Greetings,

 

Some of you may be familiar with the "Brisk Rover", my little toy that I use for club level motorsport and stuff. I've had it for 3 years now so I figured it's about time I actually wrote a little bit about it. Especially as it's going to be going through a few nice changes soon.

 

I originally bought the 214Si for £250 with 6 months MOT and a couple of new bits on it. It got a set of alloys thrown on as soon as I got it home and I then put my half leather interior and electric windows in to take it from Si spec to SEi spec. Nice. I then went up a hill with my brother and took a photo.

 

 

I then started to use it for Autosolo and navigational road rallying, which was the main reason I bought it. Cheap and I don't have to worry about breaking it. It stayed reasonably standardish until a friend offered me a Rover gearbox, which had recently been rebuilt with Quaife bits, for a very reasonable price so it's got close ratio, straight cut gears with a LSD

It took a bit of fabrication and a good few hours in the cold but it all went in without too much hassle.

 

 

So with the trick box in, the car really came alive and is so much fun to drive. Since that substantial mod, I've done nothing but abuse the car but it just keeps on going. It's probably done close to 100 events by now and it's only failed to finsh one due to a piece of metal getting caught in the cam belt and making it slip 3 teeth. Got away without any damage and once it was all realigned the next day, it fired straight up and ran lovely.

 

I've crashed it a couple of times. First incident was a brush with a tree at a grass Autotest

 

 

And the second incident was a couple of months ago where I had a head on with a Yeti and did pretty much identical damage to the first crash. Didn't bend anything important and managed to ix each time with a hammer and cable ties

 

I've had reasonable success with the car whilst doind the Autosolos, usually win a trophy and this year I managed to win a championship. It seems to handle quite well and is very predictable. It always seems to surprise people at how well it goes. It certainy held it's own at Bedford earlier in the year placing 9th out of 18 when pitted against mostly things with VRS badges on.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH8dQgN0rL4

 

 

It's Current spec:

 

Engine: 1396cc Rover K Series with 52mm throttle body, baffled sump and lightened flywheel running 112bhp

 

Gearbox: Rover PG1 Box with Quaife straight cut, close ratios and LSD

 

Suspension: Standard shocks and springs, RARB from a Coupe

 

Brakes: Larger vented discs up front, discs on the back (Luckily it came with the same setup as the 220 already on as it use to have ABS, so I haven't had to do the conversion)

 

Wheels: Various Rover alloys in various colours. Preferred wheels are the GTi ones.

 

Interior: SEi half leathers, Sparco suede steering wheel, Sparco 4 point harnesses

 

Exterior: Spot lights, loads of hero scars.

 

So, plans for it starting this week include this:

 

 

1800cc VVC 160bhp engine from an MG ZR. Should make it rather rapid

 

Bolting the engine in will be the easy bit as externally, K series engines are all the same, just the insidy bits change. Trick bit with this conversion will be the wiring as the ECU systems and looms differ quite a bit. Hopefully going to sort some sort of suspension upgade while it's off the road for a bit.

 

Well that's it for now, I'll keep the thread updated as work progresses.

 

Cheerio.

 

 

Ohhh nice, I miss my Zr160 but the brunt of the octy vrs make me smile. 

Nice to see some rover action again,I used to have a 216 gti years ago,uprated suspension,brakes full exhaust system including 4-2-1 manifold loved it,also had a 25 gti great engine but never handled aswell as the 216,keep up the good work

I remember the Bedford How fast, it had very surprising performance as it was, I hope you have the engine swapped and ready for How Fast 2014.

 

 Good luck with the modifications.

I've got a deadline of the 11th of January as it needs to be at the Autosport show giving passengr rides on the Autosolo course. Hope to have it finished a bit before then though.

 

Full Polybush kit arriving Monday

So it begins... Once I made some working space in the garage, I made a start on the new engine.

 

Rocker cover off as I need to change the gasket but also I've never seen inside a VVC before. It has one solid cam and one cam in 2 pieces hence why it has a little belt at the other end.

 

 

All looked good inside although I'm pretty sure that this shouldn't be undone :|

 

 

Tightened up ok and I checked all the rest so I think it's cool.

 

First job was to change the little belt at the end.

 

 

People have told me that it's really difficult to do. B******s, it's simple. Put the locking tool between the cam sprockets at the other end, take the left hand sprocket off at this end and keep an eye on the right hand sprocket because it will probably spin slightly due to the tension from the valve springs. If it does move, just turn it back and hold it in position when you slip the new belt on. Easy. Once the new belt was on, I turned the engine over by hand a couple of times and rechecked the alignment. Spot on.

 

I also changed the camshaft oil seals while I had the sprockets off.

 

 

Then it was time for dinner and to open up my parcel that arrived today

 

 

Soooo many bushes on a Rover 200. So many.

 

That's it for today. Might do some more tomorrow, maybe change the main timing belt.

Purple is sooooo your colour lol.

 

 Great start, looking forward to seeing the rest of your antics and then seeing how all your hard work improves the performance at How Fast 2014..

Love it.

