my retro rover turbo conversion

[gbuk]

i have just bought the wife her 3rd chamade,because we love them,but i have had rover turbos for the last 9 years

this time instead of buying ready modded i thought i would have a go my self,
i got this 75k 420 for £290

its a good base for modding as its essentially a 220 coupe in a 4 door body,comes with the same half leather, brakes arb,s etc as the 220/turbo coupe, and more importantly the nasp version of the 2.0 t16 engine
these engines are rock solid, not like the h/gasket prone k series crap

after a good wash, a set of wheels, full g max suspension and genuine and rare roversport exhaust it started to come good



it stayed like that for a month until a standard old mans vitesse 2.0 turbo came up for sale, this donated its front seats and engine,
the swap involved stripping the vitty lump to a bare block and head,leaving on the manifolds,
i had to swap over, camside mount,which meant cambelt and covers off,so i fitted a new belts,
swapping over water pump,p/steering pump, oil pick up and modding 420 sump, gearbox adapter plate and using all 420 mounts, 220 turbo 2 gap flywheel and ecu, all the stuff is bolt on swap over,only needed as the vitty has a massive engine bay so all the peripherals are bigger for some reason, the mounting points on the engine are the same but the mounts themselves are different, i kept the nasp rad and used a slimline fan which meant getting a water feed to the turbo, so i t,d off the thermostat overflow, i used the gearbox from my 620 ti as it has the upreated torsen type b diff as standard(equivelant to quafe)


i added a momo carbon gearknob and mg zr carbon heater dial surround to freshen up the interior


then i did this

then this

it ended up like this




the engine bay is slightly different from the pics as it kept popping off boost hoses,so now all joiners are blue silicone with heavy duty clamps

i decided to give the cooler a bit more air aswell

thats where its at so far
fairly standard engine really, except running 12psi instead of the standard 9, massive itg foam filter located under the battery tray, and the cooler,
standard in the coupe these engines are 197 bhp, 0-62 in 6.2 and 150 mph
my car weighs about the same and should be somewhere between 210/ 230 bhp
i will get it rolling roaded once i get a nissan pulsar t28 fitted and run it at 14psi
that will be about as far as i can go on standard internals, and is the tried and tested route to between 250/260 bhp
theres plenty of guys on rovertech.net running 300bhp plus, but this requires forged pistons or the cheaper option of mk1 820 tickford turbo pistons(rare) and 20 psi

before this car i had either paid for work to be done or bought ready modded
but 2 kids 1 wife and 1 income means neither was an option this time

all the work has been done by me with advice from the bods on rovertech.net

total spend so far includeing re mot £790, i love cheap power:evil:
even better nobody expects it from a rover


mmm what shall i do with the 19, converting to turbo is not an option, and as the engine has only done 57k i wont be ripping it out either,
i will have a look about on the forum for proven diy mods

 

[Wicked Neo]

Looks like a good job carried out there mate, another of our members, Roger Red Hat (he does not post that often) had several Clios then bought himself a rover with which he spent a few thousand giving the engine a full rebuild with forged internals etc.

I dont know its full power output but I do have a picture of it

 

[Roger Red Hat]

nice to see it popping up with out me noticing!

not to mention id be very careful running anymore then 12psi on standard pistons, they like to melt do the orginal ones on anything more..

should of replaced them when engine was out! got my set from JE..top quality pistons these are! bit on the pricey side tho..but better safe then sorry! the rods are a wild card tho, some have seen 300+ on standard rods, some bend as soon as you play with the boost..

plus if your gonna run at 14+ psi your gonna need either a new ecu (emerald or the like) or a boost cut defender..as ull end up hitting the boost cut, and that is not nice!

but im hoping you alredy know this

 

[gbuk]

know all that rog,cheers though, with the stupid big cooler 14 psi should be ok, boost cut is at 15 psi so ecu will be ok, ive had rover turbos for 10 years now, always run mahle pistons at 14,
not that i race about full pelt all the time though, i would have put uprated pistons in to start with if money allowed,
as for when it gets uprated a fuel cut defender will do the job, mems ecu + red band injectors proven good for 300 bhp

 

[Roger Red Hat]

yeah mems is still holding out pretty well for me at the moment, not sure how much further i can go with it tho,

and tbh id rather spend the cash on the new rods first..

your looking at running standard pistons at 300bhp?!

 

[gbuk]

yeah mems is still holding out pretty well for me at the moment, not sure how much further i can go with it tho,

and tbh id rather spend the cash on the new rods first..

your looking at running standard pistons at 300bhp?!

no,no mate, some confusion there,

12/14 psi, t28, fmic, on standard pistons for about 250 bhp

if it goes bang or when i have the money,whichever comes first, better pistons,prob m series, 20 psi, fuel cut defender about 300 bhp

for the price of a second hand engine(peanuts) i will look to get one and build it up ready to go in, theres an m/o series bottom end on tech for £130

 

[misterjay]

can you turbo a 416 if you the manifold and other parts m8