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Sikkan

New Member
Hello everybody! I come from eastern Norway right on the boarder to Sweden and have two P6 Rovers..

I Bought my first Rover 2000TC out of a barn full of classic cars long ago when I was 15, but I have not done much with it since, because of other car projects. It is a grey -69 with red interior. The engine was not turning when I got it, but there does not seem to be much rust on the body luckily (and strangely enough!) The engine has been removed, dismantled and found to be in so generally poor condition that an engine swap is planned. We'll just have to see if I can get my hands on some rover v8 or maybe something entirely else.. :wink:

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A few years after I bought the -69 TC, the man I bought it from called me and said I had to buy another one from him :shock: This time a white -71 2000TC with black interior. He had lost his storage space in another barn, and was desperate to get rid of it, so I got it practically for free as a donorcar. This one had more rust, though not very much, but the engine was much worse.

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My Rovers does not have very high priority right now, since I still have too many other project cars. But some day I probably will have time for them. In the meantime I will hang around this forum to learn more about Rover. 8)
 
Hello and welcome Sikkan,

I live in Sydney, Australia and I think it is wonderful that people from all over the world come together in this global village to talk about Rovers, to share information and advise, to learn and to help others when we can.

Do you see many P6 Rovers in Norway?

Ron.
 
Wow, I never realised the P6 was sold to so many places! :) Hope you get the gray one going one day, I really like the series 1 in gray.
 
Thankyou! :D
Internet forums are the best source of information I can think of when it comes to old cars. Not to mention help with motivation. Seeing pictures from someone else making a good restoration or repair, is often enough to get me going again if I struggle and lose my spark during a project.
This is the first "international" forum I have joined, because I have not found any Norwegian forums for Rover p6.
I find it very interesting to see the different problems, joys and ideas people have with these cars around the world :)

I can only remember as far back as maybe the late 80s, but the average Norwegian car is 18,5 years old, so I should have had a chance of seeing some Rovers. Still I can probably count on only one hand how many times I have seen a Rover P6 along Norwegian roads :( They seem to have been few here, and short lasting. :?

I hope to get the gray -69 going too :) I had to get it first time I saw it! In addition to the p6s interesting design and details, this grey one was unbelievably charming! Few other cars has had the same effect on me. The white -71 absolutely did not in comparison.
Thankfully, growing up, I have had very understanding parents who has never complained when I dragged another car home.
 
hi sikkan.
Good luck with your project! I dont however think you will be able to easily put the V8 into a 2000 shell,as the inner wings,chassis differ. Possible but very difficult!,and not with the autobox as the tunnel is too narrow!
 
There are a couple of V8's around in 4 cyl shells in the UK and of course that is how the factory did the early V8 prototypes using old "Talago" shells - Ian Trapp has one of these with (I think) one of the BUicks brought over; certainly it has a modified 2000 box on it. I've not seen any of these in any great detail, so I can't comment on how easy it would be. Certainly there will be some "issues" with location of ancilliaries, brake servo etc, but I wouldn't expect them to be too difficult. Big problem is how to thread the exhaust out of the engine bay. You would likely have to use one of the high rpm ultra small starter motors sold for racing V8's and you might finish up having to fabricate your own manifolds. It is well worth doing though, as the 4 cyl shell has longer bottom wishbones and hence reduced camber change in bump, so the car will handle noticeably better. Ought not to be an issue with tunnel size - the manual and auto tunnels on the 4 cyl cars are identical to the equivalent ones on the V8's, the shells only differ forward of the bulkhead.

Chris
 
Hello Sikkan. Welcome along. Lots of luck with your restoration. I wholeheartedly agree with you about this and similar forums being a great source of inspiration when a restoration project seems to be taking forever. You'll be able to shoehorn a V8 into a 2000 bodyshell, see BAe146's recent thread "Hello from Finland" in this section of the forum, he has just such a conversion, and very tasty it looks too.
 
Aha, good to know! Already this forum is bringing me needed wisdom. I was not aware that the body was so different on 3500. I had the impression that only the front end of the inner wings were changed. :oops:
A list of differences between 2000 and 3500 is perhaps already available somewhere? (Edit, Chris answered this pretty much regarding the body changes)
Thanks!

