Rover 420 gsi turbo project - Part 1

Part 1 of a new series. Rover 420 gsi turbo. Very rare car even when new. Think they only made 300 of them. I think this is one of seven survivors, and a good original and very unmolested example.
Has Rover T-series T16 Turbo engine, the same as in the 220 turbo R8, the 620 ti and the 800 vitesse. This version has 197 bhp, rather than the 180 bhp some others had.
Car has been off the road for some time. It does run, but has a massive oil leak from front nearside corner of cylinder head, and generally needs a good going over and a respray.

[@stephinepaul7483]

Glad to have you back again James. Thanks to you I had to go out and buy my own Rover SD-1 here in the U.S. A one Owner 1980 Car with only 20.422 miles from new It's a 3500/V8/Manual. The Color is called "Richelieu" with a "Nutmeg" interior. Factory Alloys. LOTS of spare Parts. Sold new in New Jersey and then driven to Western Texas(near the Texas/New-Mexico Border..)where it was used locally until 1986 when it was retired and stored away. ZERO rust of course. I paid $750 for it. And two days later I was given two Cortina's(a '69 2-Door and a '70 Wagon..)from the former Owner's Neighbor. Just what I need....

[@philrogers2406]

Great to see you back James!

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers Phil

[@garypoulton7311]

Glad you are back, hope the diesel SD1 gets some love soon. Good luck with the Rovers.

[@nitrosilvia]

It will, its sat on my drive at home. Just need to pull my finger out

[@brucemay5409]

Great cars! Well worth saving.I had a 420GSI tourer back in th earlier 2000s and a 214SEI for 3yrs with the same half leather seats.Good luck with your restoration!

[@repairupdaterepeat5815]

After being awol for 3 months "ok so I've just picked this up" The man's lost nothing....

[@nitrosilvia]

I also had a mcdonalds breakfast that morning :)

[@repairupdaterepeat5815]

@@nitrosilvia hows the LDV getting on?

[@tomstevens751]

I wanted one of these so badly back in 2003/4 I had a Tahiti blue 420gsi sport. Those turbo's are such rare cars as you say! Love it

[@nitrosilvia]

I didnt know they actually existed, i assumed they were all conversions. I love rover. Absolute nutters. Faster than a cossie and looks like your nans civic

[@tommoso55]

Woohoo great to see you back ol lad 😀👍👍👍

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Tommo. Another vid currently uploading

[@alanalzee4849]

Blimey the Holy Grail of R8 saloons! The oil looks to have been regularly changed the coolant looks fine to but that fuel is nasty, good to see you back making a video for us all 👍

[@JAY61ish]

Where you been?? ha ha .. Great to see you back mate.. Great car..

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Jay

[@paul1153]

Great to see you back James. This will be one nice Rover when you're finished with it.

[@sefikempowermentcoachvilla7843]

Brilliant 👏 seeing you again James best car car I ever had my 420 gsi t ,3 happy yrs should never of sold it on a L reg with factory A/C 👍 a riot to drive a real Q car !

[@Andy-sh9eq]

Woo hoo good to see you back again I was missing restoration videos

[@philipbunker146]

Wow James… where have you been! I did ask Matt at the Festival of the unexceptional. Good to see you back, hope you’re well mate!

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah i had a chat with Matt recently. Ive been stuck doing work, so no time to play cars. Stupid jobs!

[@GMD8]

Welcome back 😀. Have missed your content, hope all is well with you? 😀

[@kdproductions2008]

Phil fancy bumping into you like this! Hope you're well mate!

[@philipbunker146]

@@kdproductions2008 All good Kyle, hope you and the family are well x

[@Stevieweevietv]

That's a lovely car. Great to see you back...have missed the tinkering! 👍

[@nitrosilvia]

good to be back

[@paulie-Gualtieri.]

Great to see you again James hope you've been keeping well.

[@nitrosilvia]

Hi Paulie, yes all good, just super busy at work and life etc etc

[@satbilla9291]

He’s back!! Good to see these vids hope your well. Looking forward to the SD diesel

[@pit_stop77]

Lovely to see you back sir ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

[@marklittler784]

I'll 2nd that !

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers J Wall

[@markharris7662]

Great to see you back James.

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Mark

[@91drunkenmonkey]

He is back !!!!

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah, just about. Got another vid uploading at the moment

[@hydorah]

Welcome back! Nice project! And the weather is just about to get really shitty so perfect for you on your driveway! I hope you had a lovely summer!

[@-abacchus]

Been a while James! Great find! Looking forward to the rest of this series!

[@nitrosilvia]

More to come!

