AndyW

Yes sounds like a good show. Count me in and I'll confirm nearer the date.

The power to the wipers should be fused, so it sounds like instrument power might be coming off the same fuse. You just need to track it down :-)

Having recently fitted the mini wiper system to my Superspec, I've parked them on the driver's side. I just copied other cars I've seen, although some others park them on passenger side. I think I get about 100deg sweep so the wipers just go past vertical, although I think you can get different gearwheels for the lucas motor. Mine seems ok in practice but I haven't driven the car in pouring rain to really test them! I got 9" wiper blades which fit nicely but I had to cut the stainless steel adjustable arms down to about 7" from wheelbox pivot to ensure the blades didn't hit the top of the screen.

Ivan, yes I spotted the different radiator with top hose on the left. Looks neater! Also there doesn't seem to be the usual expansion bottle and battery looks to be pushed back to the firewall in its place. But hey, every Superspec is different

My V5 only says Robin Hood for the make so that may be normal and has not been a problem for me. However the MoT certificate does say Superspec for the model, so mine is correctly listed in the DVLA database.

Superspecs came from Robin Hood as a rolling chassis with a brand new Rover T-series 2litre engine, so there wasn't a donor. The dash and original instruments look to have been been changed so some of the original mileage may have been lost. Having said that I bought my Superspec with only 2500 miles on the clock after 6 years of use by previous owner, so that one could be approximately correct.

I've printed off ticket # 352

Confirm. On my Rover engine there's a bracket near the top of the dipstick tube which bolts to a similar bracket on the heater water rail from the thermostat housing.

IIRC the dipstick tube simply pushes into the hole in the side of the block, and has a top bracket that bolts to the water rail above the exhaust manifold to hold it in place. I'll have to check mine in the morning.

Dean, what did you do for a side/headlight switch, as those functions are part of the Rover indicator stalk?

Dave, Try http://www.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=11395 Also, if you haven't already got one, get a copy of the Car Builder Solutions catalog. It gives loads of different wiring diagrams for many different types of hazard switch. Might be a Durite one in there. http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/cbs_catalogue.pdf

Dave, The column stalks Al and I have are Rover not Ford Focus, but maybe export variations as they are wrong sided to normal Rover stalks. As in my photo in this post http://www.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=44674 Yes I have the same RH wiring diagram identifying the 4 switch blocks on the column stalks with only 3 used. I've now re-ordered the pin numbers to same as the RH diagram and find that some of my wiring is swapped round from RH. But mine seems to work OK! Also I don't have the horn wired into my steering wheel. To correct my details above, this diagram is actually my wiring:

Hi Dave, Are you using the Rover indicator/light switch that came with the Superspec kit? If so this is how my switch was wired with 6 wires to the light switch connector (and another 3 to the indicator connector): Pin 1 - 12v perm live from the 3-way connector Pin 2 - to sidelights in 3-way connector Pin 3 - to main beam blu/wh in 9-way connector Pin 4 - 12v ignition switched from purple in 9-way connector Pin 5 - to dip beam blu/red in 9-way connector Pin 6 - joined to wire to pin 4 for 12v ign live Pin 7 not used. If I recall correctly you need 2 switched live feeds for the main and dip supply as well as the permanent live so the main beam can be flashed when lights are off. But I can't remember how I numbered the pins in the switch. I think 1 was top left looking at back of switch and 5 top right.

Yes please Dave.

Rich, I'm interested in the drls. I'm at Stoneleigh - yellow Superspec.

Which browser are you using?

Good suggestion thanks

Ignoring the fuel consumption issue for now, I might have discovered why I'm using a lot of oil. Responses on the Rovertech forum indicate some Rover t-series engines had different valve guides and valve stem oil seals, changed around 1995. Some guides protruded up 12mm and had 14mm tall green oil seals. Other guides only stuck up 10.3 mm and used 12mm shorter black oil seals - those were what I took off my engine. I didn't compare them or know to measure them at the time, but it looks like I might have rebuild my head using the wrong combination. It would seem I've taken off the short black seals and put the longer green ones on, hence they don't sit properly on the shorter valve guides. I guess that's the cause of oil getting into the bores. I only wish there was some way I could see under the tappets and springs to confirm that's my problem without having to strip the head down again!

Stuart, yes I'll be at Stoneleigh. That would be great if a quick test. Don't want to take up much of your weekend.

Nigel, thanks for suggestions, but I don't have the tools to check fuel pressure, and no gauge so will have to give that a miss for now. The regulator on the fuel rail is the Rover original and I believe it's supposed to work at 3 bar but can't prove it is. As I said, our analysis of the data in MEMS ECU shows that all sensors are giving what look like correct readings. CTS from ambient up to 100 deg C. No MAF on this engine. MAP shows 15 psi/100k pascal with engine off to about 4.5 psi/30k pascal at idle which seems to be in spec. All other sensors are giving correct looking values. New plugs and air filter fitted so we're struggling to come with any other ideas for the poor fuel consumption. Have to see how it goes.

Thanks for the ideas Dan. I'm not sure I want to play around with wide band lambdas at this stage - the standard O2 and Rover MEMS should work reasonably well normally. I'm going to thoroughly check all gaskets and vacuum pipes for intake and exhaust leakage. Then need to find a garage with exhaust gas analyser to give me a proper diagnosis. The Rover t16 engine doesn't normally burn any oil (maybe leaks it instead) so that's something that's developed since I did the head rebuild.

And this is the actual MEMS pin out wiring diagram for my Superspec. I took Tony Grimer's table (available in old posts on the forum) and updated it for the wire colours and pin outs on my car. Seems that not every Rover engine or MEMS used by RHE was the same! On my car I found that ECU pin 25 white/black wire goes to both the coil -ve and also to terminal 8 on blue connector of the Escort instrument pod - this is the -ve for the rev counter. The other rev counter wire is terminal 12 on blue instrument connector which goes to coil +ve. MEMS Wiring.pdf

I had another go at resealing the exhaust joint last week. Found it was blowing in 2 places. It seems better now so I'll have to see if that improves the consumption. A good run to Stoneleigh this weekend should help. I've been living with the small oil leak on top of the head, that's ok. It's the burning of the oil, wet pistons, and the rough running I was more concerned with.

Yes, I've had an ongoing battle with a leak in the joint between the 4-1 manifold and the pipe to the lambda and cat. However, the O2 sensor only tweaks the fuel mix in response to rich/lean running, so would it have so much effect on the consumption? Al Richey gets 34 mpg compared to my 24 - a huge difference from the exact same engine. So there's obviously something wrong. The cam cover gaskets aren't leaking, but the cam carrier bodies themselves were fitted on Loctite 574 liquid gasket. It's this that seems to be leaking. Valve stem oil seals seem to be the most likely cause of the high oil consumption. However, new seals were fitted when I rebuilt the head, they came in the complete head gasket kit. Two possibilities have been raised - were these the wrong seals (we're unsure if the Rover t-series had different sized seals over its lifetime), or did I not fit them properly! Is the only way of finding out to strip the head down again?

Short version of the story... shock absorber rod snapped (suspected previous accident damage) > dropped sump onto road > snapped aux belt > wrapped around crank pulley > seized engine > snapped cambelt > valves hit pistons!! Yes, the Rover system is non-mappable. The ECU has a fixed map which it self-modifies depending on engine history. The fuel mix is normally adjusted by the ECU changing the injector pulse length. Poor fueling is typically caused by the coolant sensor not working so the engine uses a default rich mix value. But we've verified this isn't the case here. All ECU sensors appear to be working correctly. I guess the injectors could be knackered although they haven't done much work in their lifetime.