Living with a Rover P6

The first time I had a good look at a Rover 2000 was in June 1965, in the unlikely settings of Liverpool Docks. My parents had just returned by sea from West Africa and waiting for them on the quay was the new car they had promised themselves on their return to the UK. It was painted City Grey with a red leather interior and I remember thinking how small and how low it was compared with the Austin Cambridge my father had been driving before he went to Africa and the Peugeot 404 he run while we were there.

I have to admit that it wasn´t until eight years later that I took a real interest in the car. I learned to drive in it and spent most of the summer of 1973 repairing the ravages of rost in the four wings and the inner sills, finding it quite a shock to see that even Rovers rusted. Since then I have lost count of the number of P6s I have driven and my enthusiasm for the marque is undiminished - although that hasn´t blinded me to its faults...

History

There is no need to go into great detail about the model´s history, suffice to say that it was launched in 2000 single-carburettor form at the 1963 Earls Court Motor Show. The 2000 TC was introduced in 1966 (the extra carburettor and better cylinder-head porting giving a very useful power increase), then in 1968 came the 3500, powered by a Rover-developed version of an American Buick V8 engine. Initially this was available only with automatic transmission (for the very good reason that Rover didn´t make a strong enough manual box) and it wasn´t until 1971 that the 3500 S was announced with a four-speed gearbox developed from the 2200 unit. 1973 saw the advent of the 2200 in both single- and twin-carburettor versions and production finally halted in mid-1976 with the arrival of the new SD1, by which time close on half a million P6s had been built.

Base unit

Bodywork first, since that will probably be the most urgent demand on the resources of any P6 owner. One of the great advantages of owning a P6 is that literally every body panel, even the roof, can be unbolted from the car´s internal skeleton, or "base unit" to give it its proper title. The disadvantage is that both the exterior panels and the base unit itself can rust like there is no tomorrow, attributable to the many mud traps in the wheelarches and the underseal that was applied by the factory. The problem with this stuff is that as it ages it dries out and cracks, allowing water to creep between it and the metal and rust to spread unseen beneath what looks like a perfect surface. The only real answer is to chip it all off (not as difficult as it sounds) and, after dealing with the rust, to rely on a coat of Hammerite or similar.

The place to look are the inner and outer sills, the four wings, and the bottoms of the doors and, if you are at all serious about your commitment to the car, the only way to check is with a stout screwdriver. The chances are that the flat floor of the inner sill (to which is attached the bottom edge of the outer sill and a small bracket bolted to the lower edge of each front wing) will crumble to the touch and a stab at the vertical panel behind the front wheel and in front of the rear wheel will probably produce a similarly depressing result.

Pulling off the outer panel will probably reveal a horrific sight beneath, with most of the inner sill coming away in your hand, but don´t lose heart. All this is quite repairable with time, effort and a little ingenuity. You might be lucky and find a genuine Rover inner sill amongst the specialist dealers´ stocks but people like Melbros market a quite acceptable pattern inner sill; and because only the outer sill is actually cosmetic it is easy enough to fabricate small repair sections yourself.

Slightly harder to repair is the boot floor (which, if water has been allowed to collect in the corners, could well be non-existent) and the joints between the inner rear wheelarches and the sides of the boot. The chances are that the inner front wings will also be showing signs of tinworn; one of the commonest spots is above and behind the headlights, visible when you open the bonnet, and some cars seem to suffer from rotted front-wing mounting flanges. Again, you may be lucky enough to find a genuine Rover inner wing but some dexterous metalworking can probably produce a DIY repair panel that is just as good.

Prevention is obviously better than cure, though, so if you do find a good car, try to keep it that way. Regular washing of the underside with a high-pressure hose is a must, and it´s vital to keep clear the many drain holes provided in the doors and the outer sills. There are also drain holes in the inner sills and it isn´t a bad idea periodically to remove the outers, both to check for rust and to give the inner drain holes a prod with a piece of wire. Lastly, don´t underestimate the value of Waxoyl or the many similar products now available for DIY rust proofing: an annual spray will keep any P6 rust-free for a good few years to come.

