Leyland P76 Owners 2003

Technical assistance

P76 engines in Range Rover

By Jilden Reichardt


Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003
Hi Tim,
I have some experience of P76 4.4 litre engines in RR's.
Points to make:
Standard P76 engines are prone to overheating in standard P76's
Standard P76 engines definitely overheat in RR's
Big bore/stroke P76 engines get hot enough to loosen cast iron liners and valve seats in heads when fitted to RR's. Supaspares in Queensland got into big trouble with this kind of conversion.
The 3.5 litre water pump assembly is 20% smaller than the P76 pump.
On one of my customer's RR, to make a P76 engine run adequately cool, I had to rebuild the water pump with a Holden 6 drive pulley, which was 30% smaller than the RR one, to speed it up. A fixed fan and removal of anything which might block airflow in front of the radiator at least allowed it to keep under boiling most of the time. I told him, when he grew up a little, to buy a diesel Landrover. He did, and he is well pleased he took my advice.
Don't even think of running aircond or off road in summer. The RR simply hasn't got enough air intake size to keep the P76 engine cool. Try it at your peril.
Jilden Reichardt
(08) 8370 8011

Last updated
Dec, 2005
This web site may contain Copyright material
If you find any problems with the site, please email the Web Editor