[agw_01]

Can't believe I've not posted this up here yet, I could swear I had but can't find the thread anywhere so here we go. It's a long read as it's been ongoing for quite some time so I've just copied and pasted my posts from Rovertech.

Ok, for those that don't know my 420 Turbo has been off the road since September 2009. A combination of a leaky power steering pump, minging engine bay, patchy bodywork and an urge to dabble with aftermarket management were at the top of the list... and then with me buying a 216 Coupe for next to nothing had a perfect runaround while the 420 was off the road.

The plan was to work on the car over the next few months to hopefully have it ready for the Summer.

Here's how she stood in May 2009.









So, after sorting the Coupe I started working on the 420. Tbh, I did very little before Christmas and am now kicking myself as it's put me quite far behind schedule. All I did was remove and strip the inlet, exhaust and auxiliary pumps... and then proceeded to remove a few more pipes and brackets for the red 420 Turbo which replaced the Coupe as a runaround.





The weather then took a turn for the worse and my free time was spent ironing out any niggles on the other car, but once they were all sorted and with the weather improving, I started getting stuck in.

In the last month or so I single-handedly removed the head and gearbox (that was fun!) and the dashboard also found its way into the garage.





I borrowed an engine crane and with the help of a few mates, had the car looking like this...





Stripped the engine down a bit more and stood back... hmmm, it could do with a lick of paint.



So I moved the engine, front subframe and a few other brackety things into the back garden where I attacked them with some Gunk and a pressure washer, followed by a few coats of Hammerite. This was done over the course of a week.





The front engine mount was showing signs of splitting (caused by worn rubber engine stabilisers - mine have been replaced by poly bushes so I shouldn't have to worry about such problems in future)



It wasn't split all of the way through, so I repaired it. With the stronger stabilisers mentioned above, it should hold out.



I gave the engine bay some similar treatment... a good dose of Gunk, hosed down with a pressure washer followed by some green Hammerite.



I then refitted the front subframe... starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere now!



Turning my attention to the head, I started stripping it down. Not looking too bad for 140k. I guess having run it solidly on V-Power while in my ownership has helped to stop any severe carbon build up. The bottom end is also in excellent condition, still with visible honing marks.



First step is to remove the cam carriers...



It's then a case of removing the tappets, compressing the valve springs and removing the valves...



The valve stem seals were removed as well



The components from each port were bagged individually. I then set about grinding the valves in so ensure a good seal. The head is going to be fully rebuilt with new stem and cam seals, exhaust ports will be enlarged to match the gasket and it'll all be topped off with Piper 270 cams. I'm also trying to get hold of some vernier pulleys to dial them in properly but not having much luck at the moment.



The gearbox is also getting some attention. I rebuilt it about 15 months ago with steel caged bearings and using the stronger but less effective TorSen Type B LSD. Whilst it was on the car it developed a noisy bearing, so the box was stripped and the noisy bearing identified. I'm going to replace the bearing and swap the LSD with the weaker but quite frankly awesome Type A TorSen. I'd find it quite hard for even the most die-hard of Rover haters to keep a straight face with that thing working its magic!



All gears and synchros still appear to be in good condition.

Most people with modified engines will agree, it's a good idea to keep an eye on things. I had 5 gauges before in mine I took it off the road, 3 in the centre heater vents and 2 in the lower dash pocket. There were also 3 different brands/styles so I decided to replace the boost and volt gauges to match the others. I also wanted to relocate the now matching boost and AFR gauges.







Obviously it's not finished yet... going to dig out the fibreglass when I get some time.

As well as this, I got hold of another centre console and attempted to tidy up my centre gauge mount.







I previously had the oil temp sensor placed in the sump plug but with it being in the path of airflow across the bottom of the engine, caused the gauge to drop right off when on the move... this made it impossible to get any idea on the temperature of the oil. Due to this, the sump was removed. I'm going to get a nut welded to the inside of the sump, allowing the sensor to be placed out of direct airflow and deeper into the sump.



I also took the opportunity to attack the sump with Gunk. It'll be sanded down and given a few coats of Hammerite once it returns from being welded.



I'll finish up by giving a few sneak peaks of some of the tasty kit I've been collecting over the past few months...


Megasquirt MS-II ECU which will be running on the Ford EDIS ignition system


Full silicone coolant hose kit paired with stainless steel hard pipes (still awaiting some hoses)

I also picked up an Apexi AVC-R. These are hard enough to find in silver, nevermind black... I soon sorted that though!









I also have the following waiting to fit...

