Citroen XM Forum

Yes Will, it was your post i had in mind when i stripped it actually. Carefully cleaned the solenoid out, bit of light grease was applied and it actuates by hand very smoothly now, same treatment for the gearbox and bearings, the motor case was washed out to get rid of the mountain of carbon dust and crud, armature looks ok so its just new Brushes and holder and it should be good for another 20 years, fingers crossed.

D

I don't want to have to go digging for it shortly after fitting the engine as its in a slightly awkward to access position.

That is certainly correct Dean and I have had quite a few starter issues with my cars! The 24v is even more awkward due to the larger front exhaust manifold assembly! With regards, Matthew T.

I have ordered some high temp glass fibre insulated wire for making up a new starter loom with a larger sheath than standard, this will continue on to the front of the car to hopefully allow cooling air to run through it when in the move, much the same idea citroen had with the ecu box to allow cooling air through, a few extra pennies and hours at this stage will hopefully solve some of the common V6 related issues that seam to pop up and save agro in the future.

D

Progress is being made at a fairly swift rate now and plans to move the engine have been shelved so i have it close to hand for heavily re-building the engine loom, large parts of it will be re-made using new connectors and high temp wire.
I have decided to use the older loom as it will plug straight in to the prestige loom and it is made up of a few different plug in looms for different sets of components, in short its modular where as the new loom is not, its made up as one lump and is fairly bulky.
This older loom does need some work though but i think time spent here will save time in the long run trying to get it to work in my car, it also will be easier to work on in future.

Starter motor is now done and ready to be mounted, unfortunately i must have the gearbox mated up to fit the starter but thats not a propblem, i just cant crank the engine yet thats all.

broken brush holder
IMG_3143 by Deanxm, on Flickr

New brushes and holder fitted
IMG_3142 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Starter motor tested and working well
IMG_3144 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Injectors are now on the car too, all tested, cleaned, tested gain, painted and fitted
IMG_3145 by Deanxm, on Flickr

On the crank pulley i have been assured by Citroen the earlier pulley is ok to use so i have recovered it today took 3 hours to get it back to bare metal and painted, just about to do the final coat of paint before bed time now so i should have that on tomorrow.

D

Looking good Dean.

As with Matthew currently im now suffering a bad case of one step forward and two steps back tonight, i think we will start with the good, just to make me feel better
IMG_3147 by Deanxm, on Flickr
let me just have a moment to bask in the shininess of it all......
IMG_3148 by Deanxm, on Flickr

OK, deep breath, first the rad hoses, top hose is perfect and all clean and ready for action, thats also good, the return hose though holds water like an inverted bucket
IMG_3149 by Deanxm, on Flickr
So i need to find a good used one or make one, availability and price will decide that one.

Then of course it came time to pressure test the cooling system as a whole, 1 bar with smoke and there was a leak, a big one, some complete feckin e-git pinched an 'O' ring on the back of the thermostat housing on assembly and cut it in half, the pressure test blew it out very quickly and so the inlet manifold is now off, along with all the coolant hoses in the valley and the water pump, the good news is i bodged it up in situe with insulating tape to complete the test and she holds good, no leaks anywhere and no leaky liner seals!!!!!! which im happy about as that was a job i dont want to repeat at this stage in the game, it would be a comlete restart of the job.
IMG_3150 by Deanxm, on Flickr
So thats 4 hours kind of written off over a 5p ring of rubber assembled by an ape but hey ho, it could be a lot worse!

D

Engine is looking amazing Dean. I like the red crank pulley.

Good job you found the leaking coolant pipe now and not when it's all back together in the car whilst testing it... if you know what I mean. There is a positive to this set back!

Yes love the pulley Dean! I have also had issues with incorrectly seated 'o' rings in the same location as your split ring, so definitely better checked and sorted at this stage!
I have quite a few spare bottom hoses and could send one if required.
With regards,
Matthew T.

Can the original hose be pulled apart and re-vulcanised.

Oh Will

The engine does look good even if I do say so myself, if my V6 experience turns out to be anything like Matthews at least it will be a pretty engine to take out all the time.

Re-Vulcanising the hose is an option Will but there are a couple of issues, one being i've never before done it and I don't fancy experimenting on this Ba***rd to get at hose, if it was the easy to get at top hose, fine, but not this one, would rather make a new one up.
Also the rubber is pretty hard and baked looking and covered in what seems to be a lime scale type of deposit which isn't coming off too easily.

I am happy I found it now, that's the whole idea of the pressure test and it would be a pain to find this issue once the engine is in the car its true but its just another setback, like dislodging a liner and having to go splitting the block and pulling rods and pistons to fit new seals, of which I bought the incorrect paper versions from a Delorean PRV first before finding on stripping the engine the 3.0PRV uses a kind of coated steel seal which are obviously a different diameter, setting it up was time consuming and fiddly too as the liner height needs to be set and......................grrrrrrr.

Anyway, tonight I will see if I have another O ring, probably wont but if I do I can put it all back together and try again! Its still good fun really.

D