Soup Up Your 2.1 & 2.5

[Ciaran]

Hi Peter,

Re your comments about headgasket failure being perhaps more frequent in other cars, you're not kidding!
Have had a few fun weeks with my parent's Rover 414, with the K series unit... AKA 'the chocolate engine'...

That's all sorted now, but apparently in another 50 or 60k its likely to go again! I told my dad to get shot of it while he can, and give someone else the pleasure next time round...

[Peter.N.]

Hi Ciaran

Yes, I know about that one. I have been looking for a possible replacement for the XM when the time comes, one of the cars I considered, a good ride being the prime consideration, was the Rover 75, and then I read about the head gaskets... but of course that would be the petrol one which I wouldn't even consider.

How's this for Citroen devotion - My last CX, a 25 DTR Turbo Safari used to need a head gasket about every 15k, due to, as I eventually found out, a pourous block. I drove that car for over 150k. Roughly 15 head gaskets, plus two heads, and an engine removal to have the block machined, which made no difference!. It was such a fantastic car that I forgave it all that. Mind you, I could have changed 4 or 5 inthe time that it takes to do an XM! They were just the opposite to the XM to work on. When you opened the bonnet the head was facing you, and by the time I had done a few mods, I could get the head off in less than an hour!

Progress, they call it!

Peter.N.

[Ciaran]

Hi Peter,

That's devotion alright! Though I do know where you're coming from, albeit not to the same extent. Already I have forgiven my XM things that would have sent lesser cars to Autotrader / the scrappers in a heart beat.

I hope never to have to do something like a head gasket on it, but as I plan on keeping it a while, I know its a possibility, and would do it / pay an indy to do it if I really had to. I guess having the proper tools, somewhere suitable to work, and the use of a second car would be a big bonus, as I imagine it would take a fair while to do DIY (well it would for me anyway). It sounds like you became quite the dab hand at the CX ones, I think I'd have been tearing my hair out. Why did you finally let it go in the end?

Know what you mean about so called progress. It took me the guts of 3.5 hours to change a thermostat housing on my Zetec engined Mondeo, because of how stupidly placed and inaccessible everything was, yet I remember my dad doing the same on an old Sierra with a CVH Pinto engine in minutes. I later found out that the thermostat housing itself on the Sierras was identical to the Mondeo one, only it was metal.... my 'improved' plastic crap one spectacularly shattered when I accidentially screwed a temp sensor into it a tiny bit too far. Then I had to cut lumps out of it to get the bolts out... had it been the old metal one, the problem would never have occurred in the first place, plus I would have been able to actually get near the damn thing to change it...

I must admit, I do find the XUD quite difficult to work on compared to some other cars, due to it being tilted etc, but then its swings and roundabouts, one car's nightmare is another's two minute job...

[citroenxm]

Cairen

If you want a good XUD 12 to continue being good one, I beleve, and this is from my own experiance that the best thing for the engine is 80% BLUE anti freeze mix!!

I had an L 1994 1.9Td Xantia, bought it at about 100k, made sure the anti freeze was BLUE and it ran to 200k plus WITHOUT A HEAD CHANGE

Every mechanic that knew the Pugs, would ask me Have you done the head and gasket yet?? to which my reply is no WHY?? Should I need to!

I have to say it DIDN'T stop the rad from failing but it damm well saved the head gasket.. and to add to that, my Black 1991 H reg BX TD XUD ALSO ran to 180k on the SAME head and gasket, it was the heater and fuel system that mysteriously fell down on that one..

So the bottom line.. Drain your cooling system completely, flush through so its VERY clean, then buy a 3litre BLUE anti freeze and put it all in and then top up with water from a Water but.. It worked for me on two XUD's so I swear by the treatment..

Good luck
Regards
citroenxm

[Ciaran]

Hi CitXm,

Funny, I always insisted on a good strong coolant mix. I have 50/50 in the Xantia and XM, however I didn't know you could go as far as 80%, as someone told me that antifreeze on it's own isn't as good at carrying heat as water.

But if you think it helps, 80% it is, for all a bottle of antifreeze costs.
I flushed it when I got the car, as the coolant was a lovely orange colour , and it took several flushes with the hose before that finally went away, not good.

I'll need a fair bit of antifreeze though, as far as I remember from last time, a whole 5l of it didn't even begin to fill the coolant tank, when I put it in with the system empty. I had to top up with a fair few litres of water afterwards...

That reminds me, is there a proper filling / bleeding method for the 2.1? I followed Haynes advice and used a header tank etc, but there still seemed to be airlocks, and it was a day or so before the level settled properly, which is obviously a worry....