Had to cut the old exhaust out today which was a pain but got it done with new backbox and cat fitted. Upon proper investigation of the downpipe I could see it had been welded very badly at least twice in the past and had holes in the welds so I've done away with that and have another ordered.

I started disassembly on the engine to replace the camshaft cover gasket and when I was removing the coil packs was quite shocked to see one of the spark plugs come out with it.

That would explain the pop and the lack of compression up that A-Road. I took the plug off the ht lead and tried to screw back in but it span with very light torque. So whoever has worked on it in the past has knackered the thread and it's eventually just unwound on what it had and blew out.

I'm looking at a heli coil to rectify the issue. Has anyone done one of these before on a K ? What did you use/how did it go/what was the outcome ?

From the research I've done this evening these seem to be the trick (Save-A-Thread) > https://www.amazon.co.uk/Helicoil-5334-14-Thread-Thread-Repair

As a side note, the cam cover gasket that was already installed seemed perfectly fine. No Damage at all. Although there is evidence of oil leaking from that location so I put the new one on anyway. The new genuine MG Rover one I had seemed to have a porous material coating the metal unlike the one I removed which was just a standard sheet metal gasket.

Pretty much all 4 of the spark plugs were oily/sooty. No signs of wearing away or anything.

Thankyou to everybody for your help so far. Any advice as always appreciated

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