A 2 litre basic spec XM saloon has just appeared on Ebay. One of the photos shows the engine bay. I have never seen anything like it; there's so much space to work in. Even the old BX TZD had less space than this. The car might be a bit underpowered and fuel consumption maybe not good (small engine working hard all the time?) but considering the relative sizes of different engines shoehorned into the same space, I think it's amazing what Citroen achieved on the larger models.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...bayphotohosting

Saw this one, looks like a nice car, with an honest seller.
Strangely the 16v seems to have more room in the engine bay than the 8 but economy wise i get 21mpg round town (isle of wight) and on a run 35-37mpg driven sensibly 39 is achievable easily at 55 65 on a run. i don't think its that bad.
But yes there is a bit of room in there, gets a little tighter with an auto box and A/C but still v easy to get at everything

D

From my experience this is one XM engine that does benefit from a manual box. It may not be either as slow or as uneconomic as you would expect.

Derek

These 2.0i's are totally brilliant especially without a cataclysmic peverter or autobox.
If driven hard, they'll be a PITA to get past so hardly under engined for the bodyshell!!

When changing a head gasket, I use the headlight fan panel as a handy seat to sit on with
legs between the engine and the radiator! Yes really! Loads of room.

They must damned good, I've got a load of them - one of the base i's:


Andrew