Rover ‘K’ series engine -
UNDER DEVELOPMENT

The ‘K’ series engine as used in the Rover Metros, and , is a compact and light unit capable of high specific outputs. It comes in four displacements,1200cc, 1400cc, a larger bored 1600cc and a stroked 1800cc.

It is a popular engine in motorsport due to its relatively light weight and performance potential.

INTIALLY launched in 1.4-litre 16v form, the engine range was soon extended to encompass 1.1 and 1.4-litre 8v versions, which were then followed by 1.6 and 1.8-litre 16v units.
This ensured that Rover would not be dependent on Honda for their mid-sized engine range and paved the way for the hot versions of the Rover 200 and MGF.
With Honda power, these cars would in most likelihood been just as impressive, but less British.
This power unit also formed the basis of the company's KV6 engine (of which over 100,000 had been built by 2001) - which was used to great effect initially in the Rover 800, then the Rover 75 and MG ZT.

Like the A-series before it and also the group's V8 engine, the K-series engine soon became the darling of the British specialist manufacturers, becoming the motive force for Caterham and Lotus.

The cylinder head is of twin overhead cam design, 4 valve with a classic pent-roof combustion chamber design.

Because of its inherent under-square nature its ultimate tuning potential is inferior to a Cosworth BDA , YB or Vauxhall 16v since the available valve area is not as high, but it is streets ahead of designs such as the venerable crossflow and pinto.

As installed in standard form it is well below its optimum.

It is unusual in its construction in that the engine is of 'sandwich' design, the head is not bolted to the block , instead long bolts are used which sandwich the block assembly together between an engine bottom plate and the cylinder head.