I took the Rover for its first actual drive since I got the car, today. I have had it two months and driven it less than 100km (but used almost half a tank of gas) 😞
I decided since I was working Saturday today, I would drive the Rover in. It’s a good easy drive, not much traffic and would be a good test run for the car. It also gives me a chance to get the car on the hoist and check over the underside.
In terms of driving the car to and from work, it performed amazingly. Temp was stable, although took a little time to come up when cold this morning, but hovered in the 80-95ish range depending on speed and load.
On the way to work the trip computer said I averaged 12.5l/100km, and on the way home that got a little bump to 13.1l/100km. If I can keep the car around there, I would be very happy indeed.
Idle is a bit rough, and causes quite a bit of vibration through the car, but smooths out the instant you give it any gas. I seem to recall NP70 has a rough idle too. She is fairly primitive, with no form of idle control, just a bypass screw.
It looks pretty good under the artificial light at work.
And then I rolled it onto the hoist.
The overall impression is good. Very little rust, and other than the oil leaks it looks good.
There is a lot of oil down the sides and back of engine, from up high. I suspect this is mostly from the rocker cover gaskets, as all the screws were loose and I would say the gaskets are stuffed. They are on my list to replace ASAP.
It may also be leaking from the trans too, as there is a fair bit back there, keeping all the surfaces rust free.
You can also see that the exhaust is touching the corner of the trans oil pan. Not ideal. The exhaust has been extensively modified/replaced. It has one muffler, a resonator and a lot of ugly mild steel pipe. It’s not in bad shape though.
I noticed that the rear shocks have been replaced with Spax Gas adjustable shocks, and some red springs of some sort. A lot of Nolathane bushes have been used front and rear too. Standard front shocks and springs.
A lot of the common rust areas are in good shape, with no signs of rust in the boot floor, sills or where the trailing arms bolt to the body.
The front pads need replacing, as they are low, and obviously the reason the pad wear light is flickering on braking. It was failed for the front pads on the last WOF, so not sure what they did there (maybe old pads from one of his other cars like the fuel filter?).
Either way, it was a great drive to and from work, and it turned a few heads going down the road. So happy to be finally clocking up some Miles behind the wheel.
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