Xantia overhaul

[jgra1]

appreciate all of that Martin.

I handed the seal change to a good friend, who has a touch more patience than I.. to be honest he had all 3 in and out a couple of times, but we somehow forgot to include the larger end seal....

drift that into housing and maybe it helped cause the ensuing 'break-up'?

last night I refitted it and then the old seals..

how much for a recon? before Sat... can give you mined as exchange.....

John

[MikeT]

engine back together , have just driven it 6 miles or so..

temp fine
citerobics fine
no leaks visible yet, although its early days
brakes as before
turbo fine
engine sounds sweet really, compared to before
gearbox great
clutch awesome, abuot 50% lighter and progressive!!

Great work John, both on the car and on the blog, thanks for sharing that and hope you fix the PAS soon!

I intially assumed you removed the head because of a suspected problem but as I can't find details of that, was it done just for peace of mind, as part of the overhaul? I noticed you mentioned the original gasket had o-rings and that you say it's the factory fitted - how do you tell as I do wonder if mine's been replaced before.

And the decision not to skim. Ok, I understand it's not warped but isn't the finish also important? Not just for cleanliness but also for roughness? Did you, for instance, give it a final once over with a particular size grit wet n dry?

[jgra1]

hi Mike, all,

Mike re: surface of head.. wet and dry 1200 I think for the final clean..(sanding block and only light pressure) it was pretty spotless and I had measured as well as possible it was flat..

yes HG was just part of overhaul, nothing major wrong with it before hand, except possible oil leaks.

Original gasket (assumtion) had blue sealing beads all over it.. it may be in an early picture. the new gasket was more plain affair..

So.. Friday night, I fitted the recon Pinion Valve thanks to Pelaides, and steering perfect from then on ... should really have done this first but I always like to try and repair things if I can...

Then sat morning, filled up with 31.5 L of (1l bottles! ) of SVO, 30 L WVO and got about 10L of Derv in.. was absolutely brimmed.. some fuel was in before so I am guessing about 75L in total

Drove to dover, on to Dunkerque, down through Eastern France, towards Dijon, and SW to Clemont Farrand.. Filled up with the WVO I had in the boot now (45L + 15 L derv and 15L WVO later). Next day drove around the North of the Massif Central, then toll roads back to Calais for 2 days..

1300 miles and 5 days.. Car fully loaded, first tank was mainly national roads, 2nd mainly autoroutes and the M20...

Tank has about 5-10L in now..
I havent really worked out economy, but guessing an average of 40mpg...

cost, £100 for 2000km?

car was perfect.. nerve racking doing this journey so soon after rebuild, and with no breakdown cover!

Temp guage fluctuated wildly sometimes, as per a post I have seen on here.. biggest range was up one hill reaching 100C and down other side with light throttle, temp below 70 !

Highest recorded temp was final white bar on guage , 110 I think.. very scary but it recovered ok...

Both fan speeds working, and rad newish...

France is big...

J

[MikeT]

Hi John, been wondering where you got to, now we know. Glad all's testing as good.

I had a similar coolant issue when doing citrobics. The temp gauge was acting more like a level gauge; As the front lowered fully from high, the temp shot up alarmingly, fluctuated a bit and slowly lowered back to normal once the rear of the car had settled on it's stops.

What I can't recall is if it was in the white car or my current xantia (with the coolant overpressurising).

[jgra1]

hi Mike youve reminded me of something..

when I was going up hill through a city on a hot day, I first saw the 110C.. when I stopped I carefully removed coolant cap and there was no pressure at all.. a good if wierd sign

[CitroJim]

Hi John,

Welcome back and great news to hear all went well on your tour of France

I know what you mean about being nervous about taking a newly refurbished car all that way. I checked the water level every day after my recent matrix change and the old nose was going at it like a rabbit sniffing for the tell-tale aroma of anti-freeze. Happily, not a spot used and no smells except that lovely new matrix smell

You've done a fine job there 8)

[jgra1]

thanks Jim

well would you believe it... 1300 miles or so and no probs, and the next long journey - Kent to Taunton, and I have had the EM light on about 8 times...



always on the uphill... but seemingly higher than 60mph , but very intermittent.. got here ok... the car was fine for first 80 miles, then had some lights on, and was okish for last 60 miles but was taking it easy..

when light came on, or just before, there was often a noticeable stutter/power drop... (prob limp-home mode)

Light always extinguished when load taken off throttle... so far

anyone got any thoughts? I am adding about 200 more Kgs to car before I come back home tomorrow...

Temp (and guage) behaving..

John

[CitroJim]

John,

You have a PM concerning my whereabouts today. Essentially very near you!!!

[jgra1]

replied Jim

[citronut]

i also have sent you a pm and have a DIS/LEXIA 2, not that i know how to use it yet

regards malcolm

[jgra1]

Thanks Malcolm

Chaps, what a day.. (writing this at work in a rush so may have missed a bit)

Sunday morning left at 8.30 am for a trip from Taunton, South to Newton Abbot.. EM light popped on and off a bit but car was running ok as usual..

Telegraph hill ((( it gave up , about 3/4 of the way up.. I pulled onto verge, waited, and decided to crawl to top... the car got up the rest no problems..

came back West again, down off dartmoor onto flat country and it was behaving ok..

Got to a few miles further and met Jim, happens he lived a few miles from where I grew up! so we both knew lots of the area ! anyway, on went the lexia and a few faults found.. Jim will have to update this bit, but as an aside, some ABS sensors failing, and some instances of Injector Lift sensor reporting a few fails.. Jim suggested that the timing would have gone into 0° advance (when light came on) explains the inability to climb hills...

