Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i, GTi180 plus XUD9TE 206!!

[ekjdm14]

Illness has precluded any further progress on the ZX PD Whatever iteration this is of the Wuhan Cough, can well and truly bugger off!

In the meantime things get curiouser & curiouser in the strange life of us, my theory about car problems having "seasons" continues to ring true with this being apparently "engine season". Fortunately not in a bad way for us this time, we've not had another bottom end let go! Emma's uncle texted her out of the blue last night "Would Dan be interested in a 2012 Mini Countryman SD, it's free but the engine is knackered"...

Not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak, I don't know if it's a 1.6 or a 2.0, whether it runs/knocks or not at all but we're currently getting transport quotes for that so looks like we may have a "different" project coming up soon too! Gotta love the timing though, we've just had a little telling off from the landlord about having 6 cars at home & only just got rid of the Galaxy shell... Ah well, at least this Mini ought not to be such an "eyesore" as our old Frenchies lol

Edit-: small update, Emma's uncle just text her back as she asked a few details for the shipping quote. It runs but blue smokes and knocks...

Not getting hopes up but maybe, just maybe, it only wants a turbo

[CitroJim]

Absolutely Dan, never look a gift horse in the mouse... It could be an interesting little project...

Maybe transplant an XUD into it?

[ekjdm14]

Gift horse arrived Monday & confirmed she's lame on #3...

Currently have the sump off (not a horrible job in all honesty) and although most of the bearings show a little wear & some contamination it's nothing I'd have baulked at for 150k. The main issue is that #3 rod bearing has failed, spun a little (wiping a neat plug of material into the oil gallery) & then stuck back to the rod again. Having cleaned up the cap, and the rod as much as possible with it still hanging off a piston, I've rolled the bearings from #2 into place and the fit still feels good so the rod appears to have survived. The crank journal is a little bit rougher, not surprising as it's been running with no lubrication for who knows how long, but it has cleaned up with the old sandpaper & shoelace trick to a reasonable feel & hopefully no high spots just slight grooves so I've gone ahead and ordered a set of standard big end shells as they were only 35 quid.

When they arrive I'll get the plastigauge on it in a few different orientations if possible & see what the clearances are like, and if it's well out then I can get a single .010 under pair of shells & perhaps mix one of those with a std one to get things closer to what's needed.

Strange failure though, #3 is second in line from the oil pump & there's no real damage to any other bearings. Only thing I have to go on is in the service book there's a handwritten entry from 10k ago/last year stating "engine rebuild, new piston/rings & timing chain"... Note the word piston, singular, and also the lack of any history of injectors being replaced.

My thinking is, it damaged a piston due to a faulty injector & was repaired but either the injector was left be OR perhaps it'd already started to damage the bearing & it was missed. Bolts weren't loose either, felt about the same torque to break loose as the others.

That's another thing maybe of note, the rod bolts are supposedly 1 time use TTY type yet all of the ones I've measured were "new" length. Will have to do some more looking at them, but at £20 per rod set I'm hoping they survive!

[CitroJim]

Indeed, an odd failure Dan. I'd be inclined to check the oilway in the crank is completely clear and not causing oil starvation to that bearing...

[ekjdm14]

Yes, first thing I checked (after scraping the bearing material that was blocking the oilway!) and it is in fact clear.

I am inclined to believe #3 was the one with the original piston failure, so will have to at least check the injectors if not find a set for it if she lives again.

Bearings have already arrived which was a pleasant surprise given they're from the bay of evil. Just have to wait on green plastigage now which should be here Wednesday, had to go to Amazon US for that, seems not many folk in the UK use the stuff now. Definitely not as accurate as a micrometer and bore clock but very much cheaper!

[CitroJim]

Ahh, good old plastigage It's been around for ever... Surprised it's hard to find in the UK now...

[ekjdm14]

Yes I was rather surprised myself, nothing available in the UK at all. Actually there MAY have been red over here but that'd do us no good as absolute max clearance (if I was being "generous") would be about .0025" with factory-fresh being .0015". Ended up getting a pack of green and red shipped from the little town of Secaucus, New Jersey. Ordered Thursday & supposed to be here Wednesday, except Mr. Amazon man delivered the very welcome parcel today so hopefully can finally see where we stand with this engine. Can't wait to get back to the Frenchies again though, much more fun working on a Xantia or 306

[bobins]

Unless I'm missing something here, Plastigauge is still very much available from the manufacturers down near Arundel, West Sussex....
https://plastigauge.co.uk/shop/

.......and very much available on ebay.....
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw= ... _PrefLoc=1

[ekjdm14]

Sorry, I should have prefaced that with green not being available for fast delivery/locally! Anyhow, developments...

Got the car back together and running this evening. Ran it up for a good 20 minutes on the driveway & it seemed quite happy, quiet and smooth, drove it back up the ramps to check for leaks all good. Took it for a test drive, smooth and quiet, torquey. Then I noticed the engine braking seemed good, still nice and quiet, then next junction the engine braking seemed TOO good... Dipped the clutch & that's all she wrote. Locked up tighter than the proverbial camel's bottom in a sandstorm, total mileage covered = 1.7 miles! (that includes the tow home lol!)

Not sure what's gone wrong at this point, no oil pressure warnings/codes, oil still looks & smells great as does inside the filler cap (no distinctive bearing smell at all) so I'm perplexed at this point. Can't find the multimeter at the moment but the only (microscopic) hope I have is perhaps the alternator was dodgy (did notice the interior lights flickering when it was running) and we simply ran the battery flat (did draw a good current when I hooked it up).

95% though going to be a case of pull the sump back off and see what we see.

For what it's worth though, the short time I drove it I'm pretty sure I dislike it as much as any other modern car so if it's nothing simple/easy then off to the scrappers she shall go...

[CitroJim]

Oh dear Dan Not a happy engine...

[ekjdm14]

Not at all no, very surprised though that this happened. No telltale squeaks or chirps, no cloud of vaporised bearing when I popped the filler cap... When the rain eases off I'll go see what the battery says, but 95% sure it's something internal somehow.

Only thing I can think is, if I missed a bit of transferred material cleaning up the crank then perhaps it's grabbed the new bearing and piled it up but clearances seemed decent, on the high side of acceptable even. IIRC the #3 bearing was .0021-ish but we'll see when it comes apart again I'm sure.

Meanwhile, just need to get a couple of bits done on Black and take her for another MoT. If nothing else this little diversion has reinforced my preference for old French cars!

[mickthemaverick]

........... If nothing else this little diversion has reinforced my preference for old French cars!

In that case Dan have a look at no 2 in this post: viewtopic.php?p=876683#p876683

[ekjdm14]

Well this damned thing confounds me... Just went out, turned the k... Er, pressed the stupid button thingy, and she fired into life.

I do think the engine got tight originally, but the battery was already low and couldn't spin it over. I do fancy I heard a light but arrhythmic tick occasionally so still time to drop the sump again but she may yet live to be scrapped another day...

Mick, I like the idea of air con that never needs charging but not sure the missus would appreciate it over winter!

Edit-: cars moved around on the drive to get Black sorted, mini still runs but I do think something's grabbing as it heats up. Gave it a few revs to get some heat into it again & sure enough watching the load percentage on the scanner, it went from idling at 45%ish to around 51-52% by the time coolant was up to 70c. Not a complete bust though, should be able to clean the crank much more thoroughly and try again. Not spending another penny on it though, it can have one of it's original bearings back & damn well like it, and it's keeping the oil too! If it runs to the end of it's MoT I might sell it as needing a crankshaft (can get a kit for £350 online) or maybe just scrap the hateful thing...