The WORST ENGINE BRITISH LEYLAND MADE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE BEST! - SABOTAGED! The Rover Triumph 6. 

A few people have asked me how they can support the channel and the work I do on here, I don’t have memberships or a Patreon or any donation buttons etc but I have thought I do drink a lot of coffee during the week researching these videos.. so I’ve decided to create a buy me a coffee page where you can send a small amount to keep me caffeinated during my research! Linked here: www.buymeacoffee.com/tomisdriving

I was given a 2600 in the early 80's with a blown head gasket. It was simple to work on and drove beautifully.

proud owner of a 1981 2300 . done over 150,000 miles last owner had it 42 years I’ve had it 3 months and love it ! Good to see someone doing this as I’ve been thinking about tweaking mine . Also have a p5b coupe undergoing restoration

There is no getting around it. The SD1 was spot on with the 3.5 litre V8. Any other smaller engines just could not compete. If not for build quality the mighty SD1 3500 would have been so much better than it was.

I had an SD1 2600. I sold it at 140.000 miles and never had any problems with it.

Hi Tom I bought a 1986 SD1 2300, I bought it from a Hartwells forecourt in 1988 with just 12,000 miles on it as the first car I actually chose. It was absolutely brilliant, (modest) pace, space and a great car to learn how to drive a RWD car, skinny tyres and solid front disks. I think it would do about six roundabouts of wide open to heavy braking cycles before the brakes didnt work very well. It did get tinkered with though and before children I had time to tinker properly. A valve spring broke so I fixed it. When I say fixed it I did the following Head stripped and checked for warping, the bad news doom goblins were always saying it was going to warp the head and explode. A couple of thousands were taken off to clean the face of the head, no visible warping. 12 new valves 24 new springs New pallet shims to get the valve clearances absolutely right, back when a man would fetch them from the stores at Hartwells. Oh yes, I almost forgot, having read an article by Dave Vizard on head porting, I decided while the head was stripped to "Port the head" This was mostly removing casting seams that should have been sorted during manufacture but also increasing the exhaust port capacity after the valve guide. It looked constrictive so a Black&Decker with a flexidrive and a selection of round grind stones were used. Bigger was better in my book. The car was transformed from wafting to very willing. I had to fetch a passport at short notice, an urgent trip to an overseas customer was arranged but my passport was stolen during a burglary and back then you could drive to Bristol and get a replacement on the spot. So I joined the M4 and tucked in behind a Porsche in lane three and flashed him to move over, he decided to make progress instead. This worked well as he caught up with cars in front and harrased them to move over just as I caught up with him. In summary, I didnt drop below the top speed of a Vitesse for over 50 miles, collected a passport and made my flight by doing much the same on the way back. I will be watching this channel with interest. PS: I still have the same car, if you locate a source for the tubular exhaust manifold I would like to know more.

I had three SD1s. A 2litre four and two 2.6 sixes. Never had a single problem with any of em.

We did a 2600 back in the early 90s as a track day car for a customer. Using a very similar set up to what you have got. Using a luminition electronic ignition lucas oil cooled coil and a pretty aggressive cam shaft made by kent it was making 240 bhp at wheels. Cooling needed to be vastly uprated and he soon found the rear diff did not like it. Dont know where you are. I am in lincolnshire but would be happy to donate some time to help if you are not a million miles away.

i had a couple of 2.6's. loved em. took one to Spain and back. averaged 20 mpg. awesome

I loved my 2600S, it was owned by Dunlop Tyres as a company car so had the substantial rubber spoiler and lowered suspension. It galloped along I seem to remember at a supremely comfortable 94mph on the motorway at 4000 revs in top (4th of the Automatic box or perhaps it only had 3 in the GM unit?) for thousands of miles and I even managed to jump it 50ft over a humpback bridge in the Dales. It’s downfall was the legendary crank mounted oil pump failures all of them were apparently fated with. Everyone I spoke to at the time said it was an engine out job and not worth doing and you couldn’t get a guaranteed engine from a scrapyard. The fault was that the engine apparently started to seize after about 30 seconds with the orange low oil pressure warning light displaying. After twelve months off road, I got a cheap engine, changed it with no difference at all! It turns out the oil warning light circuit shared a fuse with the electric fuel pump and it was actually just fuel starvation once the gravity accumulated fuel has been used but not replenished. A 5p fuse would have sorted it but the oil pump hysteria condemned it to the scrapper. 😎😇

