Rover 45 V6 - Timing belt MUTHA F*****

[hairnet]

This is exactly why I bought a diesel.

So far it's worked out well.

V6 is better though. When you know how to do it I may buy one and bring it for you to sort.

You are Bo11ox of Steel.

Patience of 37 saints [\religious off]

[Parky]

Definitely sounds like one of those jobs where removing the whole lot and doing it on a bench is preferable! Good opportunity to pop in a new clutch as well, etc.

 

Would something like that still be an option or are your patience levels past critical?

[carlo]

May be a daft suggestion but can you not just leave the cover off?  The 405 belts are all exposed and doesn't seem to do them any harm.

[Split_Pin]

Think it forms the basis of the engine mount.

[Isaac Hunt]

and the weeds need doing on the driveway !!

 

When he's done the belt, he's going to do an O&F. As the sump drains the oil will overflow the drain can and run down the crack in the concrete. In a few days the weeds will be dead and can simply be swept up. The anti vegetation properties of semi synthetic will prevent re-growth.

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

No previous on these...... hate doing em on easy* cars and always await that sound of something that shouldn't make contact - making contact..... proper knicker shredding convulsions every time.

I'd have torched the fekker - thus sorting the weeds too.

 

Dremel along under the seams on the cover and a bit of silkaflex/silicone (if needed at all) to get it all back in?

 

Good luck fella......

[Guest Hooli]

Sounds like fun* enjoy.

[Asimo]

Can you get a small wheel changing jack in somewhere to push the engine sideways a bit? When you took the cover out it might have made room for itself by levering the engine over. Perhaps the jack between the A/C pulley and the inner chassis rail?

[Steve79]

If any shitter in the Bristol area needs this done, I know a garage who will do all in for £450

[Lacquer Peel]

There might be an optimum position for slotting this back in, measured in nanometres. Heroic work taking this on bo11ox. Is the V6 a keeper?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

450 all in is a flippin good price for this job. A belt kit off eBay is like £160, i got mine for £140 with a GSF 60% off code (Normal price £270!!!!) and thought I had a good deal. so £300 labour is good, I dont see how anyone could do this job in less than 8-10 hours no matter how much practice theyd had!!!

 

Got this all back together today after another 5 flippin hours work. Just the engine cover to put on.

 

 

 

When i went back to it today I had the front plate in in about 10 mins. Just needed a bit of patience which I must have ben running short of after 8 hours yesterday. I still couldnt get it all done up though. After about an hours fannying about I noticed that the plate was very slightly bent which stopped the aircon compressor bolts going in. Eventually I had to remove the plate, straighten it 'by eye' in the vice and try again, doing up the aircon bolts before enything else. That got it in and I just had to slowly reassemble everything.

 

When I was getting close to being done, I was getting increasingly worried cos I had a big M10 bolt left over. I racked my brains wondering where I could have forgotten a big crucial-looking bolt. I pondered it for a while and wondered about taking it apart agin to look for a home for this thing, then I remembered one of the tensioners came with a new bolt of its own and I was looking at the old one!!!! Panic over.

 

Anyway when it came to it I turned the key and thank god it fired up and idled smoothly. There was a bit of extra vibration that seemed different, then I rememberd that I still had the jack under the engine! Took that out and best-in-class meaningless NASA NVH index quotient factor of 2.06 was restored.

 

 

The reason I did these belts, is that I want to sell this car!!! Knowing what a ballache it is, and not having any cambelt history for it I thought I'd basically be selling someone a problem if I didnt do the belts. And no-one wants to buy a problem do they. So I thought by doing them i'd help myself to get a sale and also help the car to live on, cos it is a great car - one of the best I've had. I want to give it the best chance of a long life! Just got to put some rear pads in it and give it a good clean up then i will get it up for sale. If anyone off here fancies it, I think the shiters price would be 375. Its got a long MOT, 103k or thereabouts and is a joy to drive although you will struggle to beat about 28mpg average.

 

Concerning Photobucket, I've always had a $20/year account with them and despite their threats my photos have not vanished and now the regular email threats to 'refinance' at $500/yr seem to have stopped as well. So I am just carrying on using the account till it disappears or till they renew it at $20 again.

[dollywobbler]

I might have to take you up on that Mr Boll. Outrageous bargain and I've had the hots for this since you bought it!

Also, I need to pay tribute to your patience. That's some hours poured into it! Top stuff.

[Guest Hooli]

Excellent work Sir Bo11. Funny jobs like that just go together right if you've left them alone long enough.

[sierraman]

Sometimes you've just got to have a fresh pair of eyes on a new day to get round a problem. Well done on sorting it.

[Isaac Hunt]

Top job Boll, knew you would tame it. The overnighter often does the trick. My very first engine change I did on a Marina 1.8TC on a freezing cold winter day. Mates coming round to watch and tell me how cold it was whilst they stood drinking hot coffee made by my Mom.

