A giffertastic Rover 45 - engine removal, autopsy and overhaul. IT RUNS!!!

[RoverFolkUs]

As the title suggests, as of lunchtime I had no intentions of buying a car today but here we are now

More in a bit...

[comfortablynumb]

Another rover 620!!! 😄

[eddyramrod]

Free gift of a barn-find P4?

[grogee]

If it's not a mk1 SD1 2300 with a permanent oil leak I will be absolutely livid. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Never buy a car in the rain? Pah! 

I bought a car in the dark and the rain 😂

I haven't actually seen it in the daylight 😂

It's a remarkably clean Rover 45 1.6 Petrol. It's been in the same family since almost new and it's only ever been to a main dealer for it's services and MOTs, with stacks of paperwork to show. It's just clicked over 38,000 miles on the way home 

Done all the usual checks, it's been garaged so there's minimal rust, held temperature absolutely fine, coolant and oil are clean, heaters working as they should and no warning lights on the dash! The engine sounds like a really sweet K-Series, no nasty tappet noises or piston slap like they can have. 

Here's a photo from the sellers advert before I manage to get some daylight pictures. 

It's an "impression" spec which seems about the middle of the range, it's got Aircon which actually works!!! Front fogs, but that's about it. No heated seats and it's got keep fit windows in the back!

I just couldn't resist it, it had just popped up on Facebook marketplace at a bargain price this afternoon, I messaged within 10 minutes of the ad going live, went down to view it this evening, shook the seller's hand and did the deal

What's the plans for it? Well I don't think it really needs anything, it's already flown through an MOT before purchase. It would be harsh to call it a WBOD because it's far from that but my 620ti needs a few jobs done so this will be very handy to take it's place for the time being while I get things sorted on that

[stuboy]

looks good that

[Cookiesouwest]

Very well bought

[djoptix]

Lovely!

[High Jetter]

Spoiler alert 😀

[comfortablynumb]

Funny how the three guesses before you revealed it were all Rovers🤣🤣

Ever get the feeling you're being typecast?

Seriously, well bought 👍

[Matty]

Ooh that looks superb. Lovely colour. Another gem from period peak car!

[RoverFolkUs]

Initial glance in the daylight this morning

[vtec-e]

Well done and well found ! It reminds me so much of my old Civic 😃

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, vtec-e said:

Well done and well found ! It reminds me so much of my old Civic 😃

I had a red one of this shape, Honda Civic S 1.4 auto. One of the most comfortable and best handling cars I’ve had.

Well bought @RoverFolkUs - can’t wait for the roffle 😉

[AnnoyingPentium]

That's bloody lovely. Well bought!

[vtec-e]

Found a picture of my Civic, taken from the good side! It's status at this point after 25 years and 305K miles was 'retired'. Apart from rust around the wheel arches and chewing through rear bushes (and exhaust systems) I felt it would keep going forever, until ULEZ came along. Your Rover looks in really splendid condition. I'm looking forward to the updates.

   

[lotus3512]

That Rover looks stunning, a new aerial and it'll be good as new! Makes me want a 45.

[Cavcraft]

20 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Never buy a car in the rain? Pah! 

I bought a car in the dark and the rain 😂

I haven't actually seen it in the daylight 😂

It's a remarkably clean Rover 45 1.6 Petrol. It's been in the same family since almost new and it's only ever been to a main dealer for it's services and MOTs, with stacks of paperwork to show. It's just clicked over 38,000 miles on the way home 

Done all the usual checks, it's been garaged so there's minimal rust, held temperature absolutely fine, coolant and oil are clean, heaters working as they should and no warning lights on the dash! The engine sounds like a really sweet K-Series, no nasty tappet noises or piston slap like they can have. 

Here's a photo from the sellers advert before I manage to get some daylight pictures. 

It's an "impression" spec which seems about the middle of the range, it's got Aircon which actually works!!! Front fogs, but that's about it. No heated seats and it's got keep fit windows in the back!

I just couldn't resist it, it had just popped up on Facebook marketplace at a bargain price this afternoon, I messaged within 10 minutes of the ad going live, went down to view it this evening, shook the seller's hand and did the deal

What's the plans for it? Well I don't think it really needs anything, it's already flown through an MOT before purchase. It would be harsh to call it a WBOD because it's far from that but my 620ti needs a few jobs done so this will be very handy to take it's place for the time being while I get things sorted on that

Just from the advert photo you can tell it looks well cared for. Well bought!

