22 Aug 05 - It's my day off

As mentioned yesterday I took a trip to Castleford again last night. No, really, I did... honest... I got 5 minutes from the shop and the heavens opened. I mean it was like driving through a waterfall. Wet... very, very wet. Wetter than a wet thing that's wet with a cunning plan to be wetter than usual. It was sheer madness, I had choice - sit with the windows closed and watch the air fog around me quicker than you can sing the first line of "The Fog on the Tyne" in a crazy, garbled Geordie accent, or open them so that I could see where I'm going but drown on the way there. I went for the half way option... windows open a bit so that it's only misty and dig out the shower gel.

Got to Lockside's and jumped out of the car... 10 seconds later, resembling something fished out of the canal by police diver, I'm in the shop. "We've got something out back we want to show you", they say in their gruffest Yorkshire accent. What could it be I wonder? No - nothing like puppies, just the reason why the head will cost another £40 to fix. The head has had '2100 thou' taken off - 0.0021 thousandths of an inch (or 5 hundredths (0.05) millimetres for you Europhiles) and tested OK. However they did find out that the valves were leaking and that I would be losing compression (the cause of the bunny hopping experienced on the day of collection perhaps?) whilst driving. Consequently they need to be lapped (ooer missus) and the valve seats drilled. Sounds like a complete refurb on the head then bearing in mind it's been skimmed, cam seals and valve stem seals to be replaced and now valves lapped and re-seated. I've been promised that it will be as good as new after all the work. I'll be happy if it will be good enough to get another 60k miles at least.

PS. Did I forget to mention it was wet?

21 Aug 05 - What a palaver!

Well on 17th Ang has a chat with Lockside Engineering about bringing the head in for testing. They don't close until 5:30- she says. That's OK they're only about 7 miles from the house and I can be there in 15 minutes. Only problem is that because of work and the weather I didn't get home until after 5pm... no point in risking a ticket just to get the head in so I'll leave it 24 hours.

The rest of the head set arrived Friday morning. I think they were wrapped in possessed packaging. How else did Ang get smacked in the eye by them and then me nearly lose the tip of my finger? Bizarre!

Friday I finish 30 mins early to make sure I get there in time. Home before 4:30pm and Ang is ready to go - the head is already in the boot so it's just a case of getting there in one piece. We get there at 4:50 to find they've closed early - WTF? Arrgghh!!! Nearly had an accident leaving the shop as some old geezer in a Mondeo (who obviously fancies himself as a bit of a Jason Plato) tries to squeeze past me as I'm pulling away. Nugget! Never mind - no harm done. Off to Morrison's for food and beer so that I can put up with the Friday night hell that is Big Brother eviction night.

Saturday morning up with the lark... yeah right! 10am is early enough for me thanks very much. Bit of a result on the coolant temperature sensor connector. A guy we found on eBay who sells Rover parts has sent me the plug and the sensor for £13 including delivery. Ordered Friday AM and arrived in the post this morning - top service and highly recommended.

Jump in the car and pootle off to Castleford. Again! We manage to get there this time before they shut but have to park about 50 metres from the shop entrance. Those heads may be aluminium but they are gosh darned heavy and not easy to grip hold of when they have oil on them! Drop it on the counter and the guy knows straight away it's a T16... he's obviously done a few LOL. They offered to replace the valve stem seals and cam oil seals too as part of the service so guess what I have to do Monday after work? Yeah that's right. Back to Castleford!

Anyway - got a 'phone call from 'her indoors' to say that the head test and skim was complete and they were waiting for the seals to be delivered and would finish it off for me. Guess where I'm going tomorrow night after work? Sigh...

16 Aug 06 - Strip completed.

Got home from work on Thursday to find that Andy had made like the Queen of Hearts and the head was off! Again everything is looking like it may be OK. No sign of water at all in any of the cylinders so hopefully the HG was intact after all. It was a Klinger as well so at least the guy who last did it knew enough to put the right one on.

