Citroen XM Forum

I agree with Dean that if you have some residue on the oil filler cap it is most likely to be condensation and especially with the car not being used daily. I have this on all my V6 to some degree. A head gasket failure is usually characterized by excessive steam from the exhaust and use of water, assuming of course you have no external leakage! Regards, Matthew T.

This was at idle....

The state of the nearly new spark plug

Oh dear Graeme that does sound like it might be the head gasket after all! If I were you I would try K-seal or one of the Lucas products as a first port of call. It certainly seems you have not been very lucky with the car!! With regards, Matthew T.

Not sure if it's clear but looking into the cylinder you can just make out the shine of a bit of liquid

The other three cylinders are dry

Not certain that sealers really Work?

I got a quote for the cyl head replacement and it's a sobering bill ( includes pressure testing and head skimming) so this might be DIY... Not absolutely sure I can do this... My torque wrench is from lidl

Also, can the cylinder head bolts be still be got?

It might,but don't! If the gaskets that shot its bubbling at idle and poiuring water into the cylinders just do the gasket, putting that stuff in will not do you any favours, K seal was developed to seal K series engines, with massive waterways you get with the wet deck setup, the xm has lots of smaller waterways and oil coolers low down in the coolant circuit that won't appreciate K seal.

Bar getting the manifold off its an easy job, no need to skim unless the head is out of spec, easy to check, head bolts are fine to re use if within tolerance, its a very hardy lump, watch for head mating surface corrosion which can lead to gasket failure but is a simple fix.

D

Which of the manifolds is the difficult one?

Exhaust, some like to lift the head with the manifold and turbo attached, some like to leave the manifold and turbo on the exhaust, the later is my preference but it depends on what you can get undone, as always lots of well aimed heat and penetrating oil will be your friend,the rest is fairly simple despite how crowded the engine bay looks, certainly far easier than a 2.1

D

Aerodynamica wrote: I noticed a label on on of the little processor chips:


I think this ECU has been 'chipped' at some time (not certain I've noted the performace being especially fast to be honest..) anyway, I wonder if the chipped unit could cause running issues ?

I Googled the code on the chip and came up with this lot?

http://austecporsche.com/performance-tu ... TURBO%208V

Check out the top of the list!

Just a thought. Can't quite see why Porsche specialists would be doing chips for Citroens but hey....it was 2009!

Rob