Head Gaskets Rover/MG

[rebby]

Hi all - I've asked one of two questions here before and had some great answers, so am hoping you can assist me again....

I have a 2 1/2 year old MG ZR 1.4. I know head gasket problems are notorious on Rovers, and my other half's Rover 45 recently had to be fixed at huge expense. A mechanic acquaintance has told me to get rid of the car because he's in no doubt the head gasket will go around 45,000 miles (I've done 35k) My own mechanic said that the head gasket seals were made diferently on the later models and I've got nothing to worry about. I'm a bit worried about this. I was thinking about changing the car anyway - but what do you think ?

[madein1978]

Yes, get rid of it as fast as you can, the Rover K-Series is an absolutely rubbish engine, and a very notorious head gasket blower. I have stripped one or two of these engines down in my time and was totally appalled at the design quality of this engine, the inherant design of the head says it will do this, Rover tried to sort it but without much success, no wonder Rover is down the plughole. Mind you it's not the first engine to be labelled this, the KV6 engine was the same, cars under warranty and less than 20,000 miles were having to get their head gaskets replaced, the O series engine of the 70's and 80's was a head gasket muncher as well, so was the E series and to a certain extent the B series. It suffers more from cracked cylinder blocks. I've never spoken to another mechanic who has a good word to say about the K-Series engine. No, get rid of it and buy something German or Japanese!