[@stephennorris2524]

I had the 220Gti 3 door in BRG, brilliant car, fast and good handling.

[@johnmoruzzi7236]

NEC next autumn ! Cracking car...

[@jonathanhammond3748]

Great to have one of your videos. Another lovely car, looking forward to seeing more! 👍

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Jonathan

[@roystoncoffey333]

Great to have you back mate missed ya

[@davetong4225]

Nice to see you back with a new video. great as always

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers Dave

[@MartsGarage]

Glad to see you posting again James. It looks like an interesting project. I will be following. Mart in Solihull.

[@nitrosilvia]

Cool, cheers Matt. 4 vids up so far

[@alasdairboyd7299]

Was only looking at your channel yesterday thinking you hadn’t uploaded recently- welcome back!

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah no done any vids in ages. Too busy with work

[@jason.aldridge5004]

Absolutely great seeing these again I really loved the gsi turbos and looking forward to this series . looks a good example too👌👌👍

[@nitrosilvia]

Hi Jason, yeah i love them. Love the seats and interior generally, oh and the turbo!

[@jason.aldridge5004]

@@nitrosilvia Yeh I've always liked there half leather seats quite up there for rover in the 90's. It all started for me with the Metro GTI 16V being a massive MG fan then. I really didn't know these 420gsi's was as rare as 300. I recall a good few years ago, I seen a 420 gsi turbo sitting on a drive way always telling myself I'll knock on and ask wots there plan, as I've had some really good cheap cars that way, anyway not long after I seen local young lads racing it around found out thay paid £100 pounds😭😭obviously the exhaust bloo out after sitting. It lasted them all of 2 wks before being taken by police. I'm really kine to follow your progress on this build and the final product. Are you going fully Oem ? that's the road I'd take with a few + to gain bit more bhp as thay was really quick back in the day @200 bhp. The tomcat being rovers fastest production car. Great video again catch you on the next.👌👍👍

[@pwensor]

Yay ! Welcome back James - looks a great project car.

[@nitrosilvia]

Yes its a nice one. Shouldnt be too long a project either

[@donnysweekendvanlifetravel7854]

Great project and great to see you back all the best donny

[@MarcusTDM]

The basis for a very very nice car. What a find.

[@JR90.]

Glad you're back. That GSi looks a great purchase!

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks, you dont know how much i paid! lol. (too much)

[@370DatsunZed]

Just stumbled on your channel in the past week...excellent stuff. More interested in the SD1’s but this 420GSi Turbo..had no idea they made these "off the shelf!!" looking forward to this.

[@nitrosilvia]

It was such a cool car. I loved it. Wish i could have kept it. They were very popular with Police, especially greater manchester police as they were very very fast for the time, a real point and squirt car, perfect for red brick terraces. At that time they were faster than cossies and because front wheel drive were great in tight turns in cities etc. STill a fast car now. Befpre i sold it i had a race with a 370z, very funny, i won!

[@alanbellwood3902]

Great to see you back, just shared this on the MG Rover Enthusiasts FB page. I'm halfway through an R8 Tomcat project at the moment (I blame Matt for that idea).

[@nitrosilvia]

Matt has a lot to answer for! The R8's really are great cars. I hope they start to get mor love and appreciation.

[@simonc858]

Good to see you back with a new project

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks

[@curtis8516]

Great to see you back, hope you're well!

[@Ben_3113]

Thanks for the videos mate, would love to be able to get one of these in Australia . I grew up in the UK and family worked at rover for several generations so got a soft spot for these and the coupe variant 😀

[@nitrosilvia]

Bummer there arnt more out there. You could always find a civic and dress it up? Plenty of SD1's. Ive always fancied a Mad Max v8 interceptor, or a Leyland P76, so kinda jealous we dont have them here

[@rustysays]

Glad to see you're back in style. Nice car mate!

[@nitrosilvia]

cheers

[@barryjackson8512]

Wow what I find. Looking forward to seeing this progress.

[@nitrosilvia]

Got another vid uplaoding now

[@ivanfernyhough3851]

Glad you posting agsin.lookin forward to you doing this one,well any of the cars you got actually.your videos are allways enjoyable and interesting.

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Ivan

[@TheAillingworth1975]

Yay James is back!! Glad to have you putting out videos again. Hope the SD1 diesel will be getting some love soon. What a cracking car, had a loley 414sli back into the day, was such a nice car, although without the fire power of your lovely one, just don't sell this one haha

[@davidvickers4228]

What a fantastic car when you sold the green gsi I still kick my self that I didn’t bid on it 😀👍

[@nitrosilvia]

I wish you had. The guy who won it never made contact and i sold it private in the end i think for £1500. Wish i kept it. Such a good car. Drove so well.