Goodridge braided brake lines
Walbro 255lph fuel pump
Cleaned and refurb'd blue-band injectors (also waiting for flow figures)
Lightened flywheel with 36-1 trigger pattern for the ECU
Rear upper lateral link/rear ARB droplink polybushes
Poly exhaust hangers
Piper 270 cams (as mentioned above)
New bootlid with 220 GSi spoiler and 3rd brake light
Jap rear plinth
Jap arch extensions

The wheels will also receive a refurb and the body given a damn good going over with any rust removed and replaced with fresh metal, finally being treated to a machine polish.

The rear of the car will be completely de-badged, the only hint of madness will be this sticker placed in the lower right corner of the number plate plinth.

[agw_01]

So, it's been a while. The car didn't make it to Germany like I'd have hoped... in fact, even 5 months later, it's still in no fit state to be driven.

But, progress is being made and there's some light at the end of the tunnel. Dropped the engine back in yesterday, 8 months after it was taken out. At least that's out of the way and I can bolt the suspension back up so it's back on all 4 wheels.

Anyway, on with some pictures.

My flywheel took a while and turned up after something like 6 weeks. It was machined to my specification with a custom trigger wheel so can't complain really. It's nice and light, probably about half as heavy as the original wheel. I couldn't be bothered to get it on the scales to find out but it should allow the engine to rev much more freely.





Even though my new cams were wrapped in bubble wrap and kept in a box in the garage, they were showing signs of slight rusting on the lobes. They were cleaned up with some very light sanding, ready to be fitted. They're Piper 270 cams and for the moment will be used with standard pullies. I'll be keeping my eye out for some verniers to allow me to get the best out of them.



I also tarted up the wood trim by giving it a bit of colour. Should help to modernise the interior when fitted alongside the Momo steering wheel, Recaro seats and a handful of gauges.



My once mint OZ Ultraleggeras also underwent a bit of work. Filled and smoothed any damage and gave the rest a key, ready for paint. I've got a colour in mind but I'll keep that quiet until they're done. Probably won't get round to painting them until after the winter now.





The interior was also gutted ready for some re-wiring. The alarm, ECU and gauge wiring is all integral to the car. Looks nice and neat, but will be a pain to remove in future... which is exactly what I wanted, especially when it came to installing the alarm.



I also noticed that the sound deadening underneath the carpet was quite damp on the passenger side and appear to have a leak from somewhere up front, need to trace that before the dashboard can go back in. Headlining will be recovered in black (currently light grey) and a CB aerial (installed by a previous owner) removed from the roof and a plate welded over.

Before the engine was removed, I had an oil temp sensor in the sump. This worked well when the car was stationary but as soon as you started moving, airflow over the sensor caused the gauge to plummet. I had a mate shot blast the sump and weld some plate to reduce the effects of this. I also gave the sump a few coats of Hammerite to protect it.



After 140,000 miles, the engine was looking a bit manky. It was given a de-grease, several coats of paint and the head mating face cleaned up ready for re-assembly.



A genuine Klinger head gasket (only the best for this car) was fitted and some oil poured down each cylinder to protect the bores while it was sitting.



After lapping in the valves and cleaning up the head, new stem seals were fitted and the head rebuilt. This took a while due to the tiny little collets holding the valve springs in place being very fiddly.







The head was then leak tested using some white spirit. The first few attempts showed some weeping and if I was going to all this effort, it was worth doing right. You can also see my attempt at port matching the exhaust ports, I doubt this will give any noticeable gain but hey, every little helps ;)



After a few attempts, I had it holding fluid meaning that the valves were sealing perfectly. Should make good compression.



With good results on the leak test, I continued to rebuild the head. Valves, springs and collets all in place ready for the cams and carriers.



The head was then bolted down and the cams fitted with new oil seals, the pump housing assembled and fitted with new water and power steering pumps.







The cambelt tensioner was looking a bit worse for wear but being metal usually lasts for a long time. I decided to replace it with a brand new tensioner, fitting a new cambelt at the same time.

And then following onto yesterday's activities, with the help of bjrespect, the engine found its place back where it belongs.



Along with the obligatory thumbs up picture of me...



And bjrespect...



So with quite a bit done but plenty more to be getting on with, it feels like I'm finally getting somewhere. I've not done anything with the bodywork yet which due the recent damage from roof tiles, I'm glad about. There are lots of bits (some very rare) to be fitted to the exterior though, I can't wait to see what it's going to look like!

