Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

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9000se
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Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by 9000se »

Evening All,

Had been running my CX for a little over a month and now pretty sure the head gasket has gone.

It has mayo in the engine oil filler cap, dip stick looks murky (after recent oil change), and it's using coolant (although coolant doesn't look like its contaminated), although the temperature has never went up beyond 78...

I had the cambelt changed on the car as part of the deal with the last owner and it looks like I have to remove this again to access to head? Is the HG change an easy job? I have never done one myself and wondering if it's worth getting a garage to do it (am a bit scared for very high bills...)

Many Thanks,
Angus
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by xantia_v6 »

A head gasket leak from a cylinder to the cooling system will always pressurise the cooling system, so it doesn't sound like that is your problem. I note that the CX Turbo2 engines were notorious for having porous blocks, maybe that is worth investigating (google "citroen CX porous").

Good luck!
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by 9000se »

Thanks. Yes, I read up about it before buying the car and have been told it didn't have that issue after going on long continental journey by the previous owner etc, but did use a little water...I was thinking if the car has been around for this long, surely it would have been scraped if it is the porous block problem, so was hoping it would have been replaced some how in the past...

I am not getting oil in coolant as far as I can see, just the other way round...
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Peter.N. »

I ran a CX25 DTR Turbo Safari for about 7 years and 160k miles, my head gasket used to fail about every 15k because of the porous block problem, that's about 10 gaskets while I owned but it was such a superb car to drive that I forgave it. Its a very easy gasket to change by modern standards, its facing you when you open the bonnet and if you swap some of the studs for bolts , if you are going to be doing it on a regular basis, it makes it much easier, I could get mine off in about 20 minutes, the longest job is resetting all the tappets when yo put it back together.

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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by 9000se »

Thanks Peter, I did search the forum and saw your previous post re your 10 HG changes.

Any idea the time to get one off and replace? I take that you skimmed the head as well?

Thanks.
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Peter.N. »

I think I skimmed the head the first time, in fact I fitted another head but it didn't make any difference, I even took the engine out and had the surface of the block machined, still no change. I don't know if laminated steel gaskets are available for them but they certainly improved the XM failure rate, I think the Hdi also uses them and I have never had one fail - yet.

I can't remember exactly how long it took but I wouldnt think more than two or three hours once I had done the mods. The gasket always failed in the same place although not spectacularly in fact you really had to look for it, I think it was between two cylinders across a water hole.

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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by xantia_v6 »

Peter, When your head gaskets blew, were the symptoms similar to those reported by Angus? He appears to be reporting coolant getting into the oil, but no overheating and (I infer) no pressurisation of the cooling system, nor rough running.
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Peter.N. »

No coolant in the oil but it was rapidly expelled through the header tank cap and overflow. The first time it happened I was going quite fast up a very steep hill (you could in those) when I got to the top all the lights came on with a large STOP sign. I was in North Wales when the head cracked and there was quite a powerful fountain from the header tank with the cap off.

The leakage path was between two cylinders across a waterway.

Peter
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by 9000se »

Thanks both. I am going to remove all water and oil when I get home and replace with deionised water and new oil and filter to see if anything is to do with that (highly unlikely). At the moment, after ringing around about 6 Citroen specialists, no one seems to want to touch it...mmm...it drives fine, in fact no different form before, just losing water and oil mixing with water. My wildest hope is that because I use the car for short journeys, it could be condensation (!) and there is a leak somewhere in the cooling system (!) Unfortunately, that is very likely to only be a dream...
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Peter.N. »

You could try pulling the head bolts down a bit - any port in a storm. :wink: You could also try the effect of leaving the coolant filler cap loose, that will stop the system pressuring and if the leak is not to bad may stop the water expulsion, I did that with an XM and it went on for years, you have to bear in mind the the boiling point will be lowered but unless you thrash it that shouldn't be a problem.

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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by ekjdm14 »

If it's just passing coolant into the oil, not pressurising the system or getting oil back into the coolant then that suggests to me the failure is a very minor one & probably between water jacket and an oil drain passage rather than a pressure feed.

On this basis, I would say it has to at least be worth giving K-Seal a shot at the job. This mode of failure is exactly what it was developed for on the Rover K-series engine and I have personal experience to say it works (and lasts) in that situation.
The reason it doesn't work for a lot of people you speak to, and has a bad reputation in general is down to people trying to seal up a cylinder compression leak or oil in coolant problem where it will never get a chance to seal up properly (and would be blown out again by the extreme pressures).

It depends on how confident you are/how much money & time you have to spend. I would certainly give the stuff a go though prior to decapitating the engine, just follow the instructions to the letter. Don't worry about it blocking heater matrices and the like as it never did for me.

I also ran my old 405D with the cap loose and it limited my top-ups to maybe twice a day instead of every 5 miles. I would leave the head bolts alone for now though unless you're taking them out. Retorquing is sometimes OK when you experience a slight leak on a new/recent gasket but if it's been on there for years I think you'd be more likely to make things worse by retorquing the head.

If it were my car, I'd K-seal it and see how it went. If it did fail you've not lost much (about £15 last time I used it) and can flush it out of the system before doing the gasket job.
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9000se
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by 9000se »

Thanks, I did look into it and may give it a go. The problem is that the lack of people wanting to change the HG. I have factored that it might cost a bit to run when I bought it, but after a month and several trips, it's a lot sooner than I had thought...Was looking to keep it long term and hoping to run it for at least a year trouble free (possibly wishful thinking). Did check the suspension etc, no leaks and at high setting, the reading was right...at least that's going strong (for now, don't jinx it!)
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by ekjdm14 »

Sounds like a good case for a bottle of K seal then IMO, whether it helps or not though I'd start reading up on the gasket change & build a stock of the parts and tools you'll need ready for when/if you do have to bite the bullet.

To be honest it does sound like quite a pleasant job as far as head gasket replacements go, so don't be put off by how major a job it might seem. My first HG replacement was a jump at the deep end so to speak, it was on a 3.0L DOHC 24V straight 6 turbo in a Toyota Supra (another engine renowned for having an "appetite" for head gaskets, and also for biting the careless in the behind in several ways that invariably resulted in a blown HG within a few hundred miles tops...) and it went pretty smoothly all in all.
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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Peter.N. »

I think these were the easiest gaskets to change of any modern car, when mine had failed for about the fourth or fifth time I considered it a minor inconvenience as I knew the car would be back on the road the next day, mind you I was a bit younger then. The money I saved in running it over the petrol one had paid for the car by the time I sold it. The easiest ones to change were the old side valve engines, nothing on the top except the head.

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Re: Citroen CX Head Gasket Change...

Post by Ed900 »

Have you done a compression test? The testers are cheap enough, I've got one here you can borrow, I'm south of York. And ask a friendly garage to use there exhaust gas tester, put it over the rad cap, it will detect any fumes. Least you can narrow things down to a definite answer. In a car of mine thought the head gasket had gone as it kept boiling over, turned out the 20 odd year old rad cap had given up! Good luck.one day I'll get a cx and all these problems will be mine ;-)
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