What are they like? Anyone had/got one?

Seem to get quite a bit for ya money? or am I just tryin to polish a turd!?

 

Just sold my 216 coupe,had it for 3 years and NOTHING went wrong with it!
My mate has had 2 220 turbos,quite quick but eat gearboxes.

 

they eat boxes and head gaskets apperently...

but they are 200 bhp as std!

alex

 

Head gaskets are a BIG problem on them

 

Good cars

Can be prone to head gaskets and FWD but apart from that alot of performance per £

Don't forget to get the tartan rug and flat cap

 

my mates got a 420 gsi turbo

200 bhp and not a bad car for 500 quid!!!!!

not bad in my book

 

im guessing the head gaskets may be a problem

 

as said HG and box is a problem.

My mate sorted this out on his though, he put a recommended HG and fitted a quiafe ATB, absoutely flys for a FWD car

Seriously underated cars

quite tunable and very good top end

 

if its the limited slip box they fit to the 820 turbos there a pig to sort or get hold of.
mate had no end of trouble trying to repair his.
seem good engines though was fast even in that tank

 

Had two of these,

Head gaskets and diffs are the problem, but if you take care of the box, they're not that bad.

Good-looking car, dirt cheap, and you can up the boost and bring them to 220bhp-ish, get a decent actuator, and they're pretty quick!

Low mileage really does seem to make a difference on them though, once they hit 100k, things start to go. Water pumps and turbos first, and the pump's a bitch to replace!

 

they sound quite good, where's a good place to see some for sale on the net? Had a look on autotrader and there ain't much to choose from! What is the spec like on a turbo? do they have air con and stuff?

 

There good cars as far as im concerned!

HG's arent as much a problem as made out cause the engine is a T series. Its the K series that suffer badly.

It does have rather chocolate pistons but the standard ones can take 12psi without much trouble which leaves you with 210bhp ish.

They will do 60 in under 6 seconds and a very very fast at the top end and just seem to keep pulling.

The standard T25 is ok. But put a T28, forged pistons and new intercooler on and they start getting pretty dam quick.

 

Air-con was an option, as was the full leather... all have T-Bars (well, loosely described as lol), ABS, half-leather, RCL, EW, spoiler, front fogs etc.

Later ones had airbags and seatbelt pre-tensioners, but weren't many of them in the turbos.

Look for jumping out of 2nd/3rd gear (seems to be the first sign something's wrong), noisy top-end, leaks from the water pump, take it on a long run and make sure the roof isn't too noisy above 100 (you can get replacement seals from Rover at about 50 quid+VAT if memory serves), the first sign of the HG going is a leak from the front right corner of the block, but that seems to be a Rover trait anyway, you'll find a lot of them do it lol

Apart from the usual stuff, can't think of much else...

 

Mine is currently being sorted, just a few things left to do, such as fueling then the boost goes up to 18psi.

Should be fun then!

 

agree with paul. I used to have one, hence my username

imo they are very good cars, easily the best looking of the rover range, very fast as well. I had mine for a few years and never had any problems with the head gasket, like paul said I think its mainly the K series that suffered ! I'm pretty sure the T series had mahle pistons which can take more abuse than the rover 600 turbo which had 'chocolate pistons', you'll get away with 12psi no probs, I was running 15 through mine and never had any problems.......you'll have to chip the ecu to remove the boost cut out though which I believe is 14.7psi (1 bar).

also they look even better if you lower it and get wheels etc.....

Duncan

oh, it did eat a gearbox though

 

Quality!

The first one I bought years ago was a Japanese import, full spec... Thought it seemed damn quick, saw off a lot of cars it shouldn't have done, but never found the time to have it rolling-roaded etc... bloke who bought it off me had it done down south at 271bhp on SUL lol

Kicking myself royally I was, specially as I ended up with a shitbox after that lol

 

thanks guys, some really helpful replies, paul your 220 looks cool

So does anyone know some websites I can look at?

 

Best place to ask, thinking about it, is http://www.rovertech.net.

They'll tell you what you need to know... top blokes

Mainly cos I've just realised I can't remember which one had the chocolate pistons lol, the M or the T series...

And I'm sorry chaps, I've got to disagree on the headgasket thing, I've known four of these cars very well, and I've done 5 head gaskets on them... although we worked out that brown aviation gasket paste stuff does wonders for stopping the problem...

 

ummm yep.

www.rovertech.net

They know what they are talking about.

If you want a completely mental 220 go to AN Racing. Home of Andy Nichols. He can build you a 11 second ,180mph monster




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Its the same engine and gearbox in the 220 and the 620 thou

 

There were revision differences if memory serves, the 620 was always the same engine, whereas the 220 varied depending on year...

 

Defo underated, nice cars to drive aswell, and cheap.

Paul220coupe, that a nice looking motor and prob the best looking alloys ever for modern cars, looks

 

 

Wicked car paul, makes me wanna get one now

 

Heaps of junk!!!

I had a 12 month old one in 95.... while they were very quick motors (at the time and prior to testing the delights of a tuned cossie) the reliability was truly aweful. From a car that cost me £15.5k in 1995 it was a piece of junk tbh..... I would never touch another Rover again after that one.

I had head gasket replaced, water coolant leaks and the general build quality was dire for a not so cheap car at the time.

 

Nice cars!!! my mates got on, highly modded and goes well, hes just having a tublar manifold fitted to it and T34

 

me mate Hetz has one and it sounds sweeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttt!!!!! As for head gaskets he has fitted a steel one. He also in 18 months ownership suffered no failures including gearbox

 

200sx, far better

 

If you get one and the head gasket leaks oil at the front by number 4, use genuine gaskets.

Very common oil leak area for all 2.0 rovers.

 

yup, my mate Lee has just bought one after selling his RST2. Its got 280bhp and my god sound sweeeeeeeeeetttttttt. I cant have one cos it aint big enuff for me kids

 

There's good and bad in all but Rachel's Dad has had 2 Rover 200's new and both have been utter pieces of shit. One of the cars the headgasket failed within the first 5000 miles and the other spent more time in at Rover than on the driveway.

I would never own one in a million years. Saying that a mate of mine has built a 220 Turbo (non coupe) and it's quite quick for what it is in all fairness and as far as I'm aware hasn't given cause for concern in the 2 years of ownership.

If it were my money I'd buy anything else as the Rover badge always seems to conjour up images of piss stained coffin dodgers. I have upmost respect for the quick ones and the people that have built them but I'm afraid they just aint my cup of tea.

 

You can also check out here-

www.rover2mg.com

Some good coupes on here.

 

PMSL

pretty quick all the same

 

Forgot the werthers