Citroen XM Forum

"The Snug" ! A good place to retreat to.

Things have been progressing steadily, i found a dipstick on ebay listed as all XM variants but the usual part number supplied, buyer to check. Turned out to be a V6 part number so ordered it but when it arrived it was not a V6 one at all, i ended up canibalising the handle and fitting it to my dipstick.
A/C belt i got from ebay for a 89-94 3.0V6 is also wrong by a long way as you will see below. Just waiting for my NOS alternator to turn up, another bargain, managed to pay £25 for it, just keeping my fingers crossed thats not incorrectly listed under the wrong part number too!

A/C compressor i had more success with and tests out fine, got that mounted this week but i need to fabricate a plate to blank off the ports as i wont get new pipes made until the engine is in. The re-wire is going well too with all the wiring that was twisted together and knackered replaced right through with glass fibre high temp marine grade stuff, need to tape it and fit the trunking to finish once all the loom is renewed and tested.

Matthew could you check and let me know where the loom that dives down the timing chain end of the engine to the alternator, starter, oil temp and pressure is routed, i cant work out if it should go under all the water pipes and down the side of the water pump or over the top of them.
IMG_3169 by Deanxm, on Flickr
IMG_3173 by Deanxm, on Flickr

The gearbox has been de-filthed ready for its turn, New Torque converter seal is in and its been flushed though with a good filter fitted and new seals, i have decided to fit this as it is because none of the gaskets leak, its bone dry but i also have no way to test it, i dont know how it drove before, if it was spot on or junk or what so i will just fit and use it, if it needs work i can do that later but by the looks of things it should be good.

I will take the valve block out to fit a kickdown cable thats not got a snapped sheath and probably paint the cover black to match the engine with maybe a red pipe to the oil cooler as its rusted and lost its finish so needs to be protected with something. will clean up and fit a spare oil cooler as this one has suffered corrosion from sitting about.
IMG_3166 by Deanxm, on Flickr
IMG_3164 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Im actually very close to finishing the whole thing now so took this afternoon to blitz the shed and make some room.

The engine will be going in once the XM is M.O.T'd, want to preserve the mid april expiry so i will put it in one month early in mid March for the M.O.T and then bring it home to start the conversion.
The reasoning is i can swap engines and then drive the car about, bed it in, iron out the niggles and problems and get it right over the summer rather thn swapping the engine and then having to drive it 5 miles down the road straight to the M.O.T.

D

Sounds like a very sensible plan for the MoT.

Looking good. Hope the big swap goes well.

Rob

Not like me and my Mate when he put a 6 litre engine into his boat. The shakedown was a trip down the rivers Trent and Humber. Everytime we gave it a fair amount of power the engine would cut out for a while, at which point we found the starter motor was jamming. Not ideal on officially dangerous, tidal rivers. He and his partner nearly got run down by a ship on the way back.

We stripped the starter motor out at midnight one night, but the real issue was it was overheating due to the heat of the engine bay. Forced ventillation of the engine bay fixed that.

The cutting out was due to the fuel tank being sludged up and the extra draw of the large engine was picking up sediment and blocking the fuel pipe. He had to go inside the fuel tank to clean it out.

Matthew could you check and let me know where the loom that dives down the timing chain end of the engine to the alternator, starter, oil temp and pressure is routed, i cant work out if it should go under all the water pipes and down the side of the water pump or over the top of them.

That is further good progress Dean and the wiring just goes down the side of the engine to the alternator as you suggest. From my bitter experience I strongly recommend thoroughly checking the t/c-engine flexplate and the starter ring and hopefully the box itself is working okay! With regards, Matthew T.

That box has just 60 odd k on it mathew.. i too can also tell you dean it runs down the front edge corner line of the vee to the altinator.. this is one of the reasons starters start playing up with age and original wiring.. the cables are constantly heated cooled heated cooled and they go brittle and high reistance...

