Hey! Anyone got the address of the designer of the K-series?

[Pete-M]

I've never had a K-series die on me (never kept one for more than a couple of weeks) so I understand why Rover made 'em. Nice engine when they're working properly, good on fuel, pokey, smooth, quiet.Having said that, out of all the garage folk I know, there's only one who'll guarantee a rebuild on HGF'd K-series, and he charges a fortune "Because I can get 'em to last 100k, and I don't like doing them".

[Mr_Bo11ox]

As I'd like to kick his stupid fucking head off his fucking weak, puny bony shoulders.

 

New water pump = £30

New radiator = £80

New Payen OE three layer head gasket = £120

New Payen OE head bolts = £30

New belt = £15

Second hand head (bare) = £80

Skimming and testing of head = £40

New valves = £80

New hydraulic lifters = £60

New valve stem seals = £20

 

Having the head gasket go after a month of usage = DIE AN EMBARRESSING DEATH, YOU HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE CUNT

If you can get one for 100 quid with blown head gasket, I'd say you should buy it and replace the gasket and belt, of which are 50 odd quid. It's half a day's job, if you can be arsed with it. It'll knock the price down.

 

Come on station!!!

[Guest]

Seems like when the K-series blows its headgasket on most examples, the car is eternally cursed. Might be able to repair it and have it go alright for a month or so, but then it just goes again.Have to wonder what happens with the more pricey end of the market, stuff on the last few registrations etc. Bet there's situations like the original owner getting up to about 60K on it, headgasket goes, they take it to a local garage to fix it, headgasket goes again a month later, goes on eBay as a repair project, car is repaired, blows again, goes on eBay as a repair project, car is repaired, blows again, goes on eBay as a repair project and so on.Bet some of the newer ones have been through 10 headgaskets by now. "You can't scrap a 56 reg!", etc. Wonder what the record is?

[wilko]

maybe the hell of the Stag engine explains why all Stag owners at car shows seem to be flying jacket wearing po faced, snobby ciserabale munts?

Never thought about it like that - although I have noticed that the sort of people who own Stags are often the sort of people who play golf & who started out their voyage of classic ownership with an MGB, aspire to an E-type, and who don't actually like old cars so much as they like being able to tell people they are affluent enough to own one "for the weekend".

[Minimad5]

If your lady wants to keep the MG why dont you consider dropping in another engine Somethin' more reliable Maybe a honda motor with the added Vtec ?Sure it may be abit of work with wiring, ecu, clocks, engine and gerbox mounts..etc..But surely its better than shelling out feck loads to potentially spend the time, effort and money again in afew months to for it to just keep happening ?

[peter9000uk]

The one thing I don't understand though - why develop the engine in the first place? The 1.6 16v Honda engines in the old 216 models are a gem - them & the K-series are streets ahead of the equivalent early 90's Vauxhall/Ford/VW 1.6 lumps in performance - why did Rover not just buy the rights to use them, along with using various Honda platforms? Powertrain sharing is all the rage nowadays - I think you can find the same range of HDi engines fitted to Peugeot, Citreon, Mazda, Land Rover, Jaguar & Ford(!)

I'll tell you why! BMW bought them and Honda did not want BMW having any of their secrets. This is also why the later 800s have the KV6, which suffers much the same problems, as they had to rush the development forward to replace the lovely Honds 2.7 V6 which will quite happily do Capt Kirk loan car mileages. The upshot was a brown ale car at a Champagne price.Mt Bother in law is a classic example of not listening. He bought a 52 plate Rover 25 for she who must be obeyed ( replaced a G reg Carina that had never given any trouble whatsoever) and himself a 54 plate Rover 75 ( to replace my old E34 5 series BMW which is still going strong 2 years later at 276k miles). Both cars blew headgaskets within 6 months of onwership amongst other Rover related problems. Both were repaired and lo and behold both went again within a further 8 months. He managed to get £500 for the 75 on ebay (still only covered 72000 miles). The little 25 he now uses and tops daily and carrys a gallon of water around with him. The car is worthless and he has said when it fails to proceed he will park it where stops and walk away from it!

[Cavcraft]

Got a 214 yonks back for nowt because the head gasket had been done yet went again in a very short space of time.Previous owner took back to garage who then kindly pointed out the (very) small print which stated 'work not guaranteed as block has corroded'. Could this be why they go again so soon afterwards?Incidentally there's a very friendly lady from Devon on eBaY who is something of an expert on K-series engines and guarantees her work for quite a while.

