Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

I know a few of you on here have done this conversion. So I have a few questions.

The VVC Transplant into the 45 has been shelved, the Boy is going for 1.8 Turbo K-series Transplant from a 75 instead.

This leaves us with a 'spare' 1.8 VVC, & idle hands

What we have is a 1.8vvc (143hp) from 1998 MGF, complete with Loom Inc. all Ecu, Immobiliser boxes, Keys, Ignition barrel & Fobs. Possibly going into a 1998 216 Cabriolet.

Engine installation looks easy enough, I intend to use the original 1.6 Gearbox. The car is not a daily user, it does less than 1000 miles a year, basically to local shows & back & maybe a few sunny day outings.

The original ECU has 1 black plug & the VVC has 2, 1 black & 1 red. I know it's probably not as simple as plug'n'play, with the black being body side loom & the red being engine loom & away you go.

The 2 ECUs look the same externally with the pressed 'X' on them, obviously the VVC has the 2 connections, 1 black & 1 red as previously mentioned.

What problems am I likely to encounter & can I rectify them at home, or is an Auto Electrician with a computer needed ?

I have a fairly good AE knowledge as I'm a Bodywork Technician by trade.

There's probably more questions I need to ask, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Any insight gratefully received, thanks in advance

RoverRevival did this.

You are wise to use the existing PG1 gearbox, one from an MGF or MG TF is backwards and not compatible.

I've seen several of these conversions on here & FB Group pages.

But no one seems to want to give up any info, it's as if they either think ' I had to figure it out so you can too' or ' bring it to me & I'll charge you to do something you can do yourself if you've got 1/2 Oz. of mechanical knowledge' !

If your car is post 95 K Series you just need engine loom, ECU, SCU and fob. If it's earlier you'll really need a complete car loom as all the wiring is completely different

You may come into a little difficulty in using the MGF engine loom. Im not 100% but I think it might be a little different in terms of location of connectors to where they need to be. You might be better of sourcing one from a VVC Coupe, 200 BRM or 200VI (all of which are quie rare cars now.....)

Also - your 5AS will need reprogramming to be for a 200- the bonnet switch on an MGF is wired differently to that on a 200 - so the alarm will never set. Very easy to do with a Rover T4 (you wont be able do it with any other diagnostic tool) . I can help with T4. either that, or source a 5AS from a 200 (not a 400/45) , but it will still need programming to match the MEMS2J ECU (btw, strictly speaking, your MEMS2J ECU has a slightly differnet tune to that fitted to a 200 coupe, VI or BRM, but it will still work, not sure if the difference is noticable)...

It will be reletively an easy conversion to do, the hardest part will be sourcing bits.... but as your using a R65 box, you wont need all the linkages and drive shafts.

Where are you located?

JOHNDQ wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 10:29 pm If your car is post 95 K Series you just need engine loom, ECU, SCU and fob. If it's earlier you'll really need a complete car loom as all the wiring is completely different

Both donor MGF & (possible) recipient 216 are 1998

rjessett wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 11:03 pm You may come into a little difficulty in using the MGF engine loom. Im not 100% but I think it might be a little different in terms of location of connectors to where they need to be. You might be better of sourcing one from a VVC Coupe, 200 BRM or 200VI (all of which are quie rare cars now.....)

Also - your 5AS will need reprogramming to be for a 200- the bonnet switch on an MGF is wired differently to that on a 200 - so the alarm will never set. Very easy to do with a Rover T4 (you wont be able do it with any other diagnostic tool) . I can help with T4. either that, or source a 5AS from a 200 (not a 400/45) , but it will still need programming to match the MEMS2J ECU (btw, strictly speaking, your MEMS2J ECU has a slightly differnet tune to that fitted to a 200 coupe, VI or BRM, but it will still work, not sure if the difference is noticable)...

It will be reletively an easy conversion to do, the hardest part will be sourcing bits.... but as your using a R65 box, you wont need all the linkages and drive shafts.

Where are you located?

I'm down in Cornwall.

Am I right in thinking the Black plug is the same wiring on both cars & the Red plug controls the extra VVC bits Engine side ?

Kriss707 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 03, 2023 7:22 pm

rjessett wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2023 11:03 pm You may come into a little difficulty in using the MGF engine loom. Im not 100% but I think it might be a little different in terms of location of connectors to where they need to be. You might be better of sourcing one from a VVC Coupe, 200 BRM or 200VI (all of which are quie rare cars now.....)

Also - your 5AS will need reprogramming to be for a 200- the bonnet switch on an MGF is wired differently to that on a 200 - so the alarm will never set. Very easy to do with a Rover T4 (you wont be able do it with any other diagnostic tool) . I can help with T4. either that, or source a 5AS from a 200 (not a 400/45) , but it will still need programming to match the MEMS2J ECU (btw, strictly speaking, your MEMS2J ECU has a slightly differnet tune to that fitted to a 200 coupe, VI or BRM, but it will still work, not sure if the difference is noticable)...

It will be reletively an easy conversion to do, the hardest part will be sourcing bits.... but as your using a R65 box, you wont need all the linkages and drive shafts.

Where are you located?

I'm down in Cornwall.

Am I right in thinking the Black plug is the same wiring on both cars & the Red plug controls the extra VVC bits Engine side ?

Im afraid the wiring of the black plug is different between MEMS1.9 (that you have) and MEMS2J.

OK, that may be where this idea grinds to a halt !

Kriss707 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 04, 2023 8:33 pm OK, that may be where this idea grinds to a halt !

If you get hold of a vvc engine loom, it will more or less plug directly into your current body loom. should be quite easy