Reginald Nutsack's K-series Kapers - ROVER 623 MOT GUFF

[Split_Pin]

Or even a 1.6?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm not after upgrading it, just want to get it up and running with a healthy engine. Also cheers for the offer CCC but I've gotta be honest I just dont fancy ringing up a garage on-spec and saying 'charlie from the pub told me you've got a K-series engine available'!!!

 

Some lad in my office reckons he can rustle up a good bottom end for £60 so thats looking like a possibility at least.

[SambaS]

If that fails mine is £50

 

 

I'm not after upgrading it, just want to get it up and running with a healthy engine. Also cheers for the offer CCC but I've gotta be honest I just dont fancy ringing up a garage on-spec and saying 'charlie from the pub told me you've got a K-series engine available'!!!

 

Some lad in my office reckons he can rustle up a good bottom end for £60 so thats looking like a possibility at least.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

£50 is a good price, I would be happy to pay that (presumably the bottom end is in sound condition of course) if my colleague fails to come up with the goods reasonably quickly, for whatever reason.

 

What are my options for collecting yours ZumbaZ? I am in Cheshire or Derby and don’t mind travelling a bit if necessary, although North Yorks is probably a bit far realistically as I’ll end up spending the same as if I bought a whole engine off ebay for a oner or whatever.

[SambaS]

Can probably get it to county Rutland on Sunday, just depends if there's any room in Steve's camper as were going FSO hoarding again!

[Station]

I'd personally buy a 1.8 VVC engine and swap it over. Experience with K-series says once it's near death, it's hard to get it running right again. I'd be scared of touching those damp liners as well.

There can't be many of these vans around, and with a VVC, it'll have a good 'resale' value.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Been busy making absolutley f*** all progress with this this week. First off a colleague reckoned his mate had a good engine with hydraulic tappets missing from which I could use the bottom end. Went round to get it and found out that it had run a big end, so I gave that  miss. Then I found a dude on eBay selling a good bottom end for £70, rang him up and all seemed good so i arranged to go and fetch it tomorrow morning. With that in mind I set on getting ready to do an 'Explosive Cabbage' on it, i.e. remove the engine without mucking about with a hoist.

 

 

Disconnected all the wiring and tubes and whatnot, with barely any mess! CASHBACK

 

 

 

Hows this for a total twats trick. Went to undo the big cable off the starter motor. Rather than the nut coming undone, the whole fugging end of the solenoid smashed itself to pieces as I turned the nut. Now the flipping starter motor is buggered. Brilliant innit.

 

Drained the oil out the gearbox. Alarmingly the magnetic sump plug has plenty of swarf on it, so maybe if I ever get to test drive this thing I will hear the sound of a whiny gearbox bearing or broken gear tooth or something. Ace!

 

Anyway I got it ready to jack up and pop the driveshafts, when for some reason i decided to have a closer look at the head.

 

 

Hmm, its got some MEGA DEEP ridges in the top face round the middle two pots, theyre at least 1mm deep, maybe 2mm, so theyre well beyond a skimming. Basically I would say this head is 100% buggered so buying a bottom end is a total waste of time. Now I have got to sort out a whole new engine!!!! So much for getting this thing running tomorrow, I'm going to have to look at it festering on the drive for a bit longer 

[Wilko220]

Who needs Eastenders when you've got this soap opera man? Wishing you all the best!

[SambaS]

I'm not filled with confidence of my "new" bottom end being much good, Will seems to think the liner seals may need replacing.

 

I'm not sure the Rover K series engine is much fucking good at all.

[stuboy]

goes from bad to worse

 

good luck with it

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Samba, I learned that there aren't any seals on the liners, they are a very precise machined fit in the block and just have a bit of hylomar to keep the water in place. With that in mind theres not a lot to go wrong on the liner seal front so you might be alright.

[cort16]

Nightmare. Given how this has gone so far I'd say dropping an engine and box into it might be the solution with the least bollox ache. Gaurenteed you'll get it all plumbed up and it'll only drive in reverse. The k in k series stands for Kwaulity.

