What is a "Strong engine"

burns said:
Hasn't your engine had a rebuild though;)?
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I'm actually not that certain any more. The heads definitely were taken off when it was still in the US, the ports have been played with and the heads skimmed to raise the compression ever-so-slightly (which is nice as a: it gives me about 0.5 extra horspower and b: improves the fuel economy a touch). Have the receipts somewhere for the head work, but nothing to indicate that the engine has been stripped down. The car left America around '89 - I don't have anything that confirms how many miles it had on it when it came over here, but most of the miles it has were done once it had been imported here.

A friend over in Canada has me properly beaten mind - his '72 Vista Cruiser has done a shade over 450k, engine never had anything more than plugs, oil and coolant, transmission never had anything more than a semi-regular fluid change. It did have an exhaust appetite until he got fed up a few years back and stuck a stainless system on it :) His girlfriend's Civic on the other hand is never out of the repair shop....last I knew it was about to get a new engine after the previous one lunched itself while she was about 500 miles from home. Think he towed it home with the Cruiser :D
 
that's strange because the civic is one of the most reliable cars ever sold. She must just have been unlucky.

(WHen I was little my parents had a 89 Ex with 300k on it before we got rid of it, then a 92 ex with 240 thousand, and my father currently drives a 96 lx with 225 thousand going strong)
 
JRS said:
A friend over in Canada has me properly beaten mind - his '72 Vista Cruiser has done a shade over 450k, engine never had anything more than plugs, oil and coolant, transmission never had anything more than a semi-regular fluid change. It did have an exhaust appetite until he got fed up a few years back and stuck a stainless system on it :) His girlfriend's Civic on the other hand is never out of the repair shop....last I knew it was about to get a new engine after the previous one lunched itself while she was about 500 miles from home. Think he towed it home with the Cruiser :D
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On the Chevette forum we were struggling to find anyone who'd had a Chevette past 100k miles. Until the Americans turned up that is, it's a big continent they've got over there!
 
D4VE said:
Your dad has an 800 doesnt he?

As you say, a 220GSi is more likely to have a hard life.
Its a shame as the "sandwich" design is a good design really and the rest of the car is very good.
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Yep, a 97 820. To look at it, you'd never know it'd done that many miles. He's been commented several times on how clean the car is. Just goes to show, a well looked after Rover won't fall to bits more than any other car.

Just a shame most Rover owners don't care about maintainance or looking after them.

None of mine have cost me a particularly large amount in repairs... well ok, the first car did set me back £175 for a front brake change, but getting the waterpump and cambelt replaced for £40 evened that out.

2nd car, I did a few things to it... gearbox, full belt change along with the water pump and normal servicing items. If I hadn't blown the gearbox or had to had the belts/water pump changed, it wouldn't have cost me much at all.

So far with the GSi, the only money I've spent on it has been on the mods and a bit of servicing. It does need a few things doing for its MOT, but I doubt it'll cost me more than £200 to get it through. I don't mind paying that as it's to replace bits that go on any car.

Maybe if I have a huge repair bill if something *touch wood* goes drastically wrong I'll start slating Rovers, but ever since my 214 held up for an hour stuck in traffic with no cooling whatsoever and the HG didn't go, I've been well impressed with them.

A lot of car for naff all money IMO.
 
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agw guy.

You havent owned a car from anyone other than Rover, stop harping on about them as though they are a solid justifiable car decision based on years of experience with other marques. The only reason you have one is because they are cheap to buy.

This thread seems to be biasing mileage as a strength. With a road car the higher mile engines have good long runs anyway with most their life with oil and coolant at operating temp and very little full throttle work. This can skew how strong the engine is IMO. Things that last long whilst creating good specific output rate as strong to me with significant design feature to enable long periods of high load.

RPM = Ruins peoples motors. Hence why dervs tend to far better in longevity stakes. A better gauge of life would be engine revolutions before failure rather miles.
 
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Jonny, sorry if that's how my posts have come across but I didn't intend to for that to happen.

Yeah, I'll agree that I have no experience with owning other cars, but that doesn't stop me from basing my opinions on the experience that I have had with owning Rovers'.

