Rover 200 engine swap

Perywinkle

Perywinkle

Perywinkle

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Joined
23 Nov 2002
Posts
2,184
Location
Faygate, West Sussex
Well a few months before crimbo there was a chap on this forum with a dead rover 200 1.4 s reg.

It had overheated and wouldn't restart, he assumed a hgf and wanted shot, so I trundles down and got it for 200 quid including cd system and speakers. It's in mint condition inside and out with a full service history, even got a boot of car care products and a steering lock!

rover1.jpg


I'd given it the once over and it appeared the head was warped and it had holed a piston, it turned over, was getting fuel and a healthy spark, but just wouldn't catch.

So I thought I would be brave and attempt an engine swap (only ever
done brake pads and rebuilt a carb up until now)

Picked up a bare engine for the princely sum of £46.01 on the bay of e
last week, looks in good nick as far as I can tell and turns over by hand nice and smooth.

rover3.jpg


Set about getting all the gubbins disconnected when I noticed the fan was flapping about a bit loose, so whipped that and the rad out too.

rad2.jpg


Think I found why it had over heated, I poured some water in and it ****** out of about half a dozen places lol.
The bottom mounts had rotted away completely (it's only a 7 year old car ffs)

Got it all drained of it's fluids and up on axle stands everything bar the drive shafts is disconnected now ready to winch the lump out tomorrow :)

engine.jpg


So tomorrows job is getting it out and everything transfered to the replacement engine ready to go back in again.

Pez
 
Nah just another 1.4 twin cam jobby to go back in.
The plan is to get it running and sold to buy an R1 engine kit for my MK Indy build :)

Pez
 
Looks good, especially for that money. I'd have snapped it up for that money myself as well! The engine swap's fairly simple really (although I did used to do car mechanics for a living so I would say that! :o :p )
A good engine swap on these (which is a bit easier than a turbo lump) is to put a 1.8i MGF lump in (possibly even a VVC lump) like they do in the Metro/Rover 100, it goes straight in as far as I know, you just need to make sure you have the ECU that goes with it. Your one would be alright as you can only really do it with a multi point injection setup, single point setups don't have the right wiring.
Anyway, good luck with it all. :D
 
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Cool :) They'll all come in handy when working on the K, heh.

I'm the resident Rover fanboy (or one of them), lol. I'm not going to start preaching on about how the K series is the best engine EVAR, I've owned two and have had no problems with them. A nice revvy little engine. Just a shame about the flaws it had.
 
i agree if they could stop the flaws would be one of the best engines ever its light,has power etc.

very clever but i dont see why they had to opt for the head bolts to act as the main bearing bolt to you seen how long them things are :eek: .
 
D.Roberts said:
they are nice cars i just dont see why rover couldent stick to the honda engine tho.
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There was nothing wrong with the K-Series as an engine, it's just Rover used a bit of tin really for a headgasket instead of a proper one. Even making the headgasket triple layered would've sorted the problem but they chose not to at that time. The design of the engine itself is fine. :)
 
D.Roberts said:
i agree if they could stop the flaws would be one of the best engines ever its light,has power etc.

very clever but i dont see why they had to opt for the head bolts to act as the main bearing bolt to you seen how long them things are :eek: .
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Yep, about a foot and a half long! :eek: :D
 
no there is all types of gaskets out and still do it eg multi layed steel,fibre gaskets etc they still suffer.

problem is they get very hot and when that happens the headgasket creates a ring where it sits and creates a deep groove so by the time its faced its going down to the softer ally hence why the head gasket can go straight after its been done.

we normally warn the customer of this.
 
tb2000 said:
There was nothing wrong with the K-Series as an engine, it's just Rover used a bit of tin really for a headgasket instead of a proper one. Even making the headgasket triple layered would've sorted the problem but they chose not to at that time. The design of the engine itself is fine. :)
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Not completely true.

Several things played a part in the headgaskets failing.

The main one is the position of the thermostat, which when it opened, would force cold coolant into the hot head which being alloy would make it contract quickly.

Add to this the plastic dowels used to keep the head in place. This meant that with the head expanding and contracting all the time, it rubbed away the sealant on the gasket, causing a failure.
 
I thought the problem was the engine stacks move, liners slip and break the gasket?

agw_01 said:
Not completely true.

Several things played a part in the headgaskets failing.

The main one is the position of the thermostat, which when it opened, would force cold coolant into the hot head which being alloy would make it contract quickly.

Add to this the plastic dowels used to keep the head in place. This meant that with the head expanding and contracting all the time, it rubbed away the sealant on the gasket, causing a failure.
Click to expand...

Or the above :p
 
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