[agw_01]

I've got to say, I set myself seriously unrealistic targets... initially I wanted the car ready for the Nurburgring last year, then I extended the completion date to the end of July and the last target I set was to have it running by Pride of Longbridge earlier this month. I haven't hit ANY of them :

I'm going to stop setting myself a time limit as I'm in no rush to get it finished and tbh, it's not going on the road until all the new bits are painted and the bodywork sorted and that's going to be early next year (I'm doing it again aren't I!) before that happens.

But anyway, until recently, the last time I got to do any work on the car was just after Christmas. I remember coming home from work, grabbing my soldering iron and a couple of wiring diagrams and getting started on the ECU's wiring loom. The next time I looked up was when I noticed that the temperature had plummeted somewhat and a layer of ice had formed on the outside of the windscreen.

Since then, I put the car on the backburner (again) while focusing on the next step in my career. The last few months have been pretty hectic but I ended up getting the job I wanted and a nice new house to go with it. On top of that, the 420 now lives inside quite a spacious garage which in the last few weeks I've been getting considerable use out of.

Anyway, only a few pictures for now... not very interesting but I'm sure you'll agree, nice to see more progress.

A job I really should have done before putting the head back onto the engine was to re-thread and helicoil each exhaust manifold thread. Sure enough, when I was tightening up the manifold, some of the threads started spinning. After throwing my ratchet down and shouting a few obscenities, I stripped it all down, helicoiled each thread and rethreaded new studs into each hole.





One of the things that always worried me was how close the intercooler sat to the power steering cooler. The coolers fitted to the Turbo cars have a little bit that sticks out to clear one of the fans. I didn't want to chop it up as it's obviously there for a reason so I finally cleaned, painted and fitted the NASP cooler I got ages ago.



The new power steering pump I bought was a Ti pump. After wondering how to go about mating the Ti pump up with the 420's pipework, Cableguy came to the rescue with a neat Pirtek pipe. This drops straight down under the engine, around the sump and into the rack... also reducing the worry of the downpipe burning or chaffing its way through the original pipe.



The turbo fitted to the manifold with all new gaskets and one of Punx0r's braided oil return pipes



Turbo and manifold in place with a Stebtec alloy cam stub cover. I'm using Piper 270s from a dizzy engine but of course, running Megasquirt and EDIS, won't need the dizzy cap. Ste will hopefully be making an alloy cover for the cam sensor lobe too, as that is also not required.



And finally, for now at least, my MEMS > Megasquirt wiring is pretty much complete. Instead of butchering an entire loom, I hacked up an old NASP ECU for the male connector and proceeded to solder the Megasquirt wiring to the appropriate pins. This means I can quite easily (well, I need to change the flywheel as well) switch back to MEMS. I've tried to keep as much of the wiring as OE as possible.



Each wire has been soldered and then a piece of heatshrink added to keep it tidy and reduce the chance of shorts etc. Once I'm happy with the wiring, I'll fill the back of the connector with an epoxy to keep it water tight and secure and will finish it off with a bit of conduit to keep the wiring protected.

So, having got the wiring loom finished earlier tonight I decided to test it. Not able to turn the engine over yet for various reasons but as you'll see in the video, the ECU is receiving signals from the sensors so hopefully the rest of my wiring is right. It certainly felt good turning the key and hearing the fuel pump anyway! Can't be too far away from getting her running now!

Here's a short video from earlier tonight. I'm well aware that I both talk too much and sound like a bit of a 'tard :P I stutter as well so bear with me there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpdTVOSq ... r_embedded

[agw_01]

Ok, so waking up today with a bit of a hangover following a mate's 25th birthday last night I got a bit of a late start. Still, I made good progress and was working away until about 7:30 tonight without even realising it.

Finally settled on a route for the Pirtek power steering pipe mentioned earlier. I decided to take it below the subframe due to not being happy with the angle of the pipe as it bent to go underneath the pump housing and above the subframe. Seriously, you think it's close at the moment... having it above was even more of a squeeze.



Although it had clearance (which tbh would be taken up when the engine rocked), I decided to add a bit of protection.



Yeah, we all know how much of a bodge cable-ties are but it looks pretty tidy and I'd rather do this than have it chafe through.



It's the lowest point of the car but hopefully, with it being off to the side shouldn't pose a problem. Obviously one to keep an eye on though.

Before refitting the loom back to the car I wanted to tidy it up a little. 15 years of heat, oil and general grime had taken its toll on the old electrical tape and conduit tubing.





Part of the loom (mainly passenger side) recovered and all taped up.



Keeping the loom nice and tight with a few cable ties, should also stop the electrical tape coming loose as it gets older..