Everyone goes on about how unreliable or crap they are, when I've not experienced such a thing.

The only reason you have one is because they are cheap to buy.
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Errr, sorry? Where did that come from? The reason I have one is because my dad has had Rovers' for years and suggested I have a look at them for a first car. The 214's were nice cars with reasonable spec and good performance, the 220 even more so. God forbid, I actually like driving it.

I could go out right now and get a finance deal on a brand new MG ZS or Impreza (not that the insurance would be feasible), but I don't want to. So what if I don't want to spend £4k on a car. What's it got to do with you anyhow?

We all had to start out somewhere and I'm sure everyone has opinions on their previous cars, so why not give me a break instead of jumping on my case at every opportunity.
 
A strong engine:

rover01.jpg


And it's in a Rover too ;) Rolls Royce 27-litre Meteor (naturally aspirated Merlin) in an SD-1.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
agw guy.

You havent owned a car from anyone other than Rover, stop harping on about them as though they are a solid justifiable car decision based on years of experience with other marques. The only reason you have one is because they are cheap to buy.
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Interesting. Think you may have missed something fairly crucial in his post of course:

agw_01 said:
Just goes to show, a well looked after Rover won't fall to bits more than any other car.

Just a shame most Rover owners don't care about maintainance or looking after them.
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You can say the same about most cars. If you baby them, keep them well maintained, then most cars will last for a reasonable amount of time. If you abuse them, then even the strongest engine will give out before long. I'm just guessing here, but I think agw knows that if he made almost no attempt at maintaining his car then it'd die :)


Jonnycoupe said:
This thread seems to be biasing mileage as a strength. With a road car the higher mile engines have good long runs anyway with most their life with oil and coolant at operating temp and very little full throttle work. This can skew how strong the engine is IMO. Things that last long whilst creating good specific output rate as strong to me with significant design feature to enable long periods of high load.
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Agreed. The Vista Cruiser I mentioned in my other post has had a mixture of both long highway cruises at practically idle rpms, along with the Traffic Light Grand Prix when the owner was a little younger. Add that to the times that it's driven halfway across Canada with a load of his belongings in it moving to a new house, and I'd have said it's put up with a hard life extremely well.

Jonnycoupe said:
RPM = Ruins peoples motors. Hence why dervs tend to far better in longevity stakes. A better gauge of life would be engine revolutions before failure rather miles.
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That, and dervs tend to be built stronger to cope with the higher cylinder pressures. These days, turbo failure tends to be the worst thing that afflicts a diesel car if anything in the engine bay is going to break.
 
Usually without water an engine gets hot (duh), pistons grow, and it stops.

Usually if you notice it go tight and stop there and then it can be recovered, does damage the engine tho. New Piston rings at least.
 
jimblowscash said:
example.... my 1977 landrover 2.25 petrol 190k on the clock
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if its economy is anything like my old one,thats around £50-60K worth of fuel over its lifetime :eek: :D
Can't talk tho,mine was on 100ish when i sold it
 
BigglesPiP said:
*cough*gearbox*cough*
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is that a problem?

My housemates 306TD is on original engine and gearbox at 172,000 miles. The bushes need replacing on the gear linkage as the gear change is very sloppy, but the gearbox is still perfect.
 
agw_01 said:
Errr, sorry? Where did that come from?
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Becuase you paid £300 for a rot box, whereas a little looking around would have you got a much better example. Where you could continue to maintain a well look after car.

With experience you will realise very few repairs get even close to the quality of a OEM factory finish.

Most people don't look after cars, throwing them in for a random service every so often. Cars that have a good reliability history even with this in mind are the strong ones. The fact you have highlighted a certain marque need a certain amount of TLC beyond manufacturer service guidelines is testament to the fact they are not cars that should really appearing in such a titled thread. The fact the commoner in the street away from the enthuasist scene is likely to raise the issue of Rovers and HG failure is reason to not get so passionate about the brand which rather than verging on reasoned preferance edges on blanted rose tinted glasses.

Its very much like mid 90 Nintendo V's Sega playground debates.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
snip
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What side of whose bed did you get up out of this morning? You seem to be taking agw's appreciation of Rovers a little hard today :)
 
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