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That's quite the treatise. Fascinating. The P6 parts specialists don't seem to differentiate between Series 1 and 2 for temp senders, which means the black one may end up being right for my car. Will report back.

I've just ordered a black sender. £10.95 inc postage so worth a try. If the temp gauge needle goes off the end of the scale I'll know it was a bad buy…

It would be good to know which sender you have. The one in my car, supplied by JR Wadhams so I assumed it was correct, is red.

I have now checked the temp with an IR thermometer aimed at the temp sender (the hottest external part other than the exhaust manifold). After a good and vigorous drive the temp gauge was towards the upper end of the green, well past the 85deg mid-point, but the IR thermometer recorded 80-82...

Good thought, thank you. But I rebuilt the engine in 2020, which included acid-dipping the block, so no sludge. There was quite a lot pre-rebuild, though. I've just checked with Geoff at Wins and my radiator core is correct for a Series Two. Seems it's all pointing to an inaccurate gauge. I'll...

Thanks – that's significantly thicker than my rad. But yes, I'll try an IR thermometer before leaping into changing anything else.

According to the temperature gauge, my 1972 2000 TC runs hotter than it should – mostly at the top end of the green section, and past the 85-degree mid-point. I have renewed the thermostat (82deg), the temperature sender and the voltage stabiliser (now a solid-state one), and the reading hasn't...

I had my 2000 TC rolling road-tuned at Northampton Motorsport a couple of weeks ago, and when we took the plugs out we saw that the electrode insulators were red. Properly red, not red-brown. NM asked if I had been using an additive but I hadn't. Fuel was Shell V-power. I had never seen red...

A 2200 SC should be OK on normal unleaded with its 9:1 compression ratio, provided the fuelling and timing are set up correctly. Certainly the two 2000 SCs I used to own ran fine on it. A 2200 SC was built with valve seats hard enough to cope with the lack of lead, so shouldn't have needed an...

If it's happening when the engine is well warmed up, then maybe the fuel – more volatile nowadays than it used to be – is boiling. My car does that when idling after a good hot run. Nothing much to worry about. Alternatively there might be a slight leak on the pump's input side, enough to suck...

Another possibility is an internal break in the low-tension wire from coil negative to distributor points, making intermittent contact. I've had this on two P6s and a Saab 96, with symptoms much as you describe. Might be worth running a separate wire from coil to distributor and see if it fixes...

Put some grease in the spigot bush, then place your spare input shaft in it and give the other end a sharp tap with a hammer. Maybe several. The hydraulic action of the momentarily-compressed grease should force the bush out. I didn't have this problem when rebuilding ny engine – when I turned...

Yes, but some are harder than others. A friend who worked in the Solihull factory back in the day and later became a key Rover PR man (and who owns a very early UK-spec 2000 TC) was the source of the knowledge re all 2000s getting TC-spec valve-seat hardness. TC production started mid-1966 but...

If it's mid-1966 or later it shouldn't need a lead additive, as all 2000s had hardened exhaust valve seats once the 2000 TC went into production.

Try a cooler-running grade of spark plug. My 2000 TC – rebuilt engine, no carbon build-up, all settings set correctly, super unleaded fuel – ran on when fitted with the NGK BP7ES plugs (Champion N7Y equivalent) that it's supposed to have. I have fitted BP8ES (N6Y equivalent) and the problem has...

I had exactly this problem with my 2000 TC, especially when the weather was very cold. All the earth connections were good, so I figured that the starter was just worn out. I've fitted a modern reduction-geared high torque starter made by WOSP and available from AES, which works very well. If...

You have the strip speedometer judging by your other post – your 3500 looks very nice indeed, by the way. From memory when I had a couple of strip-speedo P6s you pull out the warning light strip (lift two spring clips above it to release), remove the windscreen pillar trims, then the padded...

I didn't know that. And now I do – thanks. I love the depth of knowledge on this forum.

The timing chain has worn a little. 'Stretched', if you like. You can reset the valve timing by using the vernier function within the camshaft drive sprocket. The outer, toothed part of the sprocket is separate from the inner hub, the two parts held together with a big wire internal circlip. One...

The system in my case is an Aldon (aka Pertronix) Ignitor, but not the cleverer Ignitor II which has variable dwell. The coil is the original low-resistance one from 1972, albeit not ultra-low at maybe 1.5 ohms, fed via the original ballast resistor. And two years (or more) on it's still working...

Number 1 is mixture, very sensitive. A eighth of a turn (on both carbs) added 10bhp+ to my engine when being tuned on a hub dynamometer. Number 2 is idle speed. Number 3 is fast idle triggering point. If you move the choke lever on the carb, you can see the bottom of it move closer to the fast...

No need for HIDs, which are illegal anyway as a retrofit to headlights designed for halogen bulbs, and very likely to cause dazzle. Same is true of LEDs. Cibiés are indeed very good but seem unobtainable nowadays. The current Lucas H4 units are a good substitute – I have these for my outer...

My 2000 TC, now bored out to 2200 so 9:1 compression, has been doing this although less so on 99-octane super unleaded than on 97-octane (which ought to be fine for a 9:1 four-cylinder P6). The engine is recently rebuilt and should have minimal carbon deposits. Fuelling and ignition timing (the...

Agreed on the possible inaccuracy of some compression testers. I was very depressed when I measured the compressions of my newly rebuilt engine with a new compression tester. So I tried the old one, allowing for the fact its needle was now zeroing at 30psi after a friend dropped it (he bought me...

Yes, the wet test adds another dimension. How much oil did you squirt in? If quite a lot accumulated in the deep bowl in the middle of the piston, it would effectively reduce the size of the combustion chamber, so raising the compression ratio. And hence compression pressure. You could try the...