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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Engine Identification Nos & Thick Web Block

Can anyone confirm for me whether Rover engine number 19d00596b would be one of the post '83 engines with thicker/additional webs? Supposedly it comes from an '85 Rangerover.

Regards,

Dom
Dom

Dom,

http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/v8enginenos.html

This site does not say anything on the production year, but hope it will help to some extent.

Erik
Erik


I don't know if this is of any use, but if the valley gasket is off you can see the thicker webs running across it on an angle. On the older style blocks the webs step down and become thinner toward the middle, on the later they continue the same thickness across.
If it is a '85 the this should be the case, however keep in mind that I did not see one of these so called strong blocks (I looked at about half a dozen) that did not have cracks around where the bolts for the crankshaft bearing caps bolt into the block. One guy told me that the much earlier blocks are less inclined to crack than the early '80's strong block, how true this is I do not know. Before you buy, take the sump off and inspect. On my dud '85 you could see a few fine hairline cracks about 1cm long in the center. It turned out that there were cracks all through the block, I expect it had been allowed to overheat badly at some stage. If you do get a good one then I've been told the trick is to use threadlocker on these bolts. The expensive option is to fit studs.
The best option is of course, the very late 3.9 blocks.
Peter

Rimmer Bros V8 catalog list it as Range Rover,carb,pulsair (air rail cly.heads) ,manual trans, 9.35cr 1983-85
BOB FISHER

Thanks all.

Decided against it anyway after owner confessed to overheating problems on a trip back from Fraser Island.
Too many missing parts anyway (distrib, starter, alternator). I see it has just sold for $122.50.

Peter,
I dropped into Tech Books yesterday and saw a book titled something like "Restoring you Range Rover". It had a photo of the cracks you talk about and in the description said it was a reasonably common problem found in the 3500 & 3900 blocks especially bearings #2 & #4 that was not effectively fixed by Rover until they introduced the cross bolted engine. Solution if cracked was to "replace the block" and use ARP studs/bolts.

As far as recall the only cross bolted engine was the 4600?

Dom
Dom

Cross bolt blocks have been available here in the UK for 3.5 litre and upwards, but are most commonly 3.9/4.0 and 4.6

Regards,

Dave
Dave Brooke

Sounds like a bad one. He's effectivly written it off from the sound of it.

The 3.9's had the provision for cross bolting.

This meant that the main bearing end caps were square (on the outside of course!) and as far as I can remember, sit deeper down, tightly in a square hole. Or rather the aluminium comes up higher. Then for the 4.6's they drilled and tapped in from the sides. Actually I don't see why you could not do this for a 3.9 if you really wanted, it shouldn't be too difficult. There are small raised circles where the bolts are meant to go. I thought about doing this then I figured that once the engine has heated up those caps must be pretty firmly wedged in place so probably not really necessary especially since Rover didn't find it necessary. Perhaps I'm just rationalizing.
I do know that the larger engines are stroked larger and are not so smooth/balanced (achording to Roger). They also run a bit hotter, so that also could be a factor.
Anyway the older style caps do not sit so deep, or rather the bit they bolt onto doesn't rise so high or square.
This is as far as I can remember, I might be hazy on detail, it's been a while since I saw the both of them 3.9/3.5 stripped.

Just for future ref' the rangerover starter doesn't fit in MG's. When I bought my 3.9 it had a really nice fairly new gear reduction starter on it and would not fit no matter how I tried. The solinoid alighns to the side and the rail got in the way. You will need to get an SD1 starter where the solinoid alighns downwards. I traded the 3.9 starter for a SD1 starter and some other stuff from a wrecker so I suspect that the SD1 starters aren't worth too much compared to the later gear reduction ones.
Peter

I don't know about the "best", but the strongest blocks are the late 4.0 & 4.6 blocks with cross bolted mains & larger crank journals. The 4.0 blocks with very low miles are very available as many were replaced under warrenty due to high oil consumption. It seems Rover's experiment with low tension rings was not a success, & blowby created major problems. To Rover's credit, they did not repair the engine, but replaced the short block with new.

I just had D & D rebuild such a block & I will swap it into my roadster sometime this winter, replacing the 3.5.
Jim Stuart

This thread was discussed between 06/12/2004 and 12/12/2004

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