That ignition box looks like the Sparkrite 2000 System. A great system, I had one on my 3500S back in the early 80s. Properly set up on a leaner fuel mix, and timed around 6 - 8 degrees before TDC, it would fire the engine the moment the starter turned it. The middle position is system off/ static test and can be used as a basic anti theft switch. One position puts it on standard contact breaker. The third position is electronic spark, but still uses the contact breaker points just as a low power trigger, so they don't burn out. Poor starting after a lay up is usually down to oil drain from the hydraulic lifters. The valves will struggle to open until you've spun it over long enough to pump them up. It feels uneven and lumpy because you're trying to spin it over with most of it's valves closed, until they gradually start to open. Ideally, you need to mark it's position and pull out the distributor body, and spin the oil pump drive with an electric drill and an old long adapted drill bit on the drive. Put the ignition on and get someone to watch the oil pressure rise, a couple of minutes above 15 - 20psi should prime the whole system, then refit distributor. Check there's fuel in the cards, mist some in with a trigger spray and check the carbon dampers are free to lift and drop. Do that and you'll avoid the horrible wear and dry clatter on a first start up.
Very cool there were loads of systems like that back in the day and yes you are indeed right that is the majot flaw of the Rover V8 that the cam always starts dry I thought about making some kind of tray so the cam is always lubed might try it one day!
Got to agree with you. They really were the business and still look great today. The illuminated switches on the dash of later series 2 P6s especially, and much better than the earlier cars with the red ribbon strip speedo. Rover's really did have some great instrument set up's. One of my early cars was a P5B Coupé, they had more instruments than the saloon version, and the 4 smaller clocks were hung underneath the pod like two pairs of jet engines. My series two Vanden Plas V8 always gets passenger comments that it looks like an aircraft flight deck when you're driving it at night.
I had the 3500S small water hose at the front of the engine bust but easy fix, the car was impressive then and still is 176 bhp and 220f/lbs if I remember high compression heads 5* fuel around 25 mpg on a run 0-60 around 9 sec top speed 121 mph quick in 1973!
Had a young German background co-worker at a shop in Buffalo, NY who owned a green TC 2000 who liked to drink and smoke weed and bounce his car off curbs, damaging his front suspension. He would have to go to Toronto to find replacement parts for that unusual horizontal spring upper control arm set up. What a cool car!
They had quite a soft suspension Michael, and would corner almost on the door handles when driven hard, but would leave the hot hatch racer boys red with embarrassment. The British police loved the P6, and SD1 especially V8s as high-speed pursuit cars, that they bought stocks to put into use well after each ended production. If you can find a old 1970s British police TV series, you will often see V8 Rover patrol cats in action. There's also on RU-vid, a documentary called The Liver Run. It shows a real-life situation of a pair of V8 SD1 doing a high speed life or death chase through busy traffic to get a doner liver to a London hospital on time.
Ran a couple of these back in the mid 70’s ,, one on a G plate .. the on an M .. Bomb proof engines.. the earlier ones had Borg Warner 35’s and that was its weakest point in the transmission on the auto’s .. the later Borg Warner 65 where more up to the job, some went into the Jag XJ 6’s .. on the manual Rover 3500’s manuals were a bit whiny in 4th .. great cars though .. would love another.. had the same colour.. harvest gold, jag and Austin’s used the same colour .. they had loads of variants back in the day when I used to repair and paint the rusty old things .. if only they had made the plastic inner mouldings to protect the wings back in the day..
