sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Got a nice big heavy box delivered to work today, which had my nos power steering box for the P6 It's enormous! Hopefully it won't interfere too much with the inlet manifold on the Saab engine? Fingers crossed the seals inside are still good, but as it appears to be similar to the more common Land Rover and Range Rover power steering boxes seal kits are readily available for not too much money. The next problem is how to add the 'power' to the box. Either it'll be fitting a regular belt driven pump somewhere on the engine or fitting an electric pump somewhere in the engine bay? Both are problematic in the tiny P6 engine bay, but the traditional belt driven pump could be the easiest and more reliable solution.
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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You have some very cool toys. Always liked the P6 since I owned a V8 in the late 90's. That must have sounded mad through cherry bombs Yep, gotta have some toys! New job means I will soon have the time and money to splash on them once again The sound was best described as being similar to an Impreza, really was unique with the unequal turbo manifold and twin cherrybombs!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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The process or re-uploading my photos to Imgur has begun, well over 100 done so far, and I have suspicions the quantity of photos may be knocking on the four figure mark Anyways, after a very long period of not touching the P6, I've started formulating some plans, spending money on parts and preparing for some of the next planned mods and tweaks I've refurbed a spare 4 cylinder manual pedal box to replace the V8 pedal box I fitted early on when the idea was to convert the car to V8. The clutch master cylinder gets in the way where it is upright at the back of the engine bay, so it'll be going back where it came from originally, and live underneath the inlet manifold One of the other jobs is attending to the ultra heavy steering that has always plagued this car, moreso with the 205 tyres and negative camber. Speaking to an expert the consensus is that the Adwest steering box fitted is notoriously heavy to start with, and I've compared the feel to P6's fitted with the Burman type steering box and they are so much lighter. After much thought, and the experience of power steering on my SD1 and Land Rover 109, I'm going to convert it to power steering. This creates some more problems, in that the windscreen wiper motor is mounted to the steering box on 2000 models! Just by luck I still have the complete wiper motor assembly from my old V8 parts car. It looked like it had been dredged up from the bottom of the sea to start with, but with some scrubbing and running some of the parts through the works blast cabinet everything has cleaned up nicely Have I gone too far lacquering the alloy wiper gearbox housing? It is yet to be tested, and from looking at an online guide to refurbishing the wiper system on the P6 final assembly will happen on the car. I'm also missing the bottom mounting bracket which carries the rubber bobbins to mount the motor on it's clamp plate, but that shouldn't be too hard to replicate (famous last words) Money has been leaving my pockets and I have been returning home with boxes of goodies for the P6 MG Trophy Blue metallic paint, the colour which inspired me to paint the P6 blue! At the time I didn't have the confidence or experience to attempt to paint anything in metallic and clear, so just went with a solid blue to start with. I bought the paint back in the spring and gave the bonnet and bootlis a trial blow over as those were the least likely panels to need any further work. It's showed up some imperfections, though the plan is to get the P6 into the garage and continue painting in there out of the wind and weather! So to summarise, along with re-hosting most of my photos, the plan with the P6 is: Convert to power steering Replace the brake master cylinder for get better Relocate the clutch master cylinder for more space Repaint in MG Trophy Blue Finish setting up and tuning the Megasquirt Finish the exhaust system Refit the number plates Sort out the lack of side support on the front seats Re-wire the rev counter to work with Megasquirt Begin making it BIVA compliant Prepare for a 2 door conversion So just a little work planned, oh and drive the damn thing on the roads for a change For those of you who are on Facebook I've set up a page for my P6 The Turbo P6 Rover
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Great plan for a project! Will be watching this one
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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I do know the Citroen pumps are electro-hydraulic pumps. Another one is the Mercedes A-Class ; theirs can be a better fit in some applications due to being upright. Having a look on ebay the Mercedes pumps look very tall, hard to scale though? Hunting round ebay it looks like a pump from a late 90's to early 2000's Astra could work? I see some cables on them, one looking like power one earth and a multiplug with 3 wires on it?
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 30, 2017 21:59:49 GMT
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most on older vehicles will use the alternator exciter wire to trigger a decent sized relay (106/saxo use a 60 amp maxi fuse on the permanent live feed) newer stuff is canbus and often variable and trickier to implement. That could be why I've come across references to the Citroen pumps being preferential, mainly from the Saxo's?
