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 c ...

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 combust ...

introduced by the

Austin Rover Group The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland C ...

in 1986 for the then-new

Rover 800 series The Rover 800 series is an executive car ( E-segment in Europe) range manufactured by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland, and its successor the Rover Group from 1986 to 1999. It was also marketed as the Sterling in the United S ...

. The M series was produced only in one cubic capacity – 1994 cc (2.0 L), and was a

16 valve In automotive engineering a multi-valve or multivalve engine is one where each cylinder has more than two valves. A multi-valve engine has better breathing and may be able to operate at higher revolutions per minute (RPM) than a two-valve engine ...

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 comp ...

(for the Rover 820e) or multi-point injection (for the 820i). The M series uses the same cylinder block as the O-series unit as found in the

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian ''wikt:maestro#Italian, maestro'' , meaning "wikt:master, 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 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), differe ...

. These were also used in the

Morgan Plus Four The Morgan Plus Four is a roadster produced by the British car manufacturer Morgan from 2020. The Plus Four replaces the +4 which was produced intermittently between 1950 and 2020. Introduction The Plus Four was to be presented at the Gene ...

, 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 from 1984 until 2005. There have been three distinct generations of the Rover 200. The first generation was a four ...

, 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 M series may refer to: Computers * M series (computer), a line of computers designed in the USSR * ThinkCentre M series, a line of desktop computers * Sony Vaio M series, a line of desktop computers and a line of netbook computers Mobile phones ...