Brad's 1999T Sterling KV6 Saloon

[BennyVitesse]

I can't agree about the 4 cylinder units. The repair costs for one of these (in the UK) versus the KV6 is buttons, although I haven't owned as many examples as others, I have only had one failure from 7 cars, that example finally gave out at 14.5 years old and 50k. My local garage repaired it for £350 and the car still gives excellent service. Bearing in mind that the average car only lives for around 13 years, the HGF may never have come to light if it had been owned by a non enthusiast.

My father had a Renault Scenic that got HGF at 4 years old having covered around 60k miles, he had owned the car from new and it had been serviced on time at the dealer throughout. It cost £600 (in 2002) to be repaired and never sounded right afterwards. I have a work colleague whose 2001 Passat blew its HG at 7 years old and cost £1000 to be fixed. Yet I can find no forums criticizing these cars off? Both Renault and VW are still in business too. I am also unaware of any failures from cars fitted with the newer 'LR spec' MLS gasket which is not expensive to buy and a DIY-er could do the job for less than £100 in parts and a weekend of their time.

My point is this, as far as I am concerned on any used car purchase there are pitfalls, HGF on a 4 cylinder Rover is possibly one of the cheaper faults you could end up with compared to say a cambelt failure or a fault inside the electrical system on a modern car.

Currently on Autotrader there are a number of 10 year old Lagunas and 75 1.8s for around £1500, I know which one I'd buy.

[dollysprint]

Couldn't agree more Ben, I used to fix as many Renaults and Peugeots as I did K series 4 pots. Dont get me wrong the K series does have a weakness on the open deck engines, but its more to do with the cooling system than the engine itself.
Any aluminium engine with a dodgy cooling system is going to blow its headgasket no matter who makes it. Yes early kv6's (rover 800) are a liability but its more the people bolting them together than the engine design itself. The Triumph Stag springs to mind here, poor cooling system, badly assembled.
The only 75's I have seen with blown headgaskets have been caused by thermostat housings or more often that piss poor designed multi-speed fan that burns out its brushes on speeds 1 and 2. No air con is your first sign, ignore that and all you have is speed 3 which cuts in at a very high 112 degrees.
I'm a great fan of the K series engines, years ahead of there time and engineered to be worked on ( something Rover always put more thought into than any other manufacturer)
Does have to be said though, some motorists have clearly forgotten what a bonnet catch is for, I recently heard that 9 out of 10 motorist have never lifted the bonnet on their car, I dont mean weekly, I mean never

Dave

[Manalishi]

My parents car was an 04, bought new and driven gently for 6000miles, services on the clock. Fixing headgasket was £1200 in Sweden. Lovely engine yes, but still...

[guru]

If we're talking about the regular K series that I've had 2 cars with that installed and both suffered head gasket failures. Both were MGf's first one went at 24,000 miles and the second at around 70k. K series is OK but does sound a little 'weedy' whereas the KV6 has a lovely growl to it

[threelitre]

We've been lucky with our K4 - at about 155k miles it needed a HG once, but due to a different reason: The crank pulley loosened due to the key-'nose' breaking off - this lead to 6 bent valves... Fixing it with a used head was surely cheaper than doing cambelts on a KV6 I expect to see way more than 200k miles on our 416 Tourer. There was also a KV6 engined Rover 825 offered near my place recently with about 220k miles on it - I doubt it had about 10 engine swaps in it's life, so some are good obviously. And somehow this variability is - sadly - a key to BL/ARG/MG-Rover products since the 70s.

Regards,

Alexander

[Very Tall Brad]

Passed MoT yesterday with advisory on pads and discs. Had it washed again.

[mjc9967]

Faith dear boy, faith!

[Very Tall Brad]

I do have faith. Faith it will not last very long.

[mjc9967]

Can I have the filler neck then??

Seriously, I do hope you are wrong and you can enjoy it as long as poss

[Alex SBY]

I'm sure you'll get at least 25k miles out of it (as that is when they seemed most likely to go breasts skyward when new). Odds are, if it's a later engine it'll be absolutely fine.

[rosshenocsr]

later engines ie in 45, 75 and the MG zs where ok. But in Freelander (i worked in a landorver dealer from 2000 -2006) we would change KV6 engines at 24k. Some cars had 3 engines in 3 years. 1.8 k used to blow head gaskets until the modified gasket came out.
At a Jaguar dealernow and have not done a head gasket since i started. Have to say though not 100% reliable engine wise. I have a 3.0 diesel s with an egine to finish off fitting waiting for me on Monday.Would have been finished yesterday but we are waiting for 2 new turbos as well. (lost oil pressure seized up metal particles though out the engine oil system) Lucky for the owner though is under warranty. First 3.0 diesel engine we have done since they came out in 2010 model year, so we suspect this is a one off

[Very Tall Brad]

I think you are wrong about the 45, 75, MG ZS. ALL KV6's of all ages in all variants of all MG ROVER or Kia installations are pretty dire in terms of CHG robustness.

I am not going to repeat my personal experiences here again (three 75's all bought new/nearly new and all with failed head gaskets at very low mileages between 19000 and 49000)...

But only last week, my friend who has one of the last 75s which he bought new and loves like it's a puppy - a 2006 56 plated 31000 mile Conoisseur saloon 2.5 KV6 - has had his engine rebuilt after CHG failure.

Aside from this serious, unavoidable fragility in the cooling/head area, they are lovely engines.

[Very Tall Brad]

Washed it again today.

Checked oil and water. Looks okay . This is a fortnightly thing. I have checked for leaks such as drips but there is nothing.

[Kyle]

Washed it again today.

Checked oil and water. Looks okay but both needed topping up. This is a fortnightly thing. I have checked for leaks such as drips but there is nothing. I assume the coolant and lubricants are getting out somewhere else - exhaust is the obvious place BUT the car just passed the emissions test as part of it's MoT. Strange.

Power is down on this car, too. It is smooth but a tad flat and gutless.

When I had a KV6 it needed the coolant topping up very slightly. The thermostat housing is known to leak on the kv6, it is located in the V of the engine and so any leaks evaporate off.

I think Neo/Bren changed their thermostat housing as they had leaks too.

[Richard Moss]

The stat housing is plastic, I think, which doesn't sound like a great idea to me