Rover R380 gearbox

[Kitchski]

Bear with me, I know it's not the Rover forum!

I could give the short story but seeing as there are more clued up individuals in this forum per post than most of the others on PH, I reckon I'm same to explain the whole thing:

Basically following on from my original water tesing post a couple of months back, about building a 7-type car powered by a Peugeot 1900cc Mi16 engine (for various reasons I'd LOVE to do this!) I've been on the hunt for gearboxes which will mate to this engine. The engine in question was never fitted to any cars as a RWD option so all setups are transverse.....no good.

However all the XU family of engines (this, the 205/309/BX GTi, 205/306/309 BX/ZX/Xantia diesels etc) uses the same mounting layout to a gearbox, so they're all interchangable. And with this in mind, there are two vehicles which use a Peugeot diesel engine, but are RWD. One is the FSO Polenez(sp?)/Caro model, of which I missed a gearbox recently (apparently an FSO bellhousing mated to a Fiat gearbox) and the LDV Pilot/200 1.9D. This uses the Peugeot 1.9D XUD engine and is also RWD.

Still with me?

Through some painstaking research, I've found this vehicle doesn't use a Ford gearbox mated to an LDV bellhousing (as I'd hoped for ease of type 9 conversion) but in fact an R380 gearbox. The question you've finially arrived at is....is this a viable gearbox to use in such a car? ie is it a massive, heavy, complicated piece of kit, or is it Rover's version of the type 9 so to speak?

Right, thanks!

[Toyless]

R380 was also used in TDI Landrover Defenders.

It wont be light thats for sure.

[Kitchski]

Ah, that's probably a given then! I wonder if it uses the same mountings as a smaller gearbox in the Rover range? Like I think type 9 and MT75 are the same bolt pattern? (though I'll probably find out that's wrong now!)

[Toyless]

Not sure tbh, the predecessor in LR's was the LT77 if thats any help. And V8 Defenders used the LT85.

[anonymous-user]

It's heavy for sure. It was used in 2wd form in TVRs while the LT77 (same basic design) was used in 2wd form in Rover SD1. I've got an LT77 + bellhousing in the garage and I think it weighs in at about 50kg.
You can get both out of a 4wd setup but the input shaft will be different length and the rear casing will be all wrong for 2wd use.

The R380 and LT77 are used in just about every Rover V8 Westfield and Dax Rush, either them or a T5 (like mine ).

Mike

[Alan Kee]

Not sure the R380 was ever in any production TVR but I've seen a few Marcoseseses with it in.

[Stevie_P]

Alan Kee said:

Not sure the R380 was ever in any production TVR but I've seen a few Marcoseseses with it in.

It was used in the very early TVR Chimaera's before they went to the T5

[Kitchski]

Stevie_P said:

It was used in the very early TVR Chimaera's before they went to the T5

That was the LT77 in the TVR's. If it's a similar size/setup to that than I might have problems. And anything smaller from an older Rover will probably be a 4-speed as they joined the modern FWD lot in the early 80's leaving the RWD for really old shonky stuff.

Maybe I should just say sod it and go K-series (as I know them well) with a type 9, but I like the idea of the exhaust running down the offside of the car

[eamomoney]

Does anyone know if the bolt pattern on the bell housing of the LDV pilot R380 is the same as the bolt pattern for the bellhousing of the LT77 for a Rover V8??

[Kitchski]

The bell housings are interchangable, but the bolt patterns to bolt to the engine obviously depend on what engine it's for.

As it turned out, I sourced an R380 LDV box, and an LT77 box, and then bought another TVR and forgot about the kit car idea. I need to sell them on again really, so if someone wants them, give me a shout before I send them to the bay.