Engines

The engine fitted to the 2000 and the later 2200 is a four-cylinder overhead-camshaft unit. Bore wear tends to be heavy even at mileages as low as 50.000 but this seems to have little effect on the engine´s health until about 100.000. Timing chains were quite quickly and give themselves away by making a hollow ringing sound at about 1000 rpm but before condemning the chains it is worth making sure that the tensioners are doing their job: the top one, in particular, is prone to blockage of the filter in its oil supply and this can allow enough slack in the chain to produce the noise. That said, don´t ignore chain noise indefinitely; the car we borrowed for the colour photos was making just such a noise ("it´s always done that", said the owner) and on the way back from our photo session contrived to snap its bottom timing chain. At the time of writing we haven´t stripped the engine to see what damage it has done but we don´t expect to find anything to smile about...

Valve clearances are tedious to set up properly, but the good news is that, once done properly, they should run for many thousands of miles before they require attention again. The problem is that the camshaft has to be removed and, if you do the job without the set of special spacers for the retaining bolts (which also happen to be the cylinder-head bolts) you will slacken the pressure on the head gasket and should, in theory, renew that too.

Camshaft bearing caps have been known to crack, particularly those fitted with studs for the cam-cover retaining nuts. Symptous are a loud rattling from the top end even though the valve clearances are correctly set and the cause would appear to be over-tightening of the domed nuts. Theoretically cure means renewing the entire camshaft carrier complete with all seven bearing caps but in practice fitting just one new (secondhand?) cap seems to work quite well.

On single-carburettor engines you may also hear a loud banging from the general area of the inlet manifold which sounds like the engine´s death rattle: this is usually nothing more serious than a loose metal tube from the carb-to-manifold adaptor and can be put right by dismantling and glueing the tube back into place with Araldite.

Cooling systems are generally quite well behaved. Because the engine has an alloy cylinder head and a cast-iron block it is vital to keep anti-freeze in the system all-year round for its anti-corrosion properties and, now that even the youngest car will be over ten years old, it pays to keep a close eye on the pressed-steel covers on the sides of the engine block. These are not easy to see, particularly on twin-carburettor models but they can, in time, corrode to the point of leakage. Both the plates and their gaskets are still available but it wouldn´t be a bad idea to buy a set now if you intend keeping the car for a few more years.

More power

One of the criticisms of the original Rover 2000 was that for what purported to be a sports saloon it still wasn´t particularly fast. The Rover Company obviously took these comments to heart because in 1966 the twin-carburettor or TC model was announced. This had a much-modified cylinder head fitted with twin SU HD8 carburettors and a more efficient exhaust manifold which boosted power from around 90 bhp to 114 bhp. Immediately this gave the car the sort of performance it should have had in the first place and, indeed, some early TCs were very rapid pieces of machinery, far removed from the leisurely progress one could expect from an SC.

For those who wish to convert their SCs to TCs, it is possible, provided you obtain literally every part you will need from a suitable donor car, but such is the work involved that it is probably best simply to change the complete engine; but however you do the conversion don´t make the mistake of trying to eliminate all movement between the twin carburettors and the inlet manifold. They are intended to be a flexible fit to avoid the possibility of the frothing and by tightening the mounting bolts you will make the engine run worse, not better.

More power still

Needless to say, the 3500 is a very much faster car than the 2000 or 2200. The V8 is a very smooth and powerful engine for its size and weight and is still in use in the SD1, albeit considerably modified. It, too, has few vices, although it is vital to change the lubricating oil and filter at the recommended service intervals to avoid sludging and the consequent damage to the camshaft and valve gear (both of which tend to wear quickly anyway).

Anti-freeze is again very important to prevent cooling-system corrosion and, if the car seems to suffer from overheating some sort of auxiliary cooling is a good idea. Some owners have fitted Kenlowe electric fans with success, others with less impressive results, although in the latter case it seems that fitting the wrong type of fan blade might have been the problem: Kenlowe fans are sold with either a "blower" or a "sucker" fan depending on whether they are to be mounted in front of or behind the radiator and it is important not to confuse the two. You may also find it worthwile fitting an expansion tank to the cooling system.

Inevitably there is far more to choose from in the way of tuning and uprating equipment for this engine, although the simplest step is probably to fit a larger engine and start with that as a basis. Electronic ignition is a good first step, even if it´s the only one you take.

