Activa Engines

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 12 Oct 2009, 12:49

Hi all..

I had a moment of madness last night. I have seen that a member has V6'd a Activa, does this mean then that the ARCS has absolutly no connection to the engine ECU or engine itself??

I ask, because as some of you may know, Ive a HDi 110bhp engine sitting here complete with ECU key transponder etc etc.. do I need to say any more?

It was destin for an XM, but theres already the 2.1's in the XM, and pleanty of time again for one of them..

Activa thoughts??

Regards
Paul

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 12 Oct 2009, 13:08

You want to rescue one of these Puggarised bodyshells if you can. DS21 on
club-xm is threatening to scrap a s2

car that a customer has which
won't lift up on it's hydraulics at the front and I've offered to rescue it but
not heard anything back from him - he seems keen on the leckky cloth seats
himself which would be a shame as a reason for scrapping a rare s2...

Andrew

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 12 Oct 2009, 13:11

Hi Paul,

You need say no more

No, you're absolutely spot-on, the engine ECU has no connnection to the suspension ECU whatsoever. You could put a lawn mower engine in there and provided it could drive the HP pump, all would be tickitty-boo suspension-wise.

A 110 HDi in an Activa would be great. Not as good as a V6 but pretty awesome all the same 8) A great project...

KP · Unread post by KP » 12 Oct 2009, 13:40

IIRC if its out of a Xantia the engine will be one of the better HDi110's as it wont have the DMF's in it as well. With a chip it should easily push out 130+ Ponies and a decent amount of extra torque. I can't reacall if the 110 had a VNT or not but either way with the engine off its good to give the turbo a clean out and maybe get it checked over, like gareth is doing with his, worth getting it done. You'd also be best finding a HDI 110 hatch that is being scrapped so you could get the exhaust off it and get a decent welder to remove the cat from it in favour of a straight thru piece of pipe, help a decent amount more as well

Sounds like a plan and i would think the mountings would all be the same as it uses the ML5T manual box as well i think. the main problem would be the HP pump. if you activa came without AC and the HDI did the mount would be different so need swapping over as well as maybe the HP pipework to the PR changing a little...

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 12 Oct 2009, 15:15

KP,

The car I had WAS a Xantia HDi 110bhp 8v, with NO Dual Mass.. The Xantia Never got the DM flywheel... that came in C5 years..

Air con is NOT a problem, Ive just fitted Air Con to my 1993 Xantia (L reg) TD SX, which of course didn't have it.. The feed pipes were different, but that was not a problem there was a enough slack to bring it up to the top, and Ive pleanty of other high pressure pipes to fit in...

The HDi engine Ive got I even road tested, it came from Norfolk, and went to scotland and back, and never used a drop of oil or water!

Hmmmmmmm that should be easyer then an XM Hdi job..

VNT?? Whats that in English? - Ive got an exhaust too, pleanty of pipe etc etc Got all mountings, and they will be in the same place too

Paul

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 12 Oct 2009, 16:29

Excuse me, I've just had to wipe some drool from my keyboard

VNT - variable nozzle turbo. It's one thing I love about this forum, you always learn something new, it was only last week I found out about variable vane turbos

Take a look here http://frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... c&start=15
Kowalski has provided some very interesting links

Citroenmad · Unread post by **Citroenmad** » 12 Oct 2009, 18:37

citroenxm wrote:KP,

The car I had WAS a Xantia HDi 110bhp 8v, with NO Dual Mass.. The Xantia Never got the DM flywheel... that came in C5 years..

Paul

Now thats an interesting fact to know! I was wondering but assumed being a HDi it would have a DMF. So why do Xantias have them and C5s have the unreliable DMF? Unlike my C5 which has had a solid flywheel fitted when the DMF went.

A HDi Activa would be fantastic, id really love one of those as my every day car. I was drooling over them in France a few months ago. Had thought about what a great idea it would be to import one to have, though the prices of some used cars over there is a surprise compared to how little we pay over here, in comparison anyway.

Chris.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 12 Oct 2009, 19:38

There was a regular contributor here who was building a 2.1TD activa, but IIRc insurance stopped play - quotes of £3k a year were floating about

Mind you I think his insurance history was a bit 'patchy'.... Worth checking it's insurable before spending 3 months building it. I think you'd need a donor car as there are lots of HDi specifc bits you need, like the fuel cooler, lift pump (and tank maybe?), wiring harness to the lift pump (it's a hefty old beast!).

I'd have a HDi 110 Activa Estate like a shot

KP · Unread post by KP » 12 Oct 2009, 20:04

Fuel cooler is easy to bodge really, could really be avoided from what i felt of mine it never really got to warm on the inlet. a very small oil cooler would have the same affect in the corner of the engine bay, or even just a bit of exposed copper pipe with some fins stuck to it would do the same job

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 12 Oct 2009, 20:54

I took everything off the donar car! SERIOUSLY!!

The fuel cooler I assume is when the fuel runs throught the thermostat house, like all earlyer engines, or is that the heater?

There'd be no need to wire up the Lift pump, as the wiring will already be there from the Petrol Lift pump... and they use the same style of Pump relay under the bonnet, so thats a Like swap...

The WORST hassle Id have would be the - well maybee not, If I got a Series 2 car, Id ONLY need to swap the transponder pick up at the steering wheel, the "Black Box" above or below the traffic master, and HOPE the petrol ECU has the same number of pins as the HDi one.. *crosess his fingers*

Can anyone take a picture of an engine ECU plug for me to compare? To be honest, id much prefer a Series 2 they are a nicer car.. Ive already got 2 Series 1 cars!... (No sunroof which I prefer)

Paul

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 12 Oct 2009, 21:20

The fuel cooler on a HDi is located under the floor (towards the rear IIRC) its effectively a small thin radiator which I'd imagine is more important than you may imagine due to the extremely high pressure the fuel is subject to when it passes through the fuel rail, the cooler incidentally is in the return line.

As for the immobiler issue on a S2 you'd have to also get the body computer as well as the engine ECU from the donor car then get your own keys recoded the them by a genuine Citroën Lexia.

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 12 Oct 2009, 21:24

Yea got the body computer.. so I got the FULL matching set, it shouldn't need code ing again if its a full matching set, do you??

I GOT everything off the HDi, ALL boxes, ECU's black box's etc etc...

So should have everything to hand.

Paul

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 12 Oct 2009, 22:42

citroenxm wrote:Yea got the body computer.. so I got the FULL matching set, it shouldn't need coding again if its a full matching set, do you??

I GOT everything off the HDi, ALL boxes, ECU's black box's etc etc...

So should have everything to hand.

Unless you are changing the ignition lock then you'll still have to code the key to the new ECU's

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 13 Oct 2009, 07:51

Thats fine, Ive the FULL lock set and steering colum too...

Theres no stopping me!

Paul

KP · Unread post by KP » 13 Oct 2009, 12:29

Go on Paul go for it

I did think when my engine was re-done if i should get a 2.1td bosch but didn't have the balls to do it...

In a few years time instead of getting a landy i may forgoe it and get the conversion done on a pugg'd activa to save it.

To be fair the insurance companies can be confused as Citroen did officially sell the engines in them. At least if i ran it on WVO if the premium was humped i'd save the money off having to fuel it and it would be ace to get more than 400miles from an activa tank....