Landy Mann's Fleet - Land Ruster 110

[Landy Mann]

So the 214 has been scrapped (for £40 and all the good bits swapped to project deprive)

 

 

Ready for some hot kettle action?

 

As mentioned on the collection post the cooling system had started bubbling when set to cold and it seemed like I've adverted disaster, well turns out my temporary bleed hadn't fixed it so while testing out the nice cold air con the temperature gauge started rising, fortunately I was able to fix it by putting the heater on full.

 

 

With some time off work I procured some parts, coolant, a thermostat just in case (@£10 for a gates one why not), general service bits and two CV boots.

 

 

After some K series banter in the motor factor I got home removed bits of air box and drained some lovely* coolant.

 

 

 

Then disconnected the thermostat housing and removed it, unfortunately I found this snapped housing, hopefully that's the cause of the issues.

 

 

 

So it was time to hit the phone and see what I could do parts wise, unfortunately it looks like tomorrow is the earliest I can get one. In the mean time I carried out a small coolant flush and am now awaiting parts,

 

 

 

[Landy Mann]

So in the last post we left project deprive with a cracked thermostat housing, I have since obtained a genuine MG-Rover thermostat housing, unfortuntaly project deprive has been just that, the last week or two have been flat out on the 110.

 

A friend had asked to use it for her wedding so a major tart up was in order. It went from this:

 

 

 

to this:

 

 

 

 

And now looks presentable from a distance, it has also now been reconfigured back into 12 seater format with the rear bench seats, to make the interior presentable seat coveres were made with bed sheets, pillow cases, ribbons, and a rug for the back the day was a sucsess with no break downs.

 

It's never looks so good, true AS form should resume this week project with deprive back on the road at some point with a correctly cooling system (hopefully...)

[Landy Mann]

So I've done some further work on project deprive,

- Finished changing the CV boot, the solution was of course hit it with a bigger hammer.

- The cooling system problem is more baffleing, it appears that when the heater is set to hot everything behaves, looking at the temperature sensor via the diagnostics it seems to be telling the truth and the cooling fans are doing what they're meant to. When set to cold or not quite cold after a while the expansion tank starts bubbling/ has coolant coming back via the top hose in the expansion bottle, while this happens the temperature reading stays OK. I've also done a compression test whith the following results :  1: 13bar 2: 12.2bar 3:12.8bar 4:13.8bar which to my limited knowage sounds OK...

 

Any Thoughts?

[jonathan_dyane]

Saab valve?

[Landy Mann]

Saab valve?

Thanks for that pointer, the problem is infact the Saab valve, or rather lack of it...

 

 

It looks like a previous owner decided the Saab (heater bypass) valve was pointless and removed it, unfortunately they didn't put a 4mm restrictor or previous spec hose assembly back on it it's place. I think this currently means that when set to cold the thermostat won't open as it's receiving no coolant, does this mean the water pump is also receiving no coolant? I've not found a proper schematic.

[jonathan_dyane]

That was a lucky guess!

 

Is this any help?

 

http://forums.mg-rover.org/how-do-i-answers-common-problems-8/how-fix-heater-problems-397782/

[Landy Mann]

A short post tonight, COOLING SYSTEM FIXED!

 

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[Mr_Bo11ox]

that Saab valves are a pain in the arse

[Landy Mann]

So the 25 has now been pushed into daily service and giving the 110 a much need rest after around a month of daily use.

 

£50 worth of new SAAB valve and hose assebly has fixed everything so much so I gave it an oil change.

 

Shortly after this I clocked the heady heights of 75000 miles, I've never had such a new or low milage car.

 

I've also had the tracking done, it was only out by 7mm! It now drives far better than it did.

 

I've also smoothed up the action for the dash switches with silicone lubricant but it doesn't feel like it will be a long lasting fix.

[HH-R]

Sweet. Seeing the speedo has reminded me that it's just about impossible to read your speed at night!

[wuvvum]

Nice work.  Glad it was something relatively simple in the end.  Now you can take full advantage of the ICE COLD air conditioning.

