Which gearbox for rover V8 into SIII 88?

Yeah £1200 is nuts - can get a fully rebuilt r380 with bell-housing from ashcroft for less than that.

I'm sitting on the fence re the engine/gearbox choice. From what I've read, a rebuilt series box and transfer will probably be ok with a stock 3.5 as long as I don't drive it like a mongrel, which I don't (but we all enjoy putting the foot down occasionally). The guy (Scott) from 'Conversion and Precision Engineering' says the series 3 box is strong enough - the blue landy on their home page has a 3.5 mated to a series gearbox/transfer with rangie diffs (but they also sells the adapter kit so?) But any more power will likely break it.

So I've come down to these 3 options.

Option 1 - Fresh 3.5 rover v8, adapter plate/bell-housing for rebuilt series 3 box and transfer, 3.5 rangie diffs.
Pros:
- V8 sound
- all land rover
- don't have to modify the drive tunnel
- 2wd/4wd selectable
- not overly expensive to do
Cons:
- average performance (160HP)
- weak-ish gearbox/transfer case
- slow gear changing
- will leak oil

Option 2 - Fresh worked 3.5/3.9/4.6 rover v8, rebuilt R380 5spd box with short bell-housing (plus converter plate - adds 60mm btw), lt230 transfer, rangie diffs.
Pros:
- V8 sound
- would be the nicest to drive (5 speed with nice shifting)
- all land rover
- good performance
- reasonably strong (not 100% convinced though)
Cons:
- engine gets pushed forward (less room is always a b*tch)
- have to modify drive tunnel
- rear drive shaft is short (this might not matter for me as I rarely go off road)
- full time 4wd (although I thought i read you can adapt the transfer case with a selector?)
- the most expensive option by a fair amount
- will probably leak oil

(Would love to see pics of the drive train if anyone has done this in a 88. Also, if you know of a better/cheaper adapter plate/bell-housing (that still available - new or excellent condition) please speak up)

Option 3 - Chev small block crate engine, adapter bellhousing to rebuilt cruiser (fj40) 4 speed box & transfer, 3.5 cruiser diffs
Pros:
- V8 sound
- great performance (300hp easy)
- strong drive train
- 2wd/4wd selectable
- good cost to performance ratio
- I know first hand how it will perform
- probably won't leak oil

Cons:
- not all land rover
- have to modify drive tunnel
- engine is heavier
- you guys wouldn't talk to me again

Feel free to add your 2 cents..

why would you need a convertor plate if using a stumpy R380 V8 spec ?

engine doesn't need to move if using a stumpy

shaft wont be as big a problem if using a stumpy, I've got a 380 long in my series and it will be a bit shorter

Dr_evil said:

why would you need a convertor plate if using a stumpy R380 V8 spec ? engine doesn't need to move if using a stumpy shaft wont be as big a problem if using a stumpy, I've got a 380 long in my series and it will be a bit shorter

Click to expand...

"you will need a V8 adapter ring to fit the V8 to the short 380, the 380 inc bellhousing is 500mm, adapter rings are approx 60mm, you will have to mod the props and mounts accordingly" Kind regards, David Ashcroft

hmmm he didn't say that to me when I asked, said it should fit on given that it was a V8 housing to block
lt230 will be longer than a series transfer but shouldn't be drastic

someone else asked this question and I posted up a completed conversion thread for a 200tdi onto lt77 that had very short props but with wide angles were fine

The stumpy bell-housing is "made to fit the 4 cyl 200 TDi engine" (from Dave Ashcroft)

Hmmm well this is standard VS short




There is a short V8 though

Quite a bit shorter huh.. I take it the bottom pic is a v8 bell-housing? In any case I'm leaning away from the idea of putting a v8 onto a series box. A good mate of mine piped up saying he had a holden 253 v8 in his series 3 88 for a while until he blew the box - he was giving it some stick (on road) at the time but nothing stupid (he was about 20 at the time though so..) For interests sake he ended up putting in a nissan 5 speed truck box.

Yeah bottom one is a V8 housing, top one is V8 long and middle is 380 short

Series box way is easy enough I suppose, will need spigot mod though

Dr_evil said:

I have a brand new R380 in mine but it wont be getting ragged like them

Click to expand...

course it wont get ragged will it.cos it will never run thats why.

Callumb said:

"you will need a V8 adapter ring to fit the V8 to the short 380, the 380 inc bellhousing is 500mm, adapter rings are approx 60mm, you will have to mod the props and mounts accordingly" Kind regards, David Ashcroft

Click to expand...

And that, gentlemen, is the definitive word on that!

You tell them Dave - I pointed them in the direction of your website but they still argue the pro's and cons of this and that.

Friend of a friend has a lovely series 111 safari with your R380 conversion and a 3.5 low comp range rover engine - it is really lovely to drive.

regards

Victor

griffman said:

And that, gentlemen, is the definitive word on that!

You tell them Dave - I pointed them in the direction of your website but they still argue the pro's and cons of this and that.

Friend of a friend has a lovely series 111 safari with your R380 conversion and a 3.5 low comp range rover engine - it is really lovely to drive.

regards

Victor

Click to expand...

Thats not Dave Thats Callum

Ok doc - but he be quoting the great gearbox sage of luton

griffman said:

You tell them Dave - I pointed them in the direction of your website but they still argue the pro's and cons of this and that.

Click to expand...

Noone's arguing unless I missed something. If I had money to burn I'd probably go for the ashcroft r380/ rpi rover v8.

I f it's of any intersest to you,I have a series 11A lwb with a Rover 3.5 V8,coupled to a 2.6 series 11a geabox with an over drive and 4.3 diffs and have never as yet had any problems with it.

I drive it with a light right foot ,get approx 19/20mpg and yes the gearbox is I would say at its limit behind a v8.

Before the v8, it was fitted with a 3 litre straight six with the same gearbox fitted behind it. For simplicities sake I've kept it all Land Rover.

At the end of the day it all comes down to what you want out of a vehicle
purpose wise.

Good luck with your quest.

Cheers for the info. I'm not going to put a series box\transfer into it - its pretty obvious that it was never intended to handle the extra power of a v8, especially one with 200hp or more. And screw having a spare box kicking around just in case..

If you leave the series box in you WILL need a spare box!
This is what happens when you put your foot to the floor in 2nd gear with V8 power

Another option.

Milner Comp Safari 5 speed ZF gearbox Rover V8 | eBay