1994 Rover 820

A few more parts going back on, radiator and fan, oil cooler, bumper bar and wiring routed. The old steel intercooler brackets thrown together years ago werent very nice so made new shiny aluminium replacements.

Thanks Peter. I need to catch up on your threads, there are lots of threads here I want to catchup on and will do soon. I changed website host recently and started on a new website for the car Rover Vitesse.com all my forum pictures have to be moved too but I am slowly getting through them and should have most of them working again.

Change of plan with the brake pipes. I was not happy with the flares to the cut Rover pipes inside the car. I think the originals are steel and were quite hard to flare, I bought a hand held flaring tool for inside the car but it took several attempts to get a decent flare even then it was still not that great, the tool was sh**.
The new short pipes made on the bench were fine, made with a proper vice held flaring tool and the softer copper nickel pipe, they came out fine.
They looked ok and worked ok and probably alright if it were just a shopping car but I could not convince myself they were good enough.

So had these made instead "Denim" blue hoses with stainless ends



I did all four corners while at it. The fronts run direct from the ABS unit to each front brake, the rears have a short metal pipe for each side from the ABS unit to the Bias valve, these are fine so were not replaced.











Where the rear hoses run through the car I made some aluminium clamps. These are more secure than P clips and a bit more compact

Back in the early 90's I used to work for a multinational electronics company and we had a visit from one of the 'big bosses' from America. He wanted a car to use whilst here and so we got him a Rover 825 Vitesse. He was disgusted and told us to take it back and get him a Jag or a Merc.

That's when I decided that rather than America being a classless society it was just a society without class. I'm generalising of course... 😉

What kind of plating is this, I'm in the middle of an engine swap and a lot of the parts are going to need some attention before I finally fit them?

It is yellow/gold zinc plating

I since found these type of hose brackets are easily available and cheap, I probably could have saved a few hours, but they don't do the exact size I needed so would have needed some work anyway.
So an update, although not much has been completed in the last few months I have still been working on the car.
Years ago I started re building an engine based on a full race Rover M16 short block, trouble is my car was built with T16 engine and they are not interchangeable, some parts are similar but there are some major differences, the water pump, cooling system, power steering, breathers, belts, pulleys, are completely different and more so for the turbo engines.
I have to find a way to fit the T16 ancillaries to the M16 block, the race M16 also has a dry sump pump to accommodate and a one off crank different to M16 and T16 pulleys to add to the challenge.
The cooling system is the biggest problem at the moment because of the block differences, after much messing about I have a plan that requires a few brackets and adapters to make parts fit.

Some of the casting differences between the two block types.



This is the planned layout
T16 water pump housing, PAS pump, engine oil pump blank, dry sump pump in position of AC compressor



So to where I am at the moment, its not pretty, mostly old parts, mock up brackets, pulleys and tape for belts.
M16 race block with T16 Air-Con water pump housing (without the compressor) the housing will require machining and a block adapter and bracket fabricated for the cooling system to work.
Where the AC compressor would have been I can mount the dry sump oil pump.
The alternator would have bolted to the AC compressor but I can make a bracket to replace that.
Currently fitted with a Mercedes idler pulley to route the ancillaries belt where the AC would have been. Mazda 1263mm polly V belt fits (blue tape in picture)





Next task is the alternator bracket.



This engine is a long term project (over 10 years already) so while doing that I also made some exhaust heat shields for the car.

Where the catalyst would be on the standard car there used to be a sort of fibreglass/aspestos and aluminium foil heat shield, I lost it or it got broken a long time ago. Using the car without it the floor and gear lever get hot so I made a new aluminium panel for the tunnel.









The exhaust manifold glows when being worked and generates so much heat under the bonnet I am sure it will affect reliability of some parts. I think wrapping it will cause it to crack as it is not the finest piece of metalwork.



So to protect the cam housing, ignition coils, upper fuel rail and injectors from direct heat I made another aluminium shield to bolt on the cam cover







There is one more part will add tomorrow

Thanks