The head is going off to Lockside Engineering in Castleford for it to be tested and if necessary skimmed. I might just get them to clean it up a little as well - the valves look like they could do with a clean up and if that's the case I could get the valve stem seals replaced at the same time.

The cooling system is beginning to look more and more like the major culprit in the overheating problem. Not only is there the broken connector but the thermostat housing was gunged up to the eyeballs. Andy seems to think that whoever did the last job - either the HG or the radiator hasn't flushed the cooling system properly and the HG itself shows signs of being blocked by some of the gunk as well.

Not much to do for now. Andy is back at work for the next few days and with the head away for testing work is going to pause again.

The Female Viewpoint (as work commences)

Work has finally started on "that bloody car" Not that it's "that bloody car" at the moment. I'm feeling quite excited about it and strangely enough loved going to the great big car parts shop yesterday. It's been stood for ages now and as Andy hasn't had chance - when he's been off Brian's been at work and vice versa. I decided enough was enough and by a fortnight ago it was back to being "that bloody car" again and I was all set for flogging it. But Andy's got some time off, got the keys off Brian and worked flat out yesterday stripping the engine down. Brian got in from work and went straight over there to help - is this my new life car widow I wonder. Then it was off to the car parts place with a long list of bits. I loved it in there which was odd as I just don't do cars but I was well excited looking at all the different bits. Came back and took the bits across to Andy and Brian helped a bit more while I ooohed and aaahed knowingly at the engine I've spent an age looking for parts for it and ringing round places for what we need. I'm even going to take photos of it for the blog. We need to go back to the parts shop for the bits they didn't have in and I can't wait to go again. I really impressed myself by suggesting we replace the HT leads while everything is being done - I even knew which bit of the engine they were. God am I in danger of turning into a petrol head.
I even want to learn to drive so I can drive it which has scared the hell out of Brian LOL
First impressions are looking promising. The words head and gasket aren't sounding as scary as they were as everything is looking pretty good there. Although it's still coming off to be tested just to be sure and the new gasket set is on the way. Hopefully we're looking at having it on the road by the end of the month.

The female viewpoint! (wrote a week after getting the car)

Brian had been looking at and talking about having one of these cars for ages. It was starting to get a bit obsessive. I don't really do cars - they're 4 wheels that get me from A to B - and so I couldn't understand what was so great about this type. Anyway he sees this one going cheap and I agreed ok go for it.
Friday came and off he went to pick it up. I don't know why but I had a really bad feeling about it. Womens intuition and all that. He rang and said he had it but was looking for petrol and would call back later. Next thing I get the call "It's broken down on me" I just knew it. I'd been waiting for that call and I just felt numb.
First thing I did was dig the insurance and breakdown cover stuff out to check and see what all that said. Just our luck the breakdown doesn't cover any car he's driving like some do just the main car on the policy. So I'm trying to contact the person we bought it off who was refusing to answer their phone, ringing Brian to see if he'd got hold of them and generally getting more and more hacked off about it all. In the end I was so hacked off the person that sold it got a rather snotty voicemail telling them to grow up, answer their phone and try and be adult about things lol.
Meanwhile Brian's arranging a tow home. He rang and told me how much and I seem to remember shouting a lot. I was so angry and told him I didn't even want to see the car, it had to be parked away from this house I was never going to look at it. I then had lots of tears and tantrums over the next couple of hours waiting for him to get home.
Brian gets back and after a few more tears I decide I may as well have a look at this "heap of junk". I walked over to where it's parked behind Andy and Nadja's house determined to hate it, took one look at it and fell in love. It's gorgeous. I think I'm finally understanding they're not just 4 wheels.


Fast forward to the middle of August.I've gone from loving the car to hating it and back to loving it again. It's been the cause of a lot of anger for me because it's just sat there doing nothing and I had visions of it sitting there forever and eventually rotting - do cars rot? I don't know. I've gone from saying how nice it is to using the phrase "That bloody car" a million times to quite liking it again. By a fortnight ago I was ready to advertise it for sale without even telling Brian. Then he got together with Andy who said he had some time off and couldn't wait to get started.
HURRAY all systems go.

The Saga begins...

My Rover 200 Coupe Project is definitely a WIP - 'Work in Progress'. It's in need of a bit if TLC as it has been a little bit neglected by the previous owner over the last year or so.

Some basics about it first.

It's a 1996 N plate (a '95 model) 2 litre normally aspirated fuel injection (i.e. non turbo charged) in metallic charcoal grey - very nice! - targa top and 118k miles.

I'll have some pictures up of it very soon so you can see the starting point.

The cast:

Brian - me -the author and misguided fool who wanted one of these coupe's in the first place.

Ang - My better half... no really she is and I don't deserve to be so lucky to have someone like her in my life. Photographer and chivvy alonger.

Andy - My mechanic friend who will be doing most of the work - with me as his trusty grease monkey and "put your finger on this while I loosen that" kinda person!

Nadja - Andy's mad German fiancée - I'm sure she'll get in on the act somewhere... she usually does! Tea maker.

Let's get on with the story.

Bought in an auction for the princely sum of £370 it seemed it may be a bargain. The plan had been to buy it, get it home and then park it up to do whatever maintenance needed to be done over the next month or so. But there's a mention somewhere of how 'the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry'. They certainly did in this case.

Day 1 - 21 April 2003 - Collection Day

I was traveling from my home near York to Coventry to collect the car traveling by train first to Leeds and from there to Coventry. I missed the first train to Leeds - not an auspicious start really. I then noticed I'd forgotten my headphones. I needed these as my plan had been to catch up with some episodes of Invasion on my laptop as it was going to take me about 4 hours to get there. Cue much running about 'Carry On' style in Leeds trying to find a cheap pair of buds. Got there in the end though - £1.99 from Wilkinsons!

I finally picked up the car at 2:15pm. Nice looking car but it was raining heavier than I had seen it for some time, so we rushed through the walk round of the car (bad idea!) and I got ready to go. Not much petrol in the car so first priority had to be a garage. Stopped the car about 3/4 mile from the station in a residential area and started asking for the nearest garage. First person I stopped was a young woman who said "oooo just drive straight down this road until you get to a roundabout. There's one there." How far I ask? "I dunno" she say's and wanders off. Next person I ask was an old couple in their garden - they were very helpful and the fella even offered to let me have the fuel in their jerry can until his wife reminded him that he'd just put in his lawn mower... never mind mate the thought was there and I really appreciated it.

As it happens it had stopped raining so I wandered back to the car and decided to have a better look at her. To my surprise, the bodywork looked pretty good. The rusty spots weren't as bad as I thought they might have been and there didn't appear to be any leaks from the glass panels. Opened the bonnet... there was what appeared to be a fairly well established leak from the front right corner of the block (I kind of expected this) and the expansion tank had evidence of a boil over. I gave the 'coolant' a sniff - seemed fine... no apparent oil, fuel or burning smells. The dipstick indicated plenty of oil and no evidence of mayo on or around the oil filler cap. It was obvious that a new radiator has been fitted recently - it's still a silvery blue colour! All appeared to be OK - the car started first time so lets go find that garage I thought. I did. "Luvvly jubbly".

As I was new to the car I fought the temptation to 'rag' it and stayed below 3500 rpm and 70 mph. It did seem to stutter and hop under acceleration as if it was misfiring at about 2500 rpm but I worked out a method of keeping the revs up when changing gear etc. so that I was having a reasonably smooth journey. I reckoned I could manage it for the 100 mile drive home.

After only about 15 miles or so I noticed that the temperature gauge was rising to the top staying there for a moment or two before falling back to midway. After 20 miles it wasn't dropping so far but I was approaching Leicester Forest East services and decided it would be better if I stopped for a while and had a look. Bloody thing stalled on me going into the car park - right in the entrance and wouldn't restart. NO NO NO!!!

