Robin Hood Exmo - Fitting a K-Series

Last updated on
12/07/2004

Fitting a K-Series
C855 YVM - Robin Hood Exmo

Surgery
Okay, so there's no escaping it - you're going to need to perform some fairly basic surgery before the engine will fit in. This is going to entail a grinder, several cutting and grinding discs, a welder and some spare pieces of 3mm steel plate, 1" angle and box section steel tubing. The other thing to bare in mind is that once you've cut something out, it's very difficult to undo the work you've just done - so double check everything along the way. Having said that, don't be put off, because there's nothing too hard involved. The diagram below shows you roughly what you need to hack out...

Engine Mounts
Once you've removed the engine, gearbox and all ancillaries (including exhaust, engine mounts, radiator, fan, hoses and nosecone) you will need to cut out the box-section engine mounts. For the left-hand (passenger side) box, remove the whole thing - it will interfere with the exhaust manifold otherwise. For the right-hand (drivers side) box, you can get away with reducing the box to just a few inches on each panel. This keeps a little strength in the floor panel. See the following diagram...

Driver's side box section for old engine mount

Floor Panels
The engine bay floor panels, as they stand, will not allow the K-Series engine to sit fully home. This is because the K-Series engine is wider at it's lower extremities. Because of this, you will need to cut out several sections, mainly at the front of the engine bay (which needs to be wider) and down the majority of the left hand side. The reinforcing webs along the engine floor panels will also need to be cut down, removed or bent fully over to allow certain parts of the engine to clear. Don't worry, we will be replacing the lost strength by welding in some 1" square section tube!

What about the pedal box & bulkhead?
Good news - you don't need to touch the bulkhead. It does mean, however, that your gearstick will move forward 2 inches or so, but this is a minor price to pay as opposed to chopping out your bulkhead and having to reweld it all. The pedal box is a close call. If you're ditching the standard plenum chamber and injection system, you will have no problems whatsoever with clearance. However if you are keeping the standard Rover injection system and plenum, you may find the throttle neck itself comes very close to the pedal box, or even interferes with it. Remember the engine will be moving when it's running, so you need plenty of clearance.

If you have trouble with contact between the two, there's two options open to you. One is to ditch the plenum chamber and buy throttle bodies - too expensive to justify solely on the basis of giving more clearance (the throttle bodies will set you back Ł500, while the programmable ECU you will then require will set you back another Ł600). The only other option is to modify your pedal box to clear (or maybe you could modify the throttle assembly instead?).

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