1972 Rover P6 2300TC - Saab B234 Turbo

[sowen]

Aug 14, 2018 20:55:18 GMT skkylinedave said:

The fun you could have tearing up behind BMWS and Audis on a commute ...

I've noticed a few hold back as I catch up with other traffic, otherwise I try to be a good boy on the roads

Aug 16, 2018 7:14:58 GMT darrenh said:

Fuel system behaving ok now?

Seems absolutely fine now. There's a short dual carriageway up a hill on my way to work just off the motorway. I can have the throttle pegged down and it holds fuel pressure all the way until I back off so all seems spot on now

Aug 16, 2018 7:59:18 GMT MiataMark said:

It's a trivial thing but re the number plate lights, could you make the spacers angled to stop white light showing?

Great car and the blue really suits it.

That was the intention with the spacers being so thick. I think they'd look even odder than what they already do being angled so I'll find some epoxy resin or something similar and extend the shroud out a bit. Yeah that shade of blue was always the intention, just that I didn't think I could spray metallic well enough back when I started and had other mods planned on the body which are all done apart from one.....

Aug 16, 2018 10:33:13 GMT ChasR said:

Are you bringing this down tonight to Southam?

Yep, see you there if you're going

I've done a few hundred miles now, so pulled the spark plugs out to have a look



They appear very clean, just some black soot around the edge and a light coating of black soot in the tailpipe. The thermostat seems to be sticking open so I'm certain it's still running on a little cold start enrichment, but I've not had the laptop on the ecu since the mot yet to verify? AFR's hover around 11-14 depending on how I'm driving, with the odd excursion to 10 or 15 so that all seems fine for the lack of proper tuning I've done so far No flat spots apart from a light stutter on acceleration which would be the acceleration enrichment that needs adjusting. When cold it needs the throttle tickling for 10 seconds then it settles at about 800rpm, but when hot it likes to idle at 1400rpm! And for having a side exit just behind the drivers door it's quieter inside the cabin than what it was with the old Rover twincam, so much nicer to drive now

[sowen]

It's been a few months since I updated this. Been far too busy with the Land Rover's, but finally got round to giving the P6 some lovin' again!

I've bought an uprated ARB to replace the original and probably the secondary arb too. These weren't readily available up until the last few years, and are now a reasonable price







I've also had a spare speedo recalibrated, so now all the dashboard gauges work and read pretty accurately, for the first time ever!



Of course I had to take it out for a test drive, and try out my new GoPro at the same time

[sowen]

Strangely the idle speed issues I was having back in the summer with it running at 1400rpm seem to have settled, with it now running at 1000-1100rpm at idle when hot which is nothing to worry about. I think I'll also change the hard rev limiter to a soft limiter, the engine is so revvy that I keep thinking I've broken it, but no, I've just run out of revs! For having a side exit right behind the drivers seat it's suprisingly refined and doesn't drone very much at all . May also be time to look at the turbo wastegate and fiddle with the mounting bracket which is restricting it to 7-8psi, so I can start progressively upping the boost.....

Got about 15 minutes of GoPro footage to edit later on, couple of full power runs to the limiter, and slightly better sound than my previous GoPro vid where I had the fully sealed lid on the back. The whooshing, burbles and chirrups are noticeably more audible now

[sowen]

I've edited together some of the footage from yesterdays blast with the GoPro and uploaded it to Youtube



This will work as a bit of a benchmark on what it accelerates like now I'm happy it's ready for the boost to be wound up.....

[sowen]

I now have a cheap boost controller and a roll of brake tubing and AN3 fittings to replace the silicon and rubber vacuum/boost hoses with hard lines. Some of the older silicon hoses are getting a bit fragile and I'd like to tidy the engine bay up and tuck the hard lines out of the way wherever possible







And I just bought something else recently for the P6....











Don't know if I'll fit it yet, and if I do how much to modernise it by with newer style clamps, different rear braces to still allow use and access to the rear seats and front door bars to add a little better rigidity to the front bulkhead area which is a known weak spot folding back? Or use as a template for a new set of bars?

[sowen]

Since I've mostly fixed my Land Rover, attention has turned back to the P6 to get it running better, possibly even to the point where I can tweak the mapping as I wind up the boost. First thing is to swap the thermostat for a new one. I think from memory the ecu is showing the coolant temp around 60C when driving, though when stationary it rises to the normal 90C, with the dashboard gauge showing the same variation of temperature between stationary and driving.