[@martybelfastsri]

only catching up with this now but i bloody love that car! my favourite rover of all time even had a 414 all done like a turbo years ago when i couldnt insure a turbo !this will be epic

[@kdproductions2008]

Glad to have you back uploading great content James! What a great find this 420 is!! Look forward to the updates!

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks. Ive actually done a fair bit of the work, so vid updates should be swift

[@terryatkinson899]

Atleast the belt didn't let go on the test drive 😯👍🇮🇪

[@nitrosilvia]

I was very lucky! It wasnt perished, just super slack, like it had never been fitted properly

[@jaggass]

Good to see you back.

[@nitrosilvia]

Hi Michael, yeah good to actually upload a video for once!

[@stefangraham5349]

We had one K771FWC. My Dad ordered it with no turbo badge on the boot. Both me and my brother had use of it as our first car....... ridiculously quick car.

[@nitrosilvia]

As a first car thats nuts! They are quick now, must have been mental back then

[@AliMackMechanical]

A nice Project mate am sure you will get it but on the road. It looks a really good condition appart from the Paint. Av got to change the calipers on my 800 Si 2 ball joints and exhaust. The 400s where great car's I had one myself. I do love the T series engine my 800 only has 63tho. That cambelt was loose my aux belt is knackered I have an oil leak think oil may have got on the belt. Funny how you say your expansion tank is cracked mine is cracked as well not so bad but it's there. Yuck at the fuel look forward to seeing more.👍

[@SeasideGarage]

nice to see you back! coooooool car!

[@davidcoleman7674]

Great to see you back. Looks like a very interesting project

[@dandandan389]

Great to see you back!

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers dan

[@GentilsGarage]

Great project and looking forward to the next videos. It’ll be another amazing job. I’m getting myself an early 400 later this year and can’t wait to do some work in it as well.

[@nitrosilvia]

Oooooh, which model you getting?

[@GentilsGarage]

@@nitrosilvia a 1990 414sli in pearlescent cherry, just like the one my dad had from new since 1991. Sadly his car was scrapped in 2012, but that’s another (long) story

[@carlsiddorn3340]

So glad you are back

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers buddy. Its quite nice actually putting up a video for once

[@spitfiretrading]

And you say I keep stuff quiet! Good call though mate, don't forget R/R end of Sept.

[@nitrosilvia]

Got it in diary, dont worry!

[@georgeyboyhowe1685]

nice car lets see loads of money being spent and a excellent paint job atb

[@nitrosilvia]

Ive already spent loads on this. Cylinder head machining, pipes, refurb rad... list goes on :(

[@philipmaclean7266]

Great to see you back, great car for the chanel

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers Philip

[@mikenewman137]

Yepee youre back doing vids , looking forward to this project.

[@nitrosilvia]

Another vid uploading right now

[@gb7046]

Glad your back Nitro, enjoyed the video. Looking forward to the next instalment

[@nitrosilvia]

Shouldnt be long, ive actually done a fair bit to it. Mostly back together

[@Gilesby59]

Yesssssss I’ve missed your content. So glad your back!! That car though 😍.

[@nitrosilvia]

Yea i might keep this one. Not seen another

[@doktoruzo]

Great! A new project from James. Looking forward to this.

[@nitrosilvia]

Yes im looking forward to having it sorted. I miss that green estate still.

[@yant8777]

Great to see u back James,looks an interesting project.Dont forget the diesel though !!! Lol

[@nitrosilvia]

I wont, im looking at it right now out the window lol

[@zoidberg444]

I was just wondering where you were the other day mate. You know a friend of mine when I was at school. I'm 90% his dad had one of these. It was just so bloody quick and I remember several times being in the back of the car with my friend and both of us just fearing for our lives. He had a red 418 beforehand and this was just next level fast.

[@nitrosilvia]

They really are fast. I remember them as a kid reading teh stats in auto car. Not much else was as fast even cossies

[@simoncarney9944]

Glad to see you back but now I’m jealous as hell! 😂 Those 400 series cars (I had the 418 diesel from new) were really good! That is cracking car you’ve got there and I can see why you jumped at the chance to buy it. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress. 👍🏼

[@nitrosilvia]

Thanks Simon. Yes i realy like the R8's. I didnt realise how good they were till i got that green 420gsi estate that i saved. Hope this turns out as good.

[@eltontothemax]

Wondering where you’d been James! Great to see you back

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers buddy, just been super busy with work, so not had much car play time.

