Wanted-Starter motor for a 4.4 litre leyland V8

from memory leyland made almost twice as many V8 engines as to the number of cars they sold ...so i guess terriors would of had them till the late 70s .... however the "terrior" V8 4.4 is supposed to be a heavy duty version ...but that might just be lower compression and cam timing ?

From memory the Terrier engine block had extra ribbing to cope with the weight of the gearbox hanging off it as well as a lower compression ratio. I used to fit P76 V8's into Range Rovers and found it was possible to "banana" the block in extreme offroading, due to the weight of the Rangie transmission hanging off the back. As a result I always tried to use Terrier blocks.

got to love the original 3.5 in the range rovers ... they are just capable of turning the flywheel . .

I will admit the Rover V8 is no powerhouse hence the swap to P76/Terrier V8. But in saying that my current one has around 500,000k's on the clock and only the heads and cam have been changed and it still holds 45lb oil pressure. Mind you, it leaks oil like a sieve. Typically British.

Sorta off topic but got to be told,

The old rangie originally belonged to my brother in law, city lad, all polished up, big exhaust, never on dirt :....Old fella needed a new vehicle for the farm, BIL sells Rangie to old boy, old boy runs Rangie into the ground :-[

I get the call, can I have a look over the rangie? Droughts in full force, no money to replace vehicle!

I took it to Melbourne to have a look at what could be salvaged, made a list over a couple of days and took it to a large repairer of rangies in Ringwood to price some parts.

I ran down the list for him, he says "jeez it needs some work", I sat "yep, the roughest around", I take him to the carpark to have a look....He says, "no point in pricing the bits mate, take the bloody thing to the tip!"

None of the windows went up or down (except the drivers-it was in the door off its runner) only the drivers door could be opened from the outside (cause the window was down inside the door) you could reach inside and open it, it leaked oil like it was going out of fashion, ran on 5 cylinders and had had more hits than elvis-not a straight panel on it!

the rear hatch door wouldnt lock, so sucked dust like a bastard, when I cleaned it out, I had to empty the vacuum cleaner twice!

First thing I fixed-drivers window, wound it up, closed the door and was promptly locked out-see no outside door handles :

climbed in though the rear hatch, got dirtier than rolling around under the car, decided cleaning the inside was in order-see vacuum.

Used the leaf blower first, you'd be surprised how good that worked

I fixed her up as best I could at a cost of only $500 for bits and she did another 4 years till we retired her last year. would still go if somebody hadnt knocked off the starter

3.5V8 5speed manual- a testiment to rovers reliability and toughness if there ever was one.....jeez the old boy is hard on gear :

ive a old landrover discovery 3.5 efi as a farm hack ..has around 340.000kms on the clock the motor is very tired but having said that its still going ..but at the moment shes stuck on a steep hill...will be using the backhoe and about 50 metres of chain to pull her back up ..

from memory leyland made almost twice as many V8 engines as to the number of cars they sold ...so i guess terriers would HAVE had them till the late 70s .... however the "terrier" V8 4.4 is supposed to be a heavy duty version ...but that might just be lower compression and cam timing ?

mine's a 77 ..
Block is ribbed as per ray's post. Cam timing I couldn't comment on, but pretty sure they kept the compression up, as the photocopied page from the manual I have specifies 94 octane .. will look again later

The P76 4.4 (blue rocker covers) had a compression ratio of 9:1 and the Terrier (red rocker covers) had a ratio of 8:1

Jeez I love you blokes (is a non eye contact , back slapping kinda way)
I go hunting for a starter, and find out all sorts of info-I see the need for not having a tech section, I have got the info for alternate suppliers, other fits and good advise, and been thoroughlyentertained in the process.

Thanks fellas, you are worth your weight in gold

Hi guys,
I have a P76 as a sports sedan racer. I know the 4.4 never made it to the UK as it's an Aussie only engine. So your friend in the UK might not be able to help. It may look a lot like a rover engine but there are some ever so subtle differencesbetween similar looking parts that means while they look the same, they don't fit the same. There is a company that's seen around car shows and swap meets that's been making a universal fitting gear reduction type starter than can be adapted to fit any engine you like. I still run a factory starter but seeing stocks are not available anymore and they're not used on any modern vehicles I'd bee looking at the after market job. And no, I don't have any spare except one that shattered the drive gear and burnt out the solenoid. Sorry.
Daryl.