1.8 Engine. Unfair Criticism?

[BoroRover]

Many thanks to the members for their valuable input. Guys, you rock !!!

[murphyv310]

Originally Posted by macafee2

I ask out of ignorance. how does the weekly check prevent HGF?
Are you saying that that HGF is due to coolant loss?

macafee2

HGF can be caused by coolant loss of course. So a two minute check can tell you if the coolant is dropping, then it's up to the owner to either ignore it and let the engine overheat or find out why the coolant is disappearing.

[macafee2]

thanks plezier and murphy310. from what you say HGF is the result of another failure.

with the posts I have seen about Rover 25's and 75's having HGF failure I don't think I could have the confidence to buy one. Shame as they are good cars.... apart from HGF.

thanks for the explanation

macafee2

[Rooney]

Originally Posted by BoroRover

But is there any evidence that a properly looked after, properly serviced 1.8 is still considered to be avoided when considering purchase ? .

It depends how you define evidence.

I look after all my cars regardless of expense, bordering on OCD.

Two Christmas's ago I had to scrap a saloon that had repeated HGF - it was a facelift - registration FKZ 2090 - mileage less than 50k.

This year I finally gave up on my petrol tourer, again, repeated instances of HGF, again, despite OCD maintenance and maintenance regardless of cost. That one went to my brother - he's driving it around now having replaced the engine.

We had a blue petrol tourer - we called it our tank - it never missed a beat, it ran and ran and ran and ran. It had 180,000 miles on it when we finally sold it on.

So evidence?

Well, as a 75 fan, and I mean fan, the evidence is contradictory - some petrol 75s will never have HGF - even if they're not obsessively maintained - but there is an inherent weakness in them. You can minimise your risk, but you cannot ever be completely sure it won't happen to you.

The problem with situations like this is there are plenty of people who simply won't believe it because their 75 has never given them a minutes trouble.

I'd never buy another 1.8 no matter what its history, no matter who had worked on it. When you've poured the sort of money I have into repairs and maintenance and ended up with nothing but a couple of really nice donor cars, you'd need to be insane to risk it again.

[Rooney]

As to the question of whether it was only early models that suffered - well...no. Both my saloon and my tourer were facelift versions

I posted a thread about my tourer here

Here's what a facelift petrol tourer that simply refused to stop having HGF looks like.



Pretty wasn't she?

[Christopher Price]

Bearing in mind when it was designed, (the late Eighties) design wise, it was an excellent unit, sadly it was let down by poor quality control and things already mentioned, like plastic T pieces and a cooling system with no reserve capacity, which lead to over-heating, if not checked on a daily basis.

[timspencer]

The weak point of all K series engines is the head-gasket, otherwise its a great unit (a 93 214 sold recently on our trade disposal site with 243000 miles on it!), considering when it was launched in 1989 (yes really) Ford were still fitting pinto's to some of their stuff it was bang up to date, the 1.4 was good for 100bhp which is very rare even now and in my experience the sweetest unit was the little 1.1 16v, only 75bhp but loved to rev!.

Its the old tail of Rover penny pinching, but use the new multi layer gaskets etc it shouldn't go again if maintained properly but no one checks the levels on cars these days (that's what warning lamps are for!) so I would say keep an eye on it just in case.

I haven't driven a 1.8 75 for years and I have to say its not something I wouldnt look to buy as its a big heavy car for the amount of power, yes the diesel on paper has similar BHP but has more torque. I was impressed with my 1.8T Connoisseur I had in 2004 as a demo so I would consider one of those but my first choice would always be the CDT, its refined, reliable, powerful and economical (sorry).

[Rooney]

If I recall correctly Flying Banana has had HGF three times?

I don't dispute that there are faults that contribute to it, if I recall correctly Flying Nana had a dodgy radiator - but still.... it's hard to say there isn't a problem when so many people have directly posted their experiences to the contrary.

That said, I do believe that a significant number of 75s diagnosed with HGF probably haven't suffered from it - I know there's a prevailing attitude towards petrol rovers that makes ill informed mechanics diagnose HGF solely because its a rover with a coolant related issue.

[Rooney]

In my experience head gaskets fail more often than they don't (based on two out of three of mine failing multiple times)

And that's the problem.

Your experience tells you one thing, mine tells me another but once you've been on the wrong end of it, it's very hard to believe that its something unique to your car/cars.

In the context of the debate, can anybody honestly say with absolute certainty that the criticism of the 1.8 engine isn't valid?

The risk may be exaggerated - but it's real.

[victorgte]

What I see from this thread is that it's the quality of the repairs that counts more than anything. Yes you have to identify coolant loss early but some repairers just don't care or don't have enough knowledge to make a lasting repair.
I am totally happy with our 2 remaining K series engine cars. Would I buy another? Yes. It's an engine with a whole wealth of knowledge behind it as well as many applications in other cars. Its fragility is not in the gasket itself but the design meaning coolant loss can cause a failure elsewhere but any engine can suffer as a result of loss. The engine will quietly disappear in years to come with just a small number of enthusiasts using it. Pity really.