I had a 214sli (british racing green & grey) and covered 20-30k per year in it, always put a smile on my face with the K&N & Magnex exhaust..  Mine to had an engine coversion towards the end, 1.8vvc from an MG, all work carried out by Motobuild in Hounslow, They too converted the front brakes to vented but left the rears as standard.

 

That was when the problems started, it went though a couple of gearboxes and several clutches until I eventually sold it :( , Still miss that car

 

I look forward to your updates

Right, an update.

 

Took the cambelt off nearly two weeks ago, no problems, removed the cam sprockets so I could replaced the camshaft oil seals and then I remembered why the camshaft seals are available in two different colours. They are handed according to which way the shaft will be spinning so I had to order a pair of correct ones and they took a few days to arrive. Then I got really busy with work and all sorts of other stuff so haven't been able to get into the garage.

But tonight, I've made some good progress.

 

New (correct) camshaft seals in.

New waterpump on.

New thermostat in.

New timing belt and tensioner on.

New crankshaft seal at flywheel end in.

New clutch on.

New alternator brackets on (to enable getting rid of unrequired aircon pump)

New alternator and power steering belts on.

New rocker gasket on.

New plugs in.

Coil packs back on.

Plastic covers back on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's pretty much all I can do to it until I take the 1400cc engine out the car so I can swap a couple of bits across. Finish work for xmas break this week so should be able to crack on with the project a bit more.

 

Tata for now.

Not bad for an evenings progress, keep up the good work

Made a start on the suspension stuff yesterday. Rear end first. Extracted the old bushes from the rear arms

 

 

And slotted in the poly.

 

 

Rear anti roll bar. You will not believe how difficult it was to get this little ****** of a bush in. Lots of time, swearing and a bottle of screenwash which now has a hole in later, it eventually slipped in.

 

 

Kill it with fire!

 

 

New strut built up and ready to fit

 

 

Also had a bit of luck yesterday down the scrap yard. The car I pinched a couple of bits off had a pair of camber adjustable rear link arms on. Result

 

 

By the time I had put the bits back on it was nearly 9pm and the wind was starting to annoy me so I downed tools and cleansed myself. More to follow if I decide to brave the wind again today.

excellent progress so far.

One of the best mods you can do on these rovers are front and rear top strut braces really tighten it up,got mine from moto build made a massive difference

Already got a front strut brace. Picked it up freshly powder coated for all of £20

Well I got the other side done this afternoon. There was a slight incident however.

 

A situation developed whilst burning suspension bushes out of lower arms. The blow torch fitting came loose and butane started leaking which then caught fire. I dropped the torch which landed by a can of diesel. I didn't think this was a good place to leave it so I picked up the fire ball and threw it out the door into the garden where it then landed by the wooded shed. I didn't think this was a great place either so I kicked it down the garden, chased the cat away from it and chucked a bucket over it. The bucket was plastic so that just caught fire too and then melted. I didn't have any powder or CO2 extinguishers so water had to do and it took a lot to make the flames stop. Quite entertaining really.

 

So remember kids, leave fire to grown ups, it can hurt you.

Those rover mems units from the vvc engine? Are they plug compatible with the older stuff? Seem to remember being told that by somebody?

The vvc I have is a MEMS 3 whereas the car currently runs MEMS 1.9 so the wiring will be a bit fiddly but doable. The 1.9 system has a single plug on the ecu which goes to engine loom and the car loom. The 3 system has 2 plugs on the ecu,one for the engine loom and one for the car loom. I have aquired a list of which wires need to be spliced so hopefully it'll work. Worst case, I could always rewire the whole car!

Do you need to use the transponder unit and keys from the mems3 unit too or can you use the existing ones?

I've got the full set of already matched up alarm box and fob with the ecu so it's ready to rock on that score. I'll probably get the ecu decoded like I have with the current 1400 ecu. That way, I can use any alarm box and fob. Very handy if a fob dies.

Got all the front suspension sorted this afternoon. All polybushed and new shocks and springs are on. The old shocks really were buggered. Practically no damping left in them whatsoever. Just waiting for some parts to arrive so I can get the back end finished and then then it'll be time to liberate the old engine.

Very productive day. Upon returning home from the RR day at R-Tech, fresh with the knowledge that the Fabia's turbo is on borrowed time, I cracked on and extracted the 1400 engine from the Rover.

 

Got everything disconnected

 

 

Then cracked out the engine crane and made the extraction.

 

 

 

 

 

Got done just in time for my chicken kiev

that's given me a brainwave seeing that. i reckon one of those would go really well in a felicia..

 

how far apart are the chassis rails on those rovers? also have you got a picture of the left hand side of the engine bay

that's given me a brainwave seeing that. i reckon one of those would go really well in a felicia..

 

how far apart are the chassis rails on those rovers? also have you got a picture of the left hand side of the engine bay

 

Should be doable I would've thought. Once I've finished my kiev, I'll go have a measure up and photo for you.

excellente :love:

 

would certainly be a lot simpler than shoe horning a 1.8T into one

Not very brisk right now is it?!