My dad had a 2600..brilliant engine.. Always wanted to find one to tune

I own an SD1 Vitesse that is in bits just now and have owned many SD1 v8's, I've also driven a few 2600 and they are all great drives, what everyone forgets is that the V8 was tuned for economy on the SD1 at least prior to the vitesse, so it does stand to reason the 6's were held back in the same way, there were the documented 6 issues but then again the V8 was heavily altered for the european market from the original Buick design and was very servicing sensitive. All 6 and v8 sd1 are good in my book.

Have fun with those carbs! I fitted 3 x 36 DCOEs to a triumph 2.5PI and a TR6 exhaust manifold after removing the injection system. It was a monster!

My uncle had a sd 2600 back in 1991 and let me have a go. I was newly passed my test and was driving a mini 850. My god did that car move and so comfy ❤

I have subscribed purely from a nostalgic point of view. I have owned in the past no less than NINE Rover SD1 2600 S and SE. I never had one single problem with any of them apart from a snapped hand brake cable on a steep hill in an automatic and a head gasket on another.Sadly I am not driving anything now, but after the Rovers my last car was a Volvo V70R highly tuned and modified. How I miss the Rovers.

My dad brought a used SD1 with the 2600 in it.He ran it daily for around 3 years and it never gave any trouble at all.The end of the car was when it burst the heater matrix,a job that no one wanted to do back then.

Back in 2000 my friend rebuilt his straight 6 Rover engine from the ground up with top quality modern internal parts ,he also had the head ported ,polished and gas flowed and had a tuned stainless steel system made from the exhaust manifold right through to the tail pipe. He replaced the carbs with an injector system (i don't know which) and topped it all off with a 5 speed auto box that had a stall speed of 2.5k revs. Once it was gently run in he took it for a dyno test and it turned out 175bhp which proved everything that the engineers had said about the engine was spot on!!. When he road tested it -the 0-60 time was very impressive 0-60 of 7 secs. It would have eaten the 3.5 V8 for breakfast. If Leyland weren't so blinkered then they would have developed both engines and ended up with BMW killers !!.

Had an old 2600. Was smooth as butter, and pulled like a train, at least compared to any of the other old bangers I'd had before. Absolutely loved it and never had any problems. Shame, but understandable that was throttled, so as not to compete with the V8. Very much looking forward to see how you get on. Excellent project 👍

I had a 3500SE when they were just a used car and it was the best car I ever owned. Good luck with your dream car and keep the updates coming.

When I was about 14 years old I used take my dad's Rover SDI Rover for a drive around Dagenham it was a 2 l manual in Silver Stratos I love that car 🚗

It's not much I know Tom but here's a few quid towards the SD1. Great content, keep up the good work.

As a young enthusiast who is both a fan of old straight 6s and rover SD1s i will be keeping a close eye on this. Will it ever be at any shows, would love to see the sd1 in person

I owned a 2.3 straight 6 Rover SD1 in fire red and I thought it was a fantasrltic car. It was so smooth and silent running that I would think it hadn't started. It reminded my of a highly strung thoroughbred race horse, very flighty and fast. It would fly along eating up the miles and as smoith as silk, a truly great but underappreciated car.

What a great looking car that SD1 was but that GM ally V8 is also incredibly tunable in its own right as many a hot rodder will testify,the only limit to the power is your bank account, I suppose you could say the same for a flat 4 Vee Dub or many other power plants.

After watching this video boxing day evening I have had to subscribe! If you are going to do all the things you said in this video to a Rover SD1 2600 engine then I just have to follow along and watch your progress. I am an avid SD1 fan, so much so I own 5 2600's and 2 V8's! Only 1 V8 is currently road legal and only 1 2600 is road legal and needless to say I'm not short on spare parts!!!

I had a sd1 2600 had head skimmed race valves. Gearbox done loved that car only car I would have today if I had room

The main problem was the camshaft seizing in the cam carrier due to lubrication failure. That was due to the oil restrictor valve in the head (or the block - can't recall) so during a rebuild, the valve would be removed and thrown away. Either that or punch the centre out of it. Then you'd have an uninterrupted oil supply and as long as the valve stem seals were good it would use no more oil than normal. They also liked a head gasket but that wasn't so common. It wasn't a bad engine but they were quite lazy due to the tractor spec camshaft. With a 260 or 270 degree cam I bet a 2600 would do 150 bhp easily. I think the end game was a 3.0 24 valve version that would have made the V8 obsolete. I guess we'll never know!

Had a 2600se was a good car just service regularly, gave engine a light overhaul and gas flowed head alot of material removed around exhaust valve guide as was very restricted at this point . Still had standard carbs and exhaust just tuned mixture and found it had power when revv'd past 4,000rpm where before it just revv'd up to red line also did 32mpg on trip from Swindon to Leeds to work for the week .

Good feature, this was the last of the modern era OHC engines fully developed by BL / Triumph (okay the later ‘O’ series was an upgraded OHC ‘B’ series) and overall it was a success despite the power strangulation and daft cheapening like giving the base 2300 s a 4-speed gearbox. The Triumph 2000 / 2500 range with its old pushrod 6 could have been made for another year or so before their delayed replacement by the SD1 6 cyl models (kits were sent to Australia / New Zealand for a while) but the decision to retool the Canley factory for TR7s had been made. And the ‘O’ series of course later went into the SD1 to reinvent the “Rover 2000” model. A friend worked as an apprentice mechanic in a Chester Leyland franchise, he said that doing the valve clearances was very tricky, I think there was similarity to the Dolomite Sprint setup.

In 1977, I attended a Leyland course on Sprints and Stags in Coventry. At that time, BL were testing a new car intended for release called the Lynx and I'm fairly sure the 2600 was referred to as the Lynx engine and was the power unit in the new car. It was being driven around the midlands with a box over it to disguise it and at that time, BL seemed to be pleased with the tests so far. I seem to remember that the cam lobes at the back of the head (No.6) were prone to breaking off between the two rear caps. I always thought the SD1, especially the V8, was a lovely car to drive fast and felt a lot more stable and safer in corners than the P6 but it never felt as good build and quality wise as the P6. The other thing I'll never forget is when a small group of us managed to sneak into one of the design drawing rooms and saw a drawing on a board for a TR8 2+2. We got caught and I thought we were going to be slung of off the course. Two guys from the plant went absolutely crazy at us but luckily, one of our group had the nerve to say to them "So which one of you forgot to lock the door, then?" and they calmed down a bit then. Fun times.

I had a pair of side-draught Weber 40 DCOEs on my 2-litre full-rally-engined Fiat 131 - it was bonkers! You'll almost certainly need to get it on a dyno to get them jetted right, and invest in a set of vacuum gauges to keep them balanced. But the result - with the right cam - will have you grinning like a loon all day long! |Brakes and suspension will need to be upgraded next. Looking forward to seeing the progress...

As an upper sixth student, I did one day a week in a garage helping work on cars. At the age of I think 16 in 1983 in the garage, a British Leyland dealership, a Black Rover SD1 V8 with cruse control and what looked like black leather seats, to this day I think it is a amazing car it was brand knew I think, anyone around at the time would be gob smacked at the quality and design of such a car.

I never came across a troublesome 2600. I liked it a lot. I only got to drive them occasionally (company fleet) but one thing I did notice was what sweetheart the SD1 2600 was to drive on snow and ice. So smooth and controllable and a perfect complement to the long-nosed axle rear which allowed good traction but which could be overwhelmed by the V8's brutality.

When I had the heads off both the 2600s which I had, I just removed the oil pressure restrictor/one-way valve, before re-fitting the heads, and topped up the oil every 1000 miles; they ran for many years with no camshaft issues.

I had a 2600 in the early 80s and found it an interesting drive as despite the odd starting problem I found the car a good drive especially with the slightly vintage feel from the gear box .

I had a 2600S as a company car for and it was very reliable. When it was due for change I bought it for my dad who ran it for years afterwards. The only issue he had was the ignition but it was an easy fix.

Here's the thing. So Leyland Australia introduced the Leyland P76. It had 2 engine choices: 2.6 ohc 6 derived from the k series and a 4.4 v8 derived from the Rover v8. Now the P76 was a failure for a range of reasons but here were 2 motors available in 1973 that BL could have used in the SD1.

Hell yeah! Glad someone else is looking at the 2600 engines. I've been stockpiling a few blocks and parts to have a go myself, with the idea of fitting one to my Spitfire. I had a brief chat with Bruno who made the Grp4 2600. Glad to see his parts living on! He mentioned that the camshaft he had in his engine was done to 'an Austin Healey 3000 race profile', which I'm assuming is the factory '1622' race cam (Newman PH4 for a Healey is this same grind). Where abouts did you get your cam from? I've measured the standard cam and the lift is good, but the duration is terrible. Taking 1mm off the base circle diameter gives you a valve lift not entirely dissimilar to a Schrick 288 cam for a BMW M20, which I'm using as somewhat of a benchmark engine. I've also had a poke around with potential porting and valves. The valves are relatively generously sized as standard, but the ports could do with a little bit of work for higher rpm. I've checked the port wall thickness as far as I can get to with calipers and I reckon there's enough material to get a 42mm port which is way too big, but should mean it's safe to get a 34-35mm port which would be ideal for a fast road engine. I haven't sectioned my scrap head yet to check for any strange geometry, but it seems promising. Oh, and early Datsun L24 valves should fit with different shims and a hone of the guides, which give you 44mm options over the standard 42mm if you wanted. I've also looked at boring it out. There's a procedure in the service manual for fitting sleeves which involve boring out the block to 84.5mm so I'm assuming that's a safe overbore. There's a fair bit of meat in the cylinder walls, though you wouldn't want to go much past 85-86.5mm depending on how much core drift your block and head have. For an 84.5mm bore you'd get a 2.8l which is a reasonable increase. MG Montego/Maestro Turbo pistons should be a direct fit as the compression height is right, the pin diameter is the same and the dish gives a good compression ratio. Unfortunately they're like rocking horse poo! Other options are standard O-Series pistons decked by 0.2mm with rebushed rods, or for a fully forged setup Focus ST Mk2 2.5 pistons and Maserati Biturbo rods with a little tickle of the big ends. I've got most of my research written up on the Sideways Technologies Triumph forum if you're interested. It's on the Unibody Spitfire thread, starts about page 7.

My dad had a 2600 manual, custard yellow, in launch year 1976 (R reg). Curiously, it had all round electric windows but no power steering and even at over 4 turns lock to lock was still heavy, especially manoeuvring / parking. I liked the car, but not as much as the dark blue Triumph 2.5 PI Mk II auto (P reg) it replaced - I absolutely loved that car!

Good for you! I've always thought there was potential in that engine - I'll look forward to you finding it!

Tom, don't listen to others, always go your own way. Good luck, just subscribed.

Brilliant plan the 2600R, Yes, show us the real potential of the engine! My Rover 2600S was a money pit. Loved the shape of the car however dearly! Light-Blue Metallic. She was gorgeous!

Thanks, I had a 2600 rover in the early 80s as a company car, it did over 100000 miles and I do not recall any real problems, maybe the engine had been partially sorted by then. It was quick enough but nothing special,very spacious and comfortable, but the back end bounced around a bit if you were too enthusiastic.

In for the build 👌🤘...Love to see the unsung ones get some much needed upgrades...

When I started my first job as an engineer at Hoborn Eaton after leaving Uni in '79 I was fascinated by BMW's. With my first paycheck I bought an E12 528i auto on the never never. Well, everyone in managment at Hobourn drove Rover SD1's, that was the car that said you had arrived at the top, at least where I worked. On the first day driving my BMW into the works car park our chief executive was parking up his Blue SD1 Vitesse and watched me park. He came over to me and put his arm around me and I will never forget his words ' You're not going to get very far here driving a kraut wagon you know, get yourself a Rover, this German crap is never going to catch on.'

I was repairing them under warranty , Blocked oil gallery anti drain valve . Resulting in seized camshaft and bent valves . Happy days

It’s not the worst engine they made, because the truly unfit-for-purpose Triumph Stag existed.

Apart from the engines we in Rover Service had to replace in and out of warranty due to the seized camshafts, the other major issue I recall were the dropped liners that used to smash into the crankshafts. Rover Triumph engineers came up with either interference fit or ‘glued’ cylinder liners, which dropped and wrote the unit off. Someone can’t recall who adapted a Japanese “top hat” liner which required the block to be machined to accommodate the “lip”. Suggest you do likewise if your unit has any liners - good luck 👍🏼

Had 2 rover sd1,s a 1983 gold 2.6 and an 85 2.6 vdp loved them the 1983 had a head gasket fail but apart from that no problems.still the best looking car ever made

Loving your enthusiasm and choice of content. All the best of luck with the 2600, I hope you can make the car BL should have made!!

I built a 2600 from a brand new painted works shell and a front end damaged write off. Had endless problems with it keeping on randomly stalling. Turned out camshaft front pulley had been hit and moved badk breaking piece off centr cam retainer so timing was moving. Sorted by a brave and very skilled welder with engine in car and only cam cover removed! Soon after bought spare factory head so no problems after that😊.Head sold many years later to a chap looking at an early 2600 at Beaulieu Automart who bought it after I told him 2600 was much less complex than V8. Car will have survived as it was concours

tom, good luck with the R project, just take your time, dont't rush it, and I look forward to seeing the final result!

You're doing a brilliant job Tom, really got me into all of the BL, Rover, MG Rover history, of which I had little previous knowledge. I was born and brought up 4 miles from Longbridge 76 years ago, and most of my relatives, neighbours, schoolfiends etc. worked theres, so it's in the blood really. Half of me finds the fall of MG Rover intensely depressing and the other half finds it extremely interesting. I'm at present mid way through Mike Gould's book about Rover, and it contains so much relevant content that, when I've finished it, I think I'm going to have to go back to the beginning. Keep it going mate, essentially viewing. Congrats about saving the prototypes too.👍👍

I bought a SD1 2600 with a blown engine. Fixed her up and drove it for a year. Then the uni body didn't meet MOT standards and bought another body. We relocated the engine and gearbox and i drove for another year. At that moment there was a slightly short in the headlight wires due to wear. A waterhose leak cracked the head again and that was that.

I have owned 8 BL cars and it angers me how the mainstream press slatted their cars in the day.just look at any classic car show now and see how many have survived or been restored. I have seen many metro MK1 and Allegro cars in great unrestored condition and being used as everyday transport.

Back in the day, my father bought(new) a 2300, then a 2600S, and then another year later a 3500 Vitesse in red. Great cars, super comfortable and well specced, especially the Vitesse..... He then went to trade the Vitesse for a Lotus Esprit Turbo(in white a la James Bond fame), but he was too short to see comfortably over the steering wheel!!!! Needless to say I was gutted, and we ended up with a Toyota Celica Supra(still a great car). Happy memories - Thx. ❤😁👍

awsome, go go go, this is going to be a fantasic build and all yours to enjoy.

I'd be looking for a bump in compression if your going down the route of an upgraded camshaft. Matched to a good flowing head, itll really wake it up. If your not to bothered about originalty, id go wasted spark igntion only ecu control using some thing like a Mondeo v6 coilpack with appropriate leads.

Thank you for your interesting video. I had a Rover 2600 bought virtually new from a BL employee. It was a superb car to drive with quick, accurate steering a lovely rifle bolt accuracy gearshift and a good ride. It was virtually impossible to get the rear end to step out because of the excellent axle location having a full Watt linkage. The engine though........................no one seems to mention the repeated head gasket failures - mine was re-done three times by the local BL main agent and I just decided to get rid of the car after that. Build quality was dire with failures of the heater, windscreen seal, door locks, power steering rack (twice), clutch cylinders (three times), and rear self -levelling struts (twice) and finally totally dangerous rear brakes following a change of shoes to a newer material. Thereafter the rear brakes would lock-up with the slightest provocation and massive axle tramp set in. I was truly glad to get rid of the car, which could have been so good. I bought a German Senator next and it did 100,000 hard driven miles with the only fault being a loose connection in the ignition circuit which took ten minutes to fix

I had a 2600 SD1 - loved it. Pleased you’re going to upgrade its reputation. It would be good to see a 2600 doing what it should. I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Had a few of these through my works in the late seventies and early eighties with head gasket issues. Due to over heating the heads would warp badly. So badly in fact, that if they were just re-faced, the camshafts would bind in the journals when the head was re-fitted to the block. To overcome this it was vital that they were re-faced on a vertical milling machine, once the head was pulled down flat to the mill bed, to ensure the cam journals stayed inline.

Owned 3x 3500 in the 80's-90's. Fabulous cars. Always veered away from the 2600 personally due to perceived oil starvation issues.

Wrote my original comment during the first quarter of the video, those engine parts look huge! Good luck with the project and Merry Christmas!

This sounds like a superb plan. What a great idea for a project. Having driven both, I actually prefer the six to the V8. Foibles aside, I think it's a much nicer engine, and it would always be my choice of the two. Best of luck with your endeavours, and Merry Christmas 🎄

Tom, that’s a great project. I owned a 2600 for years and have an NG kit car with the 2600 engine but with a triple carb conversion. It was tuned on a dyno to get the SU needles set up. Still have the dyno sheet……somewhere! The tubular manifold should make a big difference. Thanks for sharing your project passion.

Different engine but my father had a SDI 2400D(B-1985, which had beautiful engine which run and run(but when it did go wrong-IT WAS SERIOUS/knackered) father loved em(previously had P5B/Daimler sovereign) 1st he had GTU 335T a 3500 in green which we towed a caravan to South of France &back then after some dubious cars(including a Austin Princess in brown with vinyl roof)b4 he had the diesel Rover❤

That's a really cool video man, enjoyed it very much, always been a Rover guy. I have to say though, I've had two of these engines and I don't think it's Rover's best; being honest I don't much like it. Both of mine had low oil pressure after 80,000 miles so I'm not sure the bottom end's particularly strong - only four main bearings I think - and it was prone to oil starvation at the camshaft. Mine both ran very nicely, very smooth and quiet with just a bit of snarl when opened up, but I always got the impression it was a bit delicate, and declining oil pressure bore that out, on my engines at least. Fantastic show by the way!

The important thing will be to sort the poor oiling to the cam issue! My Dad had a 2600S lovely car we both loved it. But 1st engine replaced on warranty " Luckily" 2nd engine cam n head job twice. On the 3rd cam knock she was getting bit old n my Dad reluctantly cut her loose. We found out in later years there was a ball bearing in the oil passage to stop oil running back n creating smokey start ups.? But this one way oil value would be a bottle neck for sludge! n cause oil to cam starvation!! Rover guys in the know would remove the ball bearing n change oil filters regularly. I've seen a video somewhere of a guy knocking out the ball bearing saying " that can go for starters" Great channel, l have lots of fond memories in the silver SD1.

Very interesting vid. My mate had a 2600 many years ago and I thought it was great. I like straight 6's they are inherently smoother and balance than a V8 generally. It does make sense that they realised that a newly designed 2.6 would outpace a lazy American V8 so I think its logical that they nobbled these engines. I did a bit of work on a Triumph 2000 engines years ago, and what surprised me was how tiny and narrow the big ends were. Not much engineering margin there..

Like the Stag V8 they have been panned, but with a little work they are great. Good work Tom, many thanks for another subject close to my heart.

I worked at Cowley in the mid 80s. I am sorry to say, from first hand experience, that the company's approach to quality and problem solving were inexplicably atrocious. The sludge build up in the oil feed to the 2300/2600's cylinder head that you mention resulted in seized camshafts and valves hitting pistons. This happened after roughly 30,000 miles or more when the car was usually outside its then 12 months warranty making the customer dissatisfaction intense. Here's the point - that engine went out of production without this problem being addressed. I was directly involved with the SD1 and still have in my loft warranty and market research evidence for many problems that were not addressed. Customers were asked in a survey how they would rate the car for 'freedom from faults'. Excellent scored 10, very good 8 down to very poor scoring 3. From a large sample, one got an average number. The SD1's average varied between 5.6 and 6.5. The Honda Accord's figure was 9.8. Incidentally, the Maestro and Montego's average was between 6 and 7. The effect of this on sales (repeat purchase intent) was also measured and was catastrophic. I didn't join the company with an anti BL frame of mind; on the contrary, as a youth BL was my 'football team', having had many pro BL letters published in Motor, Autocar and CAR. But after working there, I had to change my mind.

I’m excited for the build. 👏👏👏👏

Fantastic. What a great idea for a project, modding the car with period possibilities. This raises a question about the TR7. Would it be possible to fit this 6-pot into one? If so, there would be some interesting performance possibilities. Is the 6 lighter than the 8? You see what I’m thinking here?

Thanks Tom, what you have done you will also reduce the pumping losses at the inlet manifold and carburetor using the Webber setup, but please observe the oil pressure at the top end

It was a ridiculous situation. The 6 cyl engines were politically concieved to give the Triumph engineers something to do, nothing more before everything Triumph was shut down. Ironic really considering how Triumph had already made a mess of the new stag V8. Incompetence all round at its best. They actually came up with a half good design that would have easily outperformed in every way in 2.6 form the already ancient V8 if it had been developed and tested properly but it wasn't allowed to overshaddow the V8. The management failing is that we now know there was a perfect 2.2 and 2.6 ohc straight six already in the portfolio. 2.2. E series engined SD1s were sold in India, proving that the tall E series easily fitted under the SD1 bonnet. A 2.6 version of the E series was also made for the Australian market Marina. There were two engines, with zero additional development costs that could have worked perfectly. By all accounts, the 2.2 E series SD1s were pretty good from a performance/refinement/economy perspective and the 2.6 E series was pretty powerful. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but management incompetence is inexcusable.

An interesting task you have set, one I have thought about myself, since the old 2.5 engine kicked out 150 horses with injection. BL penny pinching and rivalry between the marques was a big problem. Just think what a sorted 2800 with a TC 24 head and a turbo could do. TVR did the development of the Buick V8 not BL. Will it surpass an XK I wonder?

We were racing Sd1 sixes in the late 80s here in Australia. Approximately 230 bhp with 45mm does webers, match porting, custom exhaust manifolds, and electronic ignition. We learnt that polished intake potts were a hindrance. Regards Liz.

I remember a holiday with my parents around 1983 to Austria we rolled behind a German registered 3500 Vdp SD 1 with our ‚76 Citroen CX2200 Pallas . The 3500 pulled up the Kassel mountain very easy we walked behind with much throttle, downhill we came up and my dad showed me how you get the 200 kmh behind the lens although the Citroen was only known to go 182 kmh somehow the cream yellow Rover with the elderly lady had disappeared because it drove around at 130 kmh/82 miles constantly..

Just found your channel and looking forward to your build. I had a 2300 company car 1978-1980, had to return it as I moved abroad. The 2600 was above my pay grade! I remember it fondly as comfortable to drive, nice manual and clutch, and spacious but I had to reverse the driver seat mounts to suit my 6’4” frame, (which introduced me to the then new use of Torx fasteners). What it could have become with fuel injection, which was on my next Volvo.

I had a 2600 in 1990, it was a 1982 car, so 8 years old and even then rotten as a pear, with large holes in the bodywork in some places. That said I loved it, and the engine was probably the only good bit of it (well apart from the interior, those were great too)! Good luck with the build, can't wait to see how you get on! ;-)

My Dad had 2600, I've got a P62000 and 2x 75s, a diesel auto and a very early V6 manual, turns out I'm a Rover man! (Ex M3 & Audi S8) and I'm sold on them. Good luck with your project, I will watch with baited breath. Based in NW Cumbria, shout if you need anything!

I loved the 2.6 engine... Had a couple- including an auto- which curiously went like stink- more so than the manual ! Well maintained- a nice, smooth lump...

The few I came into contact with in the 80s had oil leak issues at the rear of the rocker shafts where they exited the head casting . If neglected for the service interval this could lead to low oil levels . My fix was to use a fibre washer under a steel repair washer and a bolt into the pre tapped hole already in the shaft to seal the shaft to head mating surface . Removal of the oil feed ball valve restrictor to,the head replacing with a fixed orifice would be a good move too . Rover metallurgy is excellent and this engine with its super strong bottom end screams turbocharger(s) injection & ITBs if the cylinder head issues can be resolved .

