[talkingcars]

A bit about the car - I'll start with the biggest change - the engine - as I already mentioned it has been fitted with a T16 2.0 turbo out of a Rover 820 Vitesse, obviously a more powerful engine than the original 8v injection engine with both twice as many valves and cams and a turbo (but most of you will know that) - this was mated with the original gearbox which is far easier than fitting the box that comes with the engine as there are no issuies with mating drive shafts or speedo drives.

The big problem with keeping the EFi gearbox is that it is the lowest geared of all the PG1 boxes so a bit low, first is pointless if trying to accelerate hard and wheel spin in third in the dry!

I was planning to make a bespoke box using the 1st, 2nd and 3rd from a maestro turbo and 4th and 5th from a diesel box and torsen diff from a 220 but some nice soul stole the tubby and 220 boxes.

Back to the engine - to make it run properly I had to rewire it repairing the engine loom and removing wiring no longer required, I also extended the loom (can you see the ECU in the engine bay picture on page 1?) - finally I removed the remains of the EFi wiring where not required.

Soon after I got the car back I had to replace the water pump, it shares a drive with the power steering pump with the PAS fluid lubricating the moving parts, of course I was lucky with my Maestro in that it came without PAS...

This is when I discovered how rusty the coolant ways are from the car being run without antifreeze, how it came from the installer. This has led to much work on the cooling system but that will be the subject of the next installment.