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God didn't realise how long it has been since this has been updated. So for those who don't know a week before Christmas (as is always the way) my 1.8 engine decided it no longer liked oil flowing through the oil rail and starved the gearbox side of the engine of oil when I was halfway down the motorway to work doing 120 km/h so needless to say it was knocking very very badly after and then locked up completely just as I was pulling up to the house after work. So while I was pondering what to do with it I picked up a nice little Rover Streetwise in PBT with 80K miles on the clock for €900. With the ZS I was always going to be putting it back on the road as it means way too much to me to just scrap it or break it for parts so I decided I would put a 1.8T engine into it which was my original plan with it all along. So after spending the whole month of January searching I picked up a Rover 75 Mk2 connesuer SE for the engine. Less than 60K on it, engine ticking over like a mouses heart I thought I had a minter on my hands and after driving it home over two and a half hours from Banbridge Co. Down without it missing a beat I was pretty pleased with myself but then after a week or two of driving it the headgasket went but I went ahead with the swap anyway, obviously thanks to the snow we had in March it knocked things back abit and after I put the 1.8t into the ZS I stripped it down to discover why it had gone. Someone uses the MLS gasket when the liners were out of tolerance and there was 2 thermostats in it, the PRT stat should rule out the need for the one in the housing under the manifold but someone instead of fitting a blanking plate fitted a proper thermostat causing the engine to run hotter than normal. Anyway the head needed skimming but was abit too close to the limit and I managed to get a head from Sam Tomkins when I was at POL. Needed to get new valves and tappets which arrived only yesterday so now next week I hope to get it all built up and hoping to be turning it over for the first time by Saturday! Needs a few other bits aswell, needs to be mapped, I'm waiting for polybushes for the front lower control arms and also waiting for my 282mm discs, pads, calipers and carriers for the front. Hoping to have it NCT'd and back on the road the end of May then I can start working on my Merc again and my ZR that I got for free
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