The inheiritance. 1976 P6b

[ewokracing]

Go here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=8567

So, car starts and runs and this is more of a mind map of what to do next.

Immediate things for sorting:
- get the transmission rebuilt or serviced so that it changes gears
- go through everything with a fine toothed comb, fix the big problems straight away
- get a road worthy certificate (a Victorian thing) and get the car into my name
- find a replacement airfilter or switch to small pancake style carb filters.


Wishlist
- Rostyle wheels
- some sort of exhaust trickery
- replace the broken bonnet badge
- new plastic battery case to replace mine as mine is broken.

I got her started the other day and then the next day when the traffic was quiet, I took her out for a spin. She stops, goes, everything seems to work, it's just the transmission that needs some tlc.

Here she is in all of her glory after her year long slumber:


And the battery case that has seen better days:


Best part is that from what I saw underneath, there's no really obvious rust spots (hooray for Australia!), though my Pa had laid newspaper over plastic on the garage floor and it is well, all soaked in oil. The freshest drip marks look like they are coming from the Diff.

[SydneyRoverP6B]

Hello ewokracing,

Your Rover has my initials...

Genuine 14" Rostyle wheels in Australia are as rare as hen's teeth. Apart from the set that I have, I have never seen another.

The diff oil leak is likely coming from one of the drive shaft oil seals, or if its further forward the pinion oil seal will leak on occasions.

I considered buying extractors for my Rover when I had the 4.6 installed. Off the shelf items are not available although plenty are available for Range Rovers, Discos etc. The difference being how they merge to fit through the available space within the engine bay. Prices that I was quoted 3 years ago was in the order of $2000 for both sides.... The exhaust pipes and mufflers were all extra... So I retained the P6 manifolds which actually have the largest inlets of any Rover manifold that I measured, including the 4.6 manifolds, although these have larger outlets. I ran a flow through muffler and a resonator or cannon as they seem to be called these days. Spent 4 hours with the muffler man trialling different configurations till I found the configuration that sounded the best.

Battery lids come up on ebay quite often. The case that retains the battery are also available. Rover Classics have new bonnet badges,..and very nice they are too.

Ron.

[ewokracing]

So I've found the supplier for genuine Minilites in NSW, price is around $700 per wheel.

Also forgot to add a noisy speedo to the list of things to look into. It's not too bad at the moment but I think the drive to the speedo has dried out (or at least that's what has happened to other cars I've owned where the drive cable has dried out inside its sheath.)

[tvr_v8]

Looking good, glad you got it started up and running.

I'm pretty sure i have a battery box lid kicking around in my parts stash so will dig it out and see what sort of condition it's in for you.

You can have some great fun with the exhaust setups on these, just depends how deaf you want to go and how far from standard you want to deviate..

On mine everything back from the downpipes was completely shot when i got it, it has also been fitted with extractors of some description at some point in the past. Not sure what sort of spec as i haven't had them off yet but they are white and quite chunky looking externally at least. It's now running back to a single high flow muffler with a new rubber mount onto the rear crossmember to isolate the resonance and then with the rear resonator removed and going straight through pipe to a single exit in the standard location. Current plan is to relocate the battery at some stage in future to look at splitting off to a second tailpipe on the other side if i can find a suitable path over the rear gubbins to that side.

It's reasonably loud and gurgles away merrily to itself at the moment, but isn't overpowering so i'm pretty happy with the result. Would be interested in hearing how yours sounds Ron to compare if you have any clips of it around.

Cheers,

Al

[tvr_v8]

So I've found the supplier for genuine Minilites in NSW, price is around $700 per wheel.

Have you had a look at the Minilite style wheels that The Healey Factory in Ringwood stock? Not sure what brand they are or what sort of $ they go for but they looked pretty good last time I was up there.

[ewokracing]

I hadn't thought of them, I'll drop past. Are they the Performance Superlite copies?

[SydneyRoverP6B]

tvr_v8 wrote,...

It's reasonably loud and gurgles away merrily to itself at the moment, but isn't overpowering so i'm pretty happy with the result. Would be interested in hearing how yours sounds Ron to compare if you have any clips of it around.

Hello Al,

Unfortunately I don't have any wav files of clips of my Rover at the moment.. I hope to in the not too distant. Mine is certainly considerably louder than it was with the original engine and exhaust system. You can always hear the exhaust note inside the car, what ever the speed. Cruising at 100 or 110kph there is a wonderful deep V8 roar,..sounds awesome. It sounds similar to a very loud HSE Range Rover. I have been told by neighbours and friends that my Rover can be heard coming when I am in the next street... It has a very deep note, very bassy. My next door neighbour told me she always knows when I come home as the "thump thump thump" causes her windows to vibrate.

When I visit my brother in the country, one of his neighbours asked him after I had left,...why is your brother's car soooo loud? He replied,...Ron's car has a Range Rover engine in it,...she said,...Ohh I see.

Ron.

[ewokracing]

Looking good, glad you got it started up and running.

I'm pretty sure i have a battery box lid kicking around in my parts stash so will dig it out and see what sort of condition it's in for you.

You can have some great fun with the exhaust setups on these, just depends how deaf you want to go and how far from standard you want to deviate..

