It will be a 1.4 16V K Series motor.
...the 1.4 of course was not the one that commonly suffered HG problems.
They all suffer HG "problems" - they are all the same engine (1.4 - 1.8), and use the same HG. But there is always a reason for the HG to go, they don't just pop like people seem to think, usually a coolant leak at the manifold gasket etc is the cause. Any engine can pop it's headgasket when there is no coolant, but unfortunatly, the K'er had a design flaw in the gasket, and the way the bolts work, which makes HGF more likely. Also, with the all alloy construction, different parts of the engine expand at different speeds until ORT is achieved, so putting too much pressure (revving high) on a cold engine can pop a standard Rover HG.
Keep ya eye on the water levels, and never accelerate over 2000rpm before the engine hits ORT and one will be fine. If and when it does pop, get the uprated Land Rover developed kit (uprated oil rail, MLS headgasket, upgrated manifold gasket etc) and the design flaws of the original engine/HG are a thing of the past (as with the N-series). This does not mean you can drive around for months with no water, it just brings the HGF resiliance upto the same standard as other engines lol.
Having said that though, the earliest K'ers (1.1 K8 and 1.4K16 95bhp) are generally less suseptible to HGF because when they were forced to drop the S-Series development by BMW, they were also forced to get more power (and capacity) out of the 1.4 K16 and they redesigned the block which meant a change of the liners, which does increase the risk of HGF in the event of problems over the original K16.
An N-reg, dependent on how late it was actually produced, could be either theearlier 95bhp version or the revised 105bhp version. The earlier version is more preferable for avoiding HGF, however having said that, I know of a fair few people on the MGR forums who have had over 100,000+ out of the original HG's on their later-engined cars, without problems. But I also know of people who have had them replaced 3 times in under 100,000 miles lol.
Either way, the full revised kit is pennies, and HGF is the only real problem that ever plagued the K'er, which is more than can be said for a lot of engines haha, once uprated (or even if you look after the engine properly to avoid HGF), you have a pretty much bullet-proof engine otherwise.