Are you fitting R12 air con back onto the engine dean?? I should have R12 pipe work here infact theres a set of working R12 pipes on my 24v as i had it working once but never gassed it up again after having the front off again...

Not fussed Paul but i would prefer R12, i have the 134a pump on mainly because i need something stuffed in there to run the water pump and i dont want to rob the pump off my 2.0i until i swap the engine out.
Confidence in the box is high and its good to know it was low miles too.

D

Reminds me.. sorry dean must get that pipe off to you.

No rush Paul, whenever your ready is fine.

IMG_3176 by Deanxm, on Flickr

D

More progress but alas tonight progress is backward, very backwards.

Got down to YOG today and pulled the valve block out of it to recover the kickdown cable, this turned out to have been broken inside the box but was not an issue, Sussex Auto's had already confirmed ZF no longer supply the vehicle specific cable but i could do something with it, i also recovered the throttle cable but the outer has snapped on the bulkhead end and the inner has nearly chafed through on the throttle body end, will make a new one of them.

Came home to fit a another kickdown or remove the one in the low miles box to repair started with high hopes, the torque converter seal has already been fitted and the torque converter rinsed with large amounts of brake cleaner and then with 3 litres of dex2 after a 24hr flash off period on the heater in the shed. I was glad i took the valve block out to do this as not only would a snapped outer on the kickdown cable allow all sorts of crud into, and oil out of the gearbox but it would seem leaving the kickdown disconnected from the throttle body can result in this awkward little problem
IMG_3181 by Deanxm, on Flickr

No matter, this just reinforced the justification for double checking everything! so after extracting this cable and successfully completing the repair i pushed on, can you see the repair? good because neither can i, hopes were still high.
IMG_3200 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Now time came to pull the filter out and clean it or swap it out for a spare, things started to go wrong at this point and that sinking feeling you sometimes get when it dawns on you the situation is just about to go south in a big way rears its head.
here is the last dregs of oil that i caught, the box was pumped out through the dipstick tube when i got the box back, at pauls the dipstick showed crystal clear oil, totally water like, by the time the long journey home was complete the oil was this colour, it must hav seperated during its extended hibernation with all the crud falling to the bottom.
IMG_3191 by Deanxm, on Flickr
this is bad, but not unexpected, its old oil but then i looked at the filter cover
IMG_3185 by Deanxm, on Flickr
IMG_3187 by Deanxm, on Flickr
thankfully there was only a bit of a small metalic sludge eliment to this disgusting gunk sticking around the magnet, from previous experience this is normal but the gunk is very much not, inside the filter housing was clean though
IMG_3189 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Then there was the differential output shafts, dirt was the order of the day, and.............rust
inboard seal housing and output bearing
IMG_3184 by Deanxm, on Flickr
IMG_3194 by Deanxm, on Flickr
and then the outboard seal and shaft
IMG_3198 by Deanxm, on Flickr

Now i do understand i am somewhat obsesively compulsive but my idea of fun does not involve sand filled lube, especially when its in my gearbox. The way i see it i have 4 options at this point.

1- Close my eyes, pretend i see nothing, rinse well and carry on with every jointed extremity crossed..............
2- call Sussex autos and get a master re-build kit, the box is on the bench and its got to come apart so why put it back together with old parts?, the downside is (i wount list pro's an cons for the other but i feel this is important) i cant afford a £2-400 rebuild kit and MOST IMPORTANTLY the wife says ive maxed out my taking the piss account already, i think further spending on selfish hobbies would result in castration, or death,..........or both.
3- Just order up the case gaskets, strip it, clean it, maybe swap a rust free Diff in and stick it in the car
4- take the good 80k box from a G plate 8v and swap the transfer gears, bellhousing, torque converter and valve block into it to make it V6 spec and bolt that up and go.

I shall need to mull this over as engine and box removal is a big faff, it also puts the car out of use and its not as much fun as a garden decoration, plus as it stands the car is working great although ive not driven it for four months and i could use it while build a new box.

I was getting so close too
IMG_3193 by Deanxm, on Flickr

D