Buying trouble?

Is that a Honda engined model? - if so, it should be pretty bulletproof.

Bargain price, too.

in news:1gmlaeo.va108tlu83krN% snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk, snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) slurred :

It is the b16a (IIRC) honda engined model. But what's the point? You can already get a 220 Turbo, which is probably quicker, has a TorSen diff and is probably less expensive to fix than a 216 with an aftermarket turbo conversion. It is going for cheap tho...

Yep.

Complete waste of time - if you want a Rover 200 Coupe, then just buy the standard 2.0 Turbo.

But not half as bullet-proof as the standard 2.0 Turbo that Rover already produce :)

It makes no sense to buy an underpower aftermarket conversion, when there's better available from the factory.

Aye, absolutely

Depends what you're after. It's only real selling point is if you want something unique...

As the others have said, a standard 220 Tomcat has a substantial amount more power, be a lot easier to maintain (as it won't need specialist attention), a better gearbox, bigger brakes (uprated brakes could just mean more expensive pads...), more equipment, no stupid bodykit, etc.

Not to mention it will more than likely cost a lot more to insure than a standard Tomcat.

He talks about the brakes being modified.

An EBC front brake kit might merely be EBC pads on the standard rotors.

I'd want to check first that it was possible to get sensible insurance, they tend to get all uppity when you have a standard car with an uprated engine power.

No reason why the car should give trouble, more than any other turbo car.

Other than the fact it's an aftermarket conversion kit on an engine that was not designed to be running a turbo....

you'll get 100% more problems. nothing on that car is designed to take 170+ [sic] bhp!

Only the Honda engine is proven to be much more reliable and bullet proof than the T-series.

This is a 1.6 litre cooking model engine that was designed to be run normally aspirated.

It's also made by Honda and forms the basis for their own VTEC lumps.

Honda engines are pretty much unburstable no matter what you do to them. So long as the conversion has been done properly it will be much less likely to go wrong than the Rover T-series.

Honda lumps are only 'unburstable' because they are devoid of torque.

Actually, I've just been told that it's a s***ty SOHC Honda lump. So it'll be s**te.

Yes, and?

It all depends how indepth the conversion was; if they've simply bolted a turbo onto that engine in standard form, then it'll be s**te in the longer term.

If they've gone to the trouble of changing the internals, (and know their onions), then it'll be a much better bet, albeit a bit of a pointless one.

Personally, I can't see why they've bothered at all; far better to sling out all the standard lumps, and throw in a Honda 1.6 VTEC DOHC (B16), or the B18 DOHC VTEC out of an Integra... both of which will, when you get bored of a redline the positive side of 8k combined with good MPG when you're not thrapping the nads off of it, take a turbo conversion without resorting to changing internals, and will still remain reliable, so long as you don't take the piss with boost etc.

The conversion isn't as simple as it first seems - both the 1.6 DOHC VTEC (B16) and the 1.6 SOHC and DOHC Honda lumps (D16), all come out as 1590cc... makes you think the bottom end etc., will be basically the same, mount point and gearbox wise, (especially as both the B16 and D16 DOHC lumps are found in the Mk2 CRX), but they're not, and given no-one makes an official conversion kit to specifically plumb these into Rovers, a lot of bespoke fabrication has to take place.

Yes... I looked into this for my 216GTi Twin Cam, not so long ago... ;0)

Yes *and* you've no idea how "indepth" the conversion was.

The one in that car is certainly not a SOHC lump, it says 16V on it...

Honda did a 1.6 SOHC 16v, and, ISTR the VTEC-E (for economy) was a 16v SOHC VTEC lump.

However, the one in that car isn't one of those units. IIRC from the quick glance, it's got a 'flat' rocker cover, so a K-series unit. Though I'm not 100% sure I admit, especially since the angle of some photos confused me and I'd swear the engine was on the left (passenger side), not the right, a typical Honda trick, but now that I think of it I'm wondering if the Rover 200s I've seen have had that anyway.

Did they even do Rover coupes with the Honda engine? I thought the

Richard