Another reason for wanting to do some work on the loom was to relocate a few terminals. I used to have a distribution block mounted to the ABS pump where all of the power cables met up, but wasn't terribly happy with the security of the connections. I'd already ran the main power cable from the battery and power lead from the fusebox to the positive terminal on the starter motor. I just had to relocate the alternator wire, which is what I did here.



A couple of the now redundant connections (cam sensor and BMV) were also taped up into the loom keeping them hidden and safely out of the way.

With the loom fitted, everything fell into place perfectly. The alternator wire had more than enough length to bolt up to the positive post on the starter motor and with the Megasquirt wiring tidied up, met up with the MEMS connector beautifully. I couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried.



Not really much left to do now before I can try and start it. Just need to bolt up the crank sensor, fill the engine with oil and fit the throttle body and with my girlfriend's Mum visiting tomorrow, I have the perfect excuse for spending all day in the garage ;)

[agw_01]

Ended up having to ditch the factory crank sensor (the main reason for getting the Megasquirt trigger pattern instead of the standard Rover pattern on the new flywheel was so that I didn't have to use a separate trigger wheel and crank sensor for Megasquirt) and bodging together a mount for the Ford crank sensor in the factory place. Quite handily, Rover had used a bolt in close proximity to where I needed the crank sensor to go. A bit of jiggery pokery and the new sensor was in place.



Even though the connectors were the same, Megasquirt wasn't getting any rpm reading when the engine was turning over. Obviously, if it's not getting a signal from the crank sensor it doesn't know when to inject/spark so was never ever going to run.

First turn of the key after swapping the sensors and it fired up. Sounds very rough due to the tappets in the head being completely dry of any oil. It's going to take 10 minutes or so of fast idle to bleed them before it'll start to quieten down. I've not connected the stepper motor yet so it doesn't idle, hence it nearly stalling when I take my foot off the throttle.

So so so chuffed that it runs though, and that it started so easily too! Makes the last year or so really pay off. Still plenty to do though but I've definitely overcome the main challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZLgkrEXTuQ

[mach1rob]

Looking good Andrew, pop down and sort Flid when you get 5 mins!

[agw_01]

You'd have thought I'd have got bored of Rovers by now... having owned and driven them for over 7 years. For some strange reason though, I find myself more attracted to them now than ever before. The red 420 is pretty standard and even at the 9psi boost she's running, never fails to bring a smile to my face. Even after parking the car up in the work's carpark, I can't help but give it a second glance... such a great shape!

Anyway, on with the green beast... coil pack mounted next to the ABS block. If you look carefully, you can see one of the custom HT leads I spec'd turned out a little shorter than the rest. Doh :(



One of the things high on my list was to fit electric rear windows. As my car had manual rears, I had to add to the loom in the drivers door. A few hours studying wiring diagrams had everything complete as it would have come out of the factory. The new switchpack, door looms and rear window mechs are from a Honda Concerto so the wire colours are a little different but it wasn't too difficult to match up (all soldered, heatshrunk and ran with the rest of the wiring into the door). The extra white wire is for the Toad's total closure 8)



Manual mech on top, electric on the bottom



I had to completely strip the rear doors down to remove the window glass. At the same time, I replaced the knackered O/S rear central locking motor which hasn't worked since I bought the car. While the glass is out, I'll be treating them to some light smoke window tint.



Slowly working front to back and with the rear of the car being neglected I've spent the last few days giving it some serious attention. The body (to be completely honest) has held up pretty well to 15 years of British weather but being neglected for the best part of 18 months, the last winter especially had really taken its toll on the old girl. Now that the car was protected from the elements inside the garage, I grabbed the power tools and went to work on the rusty bits...





Which, in all honesty, were not as bad as I was expecting. Of course, there's more work to be done but that's most of the flaky, not good, corroded metal removed. There's a bit in the drain channels on the roof which will need welding, but I spotted that when I removed the interior last year.

While I was down in the arches, I noticed the fuel filler pipes looked a bit worse for wear. After removing the N/S rear arch liner, I found that the rest of the pipework seemed to have held up ok. As the fuel tank has to be removed to swap the pump anyway, I plan to remove the filler pipe and give it a clean up.



I had a new fuel tank fitted about 2 1/2 years ago but having picked the tank up the day before it was due to be fitted, meant that I could only give the tank a quick underseal. I would have liked to have given it a couple of coats all over, especially as how a common failure point on the Rovers is the tank leaking at the seam due to corrosion. As the tank is coming off, this will be the perfect opportunity to give it several thick coats and seal it up.