Myself and my father had one of these for about 9 years , I did a full rebuild on the engine and 4 new wings , new door , sills , welding , the engine was on my bench for a year and started ist time when re fitted . You could pull an 18 ft caravan at 90 mph all day long 🤔 so someone told me 😂😂Always set the points with a dwell meter and the distributor caps are known for have hairline cracks . Fire it up in a dark garage with no lights and bonnet open , see if she shows you some sparks and flashes . Great car though , bit juicy
I had one the exact same but in white with black leather I think it was a 1964 I bought it 1973 I paid £130 for it fantastic car sadly eventually went to the scrapyard big ends went
I installed a similar Sparkrite system on my Vauxhall Carlton around 1982 but my version included a non-contact magnetic sensor which completely replaced the points and condenser which were always the main failure point on such ignition systems. Using an electronic system which retains the points seems a bit pointless, if you get my drift. 😉
Some versions of Sparkrite still used the points as a trigger, but the power going through them was much lower. They didn't seem to pit or burn away unless you threw the switch back to run on standard ignition. I had a Sparkrite 2000 on my 1972/3 3500S for around 5 years. Best thing I fitted, it transformed what was already one of the fastest 4 seaters you could buy. Even in the 1980s hot hatch era, there wasn't much that could hang on to a well set up 3500S, even without electronic ignition. Mpg improved too, and it would start every time with very little choke, in any weather, the instant you flicked the starter over.
G,day mate, greetings from Adelaide Australia, I purchased a p6 3500,s2 as a breaker to restore my 3500s , I started the motor after it sat for probably 10 years it started straight away however was quickly shut of due to no oil pressure , oli pump failed to prime after oil change, apparently the fix is to remove the pump housing and fill with petroleum jelly, do you have any advice? I haven't worked on old cars for ages and our old Holden v8s are very different to the p6, thanks for the videos Sheldon, especially the P6 mechanics content, cheers, Geoff.
I had a mad friend back in the 80's who decided supercharging a P6 was a good idea. After many exploded diffs he eventually gave up. Who would have thought you could squeeze 600 rwhp out of a 3.5 v8. Sadly he is gone now .
Great story but there is no way it was 600HP there are mabey 5 or 6 in the world that make that and they are not running petrol it's methonal only but still very cool!
@classic_britain I'm not a fan of Tobacco Leaf beige, I had a low miles late build P reg Huntsman spec 3500 auto in the early 80s. I think it had one previous owner, but terrible options build specification. They'd specified Sundym glass, parchment cream box pleat nylon cloth trim, beige carpet, and no power steering or radio. It was the worst looking and build spec P6 I've ever owned, no sign of ever having a radio. It had a huge wad of booklets and BL warranty offers 8n a button down see trough wallet. It even had the red label tag around the auto gear shift to tell you how to always drive in D for the best fuel ecconomy !
@@marklittler784 I think the last run of P6 were painted at the new BL paint plant they built for the SD1, from around 1974/5 ? I know they started to use Avocado and a few other SD1 colours on the P6 from around that time. I only ever saw one metallic colour on a P6 though, Platinum Silver, which I think was reserved for the last batch of P6 3500 V8 VIP models. They were a fully loaded end of production special edition, with all the export options, including Air Con, Electric Windows, Ice-Alert etc so they could use up parts stock, and they would sell alongside, once the 3500 SD1 was on sale. The V8 P6's were stopped first, then it wasn't long after the 2300/2600 SD1's went on sale that the 2200 P6 ended production. I started working at a multi franchise main dealer in the late 70s, as the first SD1's and last P6's were coming in for warranty paintwork, or as 1 to 3 year old part exchanges. Some were really atrocious as they were built from the first shells painted in the new paint plant. The pre paint prep work wasn't very good, paint was often coming off in big patches in places where water had got under from tiny stone chips. We often had to strip large areas to bare metal and repaint, even the alloy bonnet and boot lids on P6's were covered in huge crusty pimples that needed a full strip and etch prime. To be honest, customers were getting fed up of scabby panels and began trading them in, mainly against new Renault 18, 20 and 30 models, and the bigger Datsun 180B, 200L, 240K and 280C models the dealer group sold, alongside Austin Rover; TVR, Lotus and Reliant 3 and 4 wheelers and Scimitar GTE.
@@brianwhittington5086 Yeah you are right the later cars we painted at the new SD1 factory and the paint was not as good and thats why the later cars suffered
Rovers version of the original Leyland dog shit beige.........niiiiice, I think Leyland called it autum beige or harvest beige or some other similar silly name.- doesnt matter what colour you actually CALL dog shit its STILL dog shit lol. - especially after you stand in it.
