Leyland P76 Owners 2004

Technical - Engine

American Contact

Email discussion from Australia and USA enthusist

Page 2 - Rover P8 motor

Email from Greg - 25th January, 2001

Gregory Williams

Hi Adrian.
Say, is Darren the gent with the P8 block as shown at this website: http://www.rover-v8.co.uk/block.htm. Looks like an interesting piece of hardware. Can Darren tell us a little about the history.
Reply from Darren.
Greg,
Thanks for you interest.
Everyone who has anything to do with the P76 project from engineering, spares and wrecking yards( specialising in the those engines) have never seen the block, piston or rods.
It is not formula 5000 engine because it is still in standard form. There has been no race preparation to block itself.
If it was one of the first P76 batch of motors as talked about on the web site http://www.rover-v8.co.uk/block.htm, then it would have had taken a P76 starter instead of a Rover starter motor. It would have also taken P76 main caps on the block, if you could see the block, the first impression is a 3.5 ltr rover, measurenmnets to deck height is the same as the P76. The rear seal is same as the late model seal.
The oil way to cylinder heads has been blocked off by brass plugs. All cylinders bolt holes have been used. Cylinder heads is similar to early Buick motor with the rocker type similiar to P76 motor.
Rear of block is identical to rover 3.5 with relavant breather holes in the block.
The closest we can come up with, is the information out of David Hardcastle Rover book describing the P8 engine.
Pistons are much heavier in the wall with the same part number as the P76 and the rods are indentical from center to centre but are much more heavily weighted up the sides.
All P76 part numbers have a AYD prefix, but the rods are numbered with G11500[H]A. Have spoken to people who have worked on the Repco development engine team and they use Damiler rods.
We believe we have covered all avenues to finding out what engine this is in Australia. So it does look like we have narrowed it do to one possiblity, there was a small number of engines sent to Australia initally to Leyland in early 70s. Not even Noel Delaforce who has dyno tuned the engines at Leyland plant in Australia can recall the block. (Noel also worked on and dyno tuned the experimental 5 ltr P76 motor) Noel indicated with the inital batch of engines in various forms,they found with testing, the 3.5 ltr, (deemed to be underpowered for design purposes), the 4.2 ltr (Traco Oldsmobile flat plan crank) supplied by repco was test and found to be good at high rpm but not good for general motoring. The only way such a engine from a limited production (ten) engine would leave Leyland/Rover development would only be on an internal development program.
We are not going to do anything with the block, until we find additional information.

Greg asks:-
I've heard that P76 blocks suffered from quality issues and were cast from a different alloy than the Rover blocks.
If you know and answer to this question please email us. Different Alloy
Greg asks :-
Darren, I'd be curious if the P8 block is actually lighter than the P76/Terrier block.
Dareen replies :-
I will check that out for you and get back.
Greg asks :-
Speaking of Terrier's. Is there any difference between the P76 engine and the Terrier engine (other than compression ratio)?
Darren reply :-
The pistons are differnet. Terrier pistons are similar to flat GM Holden piston with flat surface and skirt does not go all the way around. The engine also had a larger sump. I have also been informed that the heads had to be overhauled every 100k klms by a trucking company.
Last updated
April, 2007
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