How hard to change a Rover HG

-Mike-

-Mike-

-Mike-

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OMG A ROVER WITH A HEAD GASKET FAILURE - Save it please!

I've been offered a 220 coupe cheap and am seriously thinking about it. Problem being that it weeps a small amount of oil from the head gasket which assumably means a head off and new gasket affair? How much am I looking at from a garage or do you think if I took enough time over it I could manage it?

Cheers for any HELPFUL advice :)
 
Its not a difficult job to do yourself, replace the gasket with a Klinger remembering to remove the oil restrictor. Head over to forums.mg-rover.org and have a nose around there.

Worth noting that they pretty much all leak oil from the hg (seeps from the front left corner iirc) and it isn't really a big problem. I'd be tempted to leave it as it is.
 
I was pondering this when thinking about getting a rover. 'Professionally' done would cost near the £300 -£400 mark and you hope they do a good job with that. If the head needs skimming then a little bit more. Its possible to do it yourself, you need to get the uprated head gasket and fit it properly, if the grease monkeys can get it wrong the head will blow again.
 
Dont worry about the oil leak. Chances are, even with a klinger it wont stop the leak :) How much does it leak? If its just a weep dont worry :)
 
Just one point, the 220 uses a T series rover lump, NOT the K series, meaning that it's nothing like as prone to HGF.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for the helpful replies, my mate did around 2000 miles in the space of a few weeks and it lost half a litre he reckoned? He said its minor but surely it would get bigger? The car itself is £400 and body wise is mint, had a respray to a large part of it when someone drove into him!

I've done a RST engine rebuild with a friend before but dont have the torque wrench (i think?) to torque head bolts up properly! You can definately leave the gasket as it is if not too bad then?

Any common rover 220 problems?
 
Rust, just ask Andrew ;)

Mine has needed the clutch cable doing, had new leads done as one was corroded and didnt fancy risking getting stranded 300 miles from home like when the clutch cable went. And the starter doesnt always seem to catch, perhaps 1 in 25 starts it doesnt catch first time and screeches, unsure about this, i think a starter motor change might cure it, doesnt seem to be a big problem currently. Ill get one from rover unless they are too expensive, in which case a scrappers and change it when i have chance in summer.

When i posted on rovertech before i went to view the one i have the pointers given were:

Check for;

mayo in the oil, yoghurt in the water,

Noisy gearbox,

Clunking suspension,

Noisy power steering,

Corrosion on non easily replacable body panels (ie rear 1/4 panels)

Not sure if there is anything else to check on the turbo versions, Simon would be the best person for the task i think!
 
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Wouldnt stress about the oil leak as long as the engine temps and cooling are fine. Mine leaked like a bizatch and untill it started coming out of the diff i didnt really think about it (did about 6k miles like that).

Just beware any overheating, any smoke from the turbo seals, and really listen for whine in the gearbox :(.
 
T series is a strong engine mate. Not as pussy footed as the K series :p The oil leak will be ok for a while yet mate. Mine weeps oil and it hardly uses any and i drive it very hard :) When it spirts out you wanna worry :p Just leave it mate :) It really aint worth doing for the sake of half a litre of oil in 2000+ miles
 
Its not a turbo guys, just the 220 NASP but I think its a big step up from my stupid french POS - 306. The body should be ok on it, I'm not sure how long the MOT is I will find out when he gets back from topgear ;)

Whats economy like? My daily commute to work is around a 25 mile round trip. Do these cars mind being driven hard? I know he's given it a bit of a tough time but only ever when its warmed up and he always drives it slow the last few miles?
 
I gave my 220 GSI NASP absolute hell, all the time. For a year and nothing ever went wrong with it. Mine hit peak power so i rarely hit the limiter but i was pretty much always revving it hard :) Fuel consumption when driving hard is bad. But when driving normal it is reasonable! Can get about 300ish miles outta the tank if your carefull :)
 
I see probably 20mpg something like that when i give it some, havent paid that much attention to it, i bought the car knowing it would use quite a bit of fuel and wouldnt be cheap to run. :o
 
Driven nicely I'm assuming its just going to cost twice what my dturbo does? Whilst making reasonable progress?
 
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