Transmission

The 3500 was, as we´ve said, originally available only with an automatic gearbox because the manual version available at the time (the one used in the 2000) wasn´t strong enough. To be honest the gearbox was rather marginal even in the 2000 and tales of early cars getting through three or four boxes were not uncommon. Eventually the 3500 S was launched with an uprated version of the 2000 box but that, too, had its problems: rapid standing starts (very tempting with all that power on tap) were likely to knock teeth off first gear (although there was available an even "tougher" box for police spec cars). In practice, however, 3500 S gearbox problems are less common than legend would have one believe and considerate useage gives no problems. That said, if you know that you are hard on gearboxes or intend driving the car very hard, give some thought to fitting a SD1 five-speed gearbox. It can be done - with a little ingenuity and modification - and provides the car with a virtually unbreakable transmission.

Manual P6s have never had what one could call a perfect gearchange: later cars with a cast-alloy remote linkage were better and you should make sure that both the nylon seating in which the gear lever pivots and the rubber ball which engages with the selector rods are in good condition. If the rubber end breaks up you´ll get a lot of unwanted free play and if the nylon seating fails the lever could well drop straight through. Make sure, too, that the engine is idling as slowly as possible or you could get clutch-drag problems and noisy reverse-gear engagement, not to mention difficult forward-gear selection.

If manual gearboxes are to be watched carefully then you can expect few problems from automatic versions, although do bear in mind that the 2000 automatic was desperately slow off the mark. The 2200 automatic was far better in that respect but the manual box was far better for four-cylinder cars.

Final drives are generally trouble-free, although you may find that a blocked breather tube has pressurised the oil inside and forced some of it out onto the inboard rear disc brakes. Provided the seals themselves haven´t been damaged you can easily cure the problem by unblocking the breather, cleaning the discs and fitting new pads.

Suspension

To anyone accustomed to the simplicity of a Ford Cortina the P6 has a most unusual suspension arrangement front and rear. It is said that the design of the front suspension was influenced by the need for as wide an engine bay as possible (to accommodate a gas turbine engine) but since it is fairly common knowledge that a de Dion tube was used at the rear as much to enhance the car´s paper specification as the actual road behaviour it may have been a case of complication for its own sake.

The big advantage of the front suspension layout is that it feeds all the loads back into the car´s massively strong passenger-compartment bulkhead (making the inner wings little more than splash guards for the engine) but this does tend to generate noise, the hollow bulkhead acting like a giant resonator. Thus you can always expect plenty of assorted clonks and brake noise and there doesn´t seem to be much you can do about it: fillling the hollow box section with foam might be one answer; learning to live with it another.

Worn ball joints will obviously not help: try to use genuine Rover or Unipart items wherever possible, or a good-quality pattern part like Quinton Hazell, but avoid the really cheap unknowns since they tend to wear out again very quickly. Top joints can be replaced fairly easily but you´ll need special tools for the bottom ones.

Rear suspension is by trailing Watt linkage and de Dion tube, with the final drive bolted to the floorplate to reduce unsprung weight. The bushes at each end of the trailing arms can wear, allowing metal-to-metal contact of the arms and their mounting brackets but they can be renewed on a DIY basis if you can obtain access to a press or a large vice and some suitable spacers. The dampers are easy enough to renew, but watch out for seized lower mounting bolts (if the heads break off you will have to extract the remains from the trailing arms) and check that the domed upper mountings in the body haven´t cracked: this is rare, but not unknown.

Tyres would be either 165 or 185/14s, with the larger size on the 3500, and because the front and rear tyres have such totally different wear patterns they cannot effectively be swopped round to equalise wear. In addition, the front tyres can suffer from very uneven wear: it is obviously important to get the tracking right (something which, for some reason, many garages seem unable to do) but the problem may also be helped by modern tyres with stiffer "shoulders". Contrary to popular belief, the P6 was not designed specifically around radial-ply tyres, although it undoubtedly handles much better on them.

Steering

Just as the P6s´s suspension may look unusual to a Cortina owner, its steering will hardly fill him with confidence. By no stretch of the imagination can directional stability be said to be one of the car´s strong points, particularly as it ages, and it can be a real chore keeping a P6 running straight at high speed in a crosswind.

