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Sept 28, 2021 18:22:36 GMT
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Hi folks, Not my car, rather my mate's new purchase, but I'm a little more forumy than he is so I figured if I posted about it then he might take the bait  if not then I'll just update on his behalf  Lookit!  '86 SD1 in Moonraker* Blue. Originally a 2000 shell but fitted with a rebuilt 3.5 Rover V8. The engine's had a crane 284 cam (if anyone knows any info on that we'd be very grateful!), some misc head work, half decent manifolds and a too-big Holley 650. Seems to run ok though, although part throttle isn't great (possibly something to do with the vacuum advance being disconnected, as well as the big carb).    Oh, and unsilenced side pipes It's not exactly mint, but the bodyshell is in rather good condition for one of these. There's some rust in places, but no gaping holes or frilly edges (ok, one or two gaping holes that we'll get to later). It's a lovely blue-on-blue (which the pictures have slightly washed out), and hilariously it seems to be missing 90% of the fixings in the interior so half the stuff you touch falls off   There are some bits of the interior that are in less than brilliant shape, like this rear vent thingy:  But we figure that 80%-ish of the problems with the interior are due to missing fasteners. It's one of those cars like XJ40s where you wonder whether their reputation is forged by poor build quality or just neglect. Mechanically I'd say it's 90% solid Back axle is fine, prop is fine. Gearbox is ok apart from some unhappy synchros on 3rd. Engine runs fine. Brakes work fine. Bad points are the clutch master cylinder which is trying to punch out of the bulkhead chest-burster style... ...and the frankly terrifyingly vague steering... Oh, and the exhaust leak from the headers which fills the cabin with fumes. It was an interesting 150 mile drive back! I am completely and intensely jealous *I spent a couple of minutes on the way back summarising the plot of the Bond film to him, something about a laser battle in space and Jaws (not the shark) got a girlfriend and stopped being evil. I think I got it right |
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Last Edit: Sept 28, 2021 19:04:17 GMT by biturbo228
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Sept 28, 2021 18:34:35 GMT
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Well this looks promising...carry on 😎
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Sept 28, 2021 19:38:08 GMT
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I’m sure there is a build thread for that on here somewhere.
The wheels look really familiar…
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Sept 28, 2021 20:21:59 GMT
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*I spent a couple of minutes on the way back summarising the plot of the Bond film to him, something about a laser battle in space and Jaws (not the shark) got a girlfriend and stopped being evil. I think I got it right Bang on I’d say. Car is lovely too. |
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Sept 28, 2021 20:49:28 GMT
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Glad you guys like it 👍 he's been wanting something older for a while. I've told him his E36, 106 and MX5 count but apparently this is different Would be great if there is a build thread for the car somewhere. Might give some clues as to the specs of stuff, like whether the rear axle and gearbox are still the 2000 items or if they've been replaced with 3500 bits... Glad I'm not spreading misinformation about Bond films too |
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Last Edit: Sept 28, 2021 20:50:02 GMT by biturbo228
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Sept 30, 2021 12:57:28 GMT
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So my mate's been hard at work on the SD1 since he got it. Pretty much went straight into the garage for sorting bits out. They're a much longer car than you think! Takes up about as much space lengthwise as my dad's 166!  I've been bowled over by the amount of space in the car as well. The only thing that seems slightly under what you'd expect is rear headroom, but even that is plenty provided you're not over 6ft. Everywhere else there's just boatloads of it. Interior space, legroom, colossal boot, space for two full size spares under the board on the bottom of the boot, cavernous engine bay so you can get to everything. There's even loads of room around components underneath the car so it's not that everything's been wedged downwards. I'm used to older cars where components aren't crammed in, overlapping every available space and I'm still impressed! Anyway, on with the updates. First job tackled was fixing the ill-fitting passenger rear door. Evidently something had happened to the original as it had been replaced with the door from another car. Colour match isn't great, but worse than that it wouldn't shut properly.  