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 30, 2017 21:42:10 GMT
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Sounds like the same abuse one would get going to the shops and back once a week The power steering box I've bought for my P6 looks similar to one of the Land Rover power steering boxes, just layed out differently to suit the different application. Any idea what sort of size these things are? Hard to judge the size as I've never knowingly seen one before!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 30, 2017 18:15:26 GMT
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It really is that easy - did it on a Range Rover / Defender hybrid years ago with a random Japanese pump from a Scrappies and custom hoses. I was Googling it yesterday and came across a couple of references about avoiding Vauxhall pumps and going for Citroen pumps? Other than that no specific details, which means either it's stupidly easy to do, or there's a reason only few people ever do it? I had no idea electric power steering pumps were a thing until a few weeks back!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 29, 2017 22:52:33 GMT
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I'm about to convert my Rover P6 to power steering. I've sourced a steering box, but need a pump to give the hydraulic 'assist'.
I could do the usual method of mounting a pump on the engine auxiliary belt, but due to space constraints that may be largely impractical with the turbo'd engine fitted. I have however heard of people fitting electric power steering pumps instead of the normal engine driven pump. Does anyone know much about these conversions?
Ebay has plenty of what I guess could be suitable motor/pump/reservoir setups for sale, is it a case of finding one that looks the right size and shape, running some heavy duty power cable to it, fit some custom hoses and job done?
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 22, 2017 18:09:06 GMT
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How do they respond to turbocharging? I was told years ago the older 3.5 and 3.9's were good for about 7psi, and the 4.0 and 4.6 about 10psi in standard factory form. With decent mappable ignition and keeping charge temps under control you could be lucky and push a bit more in before needing uprated internals?
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 18, 2017 12:14:16 GMT
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For many of us, they'd really have to run up the price of diesel at the pump to make it comparable to owning and running an equivalent petrol powered vehicle. Older pre-2001 diesels will most likely escape the brunt of taxation hikes so unless you own a modern car, I don't see it harming the retro diesel scene too badly.
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Nov 15, 2017 17:40:44 GMT
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It's absolutely nuts, and completely worthy of being part of the Roadkill UK event!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Garage Heaterssowen
@sowen
Club Retro Rides Member 24
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Nov 11, 2017 20:35:14 GMT
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I've got a pair of these radiators that work really well in my garage keeping it warm (and also for drying paint), but it is fully insulated which helps contain the heat At work there's a few paraffin and propane space heaters that bring the temperature up really quick which is essential with a single skin tin roof!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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I'm beginning to rack up the miles again in the 109, and even doing roughly 30mpg it's getting a pain in the backside to fill up the tank every 4 days! On a trip to the Newbury 4x4 jumble earlier this year I picked up a cheap spare lwb rear fuel tank amongst other things, which later turned out to be a rare reduced capacity tank for use with a rear pto! After much thinking, the plan is to chop the tank up, enlarge it as much as reasonably possible and have a decent range between fill ups. So out with the grinder and chop chop choppy! At least in 'kit' form it's easier to lift up underneath and size up for dimensions and brackets etc!
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Volvo 740'ssowen
@sowen
Club Retro Rides Member 24
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Spend a few hours on Youtube watching old Volvo's and you'll be inspired
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Oct 30, 2017 18:23:21 GMT
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that engine sounds awesome ! Yep I think with some decent engine mounts and the injector pump elements re-balanced that should sort out the rough idle and it'd be even awesomer
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Oct 29, 2017 21:24:25 GMT
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Yep, it's a hell of a noise Hard pushed to say which sounds better, V8 or OM606? At idle the V8 has a much nicer tone, but the OM606 just has that 'something' that means business. On load the OM606 I think has the edge with the angry turbo scream over the exhaust note, and cruise they're both quite well matched I reckon
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Oct 29, 2017 16:08:12 GMT
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Here's a little in-cab vid I did earlier today round some local lanes
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sowen
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,245
Club RR Member Number: 24
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Rolling on coal...sowen
@sowen
Club Retro Rides Member 24
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Oct 18, 2017 21:05:44 GMT
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Now I daily a 4x4 and get 30mpg in a 2ton beater! The equivalent petrol model would give half that ... A few years ago a mate of mine was running around in a 70's petrol-engined 4x4, it was either a Nissan Patrol or a Toyota Land Cruiser I can't even picture it in my mind now. He was getting 8mpg! Now imagine a 70's Japanese 4x4 with a big grizzly diesel, and try to imagine anything less than 20mpg loaded and working!
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