We both thought, as the car had been behaving better, that the DERV I had put in on dartmoor had calmed things down, and I decided to thank Jim and go find breakfast , 2pm now!


Got into the hills of Salisbury plain and things started to get like Telegraph hill previously... twice I had to drive off the A303 onto the grass verge with no power

decided to leave the main roads and try some back roads.. still not really sure what was happening.. things just got worse and worse.. added 20 L more of DERV to no affect...

Gave up completely in a lovely town called Stockbridge.. by now it was probably 4pm..

Gave Jim a ring (who was on his way from Taunton to his home) and he suggested I took fuel pick up from tank and check.. He also offered to divert South 50 miles to help.. I accepted and was very grateful , a remarkable thing to offer, and I felt like I needed some help by now


Anyway, fuel pick up was beyond belief.. theres a pic somewhere I will add.. it was completly covered in sludge etc... its never been out in 9 years (it was on my list..)

We cleaned it all up, having removed half the contents of the boot to get at it (a motorbike in peices and 4 BMW wheels were in there!)

The lexia I think showed fuel pressure problems to do with injector not working...

It all made perfect sense, fuel starvation, up hills ! we both thought well done, a disaster averted, we can continue our repsective journeys home..

now I think it was 5 or 6 pm..

we left the town, me behind Jim for about 3 miles and the car felt a different machine, certainly compared to the previous 50 miles or so..

4 miles in, back comes the light (((

crawled back onto 303 near Andover, and called AA..
We think finally the main fuel filter was resticting flow, Jim pointed out that the central bore of the filter was not filling at all quick and would no-way allow enough fuel when on high demand....

about an hour later and independant recover chap came with a spec-lift.. we told him our thoughts and he agreed and then told me he couldn't take me anywhere as he can't pick a Xant up on two wheels...

Jim now left and hopefully finsihed his ardous but very supportive journey home.. Jim there is a 3 course banquet here when you are next passing!

Recov chap did tell me 'buck services' was 1 mile away, I nervously drove the 2 miles there with him behind... car was fine, annoyingly.. another 1/2 mile and it would have quit..

He put me on the list for relay home, now about 8pm...

other half was .. struggling... (we have been in this situation before)...

I grabbed a wine from the garage and we sat and waited... and waited...

at least we had engine heat, and a stereo.. and food..

at about 11pm, along comes relay man.. got him to drop me off in the lanes near home and drove the last 3 miles with no issues..

at 1am..

so that was that.. a £3 part is definitely a good thing to have spare, if your on a long journey and use WVO..

two things come to mind :

Why did the car go so quickly from running all right to useless for anything more than 3 miles at a time.... seems to have been 100 miles all told... ?

If the car was suffering fuel starvation (and injector failure and consequent EM light) why does this not seem to happen when fuel runs out normally? i.e. EM light coming on...

J

I thought of removing filter, or even 'holeing' it, to avoid the (usual) 7 hour rescue to go 100 miles.. with a spare pump and injectors at home, and a risk-taking personality.. I was tempted.. Jim advised me against that though
glad to be home

[jgra1]

having more of a think now..

I suspect allowing engine to idle on all downhill stretches on A303, maybe it could have filled filter housing enough to get up other side..

(realise the saftey implications of a stalled xant freewheeling)

Instead, not thinking of fuel starvation at the time, I was trying to get up lots of speed downhill to make the other side, using any reserve of fuel in the process....

dooh

[KP]

how are you processing your WVO jgra1?

Are you leaving it to settle for a few weeks then taking the nice stuff off the top and filtering it down steadily ie thru , 100micron, 50 micron, 20 micron, 10 micron and then 5 and 1 micron filters?? A normal car filter is 10micron i believe so should get blocked up easily on unfiltered WVO....

[jgra1]

hi KP i am buying it already done....

I will find out more about it's treatment

thanks
John

[CitroJim]

Main this is John, you got home safely.. I really felt terrible that we could do no more and it nagged me all the way home. If only garages would stock less fizzy drink and rubbish and stock useful things like XUD fuel filters I mean, just where can you buy a fuel filter at 7PM on a Sunday evening these days. A shocking state fo affairs. Time for questions in the house methinks.

I quite enjoyed the blast across from Swindon to Stockbridge; very scenic and a pleasant drive Often I use the A303 but last evening I chose to go the scenic route, hence the cross-country dash!

The MK2 TD has a different design of fuel pickup to the MK1. It is a swirl pot with a small foot-valve in the base to keep it full when cornering on a low tank. The pot had about a quarter of an inch of slit and sediment in the bottom and the strainer looked like a creature from the black lagoon. The inside of the strainer was almost full of slime It was remarkable it was letting any fuel through at all. This stuff must have travelled up the supply pipe over time and partially plugged the filter. I have a suspicion the whole tank may be full of rubbish. there was even what looked like grains of sand in the swirl pot. Hence my caution at not attempting to run filterless. There is a risk of a particle or two getting in the pump, wrecking it and possibly seizing it with potentially disasterous results. Imagine if sand grains got right to the injectors and into the engine.

The Lexia showed a pump motion fault which decoded down to the timing failing to set correctly due to a loss of pressure in the hydraulic timing servo circuit which uses the fuel as the hydraulic fluid. A Needle Lift fault was recorded as well which if the pump was starved, the needle would fail to lift.

The Pump Motion fault occurred 38 times and at near 3000rpm which would be peak torque and when fuel demand would be at a maximum.

Goodness only knows what the gentle residents of Stockbridge made of the work that went on in their beautiful village. One old boy took an interest and discussed how dishwashers are great for cleaning cylinder heads I also dumped a load of waste oil and oily rags in some poor unsuspectuing resident's wheelie bin. Hope they didn't mind - better than leaving litter I guess!