The job is done and the 190 is running nice and smooth. Mind you I haven't taken it on any road runs yet so it may well blow up on me yet.
The belts that were on it were not in the greatest shape as mentioned above.
I suspect that the rear belts were the originals as they were Rover branded and were quite loose. While I had the pulleys off I replaced the rear cam seals which were all weeping. The front belt was very sloppy. Whoever changed it last hadn't got the tension right and the top runs between the water pump and the pulleys were very slack which can't be good for the cam timing.
I got most of my parts from a well known retailer's "Cam Belt Group Buy" and have to say I wasn't overly impressed with the quality of the parts. The water pump needed a lot of filing of the mounting holes to make it fit and the mounting bolt for the tensioner had too much thread on it's shank compared to the original, and the spacer washer looked like it came from a DIY store. I used the original bolt and washer instead but this doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the parts. The front belt was a Dayco, and I was surprised at how tight it was once fitted. Definitely tighter than the belts I had used on my Freelander V6. It could be that the roller on the tensioner was incorrectly adjusted out of the box but all of the manuals say to leave it alone so I did.
One other thing I found was the cam pulley bolts which came from Rimmers. Some were marked with an M and others were marked Pooja Forge. The MGR packaging said "Made in the UK" so I know they were good quality!
One last parts issue was the front cam pulley cover I bought off E-bay to replace my broken one. Of course I needed a right and they sent me a left. I wasn't about to leave the car apart while waiting for a replacement so I just made up a little alloy part to cover the hole. Problem solved.
I also installed a new water pipe manifold on the subframe. No bones about the makers of this one as the label was in Chinese, but the manifold and hoses fit perfectly. It even had the rub reinforcements as per the original.
I'm glad the job is done and I certainly hope I don't have to do it again.
I am looking forward to getting back to work next week to have a rest!
