Mgf 1.8 vvc good or bad

LostKiwi

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Frankly it looks to me on the face of it to be a bad deal for you.
 

Yugguy

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mg probably worth half what your Merc is.
 
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Stulc

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I know unless I get some cash too, I was just after some fun driving.
 

MalcQV

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There was a newly designed head gasket by Land Rover IIRC. With this fitted they are less likely to fail but the biggest issue with any mid-engine car is heat dissipation. If you did go with it just keep an eye on the oil and water levels.
In the 90's I was on the Rover scheme (worked for Warwick Manufacturing Group, part of the University) and had five Rovers, three with K-series engines including an 1800 618. The original K-series was a 1400 I think and whilst the 1600 was OK some say the 1800 was pushing the design.
Needless to say I never had any issues with any, but they were all brand new. I also had a Rover 25 with the 1600 K-series in 2011 for about 18 months. This to date was one of the most reliable cars I've ever owned. My parents had an 89 214s for many years. I don't recall my dad ever doing the head gasket.

Open top motoring is super, I've recently purchased a 1.9 Z3. It's bloomin fabulous and all I paid was a mere £1300.
 

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kid-jensen

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Bloke at work with a SLK used to have an MGF (Non-VVT).

He doesn't drive particularly hard but said that he left the road FOUR times in the MG, but never in any other car.

I guess you could call it fun, but it just sounds to me more like the sort of rear suspension design that made the first 40 years of Porsche 911s such widowmakers!
 

Blobcat

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Bloke at work with a SLK used to have an MGF (Non-VVT).

He doesn't drive particularly hard but said that he left the road FOUR times in the MG, but never in any other car.

I guess you could call it fun, but it just sounds to me more like the sort of rear suspension design that made the first 40 years of Porsche 911s such widowmakers!
It wasn't the suspension that caused 911's to go backwards through the hedge, as the engine is hanging out behind the rear axle it makes a great pendulum - this means it takes a lot to get it to move but when it does it goes big.
 

kid-jensen

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True enough, but the real villain was the Semi-trailing arm design that has no place in the back-end of anything that calls itself a sports car.

If the designers are gonna compromise, do it with glovebox size, or cupholder numbers, but not with suspension geometry!

That should get a response or two...
 

LostKiwi

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Didn't Porsche use semi trailing arms....?
 

Blobcat

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......and we all know how that finished-up...

(I WAS talking about 911s BTW)
Yes :p best sports car ever made (I might have been biased...) I'd have another one in a heartbeat - 991 GT2 RS or if money an issue a 997 GTS.
 

400ixl

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A lot of the handling issues is down to the tyres people put on them now. There are only a small number of tyres which are approved for the F/TF (and in one case its even down to a particular subset of a model of tyre). Get the wrong tyre and it is like driving on ice.

You have 3 era's really, the MGF (1.6 103bhp, 1.8 113bhp, VVC 143bhp, & VVC Trophy 160bhp), the TF (1.6 103bhp, 1.8 120bhp & VVC 160bhp) and then after MG Rover went tits up the SAIC models (1.8 120 and VVC 160).

Note VVC and not VVT. The VVC was more advanced than the Honda VTEC or Toyota VVT systems of the days. It was continuously variable throughout thre rev range and not reliant on changing the cams at a certain rev point. The torque curve is impressively early and holds at the maximum for a long time.

Headgasket wise all models can suffer, its mainly down to how you drive it and maintain it. Someone mentioned earlier the thermostat and thermal shock, that was more of an issue when they were fitted in the Elise, but having a remote thermostat is never a bad thing). The engines had a remarkedly small amount of coolant and you had to make sure the engine was warmed up well before using the revvy like units. Due to the lack of cooloant, any loss was a real issue and would overheat the engines in seconds, and the fact they had an issue with leaking coolant caps on the expansion bottles this could happen quite easily. Later cars had improved sensors fitted to the expansion bottles and some were retrofitted back, they also had improved head gaskets. Another issue was that these engines were a sandwich design with stretch bolts going right though from the head to the crank casing. The ladder rail in the earlier cars were not a strong as they could have been and allowed the engine to flex just enough to cause failures.

Ideally you want one which has had the head gasket changed with the later design one and the improved ladder rail and the coolant warning. The SAIC era cars had these as standard and if I was looking to own one that is where I would be looking, but they are newer and therefore more money. But get one of the earlier ones where someone has done the work, then you should have a good car engine wise.

As people have mentioned, the MGF has the gas suspension and this has gotten more expensive to maintain as the years have gone on.

If I were to be looking for one, it Would be an SAIC era, or a TF 160 and if I had to go to the F era then a Trophy.

Loads of experience with the K Series engines and they are great engines and fun, even turbo'd a few over the years. If you want to really dig into the topic then sites like mg-rover.org have a huge archive on these cars.
 

400ixl

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The original K-series was a 1400 I think and whilst the 1600 was OK some say the 1800 was pushing the design.

1.1 and 1.4 were the original capacity designs for the engine. They had piston sleeves which allowed for the capacity to be changed which was added to with the 1.6 and then the stroked 1.8 which was pushing the limit of what the engine could take capacity wise.

Used in many different sports cars as it was so light with Caterham and Lotus being two of the customers.
 
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Stulc

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Many thanks for all the replies but the bugger sold it before I got a chance to even see it.
 

A.J.

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Many thanks for all the replies but the bugger sold it before I got a chance to even see it.

On the positive side that could have saved you from a world of pain :rolleyes:
 

400ixl

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Many thanks for all the replies but the bugger sold it before I got a chance to even see it.

They are surprisingly popular still and half decent examples get snapped up.
 

V6Matty

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their also at the bottom of their price range now and as it's getting sunny their good for a laugh and top down motoring for a few hundred quid
 

MalcQV

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I would not write off the idea of one. They're old cars (unless you buy the SAIC cars) so not only homework regarding the problems but age plays a part.
A bit like I mentioned elsewhere (might not have been here) MG owners are enthusiastic much like I found Alfa owners to be and as such they generally look after their cars in my experience.
 


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