Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i, GTi180 plus XUD9TE 206!!

[CitroJim]

Fantastic That'll make a tremendous series of articles for my column if you're game Dan

[ekjdm14]

Sounds pretty promising to me Dan, you could try popping out the radio to see if the nice lady wrote the code on the label Look forward to seeing some more pics in due course!

Way ahead of you there fella, as I hurriedly put together that last post the radio was sat beside me in the front room! No such luck sadly, I'm possibly the first person in 28 years to see the back end of the radio.

Unsure if there's any free software to decode the PIN any more, all the sites want anything between £5 and £15 for it & I'm not that desperate for tunes, just be nice to have it working. Serial number is BP5761T6989534 if anyone has the ability to find out?

Also, I realise there was something missing from the photos I uploaded yesterday....

Just like the fact there's "something" missing from the photo itself. Can't quite put my finger on just what though...

Can't promise super regular updates Jim, but you're more than welcome to take any of the content from here & modify as needed. If there's any specifics you need let me know & I'll try and oblige

Also, will try and get a couple of more detail shots later of some low-mileage goodies. I've never seen a bonnet with a "service position bung" before. Didn't even know they existed until I went to put the thing up high, and there's a little rubber bung there that was pretty well stuck. (seller obviously removed engine/box from the bottom, nice since that leaves us the gearbox mount/battery tray and front end unmolested.

[mickthemaverick]

Just like the fact there's "something" missing from the photo itself. Can't quite put my finger on just what though...

I think you'll find that would be the exhaust to manifold gasket!!

[ekjdm14]

Dammit! still, have to admit she's pretty quiet even without that!

[Gibbo2286]

Those missing codes are often scribbled in handbooks or service booklets, even on the back of the sun visor, I did though have an ex BT guy who could sort them from the set for a fiver.

[ekjdm14]

Gibbo, good to see you here still also. Unfortunately the paperwork side of things is sadly lacking (only the V5C2 to our name) and the only things on the visors are presumably the immobiliser code since it's not the radio one (ultra high security feature, that). Oh and on the passenger side visor there's "Monkey's car". I don't recall the guy we bought it from being particularly simian-like but hey, at least if it did get nicked with that onboard PIN code they'd be able to return it to the rightful owner based on that!

Weather's not too great today either, only progress being to loosely refit the brake servo & search fruitlessly for a master cylinder I thought I still had. Did turn up some calipers that ought to work though, and some wheel cylinders, top hose, pair of good wishbones and a few other little bits.

Also found the starter-mounting bodge plates I made for testing Black's new engine before swapping the flywheel and fitting the autobox way back when, so at some point will drag the DW10 lump out from it's shelter & give that a spin over, maybe get it to run on a whiff of something or other just to ascertain general health of that before I pull an injector and go off to the scrap yard to compare it with any mechanical DI lumps that may be there. Thinking Ford 2.5DI may be close and believe I've read that these can be adapted to fit.

Assuming that all goes to plan (and that we don't locate an XUD9TE soon) then I'll grab a set of whatever injectors we go for & the cam plate (plus maybe plunger/head & delivery valves) from a Transit pump to transfer to one of the spare VE's in the shed & get to building the "M-HDi" lump. Can it be summer again now though please?

[ekjdm14]

Well things progressed quicker than intended on the DW engine. The XUD starter plates I made don't fit so just threw the gearbox on sans-clutch, lobbed a starter on & gave it a spin... Compression sounded good, for a Lister Petter single! Ah well, I'd be grumpy if I'd been trapped under a tarp next to an XU10J4R & it's 'box for 4 years too!

Bit more cranking and we had oil pouring from every orifice, so "borrowed" an oil sender from said J4r, nut/bolt blocked the turbo feed pipe & a plate/O-ring over the vac pump hole stemmed the flow enough for Ryan to grab a can of brake cleaner from the shed to "encourage" the valves to evict their spiders/crust. Cough, splutter, chug chug chug.... and she's coming back around nicely, cranking much more evenly although #3 exhaust port did look a bit wet & cooler than the rest. Not hugely concerned about it though so we've pulled an injector and will be en-route to scrapyard shortly to compare mechanical DI ones from Land Rover, Transit and whatever else we find, plus grab a vacuum pump for the DW, Master cylinder from a 306 that's there & whatever else comes to mind while we're there.