After a bit of jiggery pokery, we have one fuel tank and all fuel lines removed from the car



It was at this point that the fumes hit me hard and I wondered WTF I was doing messing about with a partially full open fuel tank lying on the ground in front of me :bye:



I carefully carried the fuel tank outside and proceeded to remove the fuel pump assembly



This will be replaced by a 255lph Walbro pump which will be more than adequate for anything that I have planned in future.

It was only after removing the tank that I realised just how much fuel was in there. Me, being a tight rear end and with fuel being so expensive, felt that the fuel could be better utilised by going in the other 420 and so transferred some of the contents of the tank into a jerry can!



So yeah, lots of work completed but lots of work to be done. The rust has not frightened me one bit! In fact, it's just reinforced the fact that I WILL see this car back on the road, and in absolutely stunning condition with plenty of rare parts and an awesome spec. There's no rush, she can sit in the garage away from the elements for as long as it takes to save up for a great quality repair job. With the amount of the work that I've put into this thing, there's no way I'm settling for just any old repair.

[agw_01]

With the fuel tank removed, I set about giving it a couple of coats of paint. I paid special attention to the seam of the tank, giving it a good thick coat to protect it from rusting.

I removed the standard pump and compared it against the new Walbro to see how well it would fit into the pump cage.



The cage needed to be modified a little bit, mainly around the bottom where the filter sock fits to the pump. The sock sits a little bit higher than the standard pump so the cage needed cutting away to allow the wider neck to fit into place.

Eventually, I ended up with this :



You may remember the picture above of the rotten looking fuel filler pipe. This was removed from the car...



...cleaned up and given a couple of coats of paint to protect it.



The pump cage was then refitted back into the freshly painted tank.





One thing I have noticed about Hammerite is its complete lack of any durability. The stuff is prone to chipping which meant that I'd been wasting my time using it. Frustrating! Before I carry on with any more bodywork, I'll be looking for alternatives.

Before the tank was refitted to the car, I climbed under and assessed the area for any rust that needed removing. With this area being protected by the fuel tank, I wasn't expecting anything too drastic. A few spots of mild surface rust that I removed with my dremel, followed by a few coats of Hammerite and some green paint to add further protection. It doesn't look pretty but as this area will never be seen, it doesn't really matter.



Having removed the fuel filler pipe and all suspension components from the rear of the car, I turned my attention to the passenger rear arch. These pictures don't show much but the inner arch was treated to some rust removal, followed by a few coats of Hammerite and a top covering of BRG paint. I'm yet to do the drivers rear arch and lower sills but won't be doing these until I've decided on some new products.





I then turned my attention to the suspension and polybushed the upper rear camber arms...









Followed by some fire... :twisted:



And a big hole that needed to be filled...



Powerflex trailing arm bushes were fitted



I think that I can take criticism on-board quite well so following on from comments both on here and another forum, I added something a little more substantial to protect the power steering pipe where it runs right next to the subframe.



A HT lead spacer was also fitted



I refitted the fuel tank a couple of weeks ago (even though it was empty, it was still a PITA!!) which meant I could get on with finishing the engine bay. Having no coolant or PS pipework fitted, I've not ran the engine since its first start a couple of months ago. There was no point. I knew it would start and that was good enough for me for the time being! A huge weight off my shoulders.

With the new fuel pump in place, I want to get on and start tweaking the cold start and idle values... something that is going to take a while and of course will need to have the engine running.

The radiator and power steering cooler were fitted and associated pipework connected. As I've mentioned previously in the thread, I'm using a NASP PS cooler so that it doesn't interfere with the intercooler. The standard power steering cooler was a bit too close for comfort.



SFS matrix hoses (which needed a bit of cutting to get the correct lengths :?)



Engine bay as it stands at the moment (Samco coolant hoses, SilverStorm polished coolant pipes and one of Vinny's engine bay dress up kits)





Megasquirt wiring nearly complete and tidied up


The white wire running between the ECU and ABS looms is the speed sensor for the Apexi.
The green wire with the stripped end will be used for controlling the fan relay.
The yellow wire coming from the ECU plug and running out of sight is the earth for the main relay.

Which brings me onto this picture...



My initial plan was to run the main and fuel relays from the one relay output on the Megasquirt ECU. Unfortunately, it didn't work out this way. As soon as the battery was connected the fuel pump would run. Perhaps there was a loop in the circuit somewhere but as I don't claim to be an expert with automotive electronics and I know that they can work in mysterious ways, so I decided to scrap that idea pretty quickly.

The fuel pump relay will be triggered by Megasquirt whereas the main relay now has a permanent ground and switched live (MEMS pin 11). I've not tested this yet but I'm hopeful that it'll work as intended. I guess I'll find out soon enough!