[RoverFolkUs]

50 minutes ago, lotus3512 said:

That Rover looks stunning, a new aerial and it'll be good as new! Makes me want a 45.

Well spotted 🤓 - the seller did say the head unit doesn't work so that's something I'll have to investigate 

[RoverFolkUs]

Wow - put it up in the air this afternoon to see what it was like underneath 

What an absolute peach! 😅

The front floorplans are a common weak spot on the 400/45/ZS/Civic platform yet they're totally original, unwelded and solid on this one. The previous owner has treated them to a good standard after receiving an advisory on the MOT - I see no reason why these areas would cause any trouble in the near future 

The back of the engine is immaculate, bone dry, the PAS pump bracket still looks brand new, there's not a spec of rust on the infamous rear coolant rail which commonly rots out with age 

The floors and sills are completely solid. The exhaust is the only thing that's suffered - even the front heat shields are almost spotless

The fuel tanks commonly rot on these - but this one has only the slightest amount of surface corrosion starting to come through the factory paint! 

Check out that brake pipe - factory coating completely undamaged and not a spot of corrosion on it. 

That bracket and bolt holding the brake pipe above the fuel tank are still factory fresh 😅

Very minimal surface corrosion to the rear trailing arms - most of the factory paint is still intact. The wheels are all clean and in excellent condition 

Inner arches are rock solid - they could do with cleaning out to remove the buildup of road silt - I'd probably give everything a coating of clear waxoyl. 

Filler pipes are still factory fresh. 

I'm absolutely astonished at how much of a well preserved example I've landed myself with - it feels like a shame to use it and allow it to succumb to the elements 😅

[RoverFolkUs]

I gave this a bit of TLC the other day 

The only fault I found with it in usage was that it would take ages to get up to temperature and had a habit of running cool under harsh acceleration. Another issue was that it seemed to have a bit of an appetite for coolant, but was not overheating or pressurising. 

OMGHGF comments need not apply, I did a combustion leak test which passed ok. 

A failing inlet manifold gasket is a well known issue on the K-Series engine so I figured I'd replace it anyway, sure enough it would appear to have failed between cylinder 1 and the infamous jiggle valve. 

I fitted the updated viton gasket supplied by DMGRS and having covered around 100 miles since, so far so good. 

Conveniently the thermostat housing is located just below the inlet manifold so I killed 2 birds with 1 stone here - so I fitted a brand new thermostat housing also supplied by DMGRS. 

The temperature now rises to half way as quickly as it should and remains steady under all driving conditions, so I'm glad to report that's fixed too. 

I carried out a major service, replacing the oil, oil filter, air filter (which was date coded 2014) , spark plugs, HT leads, fuel filter (which was the original rover branded one) and cabin filter (which also appeared to be original!) 

I've got 2x new coil packs on the way - the old spark plugs had corrosion on the terminals, as well as the fact the HT leads fell apart having not been touched for ages I thought it would be sensible to renew everything in the ignition department 

A couple of other satisfying improvements included adjusting the rear brakes (which still looked as new like the rest of the mechanicals) , cleaning and re-greasing the front brakes. I noticed a small amount of play in the front wheel bearings - now having re-torqued the outer CV joint nuts this seems to have gone away and been caught in time. I also fitted a new aerial to replace the broken one.

All that's left on my to-do list is to find and fit a nice stereo to it to replace the faulty one. 

Still not too sure what to do with it but I'll continue to put some miles on it and enjoy it

All of the above I believe has come to less than £200 in parts, money well spent I'd say given the improvements to the car. And important preventative maintenance to the cooling system. 

[N Dentressangle]

38k miles and garaged will get you something like that, aye.

[RoverFolkUs]

I'm at a crossroads with this one now

I've been using it all week and put about 150 miles on it, but it's sadly managed to devour an entire expansion tank worth of coolant already, which is more or less the same as before. I already gave it a small top-up in the week as it reached the minimum and I hoped it had just bled the last of the air out, but sadly not it seems. 