The hinges haven't dropped at all, and we tried shifting it around on the adjustment but there's no fore-aft adjustment so we still couldn't get it to sit right. Looking at the other side it seems the factory shimmed the door mounts to adjust fit, so I went on the hunt for suitable shimming material. Ended up making something up from a Wickes paint tin lid (with the added bonus that the 'Doing it Right' slogun was still visible ). Not 100% a perfect fit as it was a shade too thick, but it still aligns nicely to the rear hinge and shuts fine.  Another job on the list was trying to get it to stop gassing you as you drove along. My mate pulled the exhaust out and found that the joins between the manifold and the rest of the exhaust were leaking, which is no surprise at all as there weren't any sort of clamps or sealing mechanism at all! Just a tack weld on each pipe to stop it slipping out. I don't have any pics unfortunately, but he slit the sleeved sections and will be fitting some clamps and exhaust sealing paste to see if that sorts it. Currently though, the car looks like this:    Apparently there was one remaining bolt holding the dash in, and that was fingertight and only 6 turns in This has all come out to try and move the footwell insulation out of the way to cut and weld a repair panel for the clutch master cylinder, as well as sort out the aftermarket alarm system. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the car seems to use plugs! I think he was expecting something like my Triumph 2000 with its various spade and bullet connectors.  Apparently cable management outside of the dash area leaves something to be desired, although it's an order of magnitude better than the T2000 which seems to have loose cables draped wherever they fancied. Under the dash seems pretty good. At least on par with the XJ40.   I'd be interested in how it compares to a German or Japanese car of the era as it was when this car was designed (70s-80s ish) that the reputation of British cars being unreliable was really forged. I'm curious how much is design and how much is quality control. Oh, and he's discovered that the coolant warning light has been removed.  We're starting to sherlock a bit of the history of this car. Massive alloy radiator with an external thermostatic-controlled electric fan, spare coolant temp sender in the glovebox, missing coolant warning light, and a recent rebuild. We reckon this car had headgasket-related cooling issues prior to the rebuild (which we've been told is a different engine). Would be interesting to know if we're right! Runs spot on now, if a little cool (not sure if that's due to the placement of the coolant temp sender in the inlet manifold, or if it's had a lower temp thermostat fitted...  |
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Sept 30, 2021 13:08:39 GMT
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If you look for parts there is Jim who rebuild a police SD1 and also has a diesel SD1 and lots of spares. He is also on youtube as nitrosylvia and currently posts on you tube with rebuilding a V8 engine
These SD1 are very nice cars especially in the blue color. I bought one with a poor body as an engine donor for my MGB V8 but could not resist driving it for a few month before pulling the engine
Peter
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Last Edit: Sept 30, 2021 13:09:57 GMT by petervdv
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Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
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Sept 30, 2021 13:13:05 GMT
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A Looooooooong time ago a girlfriends Dad had a V8 SD1 which had a Crane Cam, Offy manifold and a 500cfm Holley ( I know because I fitted it) and it was an absolute rocket ship. They drove it all over Europe, hence the modifications, was really a nice car. Brown On Brown On Brown. The epitome of the 70's trapped in the 80's. He probably still has it now. Looking forward to future updates. P. |
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Sept 30, 2021 14:03:15 GMT
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I know what you mean about the size and room everywhere on one of these!
My daily is a P6, and some years ago I was lucky enough to get shown around the Met police traffic car depot at Hampton before it was sold off for redevelopment. They had some of the old cars there (which was why I was there) and that included an SD1 and a P6. They also had a cut through/sectioned rover v8 on a stand that had been donated to them which was very cool...
Compared to the P6 there is loads of spanner room!
Nice car, keep the updates coming
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Sept 30, 2021 14:38:53 GMT
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I do like an SD1...
This one looks great!
I'm hooked.
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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I'm a sucker for a good SD1, look forward to more progress.
That clutch master area on the firewall is scary though!
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Nice car, the wiring in my TR&V8 is the same, when I had to swap looms it was a doddle, all connectors are poke yoke too so you can't get anything wrong.
The only thing that does happen is the connectors open up and make a poor connection, it pays too look at any you have disconnected and close up those with a gap in them.
