Been offered a dolomite sprint (decent shell) fitted with a 820 turbo engine and lt77 gearbox. Needs finishing..... (ie prop, intercooler, wire in the original ECU, exhaust etc.)

A well known engine builder/racer/resto chap is selling it, a project he started as a paid job, and he knows the engine having had it in his own Rover from new, and only 65k with a refresh 5k ago. So should be a good one.

Downside that I can see is the inlet manifold exits at the rear, so can these be cut/welded to relocate the throttle body at the front? Will that cause an issue with the turbo pipework/inlet etc layout? (bear with me, not played with turbos before)

The shell is available without the engine/box for £750 less, again tempting and fit a zetec...
but does the rover engine sound viable? I am tempted, although the sensible side of me says I have enough car stuff already.

What shall I do?

Buy the lot and finish it - if you can weld and use an angle grinder anything is possible

Inlet manifolds easy to modify I just cut off the throttle body end and the blank end flipped them round and got them rewelded back on, shape was exactly the same would add photos if I could remember how.

Just added some photos in my archive

And if the right price sounds a nice retro project

[Edited on 13/5/20 by will121]

I had a rover 820 a good few years ago, the electrics and ecu were pants, and I had at least two ecus at £500 a go,

and then there was the engine fire, that started at the throttle body, apparently from the assessor, a very common fire

just saying

steve

So the inlet should be a simple enough job, and I can just farm the welding out.
Uses the std ECU, so failure a worry as not exactly common thesedays.
Not keep on fires either.

If I could persuade him to sell the rolling shell I would be more comfortable fitting a zetec (I have the required front bowl sump somewhere, and an MT75 box that would be ideal, plus a weber alpa ignition box, but the idiot owner chopped the loom off, luckily left the plug) just needing a carb of some description. A simple weber 36/32 would be adequate. And a really simple, reliable setup.

I need to think about it, in between sorting out other life stuff which is extremely complicated at the moment.

I called the seller yesterday, he had just sold it q few minutes before.
Guess it is what happens when you faff a bit and other stuff slows you down. Ho hum. But inspired me to rethink my collection of cars.

Either buy quickly with the heart or slowly with the head

My mum would have a saying that it just wasn’t meant to be.

To be fair, I had spent the day sorting my dad and taking him into a care/nursing home, something not even considered until last Saturday, so a bit of a shock.
And yes, it just wasn't meant to be, but I took a peek at my Triumph Toledo (poverty spec dolomite) yesterday, gave it a wash and decided I must do the few bits to get it back on the road. A quick assessment showed a few days with the mig and a respray would do no harm, and ideally a couple of doors would be good, but getting hard to find. A few years ago good ones were £25, should have bought them up when I saw them.

It did occur to me that using a vauxhall turbo engine would be a reasonable idea, mated to an omega box or possibly RX8 via an adaptor plate. Otherwise the spare st170 engine I have, along with the MT75 box sitting here.... lock the cam, I have a set of GSXR bodies and a simple ECU could be bought, I see microsquirt or the speeduino are about.. could be an idea though a turbo sounds fun.