[@mikedowland9949]

Just found your channel bud, looking forward to this👍

[@Roverjoe]

Glad to see youre back cant wait for this project good luck james :)

[@dan5825]

Well come back mate I was starting to think u left us all here

[@nitrosilvia]

Nah i wanted to do stuff just been real busy with work etc

[@fhwolthuis]

Great car and project!👍👍

[@nitrosilvia]

Cheers

[@bunkaaa8726]

Oh maaaan rare!! Always wanted one of these SO bad when I was younger, had 214, 216gti's but dreamed of a 'Turbo!

[@nitrosilvia]

It could be yours! Im facing the reality that im gonna have to sell it :(

[@bunkaaa8726]

@@nitrosilvia Talk to me, what you thinking £, how much work does it need now? :)

[@geezerdiamond]

I bet when you saw how floppy that belt was, that you thought back to the run up the lane the other day, with your heart in your mouth! 😃

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah dodged a bullet for sure. Suprised it hadn't jumped a tooth. I can only think it was changed but never tensioned properly

[@chrisblay]

Good to see you’ve recovered from the SD1 now. 🤣

[@nitrosilvia]

Just about!

[@torquesteer2657]

Awesome project!

[@nitrosilvia]

Yes im looking forward to having this on the road

[@torquesteer2657]

@@nitrosilvia great looking forward to it! Had a few rovers myself over the years: 214 SEI, 820, 220 coupe. Metro. Still have a fondness for them especially the 200 & 400 series between ‘91 - 95. A turbo GSI is a great find!

[@TheDaf95xf]

Hi buddy. Hope you’re well………..😀 and a big welcome back 👍🏻 How’s the LDV 🤔 WOW 🤩 this is going to be a fantastic project for us to watch 😄

[@nitrosilvia]

Hi Stevie, van is going strong. Done 3000 miles in it so far. Going to Anglesey next weekend so it getting loads of use. Will do an update video soon.

[@hoddy121john]

Checking all the time to see if your back,your the first KZbinr I subscribed to,great to see you back james, how's the bubble 200.

[@nitrosilvia]

Its stagnated a bit. I ordered some new stainless coolant pipes and they took ages to arrive and i kinda moved onto this red one and the van and motorbikes

[@sebastiantuck1813]

Awesome buy👌 boss is selling a 400 tourer on buy and sell atm if you fancy another one lol, gunna scrap it if it doesn’t sell!!

[@evojigger]

Love these.

[@stephenbates8370]

Nice find James 👍

[@nitrosilvia]

It had been on facebook for ages with a very high price and under the threat of being broken. The seller was never actually going to break it, he just was fed up with time wasters, so i had it off him.

[@stephenbates8370]

@@nitrosilvia my mate has just sold a coupe one of those meant for Japan £2700 I'd of had it but me rebate didn't come in time 😕

[@markpunt9638]

Proper car!

[@nitrosilvia]

Dammn straight

[@SolidSnakeR34]

Nice one mate! Looks like nice clean car

[@nitrosilvia]

yeah its super clean and unmolested

[@marklittler784]

WOW Green coolant your having all the luck !

[@nitrosilvia]

It was quite a good sign

[@Woftam1]

Had 2 of these in the 1990,s ,both Nightfire red, so wish i had kept them. My recollection of my 420, as opposed to my wifes, yes we had identical cars back then, was chasing a Jag up the M2 and flashing him to get over at 135mph. Mind you, it had been tuned by Motobuild.. The only problem, and not being picky, is that this 420 doesnt have the fog lights in the front bumper, which the Turbo,s had. so not convinced of its originality. So wish i had kept both our 420GSi Turbo,s but, well, time moves on. I now own one of its follow up cars, a Maestro Turbo, just 50 left (a few more than the 420,s). Wonder what happened to my tuned 420 GSi Turbo. L46 TGA My Maestro Turbo is now in demand.

[@nitrosilvia]

They certainly are quick little cars! Im really enjoying it. I had a thrash with a 350z the other morning :) Maestro Turbo, now thats a car! Better keep that one! Regarding the fogs, the first 420 turbos were called '420 GSi Sport Turbo' and they had fogs as standard and i think also rear electric windows. When they got facelifted and the front grille and the darker charcoal interior trim, they got renamed '420 GSi Turbo' and at that point fogs and rear electric windows were a cost option. This car is deffo an original turbo.

[@seanturk1484]

Welcome back James. Been missing your videos. So what about your other project cars any new videos due soon ?