And yes, I should've got video of the DW10. Can always throw injectors back in & strike it up again if anyone's interested

[ekjdm14]

Further to the earlier post, got back from touring scrapyards. Sadly no vacuum pump or master cylinder BUT we did score a Transit 2.5DI fuel pump which will give us the DI cam plate for the M-HDi setup & an 11mm plunger for a potential tuned 1.9TD. Unfortunately the injectors were rust-welded into the Transit engine but they might well suit the conversion also, will have to return with blow torch and oil etc to try and salvage those.

And on the XUD front we just *may* have got something locally, not 100% sure yet but will hopefully be able to buy an older square port TD engine/Bosch pump & 'box this week too. (We told ourselves this car was going to be on the back burner for a while, but seems we've got carried away again haha)

While I think of it, does anyone have a favourite (or one to avoid!) glass supplier for tackling the replacement windscreen? I've seen some scary prices on a cursory search, over £250 just for the glass (and no quote yet from a couple of local companies queried) so fingers crossed on that one. I'm not averse to replacing it myself if needs be, but much rather have it done professionally as I don't like removing bonded glass myself!

[ekjdm14]

Engine and gearbox sourced

[mickthemaverick]

Well done Dan, now the fun can begin!!

[moizeau]

Regarding the screen, it's not hard to do. I did 2 on my BX. To remove it I made a hole under the seal through the mastic then used a bit of throttle cable as a saw. You may want to remove a post trims first. Aesthetics weren't my priority. 1st screen came out of a donor BX, the 2nd from the tat yard. The kit to fit the screen cost 25 quid, remove any excess old mastic, prime then apply the new mastic. One kit did both screens. I did end up with a bit of mastic in places I didn't want but with care and 2 people it should be fine. I reused the original rubber seal both times.

[ekjdm14]

Yes, I may end up doing the 'screen myself. No feedback from the local companies I've asked to quote so evidently they ain't interested. When you say "bit of throttle cable" I take it you mean a single strand from one?
Not sure how the rubber seal/trim comes out on the ZX will have to take a closer look but it's seemingly the only option at the moment.

Had little time to play the last couple of days, but have done a little cleanup & pre-emptive rust protection on the front chassis legs and inner wings while access is good, removed her face to avoid damage during engine install & removed the OS front wing and strut for better access/protection while I attend to the only real hole on the strut tower. Pretty easy as it'd all been thrown loosely back together to make it roll, and will make fixing the rust sooooo much easier

Hoping to get a couple of hours "on the job" today, might even remember to take some more pics.

[ekjdm14]

Oops! not been too well the last few days but I have managed to weld up the strut tower patch, stonechip/underseal/tidied up & done a first trial fit of the engine.

So far, I've got a few things to work around. This engine/'box combo has previously been in a 206 and was set up with the 206 PAS pump up top with the reservoir on the pump, and a later 3 wire alternator down low so I need to fiddle round with mounting brackets/belt alignment since the 2 wire alternator I have doesn't fit the current bracket & the PAS pump is in the wrong place too. Current options are-:

A- make adaptor plates to line the alternator up properly, re-bend/reroute PAS pressure line & run 206 pump/reservoir. (not ideal, ugly but will work)
B- find correct mounting bracket for the car to locate alternator/PAS pump correctly & use the proper pump. (preferred, but not easy any more as the once ubiquitous XUD bits are not getting any more common)
C- Cry gently into my coffee, longing for the days when D8A powered cars/vans littered every breakers and they couldn't give the bits away cheap enough (not really an option, but it's what I feel like doing!)

Next issue is the lower engine mount/intermediate bearing bracket is maybe a touch too close to the subframe, not a big problem as I have a few different ones around to try if need be.

Next, need to measure and find one gear shift rod (the forward/back one) to get the shift linkage finished up & finally (for the moment) is to make bracketry to convert the hydro clutch fork to work with the cable. Oh, and sort out a tach trigger that'll work with the petrol flywheel.

[ekjdm14]

OK it looks like a 250mm Pug Partner shift rod will work, there's one at a scrappy not too far away & think it's even a DW8 so might have an alternator bracket that'd work. Test-fired the engine yesterday evening for a morale boost, damn thing just wants to live. It's been laying turbo-down in the back of a leaky scrap car for probably getting on 5 years now & covered in white furry corrosion but having plumbed up the fuel & given it a few seconds of glow manually (GP relay isn't working currently) it fired up in half a turn & not even a whiff of smoke...

Photos? Bleh, will have to remember to grab the camera before we get too much further along!

[CitroJim]

Dan, we need photos! Especially me

Good progress so far, this is a great project