V6-sei project.

[Dieselman]

Misfire sorted, was just #5 HT cap not pushed fully onto the spark plug. That one is a bit awkward to push on as it is under the fuel rail and the pipes.

I removed and cleaned the cooling fan relays and temporarily added some trigger leads, to keep them running while filling the cooling system, which stopped it boiling.
The fan control didn't call for the fans until I fitted the header tank cap and allowed the temperature to rise a bit further, then it worked as intended.
I think the boiling is due to this being an early Xm that uses a fan control switch in the low part of the radiator, as opposed to later ones having the sensor mounted on the water outlet at the top of the engine. At idle the coolant moves slowly, so starts to boil before the switch is tripped, when only under atmospheric pressure.

The engine runs as intended now. Apologies for the video being on it's side, it was recorded correctly...



I've been round the engine with mechanics stethoscope and it sounds lovely, very quiet and no untoward noises at all.

The car now raises up on it's own so I've removed the wooden blocks from the rear suspension. Surprisingly, the suspension spheres still have gas in them, the rear is very fluid, the front a bit less so. I'll check and refill them, as necessary.

[Dieselman]

I noticed the exhaust back box was leaking so decided to take a look, but first checked the state of the suspension spheres. Remember, this car has been laid up over 25 years.
Split rear box, after being left half full of water.



Front bounce test.



Rear bounce test.

[Dieselman]

Only a bit more done, cut out the rotten steel and stuck a couple of bits of stainless onto the bottom of the split exhaust back box. This box had flooded, then been left half full of water, while the car was in storage.

Things got a bit messy when I tried to weld it with an old Buzz-Box arc welder producing a bit too much current. This welder appears to have a fault on the low current output, so I had to resort to the high output. I suspect it just needs the terminals inside the unit cleaning up.
I already had the welder out as I had used it with a gouging rod to free off the very seized exhaust clamp fixing.
Under the force of trying to undo the nut, the stainless clamp was just twisting and going to snap. A blast with 100 Amps through a carbon gouging rod and it creaked a bit, a bit more heat and it was off no problem.
Normally it wouldn't need anything like 100A, but this is an extra long nut and it was very seized.

You can see the clamp is back in use in this image of the exhaust refitted and under a running test to check for leaks, of which there were none...apart from it now revealed a blow at the tail end of the exhaust front pipe.
The system is generally in good condition.

[Degens]

Nice to see this restoration Dieselman!

[Dieselman]

I've done a bit more to this car.
Firstly the previous owners Mark and Richard, found and sent me the missing Ecu box cover.



Then due to the nights turning to sustained sub-zero, I had to remove some cooling water and add antifreeze concentrate.
I couldn't get the radiator drain to flow, so took off the upper hose and by repeatedly blowing hard down the hose, caused several litres of water to be jettisoned from the upper radiator spigot.

After welding the rear silencer it became apparent there was a small hole just after the front resonator. I elected to drop the complete exhaust to weld a patch over that and the crack in the back of the resonator box, which has quietened the exhaust nicely.

The exhaust must have been quite new when the car was laid up, but it did get flooded with water and left like that, so the water caused localised rust holes.

I then noticed both steering rack gaiters were torn and one track rod end boot, so slipped those on...LOL...

As previously demonstrated the suspension is still surprisingly supple, however, while the car was in the air and I had the front Hydractive sphere off for doing the steering gaiter, I decided to pressure test the spheres.

The sphere should be 70 Bar and I was actually at 50 Bar, after a 25 year lay-up and unknown amount of use before then.
I then tested and re-filled all except the front corner spheres before running out of time. I can do the front corners without the need to jack the car up.
All were similarly, 30%, or so, low on pressure. I don't know whether these are genuine, or aftermarket spheres, I need to check the numbers and they don't have any Citroen logo's on. The numbers look like Citroen ones though and they are properly pressure stamped.
Interestingly this is the second car I have seen using a front Hydractive sphere (500cc) as the regulator accumulator (400cc). The accumulator is in the rear Hydractive sphere position. I left it there as it is the correct 400cc volume.

[Dieselman]

Checked and gassed the front corner spheres and found they are 2.0i spheres, not 3.0i ones, they were down to 38-Bar each, so re-gassed them to the correct 50-Bar for a 3.0i, as opposed to the 55-Bar for 2.0i.
After checking the P/No's, all the spheres appear to be Genuine Citroen ones. These are 96051826, but should be 96065505.

[citroenguy]

Lovely series 1, seems to run smooth

In my mind the prettiest of them, a series 1 saloon. Preferably with the single spoke steeering wheel.

[Dieselman]

In my mind the prettiest of them, a series 1 saloon. Preferably with the single spoke steeering wheel.

...and rotary heater controls.

[Dieselman]

A small, but satisfying job done yesterday.
I only have one key with this car and it is the flat one, which only worked in the front door and ignition locks, not the tailgate, or glove-box.
The tailgate central locking has been iffy, generally not functioning and now not at all, of course with the tailgate locked, so I decided to strip the tailgate interior lining and lock to re-pin it to the key. Yes, I know some of you will now be laughing and shouting at the computer...

I fully stripped the extremely complex and intricate lock barrel and worked out which pins needed to go into each location, rebuilt and tested it functioned, then clipped on the front plate, at which point it stopped working.
I actually stripped it again before realising the issue was the key wasn't going quite all the way in, only with the front plate installed...yes, it is indeed the Valet key.
The way the valet key works is it has a small infill in the key grove, which won't pass through the front plate, only on the tailgate and glove-box locks.
Using a needle file, I filed the infill away to convert the key to a full use one.

On the second complete strip down I managed to lose one pin spring. I should have a broken lock barrel somewhere, otherwise may be calling out for a barrel, or single spring.

Apologies, no pics, I was concentrating on getting the lock functioning and back together. If I strip another one, I will upload some images. These locks are like nothing I have ever seen before, they are three main units that slide into each other to make one barrel. There is the key-pin unit, which then slides deeper into it's housing once the correct combination is achieved, this then interfaces with a second unit via drive dogs. Both internal units are mounted in an outer barrel.
If the key isn't correct the internal slide won't move and the drive dogs won't engage. The lock will just spin without engaging.
As far as I am aware, there are five different pin lengths with five mounted in one plane, four in the other one at 90 degrees. That's a lot of combinations.

The tailgate central locking is the next task. The actuator works as intended, when tested.

[citroenguy]

On the subject of central locking, i have an aftermarket radio remote kit on my Xantia. It replaced the the non working Plip/ IR one, works well. And you just replace the kiekert "control module".
Should work on XM too.
Bought it from BXparts