britishtrident
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| posted on 21/1/11 at 04:00 PM |
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A lot of the so called head gasket problem was nothing to do with the head gasket at all but a handful of minor mistakes in the design of the
system.
For example, form from the late 1990's on Rover changed to using the Engine ECU to drive the dashboard instruments via CAN bus. Then somebody
at Rover decided that "in order to present the driver with a consistent reading" the gauge should read normal when the engines reaches
75c and not move until the engine reaches 115c. This of course is fine if everything is running well and the engine has no coolant leaks and hence
keeping the cooling system under pressure, but if there is is a leak the engine can be boiling away merrily with the temperature guage firmly planted
on "N".
The graphic bellows shows the gauge needle position v engine temperature.
 
Description
[Edited on 21/1/11 by britishtrident]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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Simon
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| posted on 21/1/11 at 04:36 PM |
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That explains quite a lot:d
Just had head gasket replaced on wifes zr. Not bad when you consider our works van (transit connect) just had to have egr valve replaced (including
most of the manifold) because the irreplaceable bit that broke was a 4mm bearing worth about .001p. Cost to replace, just over £600. Said when we
bought it, we should have bought a Renault. Will next time though!
ATB
Simon
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britishtrident
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| posted on 21/1/11 at 04:58 PM |
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Ford have lost their reputation for being easy and cheap to fix.
However the fire is much hotter than the frying pan the Renault (also used by Nissan and Vauxhall) DCi engine especially in the 1.9and larger sizes
has the poorest reputation of all modern units for very expensive major blow ups due the turbo blowing up and the shrapnel exiting via the cylinders
--- lubrication issue happens once over 70,000 miles.
[Edited on 21/1/11 by britishtrident]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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johnH20
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| posted on 22/1/11 at 09:17 PM |
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There is a huge amount of knowledge on how to build a reliable high output K series if you search for it among the Lotus Elise and Caterham forums.
Dave Andrews as previously mentioned is an acknowledged expert and he and his site are very 'open source'. I run a 150 bhp K series in my
Elise with DVA cams and I have had no basic engine issues despite lots of track day use. Build carefully with the knowledge of the engine's
critical features and you should be ok.
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James
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| posted on 27/1/11 at 02:13 PM |
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Excellent thread RK- nice one.
quote:
Originally posted by theduck
Personally I really rate the K Series engines, this article is well worth a read http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?essaykseriesf.htm
After reading this I'm almost tempted! 
Cheers,
James
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"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
- Muhammad Ali
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hughpinder
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| posted on 28/1/11 at 11:17 AM |
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Just to show I haven't completely made up the bit about the S200o engine being derived from the rover engine:
From the link in the previous post:
The point is that big bore short stroke engines are conceived to make high engine speeds possible, the penalty is poor torque, the Honda 2.0 litre
S2000 producing just 151 lb ft @ 7500 rpm, a figure easily eclipsed by the 1.8 litre K equipped with Piper’s 1227 cams which will give a very similar
power output to the Honda engine. So, the Honda is not such a special engine. It does have a very strong and stiff block, being a copy of the K
Series’ design, but suffers from its enormous weight of 158 kg in standard form fully dressed (figures from the Vemac Car Co.) more than 60 kg heavier
than the standard K. The only really attractive part of the Honda’s design are the roller cams which do reduce friction in the valve train but in
every other respect the K is a more efficient and effective design than the Honda.
Regards
Hugh
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britishtrident
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| posted on 28/1/11 at 11:54 AM |
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You have to remember from day one of BMW taking control of Rover the BMW board split into two factions one pro Rover the other anti-Rover.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 28/1/11 at 12:09 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by hughpinder
Just to show I haven't completely made up the bit about the S200o engine being derived from the rover engine:
From the link in the previous post:
The point is that big bore short stroke engines are conceived to make high engine speeds possible, the penalty is poor torque, the Honda 2.0 litre
S2000 producing just 151 lb ft @ 7500 rpm, a figure easily eclipsed by the 1.8 litre K equipped with Piper’s 1227 cams which will give a very similar
power output to the Honda engine. So, the Honda is not such a special engine. It does have a very strong and stiff block, being a copy of the K
Series’ design, but suffers from its enormous weight of 158 kg in standard form fully dressed (figures from the Vemac Car Co.) more than 60 kg heavier
than the standard K. The only really attractive part of the Honda’s design are the roller cams which do reduce friction in the valve train but in
every other respect the K is a more efficient and effective design than the Honda.
Regards
Hugh
The article is a very good article but take a few of the statements with some consideration.
Honda had been using open deck blocks long before Rover, first time I stripped a Rover K my first reaction was whoever designed it had spent a bit
of time looking at 998cc wet liner Rootes Imp race engines.
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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