 

Anyway, by late afternoon I had the job done, but the basterd wouldn't fire. I packed up an retired indoors for a hot shower.

 

Came out next morning and almost immediately found I had the condenser to points connection n the wrong side of the insulator. Fired straight up.

 

Funny how a lack of cambelt history takes 75% of the cars value but a cambelt history puts very little on it.

 

You have just made it into the Cambelt Masterclass Club innit

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Cheers! yeah often just downing tools and coming back later with a clear head works wonders doesnt it. Its a lesson I have 'learned' many times over!!!

[purplebargeken]

What an utter fucking nightmare. Well done on sticking with it, I can only imagine the sinking feeling of realizing that you'd refitted the old belt. I bet the anguished scream reverberated for quite a while.

 

I've sworn off Rovers now though, despite how nice they are.

[RoadworkUK]

Out of interest, what kind of state were the relay belts in?

 

I'm ashamed to admit that, although I tackled the main belt on the 825 towards the beginning of my Autoshite career, I left the relay belts alone because I was terrified. In my naivety I was fearful that an attempt without the proper locking kit would end in apocalypse, and that the cams (which are of a floating design and not keyed into the pulley) would go TWANG and the timing would be out forever.

 

If yours were in decent nick after 103k odd, I might panic less about mine with 83k on them.

 

Although, I know I really should bite the bullet and do them anyway.

 

Also, great work.

[Split_Pin]

Excellent stuff and an absolute gift at that price.

[clayts450]

Well done Boll, that looked a complete twat of a job.

 

Can I book mine in with you for next weekend please ?

 

(just joking...)

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Earl!! no need to fear those relay belts. I removed only the pulley off the inlet cams (inboard on the V of course) when doing them. They are defo keyed (well, they are on the Phoenix-era KV6's, not sure about the 800 -style KV6) so you cant put em on wrong. As long as you put some paint dots on the pulleys when you dismantle it, and the dots are in the same location post-op, you cant really go wrong.

[DeeJay]

Roffle, £7 a pop.

I'd have 2 randoms.

[Rave]

So basically you've done a £450 job on a car in order to sell it for £375? Someone's getting a good deal here, and I'm not sure it's you...

 

Inspirational stuff as always though MrB!

[Isaac Hunt]

So basically you've done a £450 job on a car in order to sell it for £375? Someone's getting a good deal here, and I'm not sure it's you...

 

Inspirational stuff as always though MrB!

It's the challenge though innit. Done a few cambelts, then someone down the pub claims that they can do KV6 in three hours. Having never undertaken the job one feels unjust in telling them "you balking tollocks mate". Having conquered the challenge, Boll can get right back at em "you can FRO mate".

 

Mind you, at close of day 1 when that cover wouldn't go back on and the mojo was through the floor, the smell of victory was being overshadowed by the jaws of defeat, why the kinell do I bother.

 

Boll can now hold his head high, it's a piece of piss mate, time consuming and access is very tight, no special tools needed, but if you know what your doing, you'll be fine.

 

GLWTS

[twosmoke300]

I’ve never actually done a kv6 belt job but looks a right twat . Well done for sticking with it .

 

But as I was told when I was a lad all happy about doing my first few cambelts

 

 

 

You don’t know you have done it right until it makes it to it’s next one in 60/80/100k.

[sierraman]

I've known one or two that's done it wrong. Piston and valve action.

[garethj]

Impressive determination, as always.  Whatever you do, never work our your own labour rate for this kind of stuff, from a financial point of view you'd be better off queuing up with the 14 year olds to get a paper round.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I know the economics of this don't stack up. I had to deploy extreme self-control when Mrs Nuts yesterday started on with the old 'is that not just a massive waste of time and money then if you're spending £150 and two days work on a £400 car? How much did you pay for it? (£300) So how come you're doing all that work for basically no benefit?" AAAAARRRGGGHHH that is the no.1 way to send my blood pressure into orbit, (apart from telling me Brexit is gonna be great and that I should get behind the will of the friggin people etc). Anyway to me the car seemed basically worthless, scrap money only, unless I did the belts. I can't call myself an enthusiast if I let this car get binned on my watch so I felt there was a 'moral' angle to doing em as well as the economic one! (Plus now they're done I feel like a champ for doing em).

[beko1987]

And we all think your a champ for doing them! Plus you learnt something etc. Just ignore Mrs B, works for me with Mrs Beko...

[mk2_craig]

Well done for seeing it through and not just chucking it all in the bin. Regardless of how much more use you get from it between now and selling it, think of the repair job cost (in parts and value of your spare time) as being spread over however many miles you've actually done in it since purchase. That should help a bit!