Mercedade's Rover 820 Vitesse Lux

[mercedade]

I'm absolutely certain that spare parts are more readily available for that kind of Vitesse...

[mercedade]

I've got so much more to write - I've got two years of worth of Heritage Fun to recount at some point, but in the immediate short term:

I need an aux tensioner for a T16 turbo and Rimming Bros want one hundred and sixty pounds. Before I gamble £45 on an ebay spesh, anyone got any leads?

[mercedade]

Ebay spesh is not spesh. It's definitely not for mine.

@Motown you know anywhere I could grab me some sweet, sweet tensioner action?

[Motown]

7 hours ago, mercedade said:

Ebay spesh is not spesh. It's definitely not for mine.

@Motown you know anywhere I could grab me some sweet, sweet tensioner action?

Ofcourse i do you silly sausage

https://www.dmgrs.co.uk/products/t-series-cambelt-kit-inc-turbo-belt-and-tensioner-oem-lhp10016-and-lhn10016

Nice car by the way  

[mercedade]

4 hours ago, Motown said:

Ofcourse i do you silly sausage

https://www.dmgrs.co.uk/products/t-series-cambelt-kit-inc-turbo-belt-and-tensioner-oem-lhp10016-and-lhn10016

Nice car by the way  

Cheers man, but no dice. It's the aux/alternator belt tensioner I need. 

Realistically, I'm looking for someone scrapping a 2.0 T series of any flavour!

[Motown]

1 hour ago, mercedade said:

Cheers man, but no dice. It's the aux/alternator belt tensioner I need. 

Realistically, I'm looking for someone scrapping a 2.0 T series of any flavour!

https://www.facebook.com/clifford.weaver.7

https://www.facebook.com/greg.powley.1

Try these two.. Greg Currently has a MK2 Vitesse project for sale and Andrew recently broke a silver 820... Sorry i cant help more i mostly rescued and restore Mk1s although i do have some Mk2 parts if you need anything else. Good luck 👍

[mercedade]

Ok, I've been meaning (for a loooong) time to update this thread.

December 2018

All of my recent issues can be summarised with three pictures I think:

 

[RoadworkUK]

Aw, shit, man! Most undignified circumstances for such a classy machine.

[mercedade]

January 2019

So the moral of this story is DO NOT IGNORE A WATER PUMP LEAKING.

Even if it looks like it has stopped misbehaving, and has given you over 500 miles of trouble-free motoring without dropping any further fluid, you can be guaranteed that at the least convenient moment, you will be made to pay.

Longer story:

I was driving along the M6, heading to visit parents for Christmas when I noticed that temperature in the cabin had dropped and the screen was misting up slightly. I pulled off, and could feel a very hot top hose, but a cold rad and cold bottom hose. Hmm.

With the engine running, I thought I could hear a grumble/whine, but not enough to be sure. When I revved the engine with the bonnet open, I could suddenly get warm water flowing. I think I probably convinced myself that it had burped an airlock free.

I had not.

After setting off, and waving my hand over the airvents every 0.1 seconds, I got another mile or so before noticing the engine temperature creeping slowly but inexorably upwards. This section of the M6 is (was - in 2018) halfway through its transformation into a smart motorway, so there is currently no hard shoulder and only three lanes. As I panicked about exactly how this was going to turn out, I thought about speeding up/increasing engine speed to see if the pump could be persuaded into life. Foot down, and felt a distinct...shudder, but no increase in speed. Then the temp gauge moved a bit more rapidly, so I shut it off, thinking I could coast a small distance, restart and complete the mile left until the next junction.

It would not restart.

So, I gently coasted to a terrifying stop on the live, inside lane of the M6 with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

There then followed many hours of (very efficient) help from the Highways Agency and (dreadful - like APPALLING) 'customer service' from the RAC.

It's now 'resting' 200 miles away where the verdict has been delivered - head gasket.

So, that's my new year budget stuffed and it's not even a week old.

Balls.

[SRi05]

Ooft, what a place to breakdown 🙈

[mercedade]

 

5 minutes ago, SRi05 said:

Ooft, what a place to breakdown 🙈

Highways agency, and fellow Christmas travellers agreed...

[mercedade]

January - April 2019

The car 'rested' with my old garage mates on the Hampshire/Berkshire border whilst my incredibly patient mother loaned me her owned-from-new 15 year old Mondeo so I could get back to Stockport.

My suspicion was that the water pump had failed, and that I'd ignored warning signs.

The car had a long history of cooling problems - part of the reason I bought it was that the PO had spent a few months doing a total overhaul of the cooling system - core plugs, radiator, water pump, head gasket. Everything was new, but it's not unheard of for new water pumps to fail.