Correct tyre pressures and tracking help, of course, as does a properly adjusted steering box (all cars have a worm-and-roller follower steering box) but you´ll have to face the fact that the steering will never be in the sports-car league. Watch out for oil leaks and roughness from the steering box. They can be rebuilt but renewal or at the very least a better secondhand one is probably the best answer. The combined steering idler and damper may also be leaking in which case you´ll have to fit a secondhand one since new ones are no longer available, unless you happen to have a left-hand-drive example. Some 3500 models were fitted with power steering - which may or may not be to your taste; try it and see - but much the same comments apply.

Brakes

Four-wheel disc braking may be nothing special now, but when it was launched in 1963 the P6 was almost unique, certainly amongst British saloon cars.

Initially a Dunlop system was used but when, in 1966, Dunlop´s braking system interests were taken over by Girling a Girling system was fitted. From this point on all cars had the same rear discs and calipers but the 3500 had much larger front discs and calipers. Those rear calipers, incidentally, are the same as the used on the Ford Zodiac and the early 3500 front calipers are the same as those used on the Reliant Scimitar.

Inevitably parts are quite scarce and expensive for the Dunlop system and, given the fact that it tends to suffer from seized calipers anyway, it could be worth updating an early car with a later system. That said, to do the job you will also need the appropriate suspension swivel pillars and, for the rear, the later final drive or, at the very least, the extension-shaft bearing housings to which the calipers are bolted.

Whatever the braking system you can expect exemplary performance unless there is something wrong with it. The pedal should be firm with just the right amount of servo assistance and if you ever manage to fade the brakes you must have been trying very hard. The only fly in the ointment is the effectiveness of the handbrake, often the main reason for a P6 failing its MoT test. Provided the cable hasn´t stretched the Dunlop system should present few problems because of its separate handbrake pads which obviously won´t be subject to rotational wear; but the self-adjusting system on the later Girling caliper (which uses the same pads for hand and foot braking) can often fail to adjust. The secret is to fit new pads and make sure that the ratcher mechanism inside the caliper is set up exactly according to the workshop manual.

Finally, on all cars watch out for a handbrake lever that is pulling out of its mounts on the transmission tunnel; repair is easy enough, though, simply by welding the cracks and grinding the surfaces flat again.

Day-to-day running

So much for the P6´s mechanical strengths and weaknesses; let´s now have a quick look at a few day-to-day hints.

First of all, you will have to live with the fact that when you open the front doors in the rain, water will drip onto the seats. Heater output can vary from poor to adequate, even on cars fitted with so-called throughflow ventilation, but matters can be improved considerably (unless the heater matrix is blocked) by opening the rear quarterlights. Neither should you expect particularly good legroom for rear-seat passengers or luggage room in the boot. The former can be improved by fitting thinner-backed front seats from post-1973 cars and the latter by fitting the spare wheel on the boot lid (a kit is available from some of the parts specialists) but both were always points of criticism.

Leather seats always benefit from a periodic application of Connolly´s Hide Food to keep the material supple and free from unsightly cracks and it is a good idea not to put too much weight in the lockers in front of each front-seat occupant: they tend to warp if you do and won´t close properly. Inertia-reel seat belts are a good idea for those with shorter arms since it can be otherwise be a stretch to reach the controls and the window winding handles, and remember that all P6s, whatever their age, have ready-drilled mounting points for rear seat belts.

The best place for a radio aerial, if not already fitted, is the roof, and the front section of the headlining pulls down for easy access. Wing-mounted mirrors tend not to be very successful because of the absence of a flat surface, but be careful if you fit rear-view mirrors to the doors: it is deceptively easy to get the window channel directly in your line of vision or to position then so that the front quarterlight won´t open fully.

Finally, don´t slam the boot lid shut - a gentle push is quite sufficient - and always jack the car up in the correct places at the rear on the jacking pad under the bumper or at the points provided in the sills; and at the front under the crossmember or the proper sill points again. Don´t jack under the final drive or the de Dion tube and certainly not under the sump.

Chris Horton

Classic Car Mechanics / UK Summer 1986

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