Got the helpful RAC salesman to give me a push out of the entrance to the car park and into a bay and I lifted the lid. Still coolant in the expansion tank... still oil in the engine... sniff test on the expansion tank - yuck! Not good.

I hadn't swapped my insurance and breakdown cover over as I was not going to be using the car daily for a few weeks or so I’d thought. So there I was - stranded at motorway services 90 miles from home, £20 in my wallet and no breakdown cover. No option but to join the RAC and see what they could do. £108 and 30 minutes later there's a Roadside recovery geezer telling me that "overheating on a Rover isn't very good" - you don't say! Five minutes later he confirmed my worst thoughts. Head Gasket Failure - henceforth known as HGF. All I had to do now was decide what to do next. They would tow me to the nearest garage but then I was on my own - £20 wouldn't get me home any time that weekend! Or they could get a quote for arranging a tow back home for me. I asked about the tow... £250! I had to do it - there was no other option available to me.

Two and half hours later I'm home... Ang is ever so slightly miffed cos we're now skint, I have two cars that technically don't work (more on this later), its 8:30 on a Friday night and I'm mighty pissed off with myself.

After a few tears mainly brought on by stress, anger and frustration, Ang asks to go and have a look at the car. She loved it! Phew!!

All I have to do now is get it working....

Rover Coupe Blog – Part 2 – 15 August 2006

Well the day has dawned, the planets and moons are aligned and work has finally started on the car.

Work commitments and financial ambiguities (like not knowing if I was going to have job to go to) have meant that it’s taken from the end of April until now to start this project.

The parts have been bought and the engine strip commenced.

Andy has started off by removing as much of the engine that Rover managed to cram into the bay as possible to make it easier to get the head off. Off has come the air filter, what looks like miles of cooling hoses, the inlet manifold chamber, the radiator and the cam belt cover. The boot looks like an auto jumble right now!

First good news of the day – the cam belt looks new! That’s saved me £22 straight away and the second bit of good news was that the drive belt looks in good nick too so that’s another £8 saved. There was no fouling on the plugs either

First bit of bad news was a broken connector and (possibly) the first hint of what may have been the root problem of the overheating in the first place – a broken connector from the loom to the thermostat housing. Talking to the guys at my local parts discount store (and showing them a picture taken on my mobile) they narrowed it down to the female connector for the “Engine Management Temperature Sensor” and gave me the good news. They don’t stock it – it’ll be main dealer or scrappy but they could sell me the sensor itself. What a drama!

I’ve had a look on the RAVE CD and the cut away diagram of the cooling system (Page 347) calls it the “Coolant Temperature Sensor”. Either way, the search of scrap yards has commenced and hopefully a replacement can be identified soon before we decide on the least Heath Robinson way of affecting a working repair.

Once we had the cam pulleys aligned and the flywheel locked it was time to remove the cam shaft covers. Good news item number three… no sign of mayo in the top part of the head at all. The oil that is in the engine isn’t too bad and looks fairly new in as much as it hasn’t reached that thick, black treacle looking state yet. Only one gasket on the cam covers though (inlet) nothing on the exhaust – I wonder if that is normal. Not to self – check on forums if that’s the case!

Decision time. Everything so far points to there being no oil/water mix so…do we put it back together and hope for the best or take the safe option which is to spend the time doing it right? Now bare in mind I have had 3 Rover 200 series now – a 216 Vanden Plas, a 220 GTi and now a 220 Coupe. Both the VDP and the GTi had HG failures and I’m concerned about this one so I’ve decided to go through with my original plan. The HG is suspect and a Klinger replacement has been ordered so I’d be a bit daft not to replace it I think. So the head will be coming off tomorrow and will then be taken to a garage for testing and/or skimming as necessary.

Then comes the task of refitting and testing. Should be fun!