OK, Here is the latest update: Bought a can of CRC MAF cleaner @ $6.02, followed directions. Cleaned the MAF repeatedly as directed.
Took it for a looong test drive with highway speeds and hills big and small.
Totally appears to be fixed. Lots of torque and power on acceleration with no hesitation or balking. Goes to 70 in nothing flat, actually pushes you back into the seat with sharp shifts. Takes the hills like it did several years ago. Will spin the tires if you like. Never did that before.
Apparently the $6.00 fix did the trick. Will keep you apprised if situation changes, thank you for your help just the same.
John in the woods

 

Nothing is fixed, your MAF is dead and you will continue to have problems from it.
You need to do as I suggest before, tune up and 02's, clean the engine out and then clear the codes. My money is on a new Bosch MAF in your near future.

 

Hi Mike, Thanks for the advise, by tune up what exactly do you mean? I have changed the plugs. I can do the MAF if you feel it will fail again. I can even do the O2's if really needed but I can't do the coilpack and wires as well. Don't have the dough right now.
John

 

Hi Mike, Right you are. After cleaning the Maf and clearing codes, the Rover did run better but continued to bring up Maf and O2 codes. I purchased a new Maf from Atlantic British (Bosch) and the performance was incredibly 10X better. Still getting O2 codes so they will be next on the purchase just as soon as I can. The cleaning of the Maf might do for a temporary fix but would not last for long.
I would like to point out that the symptoms have been there for close to a year. But circumstances (moving in the middle of winter followed by open heart surgery) caused me to have to wait to do the work recently done.
I can tell, you know your stuff and all who read this should pay attention to that.

Thanks again for your word and time
John

 

before you buy o2's check the wire connections... they are easy to get too. oil leaking from the rear covers tends to find its way down there (atleast mine was before new gaskets) pull em apart, check the condition of the terminals, clean if necessary.

 

@grandKodiak, thanks for the tip, tried that today, connectors not funky but cleaned anyway. still getting the O2 codes, so they are next on the replacement list.

 

what kinda readings are you getting from the o2's?

 

P0130 , p0135 , p0150 , p0155

 

no i mean what kinda of data streams are they actually reporting, not the ecu trouble codes. do you have an obd2 code reader or a more functional scanner? you should be able to pull up all 4 o2's and read what data they are sending to the ecu. usually when they are completely dead, they read a constant never changing value. while cold, this might be the case for the two rear sensors until the loop changes and they "wake up", but then you should see rather close readinds from left to right, that fluctuate but change with throttle changes... atlest then you can see if any are greatly different then the other side, or if any arent "waking up". the senors are given bank and sensor numbers, bank 1 are the two drivers side, bank 2 the passenger side. sensor 1 is the one before the cats which monitors how well the engine is cookin off the nasty **** lol, sensor 2 are behind the cats and monitor how well the cats are cleaning off whats comming from the engine, and hence check mostly cat efficiency for emissions purposes and i dont believe they are used by the ecu for anything more then that (so no danger of running rich/lean for faulty sensor 2's) your 4 codes show that only the sensor 1's are faulty, so youd go in your obd2 scanner, and select the data streams for those and see what tehy are doing...if anything.

 

ps. some scanners can record the data in a chart, if so id record the coolant temp, maf and both sensor 1 data streams, from a dead cold start until it warms up to temperature, then export them to a nice excel line graph and see if there are any correlation times between the o2's as thier should be while idle and then hold it at a few constant rpm's to see if the readings change equally on both sides (not the same numbers, but the same range of change at least) help you narrow down which side of the motor is giving you the most trouble