Not worrying me too much that it is not bolt in though. The projects I have to finish before I can begin with the Rover, is a -75 Volvo 245 with a -95 Volvo 940 turbo engine+transmission (soon finished!) and a Volvo 245 with a chevy 350 amongst others :roll:
For now I just wait and see what engine turns up. The Rover V8 is rare in these parts in any case. A smaller, lighter five cylinder engine with the same torque as the 3500 is also on the "want-list" if all else fails :wink: But joining this forum has absolutely shed new light to many of the thoughts I have had since I got my P6.
Thanks again for the input! :D
 
Sikkan, I love that City Grey..just begging for your time!

Good luck with the Volvo..and hope to read you round the forum more.

Cheers,

Stan
 
Now what 5 cylinder would that be?

Before Rover came across the ex Buick V8 they had been working on a six cylinder version of the 4 cylinder engine. This ran under the project name of P7 because it was allegedly too long to go in the standard engine bay and needed extensive front end changes. One car still survives and there is an excellent write up on the Swedish Rover Club site. Just before the project was abandoned after arrival of the V8, two five cylinder engines were manufactured (again cut and shut versions of the existing 2000 engine) which had the advantage that they DID fit in the engine bay lengthwise! Insufficient development was done to judge whether this stood a chance of success though. Carburation using SU's was difficult (Audi's used Weber style multi choke carbs which are much easier to configure for 5 cylinders) and at that stage no serious attempt had been made to tackle the balance issues.

Consequently I've always had a hankering to try a 5 cylinder transplant into a P6! My own favoured victim would be the Land Rover 5 cylinder diesel as used in the Defender and the Discovery. It has more than enough grunt even in standard form, and JE Engineering (a true Rover Motor Co spin off company - no BL influence there!) can pull around the 200hp from it. So no problem showing a V8 a clean pair of heels! I realise this engine was developed from the Perkins Prima, itself a spin off from the Austin O series, but it seems to me to have acquired enough Rover heritage along the way to make a satisfyingly authentic marriage.

In Discovery trim it is mated to an R380 manual box or ZF HP22 Auto, so no problem sorting out the 4WD to 2WD issues for either.

Chris
 
Thanks Stan :) I plan to not repaint it, even if I know how to swing a spraygun. The barn that the P6 was stored in before I bought it, was spraypainted at some point, leaving my Rover (parked inside near the wall) with red clown stripes all over :LOL: I have wet sanded most of the car down, so now it is practically all matt. Looks kind of cool..

Chris,
I have read about the Rover plans for the five cylinder in the "Rover P6" book by James Taylor and I must say it is a little sad that they did not go for it.
Interesting thoughts you have for the Disco engine. Something like that was not on my mind at all, but why not a diesel :)
I just wan't something else than a normal four cylinder engine :LOL:

For now and some time to come, I can't put my wrenches where my mouth is, and I'm basically just brainstorming out loud :oops: These are just small ideas that will take time and money to put to life no matter what I do. So whatever way I decide to go, the things governing my choices will naturally be the availability and price of parts, and difficulty in carrying through chosen project compared with how fun and out of the ordinary the result can be.

The five cyl. engine I had in mind is not the Audi 20v Turbo, Webmaster :wink: But similar i guess. Again, availability, price and also in my case, familiarity with chosen product.
 
And I can say you are correct. :wink:
No direct link to Rover sadly, but a good durable engine with a nice sound to it that is widely available in different versions, cheap parts, easy to get help with problems here, easily tunable++...
But we'll see. It's funny how the right things turn up over time.

Sigurd
 
The Volvo 960 (Rwd) with the 2,5 litre six, was available with both manual and auto that fits bolt on the 5 cylinder. The Aisin-Warner automatic is easy enough to get, but the m90 manual tranny can probably be a bit harder to get due to popularity among those who want manual on their 3.0s or put fives into other volvos.
Also adaptors are available from for instance kl-racing to connect other transmissions.
 
A lovely engine with bags of power even in non-turbo form 8) I had an 850 estate with the 2.5 20valve & multi-mode auto, it was a fantastic performer, but the 2.3 turbo lump in a P6 now that would be an interesting bit of kit, just imagine it a P6T5 :shock:
 
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Sigh... I love snow, but It's a good thing spring is soon here...
Next winter I hope my Rovers and other future projects are indoors.
 
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