Been asking everywhere, but no-one seems to know or want to answer.
I'm doing a full service on my MGF (which is now sitting on my folk's driveway for the past three weeks) and I need:

Exhaust & Inlet valves
Rear brake caliper seals (repair jobbys)
Inlet & Exhaust manifolds
Freelander type Head Gasket with steel dowels (k series)
Head flexibolts
Updated lower rail

Does anywhere know of anywhere on the net or motorfactors that I can go to and they will have all of these. I'm getting a bit sick of driving out and some incompetent idiot giving me a 1.4 gasket or a sump gasket, or even an EGR valve ffs.

I've got the cambelt/water pump/thermostat etc etc, just need the above so I can finish!!

I want to avoid Jim Barrow, ropey ebay sellers and avoid Rimmers as they want a kidney.

Belt, tensioner and water pump changed, but want to do HG as well:

Not much space - but not that bad to work on!

Ebay Head Gasket Kit

One sorted.

been advised to stay away from ebay head gaskets for the k series.

I really don't want to, unless it's of a decent manufacturer.

Also got some free valves off a fellow who bent two. Will have to check them though.

Dont bother doing the gaskets with OEM shite. Make sure you use the uprated MLS gasket kit. I think Payen make the full kit, which should include an uprated manifold gasket as well. You should also get the revised Land Rover oil rail, it is highly recommended. Ebay can be worth avoiding unless you are buying the Payen stuff from there.

Some people say the oil rail changes isnt really needed on the Rover cars (it helps when there is more load on the car) and indeed Xpart don't do it as part of their HG change process. However, a lot of specialists won't warrant a HG replacement without the oil rail being changed. In all honesty, it is a bit more cost and work, but its not really worth not doing it when you consider the extra peace of mind it will give. The revised oil rail is supposed to remove head shuffle, which can contribute to premature HGF, so I would deffo do it.

MG put the revised oil rail in the N-Series, which is powering the current TF in the UK and the range of MG's/Roewe's available in China, so that says it all to me.

Just found a bookmark, try www.trechii.com for the parts - have not used them myself, but a few peeps on the MG-Rover forums use them and seem to swear by them.

This is why ill get it done by a specialist, it saves all the hassle and confusion, and for the sake of a few hundred quid lol.

my head gasket on the tf went twice before the garage found out about the oil rail. Was fine after fitting the oil rail, it acts a a brace on the engine and makes the short block more rigid like mat said.

Found some Payen stuff on the bay of E:

Head Gasket

or:

Headgasket 3 ply

Head Bolts

The car nearly done 150,000. Not sure if it's replaced (probably). It's fine now, but replacing a few things and head has to come off.

Never knew the KSeries was designed for one capacity - 1400cc - and only upgraded later on.

Thanks for the info!!

yes only was designed as a 1.4 as a result the coolant capabilities were also only designed for the 1.4. The only fitted bigger bore liners and never increased the coolant channels.

yer the k was designed for 1.1 8v and 1.4 16v. Rover were developing the S-Series to sit between the K-Series and 2.0 T-Series but the ... aka BMW ceased the development of it alongside the KV8 so the only option they had was to modify the K or T. They chose to enlarge the K as it was pretty straightforward, they did consider a 1.4 VVC and even a low compression turbo but people didnt understand that the 1.4 was more powerful than competitors 1.6's, so getting them to buy the fact a 1.4 could have outdone a 1.8 would have been impossible. Also, the VVC mechanism isnt supposed to have much effect on a 1.4, not sute what they mean by that but it was dropped from development quite early on. Alot of people say they should have reduced the T-Series as the HGF problems on the K started when the modified it, but there were inherent problems with doing this and the T has a design flaw that causes it to slowly leak oil tho it is an immensly reliable engine and has a better reputation than the K but cos its derived from the M-Series which iitself was derived from the O-Series, it was old school whereas t he K was brand new and years ahead of its time and Rover knew it would have problems meeting future emmissions standards (hence the KV6 replaced it in 2000).

Sorry about the lack of punctuation on the previous post, was on me pocket pc lol.

Another piece of useless info, was that the K-Series was originally intended to be a "throw away" engine, that was meant to be so cheap to manufacture, it was intended to be replaced rather than repaired. It was supposed to be an all-in-one construction. But the concept only lasted a few weeks before bolts started appearing on the unit, and things escalated from there.

Even before this though, the K-Series (and I think the H-Series) were being developed to be "transmission-in-sump" engines, and fully working prototypes were made, that proved quite successful, each clocking up hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of miles of testing, without any significant problems...

I think it's fair to say the K-Series has never had a straightforward history lol. It's now not even called the K-Series, instead its the N-Series, though apart from it being EuroIV compliant, and having the uprated gaskets and oil rail etc, it has little difference to the K'er we all know and love.

I saw a Rover 75 V8 the other. Sounded mint.

Those V8's (think they're ZTT220's?) are awesome. I think they're rear wheel drive as well. There would've been more but Rover had to keep their noses well and truly poked into Prodrive's developments. I love 16v's but my dad had a V8 Rover SD1 when I was little, the sound is amazing.

Is the 'K/N Series' still in production (in China?).

V8 was the ZT-260 in MG flavour or 75 V8 (still 260BHP but auto gearbox).

As Jeremey Clarkson said, it was an absolutely terrific car, it would have been so much better had they powered it up by another 50BHP though.

SOHC though, change it to DOHC and they are good for 400+ BHP, supercharge them and you can be looking as high as 600BHP. The possibilities are endless with it being a Mustang V8.

Prodrive and Rover were developing the ZT-385 aka the M5 Basher, but only a few prototypes were made before the finances ran out. They would have been far better spending the money finishing the RD60, the same with the money they wasted on the SV.

Yeah, the K/N Series is still being made in China, but only till next year when they are replacing it with a new engine. Don't think they make the KV6 anymore, and Nanjing never finished the development of the L-Series replacement, aka the G-Series (which is a shame as Powertrain were only a few months away from completion), so they are having to source an oil burner from someone else now for the UK version of the MG6.

Whipped it off this afternoon, and apart from realising that somehow half of my tools have gone missing (hence turning a 1 hour job into a three hour one), at least my HG is in good nick and the head isn't warped!



It's got steel dowels in place (not the plastic ones from the factory):


The last two exhaust valves have a white carbony deposit on them. Why? Everything opens and closes as it should???



All valves are straight: