rover spares????

[jasgti]

well after my last post everybody has confirmed a caterham is for me and the k series engine is the most likely candidate, the next question is the availibilty of rover spares are all bits still easily availible ? are there many caterham only parts on the k series engines and what is the future going to be like? does anybody still manufacture k series bits? , again the more info i can get the better thanks all for the advice i am getting

[casbar]

No problem with spares, several different places to get bits from, I haven't had any problems getting anything upto now.

www.blatchat.com/T.asp?id=113568

Edited by casbar on Friday 15th December 13:20

[tortoise]

The Chinese are expected to start production of the engine again in the next year or two so the longer term prospects might be better than expected. In the meantime the original parts suppliers are usually able to supply bits and no major shortages are reported although you might struggle to get new heads, blocks or very recent updated bits (ie EU04 kit). Don't forget the K Series is also in the Freelander so Ford are likely to continue to supply bits via the Land Rover garages.

[jasgti]

well thats certainly a surprise a k series in a freelander??????

[tortoise]

Goes back to the days when Rover still owned Land Rover but when Ford took it over it had to keep the original engine supply contract with Rover until it could design a replacement, which it has just done. This means that all old style petrol engined Freelanders are K series. No doubt we could debate how sensible it was to put an engine designed for a light weight shopping trolley into something as heavy as the Freelander and it wasn't a brilliant bit of engineering by Land Rover/Rover. In particular the location and design of the thermostat caused a lot of problems and contributed significantly to Head Gasket Failures. Later modifications to the thermostat (to a pressure relief type) have helped and it's probably a good idea to consider this for other K series engines too although the lighter loading in a Caterham and short cooling runs from the radiator to the engine mean it's less of an issue generally.