 

Don't think the fuel gauge ever read that high during my ownership...

[Landy Mann]

Yep the speedo is rubbish at night, the lessons they could have learnt from my old 200....

 

How cold should the air con be? This is the first car I've had with it but I'm sure it could be better.

 

I would post a thermometer image but it has none...

 

 

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[Landy Mann]

Time for an update:

Everything has been boringly reliable, I've not even checked the coolant level for a while (perhaps the low coolant warning light has broken?)

A friend has just finished breaking his 220SDi @ 235k so I now have towbar.

Following a free towbar I spent a frivolous £17 with rimmer brothers for the proper towing loom, no scotchlocks here (apart from a genuine MG rover one for the tell tale light).

Although the tell tail light doesn't work it looks nice.

Twin mounting plate... not sure I'll need to fit 12S to this.

 

I've also downgraded the ICE, I got fed up of the aldi special mechless unit resetting to volume level 12 whenever the ignition was turned off, so down graded to a genuine rover cassette player, interestingly these are probably the highest quality switches in the car.

 

[Landy Mann]

Full update in due course but in short, I now have a full set of genuine rover 200 mats, a new drivers window regulator courtesy of Amazon and am piling on the miles!

 

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[Landy Mann]

110 in for its MOT today... Let's see what happens...

 

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[UltraWomble]

 

4a.jpg

Although the tell tail light doesn't work it looks nice.

 

Is it not designed to wink when the indicators wink and the towing socket is connected? In place of the audio indicator on many cars.

[Landy Mann]

That's how it should work but doesn't. I think it may be due to the genuine mg rover scotch lock earthing it may not be working.

 

In other news a fail, time to get some shiny yrm repair sections.

 

 

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[Landy Mann]

 

Almost time to visit the garage for a tickle with the welder. Inner sill now bolted to seat box nearly ready for spot welding but have another bracket to collect from the dealer first.

 

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[Landy Mann]

Also note rotten bits cut out of the c pillar, these will also be replaced by sections of repair section.

 

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[Noel Tidybeard]

Is it not designed to wink when the indicators wink and the towing socket is connected? In place of the audio indicator on many cars.

 

yes when used with a correct flasher unit perhaps?

back in the "M" car days the caravan light was part of the dash layout but you needed to change 3 pin flasher unit for a 4 pin one

 

std 3 pin unit is for 2x21w+5w (& 4x21w+5w hazards) bulbs

4 pin unit is 2x21+5w+21w (& 4x21w+5w+21w hazards)

[Landy Mann]

Test date22 November 2016Expiry date4 December 2017Test ResultPassOdometer reading81,288 milesMOT test number1466 6522 3638Advisory notice item(s)

 

water leak at rear of engine

 

front Exhaust has a minor leak of exhaust gases flexible pipe (7.1.2)

 

 

 

Passed! Explains where my coolant is going as well!

 

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[Landy Mann]

Turns out the coolant leak is more major than I thought....

 

Last night duing the pre MOT head light alignment the low coolant light was on so I duly topped it up. Being about six weeks from the last top up it wasn't surprising although not perfect. The mot garage made it sound like a massive leak, as it's the first time I've used them I thought they may have been touting for work. However on collection from the garage the low coolant light was on. Turns out the coolant rail is leaking near the thermostat.

 

Time to order some parts and press the 110 back into daily service.

 

Here's a shot of the lamp saving me from hgf

 

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[Landy Mann]

Following the the MOT pass at in November it was time to change the coolant rail due to the massive coolant leak. (this write up is about a month late).

 

First job was to find a nice cold frosty morning.

Then get the old coolant rail out and provide a sacrifice for the ongoing integrity of the head gasket.

Then fit the new coolant rail

Top up and bleed the cooling system and check the coolant temperature while eating a celebratory pasty.

Then I went and found the sort of thing I'll be driving in 10 years time...

In all other respects the 25 is performing perfectly reliably with no problems. Roll on 2017!

 

[Landy Mann]

It's now clean thanks to a Christmas present.