In the end, the garage managed to diagnose the fault - the flipping power-steering pump failed, in that the 'key' that engages with the back of the waterpump (the waterpump being driven by the aux-driven PS pump) had actually separated from the shaft, so it was no longer being rotated by the pump, and thus no longer driving the water pump either. End result, no circulating water, and HGF.

The head was warped and the gasket had apparently gone between cylinders 2 and 3. The head's went away to the engineering shop for a skim and was refitted.

Trouble was, there are no (reasonably priced) powersteering pumps listed available for the late 820 Vitesse anywhere. But some very helpful 800 forum members revealed that 25 2.0 diesel p/s pumps fit if you switch the feed pipe over. So I've got one of those on order, and am hopeful (optimistic, even) that it might be up and running come the end of next week

[mercedade]

Here's what did the damage

[mercedade]

March 2019

I'd gone back to see my folks (and return my mum's Mondeo!), and I'd intended to drive the Rover back. The garage had warned me the car was hard to start, but I foolishly thought they meant the same difficult start I'd reported waaaay back when I picked the car up.

Post HG replacement (and everything else), it was almost impossible to start without disconnecting the plug at the end of the injector rail (underneath the bundle of vacuum pipes, which I subsequently learned was the fuel pressure regulator).

If I ever did get it start, it was extremely lumpy/unhappy with it virtually stalling (although did seem relatively happy when actually driving and pulled remarkably well).

I was convinced it must be a timing issue, and spent a morning at the garage with the mechanics, dicking around with locking keys, before ultimately agreeing the timing was OK and that the problem lay elsewhere.

Maybe lambda sensor? CTS? Something else maybe?

In the end, I headed back north....

[mercedade]

April 2019

After a lot of arsing about with lambda sensors, it became clear - the primary issue seemed to be that compression was way, way down.

Quick sit-rep:

Headgasket was comprehensively blown and head warped

It was sent away for a 'hefty' skim (I've no idea on pressure testing the head).

Headgasket replaced, head refitted, new PS pump. Job done.

After much faff in re-fitting, it really struggled to start. Like, REALLY struggled. On most times, it would only start when the injectors were unplugged, shutting off fuel, engine would catch and then the plug can be reconnected and it would run. It stank of fuel.

Suspected the cam timing was out - but confirmed now that it wasn't/isn't. It was been timed and retimed multiple times because we just wanted to be 100%.

It was underpowered but perfectly capable of maintaining motorway speeds, losing absolutely no coolant or oil.

And then....compression test done and it was low, across all 4 cylinders. Added some oil to the cylinders and it remains low, but the oil can be seen sitting on top of the pistons, suggesting it wasn't leaking past the piston rings. When driving, there's no blue smoke. The plugs are VERY rapidly fouling with black soot.

Cam covers off and all valves are operating correctly when crank is turned by hand.

I was OUT of ideas.

Cylinders 1, 2, 3, 4 in order (80, 50, 50, 110

   

[mercedade]

April 2019 - Sept 2019

I didn't do anything with it, except park it up and cry occasionally. I picked up a bargain Octavia diesel from @Mat.T because I need transport and the sheer unending reliability of that meant I just kept ignoring the Rover.

Then, I had an operation on my foot and some time off work to....er....recuperate... 

[mercedade]

Sept 2019

I'd reluctantly come to the decision that the problem was something serious. Either the head gasket had gone, the piston rings were fucked, or the valves were mangled. This was the point in my life when I was really mourning the loss of Rovertech.net because all the T series turbo-licker information seemingly any-fucking-where on the internet vanished overnight.

So I decided to grab a replacement T series NA (because have you seen how much T16 turbos go for these days?!) and work out if I could turbo an NA, or failing that, if bits could be made to work.

Donor vehicle, just outside Stoke

  

My mangled foot (that actually got stepped on by the guy helping me and my aging dad lift the iron+ali head engine into the boot of the Skoda, despite the fucking great bandage and pin sticking out of my toe. I'm not ashamed to admit I did a little scream)

[mercedade]

Still Sept 2019

 And back home:

[mercedade]

Sept - October

Over the next 3 weeks or so, me and a mate (pictured) got stuck into it. 'We' might be pushing it, I was still on crutches with an exposed pin sticking out of my middle toe, but I was definitely present - caning painkillers and Haynes manuals with equal vigour.

 

With the camcovers off the new engine and my old dead one, we could see they were absolutely identical between NA and turbo versions, other than the cam sprocket was something like 15 degrees different. So we knew that, if needed, the new low-mileage head could be used, and I'd just need to switch the cam sprocket across.

