jgra1 blog

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 06 Jan 2009, 15:23

probably Mike.. must admit, I have never fiddled with one..

or noticed any TD I have had, ever having an idleing speed that changes anyway...

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 13 Jan 2009, 12:03

all quiet here...

the xantia's low fuel light has gone from 10L left to not working at all now, due only to WVO use I think , I found this out to my cost on Friday night, -6C and 2 hours sitting waiting for rescue from the other half, who did not check her phone for the text I sent

the chevy is missing it's weight plate, and no one including DVLA and VOSA knows any more than I do about the vehicle and what it's payload is.... and yet it must be my responsibility to have a plate on there at all.. struggling to find much out, the converter/coachbuilder has long since folded

J

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 23 Feb 2009, 15:18

well... I only have 10 mins online before the wesbsense blocks this quota of net use at work!

A great weekend was hid by me and Jim, starting with a very early (for me) drive in the coupe to Newport Pagnell to visit Jim, a good cup of tea and we were off on what remained of a 12 hour journey to just North of Newscastle, via Chesterfield and Chapel on le Frith.

Jim's 2.1 TD was very calm and smooth and quiet, no fuss at all, and got us the whole way on just over half a tank, about 350 miles I think. This included some very pretty peak district roads, carrying by then a 90Kg autobox for Jim's Xantia V6 and a fairly heavy churchill gas tester for me

We popped in to see Steve (myglaren) who had some great cakes and a good cup of tea.. I was being polite and took an apple turnover, but really I wanted a cream bun I spied in another box..

anyway, very nice to see him, and sorry to KP as we went past your door at about 10om Sunday night! ( I got home at 3 this morning)

to wrap up briefly

my dad's 306 suffered overheating and a lack of power/turbo pressure a few months ago...

No compression and a banana head were the result of the overheating, and a melted catalytic converter either a result / or a cause of the overheating ?....

the car was finally finished by us yesterday and a quick roadtest revealed much hissing of escaping exhaust gas from the manifold/downpipe flange, and no power at all, plus a nasty vibration (from the stricken exhausts system)

very little gas coming from the tailpipe was the final peice of the jigsaw.. something was blocked somewhere..

Dad took the car to kwickfit and then I think national today.. kwickfit said £550 ish for a whole new system

and no, we cannot fit a straight through pipe as it's illegal and will fail the emissions 8)

National took the system apart and found that the cat was the cause, and they and dad proceeded to remove the rest of the cats entrails

making it a legal looking straight through, they are replacing the rest of the system (2 boxes) for £150 all in...

Dad questioned whether SVO could have contaminated the cat, i disagree.. enough rubbish comes from a diesel as it is, cats would be blocking everywhere if this was the case?

We dont really know if the car overheated (rad was very bad at the end) and this caused a molten cat, or the cat melted and the hot back pressure caused the overheat and the banana head, I suspect the first

anyway, 4 long trips to newcastle, engine changes, head rebuilds and months later, I think it may all be over

A big thanks to Jim for all the efforts!
more later

J

Unread post by **myglaren** » 23 Feb 2009, 18:09

Nice result aafter such a long time John. KwikFit really are a right bunch, aren't they?

Nice to meet up with you and to see Jim again. Shame it was so fleeting.

You should have taken the eclair, that was what it was there for.

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 23 Feb 2009, 19:05

I didnt know about the eclaire! I thought you had a load of guests over after us

J

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 23 Feb 2009, 19:53

jgra1 wrote: anyway, 4 long trips to newcastle, engine changes, head rebuilds and months later, I think it may all be over

Result

Delighted!

I should say perhaps that this is a very abridged account of our adventures

There is lots more the tell

I have to say, that was a supurb weekend John and made all the more special by the warm hospitality of your dad and Maxine

One of those weekends to remember..

myglaren wrote:Nice to meet up with you and to see Jim again. Shame it was so fleeting.

And you too Steve

Yes, far too fleeting

Wish I'd have realised we could have had more of those delicious cakes

Unread post by **myglaren** » 23 Feb 2009, 23:56

Shame indeed, they were all intended for you two.

Still, overall a very sucessfull weekend.

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 24 Feb 2009, 01:46

a very abridged account

Jim, between you and I, we dont need to mention the 1 hour of work left to do on the car, do we, that took 12 hours~?

I mean, who cares about the o-ring left off the lower rad hose bayonet, noticed after some nice new antifreeze leaked out

(radiator removal and also silly rubber things to fit see below)

or the single loose exhaust manifold nut that had been overlooked, that was impossible to get to!

or the different turbo oil feed pipe that had no filter in the end, so that the newly running engine spewed oil straight out underneath straight away! (tip, it is possible to change this tough steel pipe without removing either manifolds, just get Jim to do it!

