1992 Rover Coupe D16Z6 turbo project - finally running!

[jimbo200sx]

Welcome to my build thread which I should have started 5 years ago

I guess I'll just keep updating as and when I can until I've caught up to date.



So, I saw this Rover coupe on ebay for a decent price and in very good condition. I'd also planned this from the start having read a lot of info on d-series.org and turbod16.com. The plan then, was to get at least 300whp out of it whilst being very driveable and not too laggy.



Some of you may have seen it at Shelsey Walsh in 2014 after the new engine was fitted. You get a glimpse of me going up the hill at 1:50 in the official youtube video:

[jimbo200sx]

I found a better video at 17:24 in this one

[jimbo200sx]

Anyway, back to the build.

I had a 2.25" cat back stainless exhaust off a previous 216 coupe I had owned, so I think I fitted that within a week of owning the car IIRC.






These are the pictures of the exhaust fitted to the previous coupe. The current one is 'slightly' less rusty underneath

[Siert]

Like it. I think I've never seen one of these in real life, but I've seen them on this forum. I was wondering some time ago if LHD coupes existed, and found some in France.

[jimbo200sx]

Thanks Siert.


Yeah; this line of Rover 200's were basically Honda Concerto's underneath. I think rover changed the front suspension, badges, bodypanels and seats. I love them, these SOHC Honda engines can make serious numbers when built properly... which brings me to the real start of the project. That fateful day 5 years ago when I spotted a guy selling his lot of turbo parts on ebay due to a lost licence. I kept thinking about it and going back to the for sale ad. A few beers later and bam! Buy It Now! Haha.

So there were a lot of decent parts that I knew I could use to good effect in my build, most of all, the Garrett T3/T4 50 trim hybrid, which had supposedly been rebulit... A few bits I sold on, a few are still lying in the corner. So what's being used out of the lot:

The turbo, of course, which is currently at CR Turbos waiting to be rebuilt





A PFab stainless equal length ramhorn exhaust manifold





A Skunk racing intake manifold



A Walbro pump 255lph and filter kit - not sure if it's the correct filter kit - this still needs fitting at this point in time



And finally a SARD FPR and a B18 TB port matched to the skunk intake manifold

[bouncer]

Nice work

p.s the internet is never dead

sporadic pages.... however > web.archive.org/web/20100311072048/http://turbod16.com/

[jimbo200sx]

At that point, I decided I could keep my car on the road a while longer without having to buy a second car just yet, if I bought a second engine to build.

Then I concluded if I were to do that, I might as well go ahead and get the highest spec of the engine. The standard engine is a Honda D16A6 1.6 16v SOHC, 116bhp. I instead opted for the D16Z6. Basically the same, but with VTEC and 125bhp. There are a couple of differences. The A6 has slightly stroger rods in standard form, but the Z6 has the better flowing head. I thought it would all just drop into place, like for like... Oh boy, was I wrong.

So I found a D16Z6 for sale. It was a recent import and the engine was being replaced with a B-series. All looked good on the surface. Then after being messed about for over a month I finally got this engine. I presume that he was wasting time so that I wouldn't have any comeback through ebay...

I set about turning the unused end of my living room into a makeshift engine shop, huge sheets of plastic down with some wooden sheets and an engine hoist. Bolted the engine up and started stripping it down



Now on these engines, 3 of the valve cover bolts go into the cast aluminium camshaft carriers. They should look something like this



Unfortunately, one of mine looked like this



A missing piece of it I found still in place, apparently held on by the surface tension of the oil



Then a couple of days later when I removed the sump I found the rest of it wedged in the mouth of the oil pick-up filter (and of course the whole engine was full of little crumbs of aluminium)



I couldn't just source a new cam carrier either. I was told the camshaft and carrier are machined together. Basically, the head was scrap!






The beginning of a whole heap of bad luck that ensued

[jimbo200sx]

Mar 23, 2016 20:07:02 GMT bouncer said:

Nice work

p.s the internet is never dead

sporadic pages.... however > web.archive.org/web/20100311072048/http://turbod16.com/

Oh awesome! Thanks for that, really

[jimbo200sx]

Undeterred, I cracked on with the bottom end. I made a crank pulley removal 'tool' with an m33 nut i think it was; 50mm diamater to fit the crank pulley with a big bar welded on the end You can also see my over the top 70mm cable ready for a battery to boot conversion.





I got all the parts ordered in needed to build the engine up

Arias 9:1 75.5mm forged pistons



Eagle rods



ACL bearings



ARP mains



Titanium springs and retainers, not sure on brand, but sourced from Bisimoto USA; apparently the same ones they're running in their 700hp D16 civic wagon






At that point, my landlady decides to ring me and tell me it's time for a visit

With the problems I'd had and needing to clear out the living room ASAP, I decided to deliver it all to a Honda specialist to build up for me. A bit disappointing really; I was looking forward to building it myself.

[jimbo200sx]

So the guy building the engine starts off telling me it'll take 2.5 weeks. The BS didn't stop there. I ended up putting up with his BS for almost 6 months before finally getting my engine. Parts went missing that I'd given to him. I was charged for things that weren't done. Suffice to say it was a nightmare!

