Post
by Dean » Thu May 04, 2017 9:15 pm
Well, I failed in delivering the first drive video as unfortunately, my phone battery was dead and I was a little pre-occupied with things, it's been a crap day and I just wasn't in the mood.
My back box turned up today and I hurried home to fit it after work, only to find I have two female flare joints facing each other in the system, I bodged it together and went out anyway, bleeding thing. None of the exhaust joints is sealed, just bolted up dry and all the joints leak but I couldn't see the point in fitting it all correctly until I've welded a new MALE flange on the back box.
So my thoughts.........It's different and odd but first off I have to say that as you read on you must take into account the above and that there is also a significant vibration at and around neutral throttle which after thinking I'm sure is the exhaust system where it sits on two bits of squashed rubber that are held to the bolted on cross bar in the transmission tunnel, this created the same sort of vibration as very badly warped rear discs would braking hard from 90, this made the drive somewhat uncomfortable, the solution will be to remove the whole exhaust and build it from the front back carefully lining it up and sealing the joints.
The feel at low speeds is numb, the gearbox seems to want to jump about the gears a lot with each throttle movement and it's just a bit buzzy at low speeds, in comparison to the 2.0i engine, the throttle also feels heavy.
It takes a lot of throttle application to make any progress at low speed and it feels like I'm applying 30% throttle to do 20mph, the 2.0i was the opposite, just looking at the throttle made it lurch away from the line and up to 20mph like a scalded cat and it took substantial throttle movement beyond that to do anything, the V6 however, does nothing very interesting until about 1/3 throttle, this is when it wakes up and moves, no sudden snap of power, no kick-down from the box, it's just there at any engine speed and goes.
The gearbox doesn't kick down at low speeds with the engine at about 2k rpm and thought there could be an issue but getting it out on the main road and with the engine up to temp and at 40mph I mashed it properly for the first time and it made sense, it dropped a cog and took off rather nicely, sings well too and is very quiet at speed.
I've only driven 2 miles but it's clear the V6 is not happy pootling at 30mph anywhere near as much as the 2.0 setup was, I'm afraid to say the 2.0i is superior at this, at these speeds the V6 feels cumbersome, a bit noisy and ruffled but on the open road it flips, it is very much the cruiser, throttle response is smooth, strong and instant, the gearbox is silky, well geared and the whole thing is very quiet and smooth with a satisfying deep roar when planted.
All in all, i am impressed, more so than I thought I would be if I'm honest, and the engine feels stronger than the numbers would have you believe. The mayo is present still but not as heavily as it has been so my hopes are rising, the coolant system is working spot on, the engine bay seems to stay rather cool after a drive in comparison to the 2.0 engine too with no temperature spike after shutting the engine down.
There is work to be done yet, I need to know why the cooling fans don't trigger, the exhaust issues, the interior that's in bits all over the back seat, boot and floor and then the little things to get the refinement down to a T, maybe I can do something with the throttle to improve the feel or speed a bit but that's just fiddling bits really. I was planning on taking it to work tomorrow after tonight I can see I'm not at that stage just yet.
92 Citroen XM Prestige 3.0i Auto R.P5678
14 Mitsubishi L200 Trojan
89 Talbot Express 2.0 coach built Auto-trail Chinook
Addicted to Crackanory