)

ooh, and the rubber - radiator / crossmember locating things (its late and I cant remeber the technical name for a rubber flanged thing which interfaces metal and something softer, like plastic or wires) edit 'grommet'!

what about removing the exhaust downpipe to change the 'brillopad' gasket (that is the first time ever I have undone those two hockey bolts with help from someone above, who's done them before, very much easier!

)

these items probably cost an extra 5 hours on top of the work we needed to do that day..

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 24 Feb 2009, 07:15

jgra1 wrote: Jim, between you and I, we dont need to mention the 1 hour of work left to do on the car, do we, that took 12 hours~?

No, you're right, we'll just gloss over that John

KP · Unread post by KP » 24 Feb 2009, 16:47

Sorry it was such a long drawn out job, i would have said that running on Veggie he could easily get away with removing the cat due to the emmisons from svo, just read the sheet when it pass's its next MOT

10pm was a bti late, would have been in bed asleep by then lol!!

Nice to see it was worth the trip guys and that jims 2.1 is back in healthy form

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 24 Feb 2009, 17:07

Jim's lost a finger and I have broken my back

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 28 Feb 2009, 15:40

well on my chevy blog is my first go with the emissions tester, i dont know if i have it set up right

its slighty different to the accompanying video... there is a possible exhaust leak as well

no rev counter so can not tell what revs, but held it at what I felt was about 35% throttle for the most part..

under that is a gas (propane) water heater exhaust test, as a still

then two tests from 406..

thoughts?

O Sensor obviously is misbehaving

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 01 Mar 2009, 10:07

Great to see the gas analyser is in good working order!

Gosh John, the Chevy (with its carb the size of a small house) is cleaner than the 406

Definitely something wrong there.. Even if it only does 10mpg, nobody van accuse it of killing the planet

The water heater would pass an MOT as well as the RV

Seriously, the RV would fly thriough the emissions test based on those readings.

The 406 though is a fail as I bekieve the CO limit for a catted car is now 0.3% and at 2000rpm I would have expected to see practically zero CO.

It could be the lambda sensor or it could be the cat. Only way is a dash of diagnostics and my Lexia is here. It was a shame we did not have time last weekend to pop the Lexia on your V6

One thing though, give your analyser a test on a newish car or one that has just passed it's MOT and the owner has the print-out from the MOT gas tester and compare the two just to check yours is not telling porkies. Do bear in mind though that atmospheric conditions have a bearing on things and it's unlikely you'll get exactly what the MOT printout says for the test vehicle.

I'd be interested to try my V6 on your analyser as well so perhaps we can plan a dual Lexia and an analyser session.

I'll reply to your PM in a bit. It will be a positive response

jgra1 · Unread post by **jgra1** » 02 Mar 2009, 11:44

Back from another marathon weekend, I really don’t want another for a couple of weeks!

This one was about 700 miles in 30 hours.. but the only spannering in that time was not by me, and involved removing a 10mm nut, and bolt, to check a timing belt

(thanks Paul)

Jim, thanks for your input on the gas tester.. I can’t quite believe that the chevy is better than the coupe! I will take the tester and the coupe to my normal MOT guy, and get him to check how I have the tester set up, and also do a quick check on the 406 to see if it ties in with my numbers..
also, I need to catch up with Malcolm, as I have about 300 gearboxes for him, and he has a 'planet'

Wales was fun.. starting at 4pm on Saturday, we set off in a bright yellow 6 month old, three-cylinder skoda (belonging to a friend who rather foolishly agreed to drive me to Wales!) it was ok to drive, very revvy (about 4500 @80!) but it didn’t seem to mind ploughing on like that for hours.. The roads were empty, all the way. A combination of the rugby (or aftermath) and Satuday night not being a travel night – must have helped… Made the hotel by 9.00 and got food straight away (part of the £70 tariff was £20 each for an evening meal!)

rarely for me, I ordered a bottle of red, the waiter said it was discounted, to a fiver! I’ll take it!

The hotel fronted onto the small nice town center, which meant a couple of hours entertainment watching the locals into the night! all good fun though..

