Incontinent 2.1td (XUD11)

[Old-Guy]

Over the last few days, I've sorted my 'new' 2.1 VSX to the point where I hope it will pass an MoT tomorrow.
However, working underneath, I couldn't help noticing that the engine is very oil underneath. There's a small oil leak somewhere behind the top of the top of the engine. Unlike the 1.9, you can see down the back of the 2.1 at all! The obvious candidates are rocker-box cover, and head-gasket (please not again!). It's fairly high mileage (191,000), are there any common problems with the 2.1 (like the 1.9 cam-box cover gasket)?

[citroenxm]

Its a slightly different design on the head and rocker box.. Im not aware of them being a common leakage on the head gasket. The rocker seal sits in a grove in the rocker cover rather then a flat face seal like the 1.9 ..

Cam seal could be leaking, or it could be the sump gasket seal..

On the XM 2.1 I have recently done up, I noticed the Crank Seal on the cam belt side was leaking. Not to say your could be. When your under the car looking up, is the oil "Residue" noticeable from higher up the block?

The Inlet rubbers between the lower inlet and upper inlet can also leak with age too...

[Old-Guy]

Looking up, with the car on a lift, I can see the leak is high up - well above sump, and turbo-charger (my first fear!). I'll have a look at service.citroen for drawings to give me a better idea of what I'm looking at.
Not much help, the only drawing is of the engine from the front.
Perhaps someone has a photo of a 2.1 (manifold side) on a workshop floor, please?

[CitroJim]

I used to find my old 2.1TD used to weep plenty of oil out of the short rubber couplers between the upper and lower halves of the inlet manifold Guy..

This oil originated from the crankcase breather and thus was nothing at all to worry about. All XUDs weep this oil, with is condensed vapour, and as you know, the inlet tracts of any XUD is always very oily as a result..

You can have the top half of the inlet off and check the condition of the rubber couplers if you wisd but I'll expect you'll find them more or less OK.

[Stewart(oily)]

Just about all of my citroen diesels have been oily on the back of the block, though my HDI seems pretty dry, none of them have used any oil between changes though and none of them leave any oil drops on the ground, I used to consider it built in rustproofing, notice that areas around long term LHM leaks always seem to be good too, I am sure that a leaking octopus extended the working life of one of my BXs for a few years

[Dommo]

The 2.1 I fixed up used to be oiley down the back of the block, it still is IIRC. The car also had no issues with air in the fuelling like yours does old-guy, so it would slightly overfuel (black smoke) on full acceleration, I put this down to a boost leak from the 4 rubber joints at the back. Basically if you remove the top plastic part of the inlet manifold, there are 4 rubber pieces between this plastic piece and the metal inlet manifold down the back of the engine, and these wear out and cause both boost pressure and oil to come out!

Once you take this off for the first time you'll be very impressed about the amount of room there is to do jobs like glow plugs, and injector leak off pipes.

[Old-Guy]

Jim and Dommo thanks for the comforting info. Looking at it today, I came to the conclusion that the first thing I needed to do (on this particular issue) was to look at those rubber couplers - nice to know it's 'normal'.

Waiting for the old oil to drain yesterday, I had a fiddle with the rather crude fuel line repair (from non-standard priming bulb to first clear pipe and I seem to have temporarily fixed the air leak (so replacing that pipe with proper fuel pipe is next!). Having finished the service, I took her for a quick blast last night to test the bled and serviced brakes. The brakes are still not up to normal Xantia 'launch the unwary through the screen' standard but Wow does she go now if you clog it! No need to rev over 3,500 and it feels like a lot more than an extra 20bhp. How do the torque curves compare - any one know?

However, one irritation is the ECU's lag as I change up when accelerating hard, I get about a hundred rpm (or so) surge as I lift the throttle and dip the clutch (No it's not poor co-ordination). Any thoughts please?

Finally, I need a complete dipstick to replace the metal strip that's all that remains of the original. Anyone got a complete one spare please?

[citroenxm]

Jim and Dommo thanks for the comforting info. Looking at it today, I came to the conclusion that the first thing I needed to do (on this particular issue) was to look at those rubber couplers - nice to know it's 'normal'.

I thought I was talking to myself above....

[Old-Guy]

Jim and Dommo thanks for the comforting info. Looking at it today, I came to the conclusion that the first thing I needed to do (on this particular issue) was to look at those rubber couplers - nice to know it's 'normal'.

I thought I was talking to myself above....

No, I was working on the car to a tight schedule for today's MoT.

[CitroJim]

Jim and Dommo thanks for the comforting info. Looking at it today, I came to the conclusion that the first thing I needed to do (on this particular issue) was to look at those rubber couplers - nice to know it's 'normal'.

I thought I was talking to myself above....

When did you sneak that post in Paul? I could have sworn it was not there when I posted mine...

I really must go and see the optician...

[citroenxm]

Its ok, I was being sensitive. I had previously mentioned the Rubber joins leak on the 2.1's, and after both Jim and Dommo said it..... thats all..

[CitroJim]

Its ok, I was being sensitive. I had previously mentioned the Rubber joins leak on the 2.1's, and after both Jim and Dommo said it..... thats all..

Sorry Paul

Happens to me a lot. Gosh, if I had a quid for every time it did I'd be driving around in a gold plated XM by now...