of Jet Propulsion Unit) and the yellow curve (Maximum Engine Torque). The engine only is fully loaded at 4500 rpm and it can't rev above that because the load torque is increasing steeply when the engine torque is decreasing with rpm.

: Anyway, I give it a go. Thanks once again.

: Murray Peterson
: Kuttabul, Qld