A full Welsh breakfast and the final bill missing the drinks the night before completed a very pleasant stay (I put them right 'partially' on the bill

)

Off then to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, and a lad giving his 2 litre 306 a wash.. next to it sat the 306 TD we had come for, also there was a 406 lying broken, and a silver alfa in a similar state…
He was friendly enough but a bit… somehow on edge….. all went ok to start with.. I noticed the TD engine being warm.. asked him about this and he said he had driven from his mums that morning…
I leafed through the history and noted the cambelt at 67K (car was 93K) also I noticed a full brand new exhaust.. 4 good tyres, and work on brakes and stamped engine services (by the same garage)
Car started on the glows, ok.. no nasty noises
Then somehow we got talking about the engine…
The conversation went something like this..

‘it’s had a headgasket’
‘when?!’
‘about 20 miles ago’
’20 thousand miles, it’s not in the book!@?’
‘no 20 miles ago!’
’20 miles!!’ disbelief
‘ you want me to drive 300 miles home in a car that’s had a HG 20 miles ago…?’
‘yeah, well if your worried take the car for the day and see its ok’ (which was a good gesture, if not completely impractical)
‘who did the work’
‘my step dad’
‘is there a receipt for the gasket’
‘nah mate’
…
‘it’s also had another engine’
‘why?’
He then took me a few meters away to a TD block that had holes in both sides, I could clearly see right through it!... a ? ‘97 conrod failure motor, first one I have seen…

So, me trying to make the rest up, and based on other things he told me… he brought the car for his girlfriend, his step dad is the registered owner, gf didn’t want car, then it must have thrown a rod, so a spare engine they had got fitted (which got a headgasket) and that’s where we are , I think.. The car has a metal gasket (aftermarket) and looks to have the 23K cambelt (gates) refitted (idler is old so that’s not been changed)

Anyway.. I had come a long way.. I tried to get the price down but failed.. and after driving the car decided I could find no reason to doubt it more… I looked for mismatched panels, structural creases, and could find nothing wrong, I cross checked the VIN and the V5, and looked at every aspect of the engine, radiator, and bulkhead and it all looked fine… the only possible problem was a repainted bumper (the cross member was straight)

So, away we went.. it was fine for the rest of the day.. Lucas pump so went really well! Very lively .. temp stayed low at 70, occasioning 80 when hot but always straight back down.. when I arrived home I got her to 90C and the fans kicked in briefly..

The rest of the day.. we took both cars to a prearranged meeting with Paul (citroenXM) although we were a bit late by now, so Paul very kindly came further along the A55 towards us.

What a nice friendly chap he is

straight away looked over the TD and reassured me there was nothing obvious I had missed! Had an all-to-quick chat about the TD, his old but very faithful V6 XM, the bright skoda!, and everything else we could fit in, in 30 minutes! Malcolm’s gearbox made an appearance from inside the cavernous XM and went into the Back of the TD….

That was that, off we went in different directions, and on to a motorbike café at the ‘Horseshoe Pass’ (Ponderosa café I think)

I had previously arranged to meet a chap ‘ginge’ here, (who I knew had an RV similar to mine, which I wanted info on) he also had a T2 VW camper.. amongst the hundreds of bikes here, was an RV and a brace of VW’s clustered around it, in one of them was a chap with ginger hair, so I knocked on the door and said ‘hi ginge’ to which I got a blank response, it was the wrong guy

he did know who I was looking for and pointed me to the café etc….

Met Ginge, a larger than life chap who was very friendly and down to earth, an ex MOT inspector and HGV driver, what he didn’t know about 80’s RV’s was very little… I asked him about motorbikes and what he rode, he put simply that he had 17 and there wasn’t time to go through them !

Another rushed 30 min chat (laugh) about many aspects of campers, bikes, and other anecdotes including dissolving various sweets in vodka, to make a new drink ….. sitting between welsh mountains around a camper van table in the sun, with another two joining us from the masses outside

a great end to Wales this weekend, and all that remained was to fly the 306 down to Llangollen and it handled well on the twisties! On-boost the lucas pump really does kick in unlike a standard bosch would ever do.

Got home at 9, gave the car to the new owner, who thought it was nice, and got back in a very heavy, sedate, plush and soft xantia, and drove 10 miles back to my home for a glass or three

Jim, again I have a 306 TD with Lucas, and of course the owner wants Bosch

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 02 Mar 2009, 13:17

Wow! Sounds like a cracker of a weekend John

Very interesting on the Lucas pump performance. That's always been my standpoint and I'm convinced that bar their dislike of veg, overall, they're the better pump. They are a lot more complex than the Bosch in how they work.

No worries on a Bosch Pump for the conversion

I have a few in stock but will need a rebuild/reseal. Again, no worries there. What I don't have, sadly, is a set of injectors/pipes. Happy, of course, to do the conversion