 

 

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[Landy Mann]

In the last couple of months the 25 has had new front pads and a new brake calliper, A full service and been greenlaning. Since doing the coolant rail it hasn't lost any coolant! Although it does need a wash...

 

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[Landy Mann]

The fleet had been running well, the 110 has successfully completed a day trip to France and had more rust proofing done and is seemingly solidish as the moment, not to much to trouble this years MOT hopefully.

The Rover 25 is been performing well as a daily providing the water is topped up and occasionally starting on 2 or 3 cylinders isn’t actually a problem… (New spark plugs required)

Following some coolant being expelled from the expansion cap I fitted the one from the old 214. I burped the system took it for a test drive and all seemed well until I was about to take it out and found this on the floor.

This seemed to be coming from the thermostat housing but the actual source is still TBC. I have now bled the cooling system properly and it seems to be behaving it’s self although the expansion tank seems to retain quite a bit of pressure overnight.

 

Unless it starts behaving I’m open to offers around £200,

Good points:

New thermostat housing
New Coolant rail
New Saab valve
Serviced in January
New CAT
4x good tires (2 Avon ZT5’s & 2 Kumho’s)
Genuine Rover 200 mats
Towbar (genuinely used once!)
Leather seats
Icecold aircon
~87k miles
New pads & drivers side caliper
Electric windows and central locking work

Bad points:

Every panel dented
Damage to sills (vactaning required)
Sometimes only starts on 2 or 3 cylinders
Front bumper was from a silver car
No service history apart from old MOT’s
Terrible looks
Possible cooling system issues as documented in the top post.

 

 

 

[Landy Mann]

Well things have happend since 2017, the 25 was replaced by a Volvo XC70, possibly the best car I've ever owned I then sold this to go to move to New Zealand and live in a 3.0 V6 Toyota Estima...

Since returning to the UK I now run two silver fords, nothing much to comment on them, they are boring and easy to loose in carparks.

Meanwhile the 110 has been in storage, last week a friend trailered it up for me so now it's time for MOT prep, and service over the next month or two, although I don't think it should be anything too serious.

 

[Landy Mann]

Well the 110 was sucsfully MOT'd and required a little welding and a bit of brake flettling, apart from that not much to report apart from the fuel lift pump needing replacementa week later. (this was back in september)

With the rear end looking frillier all the time it was time to finaly look at buying a welder instead of paying the garage to do it all the time (this will also allow me to catch early stage rot and not just MOT failing rot.)

My welder of choice was a Blackine 200 mig, a generic chineese inverter MIG with some UK back up. I am running 0.8mm wire with hobbyweld 5 (argon/CO2) gas. I aquired some clean scrap to test out welding on and get a feel for settings.  I have done a welding course before, so while I won't say I'm  good I can at least stick things together.

These were some of my first welds, not perfect but OK for a first attempt!

I spent a while playing with settings and getting by eye back into the game.

Here is a comparison between my weld and a mass produced (robotic?) one carried out on the stillgage, mine is the one towards the centre of the plate in both photos.

What to do now? Hit the 110 with a hammer obviously (opps)

Cut out some rust

Tack in a patch

Fully welded (not underneith yet)

Not the prettyiest and I had to turn the power down as it was blowing through some of the thinner bits  of the cross member.

OK from a distance

Time to cut out some more

Hmm what is my cross member actually attached by?

 

Not alot but you can just see where it had a previous crossmember replacement ~ 15 years ago.

 

I'm thinking the most sensisble solution is to by a crossmember with long extesions and fit that, rather than messing around chasing all the rot down in the current one.

[Jenson Velcro]

35 minutes ago, Landy Mann said:

I'm thinking the most sensisble solution is to by a crossmember with long extesions and fit that, rather than messing around chasing all the rot down in the current one.

That definitely looks like the right thing to do. Your welds look good too.

[Landy Mann]

Thanks I have been pleasantly support by them.

Now I've a easy access welding the next thing to try will be upside down.

Interestingly the MOT garage welded a patch on the underside which is still solid... Only it's welded to thin air.

 

All good practice, it's only costing me gas and wire