LT77 to 4.6 gems

[mcc1979ian]

Evening guys, im a newbie here and have been searching through the forums for some info which has been very useful

But tonite i have a question of my own,

I have just purchased a fully refurbed LT77 V8 box for a very very good price for my landrover 90 and i want to mate this to a decent v8 lump,

I have the chance of a 120'000 ml (will be stripped and rebuilt of course) 4.6 gems engine which has proven full service history and thousands in receipts for again very good money,

but the question is will the LT77 handle the power of the 4.6?

[sidecar]

Evening guys, im a newbie here and have been searching through the forums for some info which has been very useful

But tonite i have a question of my own,

I have just purchased a fully refurbed LT77 V8 box for a very very good price for my landrover 90 and i want to mate this to a decent v8 lump,

I have the chance of a 120'000 ml (will be stripped and rebuilt of course) 4.6 gems engine which has proven full service history and thousands in receipts for again very good money,

but the question is will the LT77 handle the power of the 4.6?

My LT77 did not last very long when mated to my stage III 4.6. One thing I would say is that the state of my LT77 was unknown, it had been OK behind my 3.5 engine but it could have been on the verge of going wrong anyway.

[mcc1979ian]

ok, im hoping that as its had a full refurb it will be ok

today i bought the 4.6 so gona have to hope it lasts,

the engines not gona be upped in power too much, will be fitted with megasquirt so hopefully its gona be ok.

[ChrisJC]

I suspect it will be affected by driving style as much as anything......

The R380 (the successor to the LT77) was fitted to the 4.0 V8 Discoverys as standard, so it might be a better bet.

Chris.

[sidecar]

In the not too distant future I will have a R380 reconditioned by Ashcroft Transmissions going spare, it has a 4:1 first gear so it's not much use in my kit car. It is a 2WD box so probably not much use in a 4X4 either!

[mcc1979ian]

thanks but im sticking with the lt77 as iv had the bulkhead galvanised and dont want to have it modified to install a different box, have done alot of research the past couple of days and from what iv read the lt77 is not that far strength wise from the r380 so will see how it goes, its a fully refurbed box so should be ok for a good while.

[ChrisJC]

I'm sure the LT77 will be fine.

For the record though, the R380 uses the same bellhousing, so if you did change in the future, at least the bulkhead wouldn't need modifying.

Chris.

[katanaman]

Just for your interest the LT77 and R380 are very similar externally so I would doubt any further alterations to the bulkhead would be needed.

[mcc1979ian]

excellent thanks for that, i had thought that the whole bulkhead/seatbox/tunnel needed adapted

oh well if the LT77 does go bang it mite be replaced with an R380 after all

[sidecar]

Now that you have posted that up I'll offer you my opinion! From what I've read the R380 is a much better box than the LT77, basically it is stronger. It will fit your bellhousing with no problems at all, the only difference is that the rubber mounts at the rear are about 20 mm further back. Other internal differences are the H pattern for the gears, revesre being under 5th on the R380. You can also use the LT77 remote gear change (These come in different lengths). You have to lose the gate function for reverse but that's not an issue. (The pressing down of the gear lever before it will go into reverse).

The bolts that set up the gear lever bios function also need adjusting if you use an LT77 remote, this being the bit that sets the gear lever up so that it naturally sits between 3rd and 4th. This is dead easy to do.