I am an Activaist-v6 and a 2.1Estateerr

[Hell Razor5543]

Sticky, I saw yesterday there were horse trials taking place near your place. How many were found guilty?

5x Guilty, for jumping bail

I saw that in Scotland there were several sheepdog trials. The defendants were found guilty of worrying sheep (by a jury of 9 ewes and 3 rams)!

[CitroJim]

I hear a horse was taken ill at the trials. The vet described his condition as stable.....

[Stickyfinger]

I hear a horse was taken ill at the trials. The vet described his condition as stable.....

But what had the horse eaten, it had the Trotts ! bad

[Stickyfinger]

Well yesterday dug the garden and mowed the lawns....yawn, green stuff and its not the liquid stuff !

So after Fridays abuse by Jim (the car is still shivering from the probing she got) I thought I had better clean up the mess Jim left my car in !
(Joke, I was embarrassed Jim saw it like that)

I had to address some small rust spots and needed to work on the main earth panel in the engine bay, UK moisture had tarnished the dry french earth straps....

I used my trusty cleaner/conditioner/wax to protect it after cleaning the contacts with a fiber-glass pen

So, onto cleaning, first the alloy casting, well that was a sod of a job, but all clean now, polished and 3 coats of wheel guard wax to keep it clean of oxide.

Under bonnet over-spray (red dust) on the insulation matte'd out and the rough sprayed edge done in satin black to the bonnet [underside] edge

[DHallworth]

What products and methods did you use for that inlet manifold Sticky? Very jealous of that and have a feeling I might need a dose of elbow grease on both of mine now.

David.

[Stickyfinger]

Well yes, lots of the above however......the best way would be wheel polishing if you every/when you take it off...or....soda blasting then aluminum powder coating.
I went for the oxide finish rather than a Polished look, hence the white grey finish...personally I prefer it to the "chrome alloy" look....I was also considering just a sprayed matte aluminum paint or a Silk Crackle Black

Prep. First :
I stuffed all areas "lower" than the area to be cleaned with rags and blue cleaning tissue, I disconnected all wires and removed/protected all the plastic parts I could, I thickly waxed (old turtle wax polish) all others areas in the "splash" zone. (as a discovery, this cleaned the plastic very well after being on 24hrs )

Products/Tools:
Lacquer thinner, phosphoric acid @40% (used for descaling boilers) , Orange Swafega, Wet/Dry paper, small plastic block (2inch square), Grades of Scotch Pad, Autosol, Pack of 10 Cheapo tooth brushes from a pound shop, nail brush, rounded/smoothed old screwdriver and some other "bit&bobs.

How:
Double blue nitrite glove and old work gloves over them:
Prep/Protect the area with above rags etc.....note, ID any little sharp corners and tape off, when moving your hand at speed you will find that sharp corner !

.I used an abrasive scotch pad (rough grade) and hail brush dipped in Swafega and scrubbed the area 4 or 5 times always keeping it moist, small cutoffs pushed with the old screw driver will get into small areas....just wipe off.

...Scrub the area with a scotch pad (rough) dipped in thinners but not dripping...keep wiping as you go with a damp rag to remove the slurry.

.....Used the plastic block and wet & dry to flatten the casting a bit.....again the screw driver will help into the corners, I also used Autosol added as a paste into these areas using a couple of the tooth brushes and the screw driver with very little pressure like a pen to clean and polish in those areas.

........Clean again with the nail bush/Swafega, wipe away.

..........wiped the area with a sponge dipped in Phosphoric acid, always keep it damp, this is a pain, so I covered the area with a singly ply of tissue and damped that, cling film over that to prevent it drying (left like that for 5 mins)

...........Medium then Fine Scotch pan with Swafega and wiped.

............Wipe on, wipe off Phosphoric acid, allow to dry, Window cleaner on a rags/tooth brushes to clean, apply liberally, dry with microfiber cloth.

.............Waxed and polished three times with some "Wheel Wax" (it looks like an old style car wax to me) Apply to a warm surface, it was sunny so that worked, and push it into the surface well, polish off.

Last: Photograph and make David jealous with the one bit on your car that (atm) looks better than the one on his car ..........yeh, like that will last long ....I do wonder if it would of been quicker to take off the inlet

[CitroJim]

Excellent stuff Sticky... I shall be following that guide for my V6 bits to get them looking sparkly..

I must admit yours is looking very smart now... Good work

[Stickyfinger]

LOL, not at the moment Jim, it is looking very sad with its nose and lights all lying on the grass, I am fitting the new headlamp loom.

Forgot to add, if you like the "shiny Polished" look, omit the last application of Phosphate and use elbow and metal polish cream. Two or three lacquer layers to protect it within an hour after that

[bxzx16v]

Great work Sticky, that's something I'll try on the 406.

Mark

[Stickyfinger]

Ok, I have been on a 500 mile run now out to Boston via Coventry, and back home Via CCC Nats outside Standford.

......car ran fine and has now got a greatly reduced pump tic rate of all things......except (lol, there always is )

it has a thermostat problem I think
.............. The engine is running about 65/8 degrees when @2.5/3k revs on the motorway, on a cool evening.
...............The car was very happy on the way up in hot, stop/start Friday traffic on the a34, in fast traffic (hot day) the car was sitting a 90degrees even when stopped and the fans working, air con was also on.

65 seems very cool ?

so, simple to strip down as per the bubble pot or do I need to remove anything else ?
so, only the O ring and great care with the pressed in pipe connector tubes or can I just move the unit out of the way without disturbing the pipe work ?


Also....assuming Citroen will have NFP'd the O ring, anybody know a source/size (I will try the local Pug garage)


Cheers guys

[DickieG]

According to the dash gauge V6's often show as running cool, IIRC the temp sensor is located on the inlet hose or similar weird position hence the low temp reading.

[xantia_v6]

According to the dash gauge V6's often show as running cool, IIRC the temp sensor is located on the inlet hose or similar weird position hence the low temp reading.

Yes, the temperature sensor is situated so it sees some of the flow from the recirculation path (which should be constant at thermostat temperature), and some of the flow from the low radiator hose, which varies with ambient temperature, airflow and load. I replaced the thermostat on my first V6 soon after I got it for this reason. A bit of a pig of a job as the first one to do on a V6, but the guage behaved just the same afterwards. As long as the gauge doesn't go much over 90 and the warm up time is reasonable, leave it be.

[Stickyfinger]

Well that is great news guys, to have you two reassure me is very helpful.
65.Deg really worried me but I was confused by the perfect running and stability of the gauge when warmed by spirited driving or warm weather/both.

What would it be like if the thermostat was faulty, how would you tell ?

Has anybody relocated or added a sender in a better position ?

[xantia_v6]

Well that is great news guys, to have you two reassure me is very helpful.
65.Deg really worried me but I was confused by the perfect running and stability of the gauge when warmed by spirited driving or warm weather/both.

What would it be like if the thermostat was faulty, how would you tell ?

Has anybody relocated or added a sender in a better position ?

Thermostats are designed to fail in the open position, so slow warmup would be the normal symptom. A good check is to idle the engine from cold, monitoring the temperature of the top radiator hose, it should stay cold and then warm up rapidly when the engine reaches the thermostat opening point.

The green ECU sensor is positioned more conventionally, so with a Lexia you can check the actual engine temperature.

[Stickyfinger]

Off to check more accurately with the hose, but it warms up to 85/90 quite well when idling with the fans switching on as normal, I was observing that after changing a fan relay to check they came on correctly post fix...