[Rocket88]

Some Post war British engines what I've driven;.OHV 4 pot [Austin 16's early Healeys] loads of torque, crap carbs, don't revA series, strong, no power, timing chain rattleB series, see A seriesC series [if that's what the straight 6 was called] see A/B series, with the added disadvantage of weighing 8 tons2.25 lt Land Rover 4 pot. Arthritic, uneconomical, virtually indestructable.Rover 6 pot [P4] smooth, no power, loads of torque, Westlake headed ones surprisingly quickRover V8 Big, light, understressed, niceRover straight 6 [sDi ones] comically bad, chocolate camshaftsRover K series, nuff said.Rover O series, B series in a frockTriumph ohv [Herald etc] ok, although a bit fragileTriumph straight 6 [1600/ 2000 / 2500] Sound nice, go well if tuned, thrust bearings fall outTriumph 1500 [Midget etc] rough, don't last long Triumph 1850/2 litre [TR7 etc] dull, leaky, generallyshite...did I mention dullTriumph 16 valve version of above, quick, leaky, generally shiteTriumph 3 lt V8, ....just don'tVauhall ohv [1256 cc etc] No power, but rev wellVauxhall ohc [1600 to 2379 cc] gutsy, if a bit roughVauxhall straight 6 [2.3/2,6/3.3] smooth, torquey, juicyVauxhall/Opel cam in head straight 6 [2.5 2.6 3.0] one of my favourite engines, torquey, rev well, very strongVauxhall v6 2.5 / 3.0 / 3.2 in my limited experience, nice.Ford ohv [what I call Valencia engines] gutless noisy, horrible.Ford Kent ,do the job, nothing specialFord Pinto, gutsy, camshaft spray bars used to clog up, knackering cam shaftsFord CVH, unremittingly unpleasant, smokey, sound awfulFord Essex, strong, underpowered, heavy, but compactFord Cologne, shit, and nigh on untunable

[AnthonyG]

If your lady wants to keep the MG why dont you consider dropping in another engine Somethin' more reliable Maybe a honda motor with the added Vtec ?Sure it may be abit of work with wiring, ecu, clocks, engine and gerbox mounts..etc..But surely its better than shelling out feck loads to potentially spend the time, effort and money again in afew months to for it to just keep happening ?

Surely it would be cheaper to get a Toyota MR2 (the newish one) and stick MG badges on it!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

They're crap in a Triumph Stag kind of way. You know it will eventually fuck itself and be unfixable, and it's 'when' and not 'if'.A classic example of BL trying be be clever, and it never works. the K Series ranks alonsgide the electronic choke SU carb, the Maelstrom/Montego talking computer, Montego bonded in glass, all doomed to failure.If they'd only buily it with a nice simple thinwall iron block it would have gone down as one of the really good engines. Oh well.

[pogweasel]

.MInd you B** are Harry Hunts as well. I had a lovely 523i from 1996 - really nice motor except for the useless alloy piece of shit under the bonnet that sheds its water pump and dumps its coolant resulting in a cooked and cracked head after 60k. specialists will tell you it is the penny pinching plastic impellor blades on the water pump that are to blame and have an aftermarket fix by replacing them with metal ones. My 523i ate 2 engines in 70k before I scrapped the miserable piece of boch hun crap - it put me off BMW for life!....twunts and thieves!

The earlier sixes are a pain in the arse too, so don't feel alone. My 325i ate TWO water pumps in very close succession (i.e. with 10 miles), the second causing instant HGF death and a huge repair bill. Bastards. Back to nice 4-cyl power now, they are seemingly much less fragile.

[Station]

As I'd like to kick his stupid fucking head off his fucking weak, puny bony shoulders.

 

New water pump = £30

New radiator = £80

New Payen OE three layer head gasket = £120

New Payen OE head bolts = £30

New belt = £15

Second hand head (bare) = £80

Skimming and testing of head = £40

New valves = £80

New hydraulic lifters = £60

New valve stem seals = £20

 

Having the head gasket go after a month of usage = DIE AN EMBARRESSING DEATH, YOU HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE CUNT

If you can get one for 100 quid with blown head gasket, I'd say you should buy it and replace the gasket and belt, of which are 50 odd quid. It's half a day's job, if you can be arsed with it. It'll knock the price down.

 

Come on station!!!

Fuck that, I did a good job on mine. I'd still do that though, but not smack bang in the middle of the coldest winter for decades.

[Minimad5]

I'm sure if you brave the cold your lady would reward you

[dollywobbler]

Some Post war British engines what I've driven;.Ford Cologne, shit, and nigh on untunable

Um, wouldn't that be a German engine?

[warren t claim]

Has anyone suggested K-Seal yet???

[Whoop Whoop Pull Up]

you have to actually look at these engines once a week to keep problems in check.

I want to deny this, but it's been a constant fear, and I have had to check it more often than everyweek.

Agreed. My 216 blew up a couple of months after buying it, although after repairs it lasted another 5 years before sold it cheap with the HG about to let go again. I checked the coolant religiously every week.However, one day I pulled onto the drive and noticed that the fan was running, so I switched off and opened the bonnet, only to be confronted with the sight of an empty coolant tank and the filler cap on top of the battery.How?A couple of days earlier, I had been distracted while giving it a bit of a top-up and had evidently shut the bonnet without putting the cap back on I'd then been to Shrewsbury, 40 miles each way with the coolant boiling out and the cap trapped between the bonnet and the battery, and the temperature gauge never went over halfway. Still, it managed another 40k before starting to play up again. Result!

