Useful Rover V8 Information

Torque settings

1-4 Main bearing cap bolts - 55 lbft

Rear main bearing cap (5) - 70 lbft

Conrod cap nuts - 35 lbft

Long and medium cylinder head bolts - 70lbft (all heads)

Short cylinder head bolts - omit or 30lbft (except 10 bolt heads)

Rocker pedestal bolts - 25 lbft

Timing cover bolts - 25 lbft

Crankshaft pulley bolt - 150 lbft

Camshaft timing gear bolt - 45 lbft

Valley gasket clamp bolts - 10 lbft

Flywheel/drive plate bolts - 60 lbft

Clutch cover bolts - 35 lbft

Inlet manifold bolts - 30 lbft (Disclaimer: At least 1 person has pulled the thread out at this setting - although LR claim it should be at 38ft-lb - so YMMV)

Exhaust manifold bolts - 15 lbft

All 1/4" bolts - 8 lbft

All remaining 5/16" bolts - 20 lbft

Firing Order

Firing order:

1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2

Counting clockwise round the distributor cap with 1 at the front, or 1 as the front right cylinder, odd on the right even on the left.

1-3-5-7 right and 2-4-6-8 left.

Crank Rotation Clockwise viewed from front.

Quoted Power outputs:

3.5L from 90-190BHP, torque 185-210lbft.

3.9L 180BHP, 225 ft/lb torque.

4.2L 200BHP, 240 ft/lb torque.

4.6L 225BHP, 265 ft/lb torque. Max revs 5500RPM.

Timing

Idealised timing with no vacuum advance: Static 7 degrees + 7 degrees/1000rpm to 4000rpm for 9.35:1 CR and 96RON fuel. Production distributors vary from +4 to -14 degrees static with various advance curves programmed by the bobweight springs. Maximum advance should not exceed 36 degrees. Vacuum advance typically introduces +6 degrees of advance but units vary considerably.

Compression Ratio

7.0:1 - Range Rover special export models
8.13:1 - Range Rover 1979 - 1982
8.25:1 - Range Rover 1974 - 1979
8.5:1 - Range Rover pre 1974
9.25:1 - Some 1980's Range Rovers
9.35:1 - Range Rover 1982 to present, SD1, most others.
9.75:1 - Vitesse, some TVR, Morgan.
10.25:1 - ? but still in production.
10.5:1 - P5, P6. Nominal combustion chamber volume
All engines except late 4.2, 4.6 Litre and some TVR - 36cc
4.6 Litre (10bolt) - 28cc

The easy way to determine chamber volume (assuming the head has not been milled) is to look for an outer row of head bolts. These are not present on most (but not all 28cc (10 bolt) heads. The other way is to measure from the tooling tab on each end of the head to the face.

Note that the 8cc difference in chamber size is entirely due to the reduced height of the head to account for the thickness of the composite gasket.

Cam PreloadAll standard cams - 20 to 60 thou (0.5 to 1.5mm) Mild performance cams - 30 to 60 thou (0.75 to 1.5mm)

Head Gasket

Head gasket compressed thickness
3.5 Tin gaskets - 20thou (0.5mm)
3.5 Composite gaskets - 40thou (1.0mm)
3.9/4.0/4.2/4.6 Tin gaskets - 18thou (0.45mm)
3.9/4.0/4.2/4.6 Composite gaskets - 48thou (1.2mm)
4.0/4.2/4.6 litre engines have the same bore as 3.9 litre engines.