I've done the simple stuff, and there are no visible external leaks. My last resort is to remove the cambelt covers to check the water pump, but otherwise it's unexplainably losing coolant. And there are no traces of an external leak. 

The car drives absolutely faultlessly, I've got *zero* signs of OMGHGF, the coolant and oil are clean, it's not overheating, it's not over pressurising the cooling system, it hasn't failed a "sniff" test. 

I really don't have the time to waste to replace the headgasket and get the head pressure tested without being more certain that it's at fault, I can't believe it would be because there is no concrete evidence. 

If I had the space and time to work on it at my own pace I would, but I don't have that option like I used to. 

What the bloody hell do I do? If I was keeping it long term I'd probably just live with it but I'm not. What's it worth? Everyone is going to think the worst understandably but it's an immaculate 38k mile car and deserves to live

I could never bring myself to weigh it in. I think I may just have to sit on it for a while until either my circumstances change and I'll be able to fix it myself in my own time or until someone comes along wanting an immaculate shell donor 🤷‍♂️

Big sad

[Matty]

27 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I'm at a crossroads with this one now

I've been using it all week and put about 150 miles on it, but it's sadly managed to devour an entire expansion tank worth of coolant already, which is more or less the same as before. I already gave it a small top-up in the week as it reached the minimum and I hoped it had just bled the last of the air out, but sadly not it seems. 

I've done the simple stuff, and there are no visible external leaks. My last resort is to remove the cambelt covers to check the water pump, but otherwise it's unexplainably losing coolant. And there are no traces of an external leak. 

The car drives absolutely faultlessly, I've got *zero* signs of OMGHGF, the coolant and oil are clean, it's not overheating, it's not over pressurising the cooling system, it hasn't failed a "sniff" test. 

I really don't have the time to waste to replace the headgasket and get the head pressure tested without being more certain that it's at fault, I can't believe it would be because there is no concrete evidence. 

If I had the space and time to work on it at my own pace I would, but I don't have that option like I used to. 

What the bloody hell do I do? If I was keeping it long term I'd probably just live with it but I'm not. What's it worth? Everyone is going to think the worst understandably but it's an immaculate 38k mile car and deserves to live

I could never bring myself to weigh it in. I think I may just have to sit on it for a while until either my circumstances change and I'll be able to fix it myself in my own time or until someone comes along wanting an immaculate shell donor 🤷‍♂️

Big sad

Easy answer surely for you? You love these in general, this ones a peach, youve more than got the skills, youve access to all the gear, you do this for a living. Just put it on the back burner for now till you feel motivated enough to deal with it.

A car for years this once gone through.

Edit. Just read through again. Understand that you dont want to get to into it if you dont want to keep it. If it doesnt have a job to do in your house then just offer it up for sale as is. Id reckon its worth more to you fixed and earning its keep mind.

[High Jetter]

Bet it's the w/pump

[RoverFolkUs]

21 minutes ago, Matty said:

Easy answer surely for you? You love these in general, this ones a peach, youve more than got the skills, youve access to all the gear, you do this for a living. Just put it on the back burner for now till you feel motivated enough to deal with it.

Oh, I can do the work, but I have lost workshop space outside of work hours (problems with employer, I'll be jumping ships soon) and have little resources/space to do anything at home. 

[RoverFolkUs]

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Bet it's the w/pump

I bloody hope so 😅 but I'd expect a drip from behind the cover when pressure tested, it remained dry though. I'll whip the covers off to be certain 

[RoverFolkUs]

47 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I've been using it all week and put about 150 miles on it,

On further thought, I mentioned upthread that the first 100 miles seemed ok (I only had to top it up from min-max and thought this may have been a tiny airlock which cleared while driving) - but then 50 miles of driving later which has been town driving, it's lost a lot more - the entire tank. 

*Scratches head*

[Chuck Buckles]

I’d hang on to it if you have room and just use it a bit until the cause of the loss becomes obvious. Good cars like that don’t pop up often and you were lucky to spot it before some driveway trader nabbed it. 

[Imhotep]

Do these suffer the cracked thermostat housing the KV6s suffer? 
 

Also I know expansion tanks on these, like Rover 800s can be a pain. Might be worth getting it really warm and seeing if there’s a small crack opening up in the expansion tank when the car is warm.