On mine everything back from the downpipes was completely shot when i got it, it has also been fitted with extractors of some description at some point in the past. Not sure what sort of spec as i haven't had them off yet but they are white and quite chunky looking externally at least. It's now running back to a single high flow muffler with a new rubber mount onto the rear crossmember to isolate the resonance and then with the rear resonator removed and going straight through pipe to a single exit in the standard location. Current plan is to relocate the battery at some stage in future to look at splitting off to a second tailpipe on the other side if i can find a suitable path over the rear gubbins to that side.

It's reasonably loud and gurgles away merrily to itself at the moment, but isn't overpowering so i'm pretty happy with the result. Would be interested in hearing how yours sounds Ron to compare if you have any clips of it around.

Cheers,

Al

Hi Al, I didn't see your post.

thinking back to when I popped my head under the car, I think the rear muffler is standard, but there looks like a big mower fuel can sitting in the exhaust on the passenger side about half way along the chassis. I'm pretty sure its a resonator or big muffler of some sort and it doesn't look "Rover-ish"

A battery cover would be ace!

My next door neighbour told me she always knows when I come home as the "thump thump thump" causes her windows to vibrate.

I always knew when my Nanna and Pa had arrived at my parent's house as I could hear the "thump" noise from this car and a slight whine/mechanical noise when Pa shifted from Drive to Park. I heard the noise the other night when I backed the car out and it brought memories from my childhood flooding back.

[tvr_v8]

I hadn't thought of them, I'll drop past. Are they the Performance Superlite copies?

I'm not sure to be honest, just spotted them off to the side of the showroom last time I was up there. Let me know how they compare to the other ones you've found in terms of quality and $ if you go for a look as I'd potentially be interested in a set for my P6 too at some point in future.

Got to love the noise of the Rover V8, I was asked by the residents association of the apartment building we lived in in London not to start the TVR up early on Sunday mornings from the noise it made echoing in the concrete carpark with its very unrestricted twin setup so sure I'm not overly popular around the neighbourhood when it gets taken out over here either.

I've got a similar system to what's on the P6 fitted on our v8 Discovery 2 too, it makes a noticeably different noise on that, a really deep rumbling whom whom whom type sound that can be picked up as a bassy rumble from the end of the street and yet bellows enough to send shivers down my spine when at full chat off road. I'm imagining your P6 may sound vaguely similar from what you describe Ron as i think the D2 engine is pretty close to the HSE RR one with the Thor induction etc only in 4.0 rather than 4.6 form. Still, it'd be good to hear when you get some clips recorded.

Amazing the difference in sound in the various installs of essentially the same core engine and how the different setups can change it beyond just louder/quieter.

[DaveHerns]

A neighbour has a TVR 390SE (I think) and the noise that makes is like a howl , fantastic

[ewokracing]

So I've found this wheel:



it comes in:

15" x 7" -13 3.49 5x127
15" x 7" -6 3.76 5x127

-13 and -6 are the offset and 3.49 and 3.76 are the "backside" whatever that is. They're american racing 500s.

Will these fit? I'm also thinking of heading up bush to a wrecker I know, he's got a few rovers up there, he might have some rostyles to suit (and some other rover goodies).

[SydneyRoverP6B]

ewokracing wrote,...

15" x 7" -13 3.49 5x127
15" x 7" -6 3.76 5x127

-13 and -6 are the offset and 3.49 and 3.76 are the "backside" whatever that is. They're american racing 500s

A negative offset means that the wheel sits out from the car more whereas a positve offset means the wheel sits further in,..like the standard Rover wheels in design. Being American those measurements would be in inches I imagine. From memory the Rover wheels have an offset of something like + 53mm.

Backside is actually backspace and is the verticle distance from a straight line placed across the inside edge of the rim to the inside face of the wheel where it would meet the hub when mounted.

Offset = backspace - wheel width / 2.

Ron.

[chrisyork]

Provided those wheels are built in the same way as a Rostyle, ie a rolled rim rivetted to a pressed centre, then the supplier should have no problem creating a wheel with a bespoke offset. I'd suggest a 15" rim with a 6 1/2" width and et +53. The 6 1/2 because the biggets practical size of tyre on a P6 without body mods is 205, and 7" is a tad wide for that. I think we all need a link to that.

Chris

[ewokracing]

Yesssss, I've had to stuff around with backspacing and offsets with Rotary Mazdas and all of the joys that they bring. I've even got myself a handy tool that you can bolt to a wheel hub to check tyre clearance. I was just curious if anyone knew if those wheels were an off the shelf fit. Consensus is a no then?

Link: http://www.americanracing.com/browse_vintage.asp

Someone else has suggested Compomotive ML's. Hmmmmm.

[chrisyork]

There are some in depth assesments elsewhere on here of the problem with fitting aftermarket wheels to the P6 - that's why so many of us finish up with SD1 Vitesse wheels. They are an awful wheel, heavy and badly made, but they do fit with minimum effort!

Briefly, the problem is at the rear where the base unit (not the wing) has a pinch point between the D post and the inner mudguard. This limits the tyre size to 205 and you have to get the offset just right to allow that. Any attempt to modify the D post is fraught as the shut seal for the rear door runs on it. There's much more to it than that, but that will do until you need to become an expert!

I suggest firing AR an enquiry for 5 off 15" X 127 pcd with a 6" rim at ET +53. From the huge range of offsets they do, they must be able to run some up!

Chris