[Richard]

Is it possible to fit an A or O series?

[KruJoe]

The offer of this £50 lump stands  - it's going nowhere (unless Will decides to give up on Samba's new* lump and drops it in the MGHGF).

Can anyone help with transportation from BD23 to wherever Nutsack resides? Alsager, Cheshire innit.

I'd be tempted just to give it a good service, belt etc, leave the HG to avoid opening it up, bosh it in and hope for the best. It's a known good engine.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Krooj! I am well up for taking your K off your hands. But, perhaps not for this car for two reasons:

 

1) I want to get this van sorted reasonably quickly and a trip up to yours to fetch it will use up most of a rare day of fettling time, and/or put you under some pressure to get the engine out sharpish.

2) I think yours would be OK if I swap over the cam boxes and camshafts (my engine has a camshaft sensor, I think yours is too old for that) but there is a chance there is some other changes that I am not aware of so it *might* not be suitable without more unplanned arsing about.

 

However, £50 for a complete healthy K series is a great price and I have this idea in my head about getting an early dash maestro and putting a multipoint 1.4 K in it and yours would be great for that. What year is it and does it have a factory immobiliser that must be deactivated before it'll start?

[KruJoe]

Yes, I *think* it does have a factory immobiliser. I think.

Edit, just found this pic:

 

 

It has the 'alarm' LED built in to the dash in the same place my Ronda 216 has one. It can be a right PITA - so the car rarely gets locked!

 

I have all you'll need for that future project, except for this ECU...

 

 

...which I sold to someone on here ages ago.

 

HTH

[Mr_Bo11ox]

YES! I've just won a complete 1.4 MGZR engine and box (inc starter motor) for £100, BACK IN THE GAME

[KruJoe]

Ey, that;s a result! Local enough?

[Albert Ross]

If it needs collecting around this way, I might be able to oblige.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Its in Brum so an extra hour and a half on my drive home from work should see it back to my 'workstation', cheers though AR!

[Split_Pin]

Excellent stuff. I wonder if Rover poked about the gearbox on the MG variants and gave it some niftier ratios or something.

[SambaS]

I don't know what they've done but I found myself bouncing of the rev limiter in 1st 2nd 3rd gears... definitely needs a bigger engine.

 

The ZR 160 is probably a right nice car to drive.

[Lord Sterling]

Yo RegB. If you heed a hand picking this thing up, by all means let me know...

[garethj]

100.00% WIN!  Most normal people would have told you to weigh the thing in ages ago, and at every stage since.

[Micrashed]

100.00% WIN!  Most normal people would have told you to weigh the thing in ages ago, and at every stage since.

Not a bit of it, its a 25 van. Another 10 years and these will be rarer than rocking horse dung. In fact another 10 years and this may well be the only extant example in the whole of Christendom.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well I picked up mi new lump of shite tonight:

 

 

Pretty good for a oner (assuming its not completely cattled like many K's), picked it up off two well-dodgy looking lads loitering with it on the gate to an industrial estate in Brum!

 

Its even got a throttle that opens properly:

 

 

Giving me a 25% POWA BOOST UPGRADE RESISTOR MOD CHIP +5BHP!!!1111!!!

 

The gearbox is an R65, not the fiesta box like whats in mine so it must be a couple of years older. So if my box is fooked i'll have to swap over the selector linkage and maybe the driveshafts if I want to use this one, and then no doubt the speedo will be all over the shop. Word is the R65 is the better gearbox like so we'll see.

[dollywobbler]

Sounds nicely iffy. Has it had the engine number ground off?

 

Hope all goes well with the transplant.

[cort16]

Are you going to do the head gasket it anyway or just take your chances and lob it?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

option 2! then if its OK i've got a spare MLS gasket set and new stretch bolts to lob at another K at some point in the future. The lad reckons this one has a MLS gasket already, though of course that might be bo11ox

[Split_Pin]

Nice one. I've twice bought car stuff off really dodgy looking blokes before, one had facial knife wounds.

 

Each time what I bought turned out alright though!