However, with the heads off we could see the blocks were definitely different between NA and turbo:

Turbo- dished pistons:

NA - flat piston crowns

[mercedade]

Sept 2019

After checking and rechecking a lot - a lot - I was satisfied that the block and pistons on my turbo block were fine, so whatever happened next was going to involve a head transplant.

The headgaskest that came off the turbo was like new (and bloody well should have been too, it was only 230 miles old).

After that, it was just a case of doing the transplant, replacing seals as we went, seeing as I'd already bought a full head-gasket set for it anyway

As you can see, my primary duty during this was taking photos and not falling off my crutches

[mercedade]

October 2019

After this absolutely mammoth slog, I was overjoyed to declare the car fixed. Properly fixed.

In short, the head had warped to such a degree that the valves and guides were all over the shop and nothing sealed, hence the shit compression.

I'm pretty sure now, looking back, that when the PO did his first HG change, the head was already slightly misshapen. The car started OK, but not as eagerly as I would have liked, and when it was warm it was a good few cranks to fire. I put it down to 'it must just be like that', but when my motorway overheat occurred, it must have finally and fully banana-ed the top end of the head. It was skimmed, but not pressure tested - and pressure testing would have shown this up and saved a whole lotta heartache and strife.

Couple of issues were also attended to, such as a split turbo diaphragm which the heat may have murdered.

 

The blowing flexi was replaced with an entirely new front pipe - picked up a total bargain there from Amazon clearance. £13 delivered! Was mega chuffed because they only made this front pipe for about 18 months (prior to this is was smaller diameter and slightly shorter).

Couple of heart-stopping moments along the way, like the time I went for a first start and it just clicked. Absolutely nothing. Fretted about the immobiliser for waaay too long, before realising I'd connected up the starter motor wrong.

Bit of a blow from the exhaust manifold where it mates to the head - realised I'd left a flipping washer underneath the gasket (put it there for 'safe keeping').

New gasket needed...

ANOTHER NEW FUCKING GASKET NEEDED

But in the end...

[mercedade]

AVE THAT YOU BASTARD!!

[mercedade]

And with everything fitted and sorted:

Which got me to here at the very end of October 2019

[mercedade]

January 2020

So, after three head gaskets in little over a year, I was finally happily blatting about the place in it, working my way through the other shit it needed.

What it really needed was a cooling fan. The later 800s don't have a rad switch in the radiator and instead rely on the ECU to switch the fan on when the coolant temp sensor and, brilliantly, the ECU sometimes just decides not to.

After *gesture upwards* all that I wasn't comfortable with this, so utilised a handy blanking plug location from when the PO installed a new radiator.

No photos because it's just wires.

Also replaced the boot seal because it was torn and shite. Used one from a Humber Hawk because that was the only one I could find anywhere on the web that had anything like the same profile. All looking a lot better.

[mercedade]

Still winter 2019/20

One thing that had always pissed me off was the front ride height. It's impossible to get Vitesse springs any more, which are slightly lower and stiffer than standard. All the eBay/Amazon etc listings have regressed to an average/standard fit that works for most. It was pretty clear that at some point, someone had replaced the original springs for Sterling etc springs. 800s have a habit of looking too high at the front anyway, because they have massive arches, but mine was even more exaggerated than normal thanks to the front/rear mismatch.

The lads at Motobuild are pretty much the only people I know of still flying the flag for 'performance' Rovers and they occasionally make up batches of things like lowering springs. So I asked them, and they did.

 

 
 

And fitted

That's more like it....

[mercedade]

Also found a nice period Lucas boost gauge, so decided to lose the clock...

[mercedade]

April 2020 - LOCKDOWN

Well, fuck it - it's not like I'm driving anywhere is it?

But why?

 

[mercedade]

April - May 2020

So, yeah - as you can see a fairly substantial (selection of) water leaks. To be honest, there's not a lot to report and most of the photos of this period are of the underside of the dash/the boot/rear quarter-lights etc.

Basically, water was getting in a lot of places, and I eventually stopped it.

When everything was dried out (about a month, all told) I attached a shit load of sound-deadening matting and closed cell foam, with a top layer of tough vinyl.

Now the car is much, much more quiet inside than it was.

 

 

 

[mercedade]

And when that  was all done and dusted, I decided to rejig the centre console, installed a touch-screen Android stereo and relocated the cigar lighter by drilling a hole in the side of the centre console with a 28mm wood drill bit

[mercedade]

May 2020

Petrol smell is getting annoying. It's always the filler neck.

 

Got the old filler neck off and it's already been swapped for the stainless steel version made by some guy called Ade. To be honest, it's a bit weird that it smells because this version should never leak again. I couldn't actually find a leak by eye, but figured I wasn't going to get too stuck in. Anyway, I had a decent OEM one in stock, so slapped it with the black Hammerite and fitted.

Job jobified