The Rover M series (or M16) is a line of 4-cylinder,
DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion ch ...
internal-combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combu ...
introduced by the
Austin Rover Group in 1986 for the then-new
Rover 800 series.
The M series was produced only in one cubic capacity – 1994 cc (2.0 L), and was a
16 valve development of the older
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
O-series unit first seen in 1978. For the Rover 800, there were two different versions, with single point
fuel injection
Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines.
All com ...
(for the Rover 820e) or multi-point injection (for the 820i). The M series uses the same
cylinder block
In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure which contains the cylinders and other components. In an early automotive engine, the engine block consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attac ...
as the O-series unit as found in the
Maestro
Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning " master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubi ...
and
Montego, which mates with the
Powertrain Ltd PG-1 manual
gearbox
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), diffe ...
. These were also used in the
Morgan Plus Four, the only rear wheel drive application this engine was used in, meaning these can be put in rear wheel drive layouts using the Rover LT77 transmission
In 1990, the M series was also installed in the
Rover 200 series
The Rover 200 Series, and later the Rover 25, are a series of small family cars that were produced by British manufacturer Rover (marque), Rover from 1984 until 2005.
There have been three distinct generations of the Rover 200. The first gener ...
, before being superseded in 1992 by the similar
T series which was a development of the same design.
Turbocharged version
Tickford also tuned the M-series engine which was installed in 536 models of the Rover 820 in 1991. This was nicknamed the Tickford Turbo. It needed to have its power capped: it is believed that Rover's marketing department had a say in the final power output of the M16 Turbo:
The request from marketing was to not hinder V6 sales therefore the performance should not exceed that of the 2.7-litre Honda V6 (177PS), hence the performance was limited to 180 PS deliberately.
In the end, 563 examples were built, of which, many ended up in the hands of BAe executives (BAe/Rover company cars being the biggest source of UK Rover 800 registrations at the time). Only a handful survive today.
References
External links
Rover 200 and 400 Owners Club– Covers all Rover 800s, including the T series powered 820
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rover M-Series Engine
M-Series