It was not funny then

masood_ilyas · Post by **masood_ilyas** » 14 Jun 2003, 20:06

It is the simple things in life that some times gets you [:(!] pi**ed off. Hope the story below amuses and adds to the knowledge of our friends on this forum.
The other day in the process of cylinder head change on my Citroen Xantia 1.9TD 1993 model, during reassembly the injectors holes were filled with buckets and the usual copper seals. Later these were covered up with rags untill such time that injectors could be added. However in the process of purging the fuel pipes the starter was given a burst and only then realised the blunder[:I], the rags were pushed out under compression as were the copper washers and buckets. All the bits were retrieved quickly but one bucket from cylinder no.1 near the transmission end was no where to be seen. Spent couple of hours searching under fading lights to no avail. A good night sleep and a cup of tea later next day, with brain in gear I could see an opening at the top near the starter offered by the gearbox for an escaped bucket . Fortunately these gear boxes have access gap at the bottom most part too so did not have to take out the gearbox, and sure enough lying in a cavity was, a bucket with a hole dear liza dear liza [:D].

Post by **Jon** » 16 Jun 2003, 21:17

HA HA HA
So, is the Xantia running now?

masood_ilyas · Post by **masood_ilyas** » 17 Jun 2003, 01:06

No Jon,
and its not funny now either. I suppose it is a case of loosing good money over a lost cause.
What started off as suspect cylinder head is now looking annoyingly like a case of cracked block, just my luck. There is still loss of coolant and the same old steam eminating from the oil dipstick hole along with building up of pressure in cooling system hoses. All the bubbles were removed on filling the system yet the pressure persists in the cooling circuit as if the new thermostat is stuck or has no contact with the water.
Any ideas chaps, I may have to break up this relationship with this old girl and scrap her.

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 17 Jun 2003, 02:01

I don't like the look of steam from the dipstick. That has to be water in the crankcase and it ought not to be there. Drain the oil and see how much water is in it? If there is water, you may be right but I would check the radiator for flow, too. From experience, they can block and the system stops flowing which in turn leads to trouble bleeding the swine and so on.

Dave Burns · Post by **Dave Burns** » 17 Jun 2003, 03:43

Whip the oil cooler off, block one of the coolant spigots off and apply low pressure air (15psi) to the other, listen for any escaping from inside the cooler.
Dave

Post by **Jon** » 17 Jun 2003, 13:47

Its pretty unusual to crack a block, any excessive heat will always damage the head first due to its alloy construction. The block, being metal is more rugged.Its not unheard of, but pretty unusual.
Dave has made a good point about the oil cooler, had one of those go on a ZX TD once, water in the oil. After a lot of head scratching, pressure tests and the like realised it had to be the oil cooler, removing the 2 water pipes from it and joining them together with a bit of copper pipes and a couple of jubilee clips on a temporary basis made things a whole lot better in the water in oil department. Maybe try this, and engine flush, drain old oil and refill with clean, see if its any better???
The other thing after this is of course a pressure test by forcing air into the system and seeing how rapidly the air pressure drops.If the tester holds good pressure, then all is in order in the block, head, and gasket areas. Fingers crossed.

masood_ilyas · Post by **masood_ilyas** » 21 Jun 2003, 18:10

Had a go at bypassing the oil cooler this morning, changed the oil while at it but only proved that it was not the oil cooler. The good old steam still puffing out of the oil dipstick hole.
The radiator does get warm and the fans did come briefly, may be because it was a hot day.
I will now have a go at pressure testing, keeping all my fingers crossed. Could this pressure be applied by modifying the radiator cap and applying air pressure of say 20lbs from a foot pump?

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 24 Jun 2003, 01:47

20 PSI would probably burst the rad. Does it get warm all over? If so then this is not likely to be the problem. If water crosses over in a blown head gasket, it can get into oilways (but the oil is at higher pressure as a rule so you would probably have scum on the rad cap seal).

ghostrider · Post by **ghostrider** » 24 Jun 2003, 05:23

Some where I seem to remember a whole series of problems with porous blocks but was it BX or CX?
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