Xantia Head And Exhaust Manifold On Xm?

[Zaphod]

OK found a head for my XM 2.0 SEi It came off an N plate 2.0 LX auto xantia. it still has the exhaust manifold on it, is there any reason I can't use this? It looks to be the same but with a differnt heat sheild. Also where can I get the manifold bolts from? will any exhaust place be able to supply me with some? as I had to hack saw then off the Xantia and I can't see the ones on the XM giving up without a struggle.

The head will be of to the machine shop to be skimmed. Can't say it was a hard job to remove, only hard part was hacksawing the downpipe bolts off!. Can anyone explain why the heynes claims the engine mount has to be removed? it looks not unlike the Xantia one and that did not have to be removed.

One thing I did notice was that there wer signs the gasket on the car I took the head of had failed between 2 and 3 however no signs of any material being burnt away. Is there any way to prevent this? or is it a common mode of failure?

The car is a 1992 XM 2.0 SEi 3.1 mortronic and a cat (that will soon be fixed!)

Stewart

[noz]

Hi Stewart,

Glad to hear you got fixed up and another XM saved form the scrapheap (at least for a while).

Whilst I avoid going any where near Citroen for spare parts until I really have to, you may find that a set of manifold bolts will be cheaper at Citroen rather than the hassle of searching the country for someoe else who sells them.

The failure between cylinders 2 & 3 is probably the most common failure. Its also a common design of all engines. The small island of land between the two cylinders is a common feature. However, it doesn't usually give any problems if the head is not warped and the head bolts are torqued down properly. I think the reason why the failure is common is that at some point in the car's life the head has been 'cooked' ie someone has run it without water. If you skim it and torque the bolts properly then you'll probably be OK. It might be worth checking, however, the straightness of the bore liners by laying a steel straight edge across the tops of the liners and trying to slip various thicknesses of feeler guage under the straight edge. Actually you could try that on the new head as well prior to skimming to see if there's any damage at the 2&3 point. If you can see any signs of damage on the gasket at this point it suggests you'll need to build the head up here by welding (not a difficult job).

Let us know how you get on. Best of luck.

Cheers

noz

[Zaphod]

I have just been reading the ehynes, is seems to indacate that side engine mount has to be removed to take the head of. This I did not do when removing it form the Xantia, and as far as I can tell there is no need to (on the 2.0i non turbo engine) as the mount does not pass though the cam belt and dosen't particularly obstruct access to the belt tensioner. I have got the belt cover off already (and found a brand new belt is already fitted!)

The car is at 186K so barely run in. I suspect the last year or so it has fallen on hard times, but previously was well cared for, the interior is very clean. And the rear spheres are all green, dates on them indiacte just over a year old and they have citroen logos on them. All I know ATM is that the last owner was given it by his father about a year ago. The history of the car has been lost (possibly when the auction ened at £75!) I did chat to the father and he said there should be a huge pile of history. Given it has reached 186K and looks fairly together and no big signs of long term abuse I think this may be the case. We shall see if the history surfaces.

Stewart