XUD9 dying Help!

[MPV]

Seems as if the engine I recently got put into my Synergie is not as good as I thought. Last week it begain to over pressurise the cooling system and leak from the filler cap. On Friday, the tell tale signs of bubbles in the filler tank appeared. Looks like the head has gone.

Cylinder head failure happened to my first engine. This may have been due to the rad being blocked. I had the rad replaced and a new cylinder head...then the engine decided to burn loads of oil, the diagnosis was piston ring failure. The replacement engine was from a Xantia with a full history. Lots of bits had to be exchanged to be compatible with my Synergie, such as the injection pump and injectors. I did just under 10k before the present trouble. I'm sure the garage is going to blame this on me using SVO, however, I know lots of people here even use WVO on XUD9 engines without trouble.

1) Am I just unlucky, or is there likely to be some underlying cause for 2 and a half engines to die?

2) Is there still anywhere I can find a DECENT XUD9 engine I can put into the poor old Synergie? It's too useful a car to get rid of it!

[jgra1]

shame MPV

assuming the gasket is going..

I would do as I did, rebuild it with a thick repair gasket and a skim? It gives you piece of mind and a sense of acheivment, and is not hard..

My engine is about 50,000 miles since then, all on WVO/SVO

Did the newer engine get filters belts and tensioners? or was it jsut a swap ? (albeit with the mechanical bits you mentioned)

as to why.. could be a coincidence.. the fact you have changed the rad removes one possible cause.. hmm

John

[Gibbo2286]

The main cause of the failure of head gaskets in these cars is not using a coolant with the prescribed inhibiter, plain water and cheapo anti freeze eats away at the edges of the gasket and head and with such narrow webs it's not long before you have a leak through.

[MPV]

The cambelt and water pump plus filters were changed when the engine was replaced. The coolant was all Citroen spec.

How easy is it to do the head as you say? I've swapped heads on small cars many years ago, but now tolerances are a lot finer than they used to be and I don't have anywhere near as much time on my hands as I used to. My garage says he won't use skimmed heads. Plus I don't want to change the head only for the piston rings to go as happened with the old engine! Engine work in the Synergie is not fun since it is burried inside the bulkhead and everything is hard to get to.

Do you thnk it's worth taking the engine to one of these recon places?

[citronut]

the other cause of head gasket faliure is rad fans not cutting in as they should

regards malcolm

[Peter.N.]

Most of the engine reconditioning centres seem to be at least expensive and at worst a rip off. There must be plenty of good secondhand engines out there, you have obviously been unlucky unless it has boiled since you had it. The head gaskets generally seem to go on these at about 150,000 miles so avoid one at that mileage unless its had a replacement, a well maintained engine should go on to 300,000.

Peter

[MPV]

The question is where to get one from. A lot of places don't give any history for their engines. It's no good having a 30 day warranty if the engine only lasts 10k miles!

I've been suspicious of my cooling system for a while. The seems to be a lot of variation on the gauge, once it's warmed up it can be anywhere between 80 and 93 deg depending on the driving conditions and the weather. Driving in traffic in summer is the worst. However, when the car is left to idle it will happily sit there at about 83 deg. I wish I knew what the max safe temperature was.

With this engine I did notice a lot of rattle at low revs, like a noisy diesel tractor engine. Could this have had anything to do with the head failing?

[Peter.N.]

You really need to hear one running and check around the coolant filler cap and overflow pipe for signs of dried antifreeze, when the heasd gasket is leaking it will blow the coolant out.

To do any damage the temperature will have to go into the red and even then unless its actually boiling it shouldn't hurt, the pressurisation of the system raises the boiling point to well over 100C, its the actual boiling that does the damage because you get pockets of steam which cause a temperature difference in some areas which can cause the head to crack, if it hasn't boiled I would suspect that its only the gasket that's gone.

The excesive diesel 'knock' is usually because the pump timing is over advanced but it should get quieter as it gets warmer. It shouldn't have any effect on the head life.

Peter

[wotwot]

No good to you now but just drove "SCABBIE" my old xantia over the weighbridge with 6 months mot on it, left it running so they could drive it off.
Did 200,000 miles but still ran great.Had I not Found a replacement engine for my dispatch on ebay for £40 I would have pulled the engine and used it,My son found one for his dispatch for £100 both engines still running fine.Keep looking one will come up.
As for being unlucky I wont ask you to pick my lottery numbers LOL.

[jgra1]

there are two engines in the sale section I think MPV?

on a different note..

my xant guage is all over the place these days, despite a spare sender.. basically when the car gets a little warmer than normal, the gauge goes to full deflection i.e. red! it can drop down again to 90 quite quickly.. I know it's telling pork pies, but it annoys me.. so I will fit one of these, similar to one fitted on my chevy, really works a treat.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WATER-TEMP-GA ... 33703e3938

For what it's worth, My bike gets to 107°C before the fans kick in and bring it back down..

[MPV]

At no time has the temp gauge ever gone above about 93 Deg, but sometimes I've had the stop light flash and the over heating warning light come on. Ive sprayed the contacts of the temp sensors with wd40 and that seems to stop that from happening. Hopefully it's just the head gasket.

Have you got a link to the 2 engines you saw? I saw one but not the other.

[jgra1]

ahh yes.. one reason I pay no heed to my gauge is because the STOP light doesn't come on... the other reason is I dont smell the engine hot, if you get me.

Sale section, there is I think Mark? with an engine, and someone with a 406TD with a good but unfitted engine?

[citronut]

have you seen this add under for sales and wanted on here

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =7&t=38179" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

regards malcolm

[MPV]

At last my old Synergie is back on the road after a a long break. Big thanks to Andy (a4gom) for letting me buy his spare engine. Running fine so far!!!

[jgra1]

good