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Haha thanks guys! Glad you're enjoying the car  If you look for parts there is Jim who rebuild a police SD1 and also has a diesel SD1 and lots of spares. He is also on youtube as nitrosylvia and currently posts on you tube with rebuilding a V8 engine These SD1 are very nice cars especially in the blue color. I bought one with a poor body as an engine donor for my MGB V8 but could not resist driving it for a few month before pulling the engine Peter We've both had a thorough look through Jim's police SD1 thread. It's been really useful to find out how these cars are put together under the skin, although we need to have another look through to see if there's any clues as to how the powered rack is mounted. My mate's just had this package of goodies through...  ...but unfortunately it comes with no mounting hardware or fitting instructions the 2300/2600 Haynes I have doesn't have a good picture, the factory workshop manual I have has a great diagram of the manual rack but we haven't found one for the powered variety yet. It won't be rocket science to work out, but it would save time to see a fitted version! This is all in an effort to sort the steering. Even with the mount bolted down properly the rack was still able to move side to side significantly as the mounting rubbers are shot. That added to the slow ratio on the manual rack meant a powered conversion would be preferable. A Looooooooong time ago a girlfriends Dad had a V8 SD1 which had a Crane Cam, Offy manifold and a 500cfm Holley ( I know because I fitted it) and it was an absolute rocket ship. They drove it all over Europe, hence the modifications, was really a nice car. Brown On Brown On Brown. The epitome of the 70's trapped in the 80's. He probably still has it now. Looking forward to future updates. P. Yeah it certainly picks up fine! On the way back we were totally not doing drag races with my Alfa 156 V6. Pretty much bang on neck and neck which was surprising. The SD1 gets the early jump at the top of 3rd and when the Alfa has to change to 4th a little earlier, then through most of 4th they're matching pace until they get to higher rpm/speed and the Alfa starts to pull away a bit. A proper drag from a standing start would be very interesting. I know what you mean about the size and room everywhere on one of these! My daily is a P6, and some years ago I was lucky enough to get shown around the Met police traffic car depot at Hampton before it was sold off for redevelopment. They had some of the old cars there (which was why I was there) and that included an SD1 and a P6. They also had a cut through/sectioned rover v8 on a stand that had been donated to them which was very cool... Compared to the P6 there is loads of spanner room! Nice car, keep the updates coming Yeah I can imagine there being a fair bit more space in the SD1 than the P6. They're pretty much a class different in size, with the P6 and my T2000 being closer to a 3-series in size (E36/E46 era) and the SD1 being more 5-series. It's certainly welcome! The only issue we've found so far with the ease of maintenance is the lack of captive nuts or studs. Not sure if it's standard, but a fair few of the bits we've taken off around the clutch master cylinder and things have needed two people because they're just a loose nut and bolt. That's the sort of thing that's trivially easy to fix with a welder though, and isn't necessarily standard as a fair few bits on the car have been changed. I do like an SD1... This one looks great! I'm hooked. You and me both! I've said before but I'm intensely jealous I'm a sucker for a good SD1, look forward to more progress. That clutch master area on the firewall is scary though! Yep! Terrifying. It would probably have been ok if it went on the way as the most likely time for it to happen is when you clutch in to pull away, but if it had popped through the firewall while you're decelerating down to a set of lights I'm not sure the brakes would have been sufficient to stall the engine in a low gear. Glad it held! And it had an MoT too! Nice car, the wiring in my TR&V8 is the same, when I had to swap looms it was a doddle, all connectors are poke yoke too so you can't get anything wrong. The only thing that does happen is the connectors open up and make a poor connection, it pays too look at any you have disconnected and close up those with a gap in them. Thanks for the tip will mention to have a look at the connectors. There's plenty of electrical things with 'interesting' functionality so maybe that will help with that! |
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,682
Club RR Member Number: 39
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1986 Moonraker SD1 3500Darkspeed
@darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member 39
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I see in this picture that the outer row of head bolts are missing. Worth checking the block number to see what it is. Cannot quite confirm if that's a cross bolt at the sump line which would indicate 4.0L or 4.6L |
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Last Edit: Oct 1, 2021 16:55:56 GMT by Darkspeed
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Thanks man! That's a hell of a restoration you've done there. Very impressive! Rack pictures start on page 7? Will be very helpful I see in this picture that the outer row of head bolts are missing. Worth checking the block number to see what it is. Cannot quite confirm if that's a cross bolt at the sump line which would indicate 4.0L or 4.6L Interesting. The engine number is 31A00225A which suggests SD1 3.5 auto. Would be great if it's a cross-bolted engine, but I suspect it's not. Although I don't know at what point the cross-bolting starts to be useful. I expect there will be a quest for more power at some point soon so knowing what needs to happen would be great! Need to dig out the Des Hammill book... |
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,682
Club RR Member Number: 39
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1986 Moonraker SD1 3500Darkspeed
@darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member 39
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Question is why have the outer row of head bolts been left out ? (not required anyway - but most just drop them in at 20lbft to fill the holes )- If the block has the threads and its just that the bolts have not been fitted then its probably a 3.5 block.
If a 31A it would not be a cross-bolt and would have all 14 threads in the block.
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Intriguing... I'm back down that way tomorrow so will have a poke around the block and see if they're still missing. Hopefully it was just mocked up to do a pretty picture, but considering that 90% of the fasteners for the interior are missing I wouldn't be surprised if these were too! |
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Love it. When I was a kid my dad's workmate had a 2600 in brown with a bronze roof which made me buy an identical Corgi one.
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I was given a Rover SD1 workshopmanual (not the Haynes but the Rover one) in the Dutch language recently. The workshopmanual does not have the powered steering rack but i also was given an addition and this assition has an item on the 3500 powered steering rack with an overview drawing and advise how to remove it from the car. Sadly for you it is in Dutch.
I can scan rhe overvieuw picture or even the text which you could translate with google translate to Englisch.
Are these 3500 racks identical with the 2300-2500?
Peter
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if not then I'll just update on his behalf 