I've just come across this channel and you have a new subscriber! I'm really looking forward to seeing the development of your old SD1. Keep up the good work.

I served my time on those back in the 80s, The only problem with the cylinder heads was the oil restrictor in the cylinder block. It was designed with a one-way valve to retain some oil in the cylinder head. But used to carbon up very easily usually down to incorrect service intervals usually by the owner after a while, as a routine, we used to remove the pin out of the middle of the restrictor. After that, there were no more issues with them. They were a good engine. But a bit of a pain in the arse to set up on the bench, using all the individual shims taking the cam carrier on and off repeatedly

I had two of these....both 2.3 and 2.6. Nice engine but could be unreliable. Head gasket issues and also dry/siezed valves due to oil feed issues. Other than that, a smooth engine which was easy enough to work on. Look forward to hearing more about your project!

Good to hear Tom I had a 2.6VDP back in the day and always thought it could do more. Go for it fella i will be watching 👍

The SD1 was before my time so I never really saw many on the road growing up,now after watching this video I’m intrigued and I’ve subscribed for more content,cheers fella happy new year to ya 👍😉💪

Keep us posted to show that BLs restrictions actually happened with the underrated PE-166 engine...BTW was in a 1979 Manual Rover 2600S that showed its tear lights to an Auto 3500 with ease in 1988 so will follow this Channel 👍🏻

More power to you Tom. There's a pair of little books by John Passini on Weber carbs. Book 1 is the operational theory, book 2 is on tuning and maintenance (which I have, and was a component of my winning 2 club championships in an Australian Valiant Charger) Anyway I reckon book 2 is the "ducks guts". Having said that, both books'd be good... not that I've read the first one. Godspeed mate!

I wish I could have my rover SD1 2.6 again . Better than the plastic cars of today

"Why not just fit a V8?" Because the straight six is a beautiful, silky smooth configuration that whooshes along (it will by the time youve fitted that intake and extractor, so well done for taking it on! BTW, it's "death knell" not "death nail"; known as an Eggcorn I believe 😊

Sounds fun, Happy Christmas . would love to see a modern brake upgrade project for older cars ie brake pipes disks pads calipers . The cortina looks amazing.

I owned one in the late 80's and had a string of problems with it including pulling up to a set of traffic lights after a 200 mile drive only to find it had a major misfire. It was only running properly on 2 cylinders because 4 cam lobes were completely round. I had to rebuilt the top end on the street to drive the 200 miles home using parts from a scrap yard. Also had issues with the wiring loom causing it not to start. I had to wire in a new ballast resistor. All in all, you putting a lot of work into a flawed engine. IE. It uses ONE cam lobe to operate BOTH the inlet and the exhaust valves so the valve timing will always be a compromise.

Great project, I'll be following. Happy New year!

Go for it. A Vitesse 2600 would be really great to see.

Good luck with developing the Rover - hope it turns out lots of fun..

I have to admit that this is the first time I have heard of any major problems with the straight six SD1 engine. Is it really the worst engine ever made under the auspices of BL? When I think of atrocious engines in the BL era, that notorious Triumph V8, a different V8 from the Buick derived SD1 item, from the Triumph Stag comes to mind.

Good luck with the project Tom. Very interesting and I like your approach of making it the best it should have been for the road. New subscriber.

Your video is informative enough, mate. I think, the 2600 is nerfed by someone on BL's management because the Triumph design didn't accepted, because, you know, previous Chairman, Sir Donald Stokes, is a Triumph bloke. So maybe there's a hate in ex Triumph blokes that instead of Triumph, BL choose Rover. But, I love the SD1s, even though where I live, Indonesia, we don't even have SD1. I love it first time when I see Jeremy Clarkson drive a 3500 SD1 on Top Gear's British Leyland Challenge. It was in the Covid period, 2020. Then I start to search about the SD1s, and then knowing there is a 2300 and 2600 even the 3900. I just wanted to have at least one of each series of the SD1 here in Indonesia.