Citrojim's Pixo, Saxo and Cycling Tales

davetherave · Post by **davetherave** » 22 Apr 2011, 22:10

Congratulations on the Mot jim, though i would be surprised if any of your cars failed after being "Jimmed"!

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 22 Apr 2011, 22:16

davetherave wrote:Congratulations on the Mot jim, though i would be surprised if any of your cars failed after being "Jimmed"!

No pressure for 'Old V6' then

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 23 Apr 2011, 10:27

Citroenmad wrote: No pressure for 'Old V6' then

No, she failed last year on a split steering rack gaiter and after a good check over she seems pretty healthy...

Which is more than I can say for the Pulsar we're breaking. It's now looking very sorry for itself..

Shame to break such a great little Jap road rocket but sadly, she's as rotten as a pear - shockingly so - and worth much more as parts than as a complete car...

Some things have challenged us, given that the engine is one designed for longitudinal fitting and in the Pulsar it's transversely mounted.. We think some things on a Citroen are hard to get at. Try this and the Citroen looks like a doddle!!!

I made a great discovery yesterday on Old V6... Last year the aircon worked reasonably but was noisy. Since replacing teh crank pulley back in the depths of winter, I now find the aircon is quiet...

Yesterday an aircon was essential as Old V6 does not have a sunroof

It hit 28 degrees hereabouts yesterday...

Off now to carry on Pulsar breaking. We hope to have the engine out today. The body has to be lifted off of it....

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 23 Apr 2011, 20:54

That's the Pulsar well and truly broken...

This was the state of the rear sills and arches...

Here's the engine sitting on baulks of wood ready for the shell to be lifted clear...

and as this is a French Car Forum, a little PSA interest...

We did more than we planned and even got the rear transaxle dropped as well using an old Xantia trick - we just dropped it complete on the subframe...

It was a shame to break it really as one day these will be very sought-after but a close inspection of the structure really showed it to be a bit too far gone really...

The photos don't quite do the work justice. It was an almost complete car when we started!

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 23 Apr 2011, 21:19

As you say Jim its a shame to break it but at least its parts are going to a good home, always thought about a Pulsar GTI-R (exellent car name by the way) along with many others, every time i see a clean unmolested red 205gti come up for sale (and they do far too often over here) i start having the sort of thoughts that would get me devorced

too many cars, so little time.........

Anyway, at least you have been kept out of trouble overhe weekend Jim

D

Citroening · Post by **Citroening** » 23 Apr 2011, 21:30

...a mate had a Pulsar GTI-R that he spent huge amounts of money on and was beautiful - it was running huge BHP too.

He sold it and it unfortunately was broken for spares as it was worth more!

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 23 Apr 2011, 21:32

I used to have a red 205GTi Dean... Loved it as well but sold it for an Activa... Love that too..

This Pulsar was indeed a pukka-genuine Jap import GTI-R and it had all the trick bits on it too...

The owner has already sold most of it on the 'bay and everything is going to keep other Pulsars going so it's not died in vain...

Jap imports are not very well rust-proofed sadly.

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 23 Apr 2011, 21:37

Ahh Pulsar car... more left, but I dont think its as good as the rival Mazda 323 Turbo 1600i 16v DOHC 4WD.....

Paul

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 23 Apr 2011, 22:03

only good thing Mazda ever made had a Wankel in it!
Never knew they did a 323 AWD but if its only running a 1.6 turbo lump there cant be much scope for tuning, the pulsar having the bigger engine must have been been a stronger unit surely?
I was going to get a Mazda 323 1.8 V6 coupe but bought a CRX Del sol instead a few years back, the little V was cute but the honda had cheaper insurance and the V-tec was something i wanted to experience sooo..........

Must of been a lovely car to have Jim, when i see them now they seem so basic and to the point, an engine a good looking body and some stuff to point it where you want to go and thats it, a guy a went to college with had one, a 1.9 and it was standard apart from a stainless exhaust and i loved the look of it, it just looks right completely stock, even the alloys suit the car and there arent many cars out there i would say that about.

D

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 10:16

Deanxm wrote:only good thing Mazda ever made had a Wankel in it!

Don't forget their radio valves and light bulbs = they were good..

I think that may have been a different Mazda though....

Wankels are great - apart from their Activa-like fuel consumption...

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 24 Apr 2011, 10:36

I thought they had an activa like consumption for oil too Jim, and rotor tips

D

Post by **myglaren** » 24 Apr 2011, 12:38

I always liked the Xedos 9 with the Miller cycle 2.4 V6.
Lexus aspirations.

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 20:08

Deanxm wrote:I thought they had an activa like consumption for oil too Jim, and rotor tips

They certainly did Dean and of course that was what broke NSU and Comotor, who made the engine for the GS Birotor and had planned to make the Wankel for the CX and subsequent Citroens. Mazda have got it pretty well cracked now though but the life of the Wankel is still not that of a piston engine...

Steve, what's a Miller Cycle? Is than an engine that runs on McDougall's finest? Or a bike a baker uses to get to work?

Been to Somerset today in the Activa. She ran like a Swiss watch and it was a very enjoyable drive; the roads were very quiet and almost devoid of HGVs

One interesting thing I've noticed is how cool the Activa now runs witrh her new rad. Whenever moving at above about 20mph the temperature gauge remains rock steady just below 80. It will rise a tad when stationary but when moving again the temperature soon drops back. Even if pushed hard it stays there rock steady..

This is the second Activa I've replaced the rad on. On the first I used an aluminium after-market job and following fitting it seemed to be just on the edge of capacity - certainly that one would never hold rock-steady as my current one does.

The difference is that this time I replaced the rad with a genuine Valeo copper-cored rad and it really does appear to have greater capacity than the aluminium ones. Anyone else noticed this?

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 24 Apr 2011, 20:24

One interesting thing I've noticed is how cool the Activa now runs witrh her new rad. Whenever moving at above about 20mph the temperature gauge remains rock steady just below 80. It will rise a tad when stationary but when moving again the temperature soon drops back. Even if pushed hard it stays there rock steady..

Mines a copper core one, brand new too and the car holds at just below 80c so long as its moving, oil never really gets above 50c but then the engine never works hard enough for long enough.

As far as i know a miller cycle is what is called a five stroke engine and i think they all have to be super charged.
Basicaly on the compression stroke the inlet valves are left slightly open for half the stroke to minimis power loss on compression, its a bit strange but obviously works.

D

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 24 Apr 2011, 20:31

Deanxm wrote: As far as i know a miller cycle is what is called a five stroke engine and i think they all have to be super charged.
Basicaly on the compression stroke the inlet valves are left slightly open for half the stroke to minimis power loss on compression, its a bit strange but obviously works

Ahh, excellent

Thanks for that Dean! That makes perfect sense..

Thanks too for bearing out my rad findings