At the same time I finally gave in and pulled the front wings off since it was already raised off the floor with easy access to all of the bolts around the valance and I had the time. Target was to have them repainted in less than a week as I wanted to take the P6 to a couple of local shows











Yep, heaps better! A rush job so the clear isn't perfect, though there's enough on there to protect the base underneath and work with when I get the chance to buff up the paint all over in one hit.

All back together and one final thing to do in the driveway before re-arranging the cars to take it to work then go to an evening car meet earlier this week



Linelock still works

Then disaster strikes.

Set off early to work on Wednesday, and it wasn't pulling, seemed to be holding back a bit. Got half a mile from home when it begins to clear, starts boosting then there's a horrendous metallic shrieking from under the bonnet and puffs of smoke from the exhaust. Turn round and go home, it ain't in any fit state to hammer down the motorway.

So this happened....



The turbo is kaput. It's dead. The bearings seem to have gone altogether, in the vid the excessive shaft wobble is clearly evident.

On a positive it does mean there's an impending turbo upgrade coming

The thing is I don't know exactly why the turbo has suddenly failed like that? I've been aware of some shaft wobble so it's been in the back of my mind that I will need to replace it at some point, and that point is now! I'm thinking one possible cause is oil starvation, being that my engine was bough incomplete and is a very early Saab turbo lump I've taken the oil feed from the block gallery on the other side of the block with an AN4 hose running round the back to feed it. Also, the turbo is originally from a 2.0 sized engine and now it's on a 2.3 so maybe I've been spinning it too hard to keep up with the larger engine, which loves to rev to 5-6000rpm. I did have a hardcut limiter until recently which may too have played a part in the turbo's premature demise? Maybe it could've not been balanced well enough when I had the core rebuilt years ago?

Anyway, not to focus on problems I have some possible solutions and plans to help prevent any further turbo failures. I've ordered a load more fittings and hose to make a new oil supply by drilling and tapping into the oil cooler sandwich plate immediately below the turbo. I'm sure oil runs inwards on a filter and only the outer cavity is accessible to drill so it would be taking unfiltered oil from the pump direct. The plan being to run an AN4 hose with an inline oil filter up to the turbo which should give a near immediate supply of oil once the engine cranks over. Then I'm wondering if I should wire up an oil pressure switch to prevent the engine from running with no oil pressure, so as to prevent the turbo from being spun dry? I can take the soon to be redundant oil hole on the side of the block where the turbo oil feed comes from, or drill a second hole in the sandwich plate to take a oil pressure switch there? I've found oil cooler sandwich plates with two additional oil ports which could do what I want without risking ruining the existing oil cooler adapter? It would be easiest to wire the oil pressure switch into the coilpack wiring which would leave the efi and crank triggering untouched, but only kill the power to the coils to prevent them from sparking. It's the easiest method I can think of, but could cause flooding issues when starting? Or I wire it into the fuel pump supply which would be a bit more tricky?

Hopefully the new turbo arrives through the post on Monday.....

[sowen]

Parcel arrived today



New Chinese spec GT2871



Bit bigger than the dead Garrett T25







Fingers crossed the 5 bolt outlet flange is the same and once it's clocked to suit the high position in the P6's engine bay it just bolts straight in. Then it's plumb it up as and when the rest of the bits and pieces I need arrive....

[quaggers]

Love this car - shame about the turbo, but onwards and upwards eh?! Great burnout, reminded me of when you used to be able to watch roadkill without subscribing!

[sonus]

Wonder why I always end up looking at P6s🤔 There’s a 3500 for sale here in Norway. Sold new here and is LHD. Seller has had it for 30+ years and is asking £2800 with one year MOT still valid. What can possibly be wrong with it?

[hernerover]

What happened with the new turbo ?

[ivanhoew]

YES !! that !! ^^^^^^^

[sowen]

Jun 6, 2021 11:08:20 GMT hernerover said:

What happened with the new turbo ?

It's on and plumbed up, engine running again







Bit of jiggling around to get the air filter back in







And a blow off valve has gone in



And I've also bought a replacement heavy duty clutch kit, pressure plate rated to over 400lb/ft and the friction plate to 600lb/ft from Cltchfix



Presently the P6 is parked up in the garage under cover whilst I'm kept busy with work, home improvements and the little garage time I've had has been devoted almost solely to the Land Rover's...





Before parking it up in the garage I may have slipped the clutch with the linelock on. With no mods done to the engine setup as it previously was with the little Garratt T25, I've gained another 5psi on the boost gauge! It previously got to 10psi and that was it, now it's 15psi without any effort

I'm hoping I can get some much needed work going on this later this year....