[Station]

I've done that "forget to put cap on" trick before. I also don't think I've closed the black plastic flap over the top, and just smashed it closed with the boot lid, it's easy to forget.Cologne is a German engine, they're all named after the places they were made weren't they (and are merely unofficial nicknames?)I count my blessings it isn't a Pinto. Phew.

[wilko]

Some Post war British engines what I've driven;.Vauxhall v6 2.5 / 3.0 / 3.2 in my limited experience, nice.

Local scrappies where I hang out at weekends had three V6 omegas and a Vectra come in during one week with HG failure...A, B & C-series are all great engines for their time in my book, the A&B just stayed in production well past their prime & BMC should have stuck with it on the development side with the MGA DOHC versions of the B series - 108 bhp from a 1.6 engine in a road car in 1958 is pretty jaw dropping when thats still about the standard 50+ years later?!?Coolest british postwar engine - Daimler 4.5 V8 from the Majestic Major, I would happily suffer a disfiguring injury to own one!

[Timewaster]

Some Post war British engines what I've driven;.Boat anchors x 27

Jeez, you've driven some crap!

[Richard]

I thought the Rover straight six was derived from the Triumph ones.

[dollywobbler]

I thought the Rover straight six was derived from the Triumph ones.

I think it ended up being quite different, though the original plan was certainly to just 'OHC' the older engine.Agree that the Daimler V8 is emphatically not Brit-Shit. Rover V8 isn't entirely British though, yet still seems quite head-gaskety (though perhaps only in chronically abused Range Rovers?)

[Rocket88]

Sorry about Cologne inclusion, forgot about both Daimler v8's, had a Majestic Major for a bit, me and a friend of mine spent a long week end invading northern France [he had, and still has a Ford Pilot] I think we scared the living crap out of the Frogs [we both had, ahem, "exhaust silencer issues"]And yes, I'm proud to say that I've owned a long succesion of festering British crap.

[Cavcraft]

If your lady wants to keep the MG why dont you consider dropping in another engine Somethin' more reliable Maybe a honda motor with the added Vtec ?Sure it may be abit of work with wiring, ecu, clocks, engine and gerbox mounts..etc..But surely its better than shelling out feck loads to potentially spend the time, effort and money again in afew months to for it to just keep happening ?

Surely it would be cheaper to get a new bird?

[Minimad5]

Surely it would be cheaper to get a new bird?

Awws Anthony !Yes the female folk can be expensive and annoying at times but they are worth it (depends who ya with lol)I'm sure Station would have to tell his lady you said that She wont be impressed !

[Station]

Surely it would be cheaper to get remain single for the rest of your life?

[Minimad5]

Why dont we just weld the head on ?No leaks !Get rid on ebay Jobs very badly done and buy your lady a new motor Somethin like an Mr2 or a celica(Yes welding the head on is a stupid idea i know)

[Mr_Bo11ox]

At work we use this stuff called 'fuji paper', its pressure sensititve paper:

 

http://www.sensorprod.com/pressurex.php

 

It would be class to put a layer of this above and below the head gask of a kippered K-series and pop the head back on to see if you can see exactly where the leaks are happening. Then you'd have a chance of curing them properly rather than just lobbing a new gask in and hoping for the best.

 

Theers so many theroies out there - head annealing, liners moving, liner height tolerances, dowels playing up, wrong gasket 'type', none of them seem to be a definitive answer. I'm sure this test must have been done before but it might shed some light on what happens to these engines. If you could reliably fix K-series head gaskets you'd have plenty of recession-proof work i'm sure!

[r.welfare]

Local scrappies where I hang out at weekends had three V6 omegas and a Vectra come in during one week with HG failure...

Could be oil cooler failure, that's much more common in the EcoWreck V6 and gives much the same symptoms as HGF. As I understand it (from people in the know), an actual HGF on a Vauxhall V6 is actually quite a rare occurence.

[Rocket88]

[...quoteA, B & C-series are all great engines for their time in my book, the A&B just stayed in production well past their prime & BMC should have stuck with it on the development side with the MGA DOHC versions of the B series - 108 bhp from a 1.6 engine in a road car in 1958 is pretty jaw dropping when thats still about the standard 50+ years later?!? quoteMGA twink blew up with boring regularity, as MG couldn't build them to close enough tolerances.........." me ruler only works in eighths of an inch guv"..............we used to be very good [because of the way road tax was structured] at building long stroke sloggers, loads of torque, no power at the top end. The Italians [again because of thier road tax system] built over square screamers......the Krauts just built everything properly.......

[wilko]

MGA twink blew up with boring regularity, as MG couldn't build them to close enough tolerances.........." me ruler only works in eighths of an inch guv"..............we used to be very good [because of the way road tax was structured] at building long stroke sloggers, loads of torque, no power at the top end. The Italians [again because of thier road tax system] built over square screamers......the Krauts just built everything properly.......

re. the MGA twinks, I know they blew up, which is why it's a shame they didn't stick at it with the development!?The only thing I can think that the Krauts did which put them miles ahead was the M10/M30 in the early 60's - all else flowed from there for years for BMW.No comment on your list for the legendary Jaguar XK lump?