[@nitrosilvia]

I hope so. I really want the diesel done, but ive just been super busy with work

[@seanturk1484]

So at what point can you monitise Your channel and give up your job ? Then we all can enjoy many more videos.

[@jedidanforceman]

Good to see you back fella! Loving this car! Kinda jealous! What’s happening with your other projects? I’ve been checking daily!

[@nitrosilvia]

They are kind of stagnated. The only real progress has been with the van and the gold rover sd1 V8-s which i never do videos on, and my motorbike, which i also never do videos on!

[@jedidanforceman]

@@nitrosilvia I’ll just lay here and cry about the never do videos on… especially the gold SD1 S! 😭 Great to see you back though!

[@ukmud6218]

Hoorah ya back

[@nitrosilvia]

Hi Mud, yes, work was crazy busy so no time for cars :(

[@gosportjamie]

A friend of mine used to race one of those in a saloon car championship and it would regularly seriously upset the "it's a Rover, it shouldn't go like that" crowd...

[@nitrosilvia]

when i was a kid it was mg's and rovers that always had the best 0-60 times in autocar etc. I always though of them as fast? And yet my mates at school all thought it was rs turbos (very slow) etc.

[@gosportjamie]

@@nitrosilvia It wasn't so quick off the line, due to the rampant wheelspin you experienced which tends to be the way with powerful front-wheel drive cars, but once it was rolling the acceleration was incredible so he could easily pass other cars on the way out of corners, including cars in classes above his, which royally annoyed a lot of other drivers and amused the hell out of him...

[@gosportjamie]

@@nitrosilvia That's certainly true. Of course, most of the Rovers, and a lot of the MGs, that people actually saw on the roads were the lower powered versions, or automatics...

[@marklittler784]

Yeah usually red paint fades badly especially when always parked in the same direction outside and hardly ever moved this one doesn't seem to have suffered from fading.

[@nitrosilvia]

There is one door thats a bit of a funky red, but i think it might have been resprayed. Its really just lacquer peel thats killing it

[@doctorhugocat]

Just saw this and re-subscribed to follow it!! Of course you could always do a few videos on the LDV and the gold SD1........just sayin'.... :-)

[@nitrosilvia]

i will do one on teh ldv as there have been some changes, but the gold sd1 is sort of 'off youtube' as i can rumble arpund in it

[@deankalsevicius7610]

Special. What’s happening with the bubble that’s what I want to know? Did the intercooler work out?

[@roxieloot]

Crazy as this sounds, really missed your videos, no updates nothing you just vanished. But the real question is, how much do you want for the 420gsi?? Ive driven 100's of those 200's & 400's but didn't even know they did a 420GSI Turbo.

[@nitrosilvia]

Ive learnt my lesson. Never even entertain selling a car till its done and you know you dont want to keep it!!. Yea they pretty rare cars. I always thought they were conversions, didnt know they were actual production cars, but only 300 so super rare.

[@marklittler784]

I had a Peugeot 605 the abs light came on because it had a faulty brake light bulb lol

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah maybe its a can bus thing? This car too old for that i guess

[@alexboulton9910]

My Friends in Yorkshire have a Silver One

[@nitrosilvia]

is it a runner? Do they know what they have?

[@louisjames1062]

Is the hump in the bonnet functional On these Or Just for show?

[@roxieloot]

Any recommendations of a place to convert my Rover 25 1.4 to 1.8 Turbo. I love the car, just want abit more power from it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@nitrosilvia]

I think there are a couple of firms, but ive never dealt with any of them. Maybe ask on the rover 200/400 forum or the facebook pages? as someone will likely have personal experience. Or have a go your self!

[@steverotherham5672]

Wow don't see them anymore I had the rover 600 regret getting read of that

[@nitrosilvia]

My uncle had a 623gsi which felt like a rocket back in teh 90's. Nice cars

[@steverotherham5672]

@@nitrosilvia oldskool can't beat it

[@GaryJWright]

a great alternative rover sleeper is the 620ti

[@nitrosilvia]

bad ass cars

[@boywarrick]

This was the one being sold by Ian Mann?

[@nitrosilvia]

Yeah the same one

[@roxieloot]

What's happening with the Bubble Turbo?

[@nitrosilvia]

Its sat there patiently waiting for me to pull my finger out and finish it. I decided to buy some new stainless pipes for it but they took 8 weeks to arrive so it kinda stalled at that time

[@SuperHATCH11]

Is this car for sale by any chance?

[@tommoso55]

How’s the LDV coming on ?

[@nitrosilvia]

Its doing well. Done 3,000 miles in it in 10 months! Ill have an update soon as there have been some minor changes