But at least in that 6 months I still had the car on the road, and there were still parts to buy... I went for a shallow but deep intercooler, hoping I could squeeze it in without cutting the metal support behind the bumper





A Tial MVS wastegate



Greddy Type S BOV (the one that whistles instead of sneezing )



A K&N filter almost big enough to fit your head in



AEM guages for boost, oil pressure and air/fuel with wideband



Catch can with a few temporary hoses



And a stack of filters for running in

[primeragtphill]

Now this looks to be an awesome read, and an awesome car in the making

[jimbo200sx]

With the engine being away so long, I had plenty of spare time to start treating the car to a few non-engine related goodies. I sourced a set of BRM 16" alloys. They were painted white but badly and in not such a great condition. I sanded them down and resprayed them with a can of Halfords appliance white gloss. The finish came out very well and stayed perfect for about 2 years until one snowy afternoon coming back from work the back end slid out a little and I kerbed one of them.





I also got around to meshing the front valance

[jimbo200sx]

Thanks Phil.

I'm certainly hoping so, it's very nearly complete at this point. I'll try to get this thread up to speed over the next day or two.

[jimbo200sx]

The sound system came up next on the list. Mostly I had the stuff lying around. Just had to get some MDF sorted and crack on. Not sure how many here are into their audio, but I'll post up the pics anyway

[jimbo200sx]

If you remember that chunky power cable from earlier in the thread. The battery to boot was pretty simple to do. Fabricated a simple tray out of 3mm steel and bolted it through the floor. 2 upright pieces were welded onto the tray, then drilled and tapped M6 and a bar and a couple of long bolts completes the tray.

The 70mm cable was a bit of a tight fit to say the least.









Then I decided to get the rear spoiler which I kept from the last coupe and respray it Tahiti blue and get that on. Something about these spoilers though; no matter what products you use, no matter what you try, they always react and start bubbling through the paint after a year or so.

[luckygti]

Love these, and always fancied one. Getting thin on the ground now though!!

[Maxxxer]

Lovely - used to have a 1.6 Tomcat around 2001; same early grille model, same colour, same issue with the spoiler!

Used to periodically get little white lumps of 'stuff' seeping through the spoiler on the outer sides; just pulled it off and repainted it for the 2 years i had it!

Do you have any issues with the 'boot mounted swimming pool' these used to be blighted by?
I used to carry 2 beach towels in the spare wheel well to soak up the water, then ring them out periodically (due to lack of funds to get it fixed properly....)

[jimbo200sx]

Thanks Maxxer.

It doesn't have any bad leak issues thankfully. I'm not sure how long my amps would have lasted in a 100% humidity environment lol

I did have a bright green automatic one a couple of years ago. That one did come with the pool feature The first time I jacked up the front end a good 5-10 litres poured out the back where one of the rubber bungs had been removed

My mother's 54 plate Rover 25 is terrible, boot and back seat always soaked.


As for the spoiler, I think someone narrowed it down to the adhesive Rover used to glue the two halves of the spoiler together. I've heard the only way to sort it is to make your own new spoiler. Use fibreglass to make a mold of the spoiler, then use that mold to make yourself a new spolier. The only aftermarket ABS plastic one available, is flat on top and doesn't look right at all.

I could always go for a BGW. You never know, it might actually be of benefit when this car is capable of hitting 140mph or more.

[jimbo200sx]

You're right there Lucky.

I think it's down to less than 1000 on the road now, with more being scrapped every week

[jimbo200sx]

We're up to about 4 months into the engine build now.

I was down at the workshop to deliver a stage 4 Competition clutch to them so they could finish up. I was talking to the engine builder about catch can setups, and when I mentioned the commonly used 3/4" fitting on the rear of the block, he thought that had to be used as a drain for the catch can. Told me everything I needed to know - he probably knew less than me about d-series turbos. The whole point of going to a Honda specialist was that they would know their stuff, but clearly this wasn't the case.


Time to start looking into gearbox options.

I had the gearbox which came with the D16Z6 engine and I had the original gearbox from the car. Using the Z6 one would have meant a hydraulic conversion which would have been a pain in the ass, but as it turns out, my drivetrain is much better. I think it's the same as the ZC setup, which was only available in Japan as fas as I know (some rare Japan cars also came with a LSD as standard). Compared to all Euro and USDM Honda's I've seen, I have larger diameter drive-shafts, plus they're equal length with a half shaft. The gearbox has a 4.437 final drive ratio, much shorter than the boxes available on the Hondas. Some of the US guys figured this out and sourced Rover gearboxes so they could salvage the 5th and final drives to swap into their own cars.

I decided to look elsewhere for help at this point. I needed someone to source and fit a limited slip diff. My mechanical confidence ends at taking apart turbos and gearboxes. A second Honda specialist was enlisted. He told me there were two different types of MFactory diff, and that he just so happened to have both in at the time. I carted the gearbox over to him one Saturday morning and left him to it. Tuesday lunchtime I get a phone call...
It's done!
That's more like it!

With regards to the diff, I later found out that the MFactory diff I have is for the ZC fitment. I also stumbled across the original forum thread, where they were looking for 10 people to buy one to get production off the ground - that post was 2009. A bit of good luck turns up every now and again

So I went straight down to his workshop after work on Tuesday with a rover driveshaft in hand. Using massive amounts of positive thinking, I told him it'd fit straight in, and it did! More good luck? Karma must be shifting back into it's rightful position, I thought.


I'd better fit some more stuff whilst my luck holds, lol

I removed the two centre vents from the dash and carefully cut out the vertical bar in the centre. I took careful measurements and made up a plate from 3mm mild steel. Quick blast of black paint and it was ready to be fitted. I also got a white dial kit with neon glow (not as garish as it sounds - looks pretty good at night IMO). It came with all the heater control bits too.