All Things V6...

[DHallworth]

Simon,

The banging on mine seemed to get better with use, I think the old man who owned it was barely using it so it was stiff.

I was thinking about this the other day...

The car I've got I am only going to break to do a V6 Conversion... The condition of the gearbox doesn't bother me. If your gearbox is dead then your car would be the perfect donor for me as it means I'm not destroying a good car.

If you wanted to drive mine and see if it drives any better then yours I'm sure we could work something out.

David.

[KP]

Dad's looked at replacing it a couple of times recently.

He's briefly looked at CL600's, and several other Coupe's as well.

He always ends up coming off the net and saying that he can't find anything else that is as good looking as his 406 is and says he's not going to bother changing it.

He's had it since it was 6 months old with a few thousand miles on it, it's now done 80 is thousand miles and it's been superb. Until recently it had only needed one wheel bearing and 2 coils. (this later engine has 6 coils that cost £29 from the dealer and take 10 mins to fit on the front bank and around 40 on the back bank.)

When it was MOT'd this year they found the top loop on one front suspension spring was snapped, it's just had 2 new Brembo calipers on the front when the discs n pads were changed and another wheel bearing.

The calipers on these are 4 piston Brembo calipers. The body of the caliper is aluminium and there's a steel plate that guides the pads. The steel plate is held in place by a steel screw. Unfortunately corrosion has built up between the steel plate and the alloy calliper frame. As the screw holding it on is steel as well it won't come out. The pads wouldn't actually come out of the caliper without being battered by a hammer and the new ones wouldn't go back in. The only other option was to take the edge off the new pads with a file or grinder which we didn't really fancy doing.

Refurbishing the calipers was going to cost more then buying new ones from Peugeot so it ended up with 2 new calipers. Was an annoying expense more then anything as it's a silly design causing the problem.

Here's the callipers: (picture nicked from google images)



They do look great though through the spokes on the front wheels.

David.

Its a stupid brembo design that does it

At least the calipers are shared amoungst many cars which helps bring the price of pads down as well, expecially if bought for a ford focus rs or the like

[DHallworth]

Well after reading about the rest of the country being hit by the snow in the last week I was starting to feel left out!

However, we got 4 - 5 inches of snow yesterday and it froze last night after our road had been ploughed by the farmer up the road. I had to get my VW Caddy works van towed up the road by the Range Rover as it is worse then useless in the bad weather.

Waking up this morning there was a load of snow that had gone, it was nowhere near as thick but I still felt obliged to go and have some fun and bring out the little kid hiding inside me...

Here's my weapon of choice

400cc's of pure hooliganism!





This is also the first time in it's life my XM has ever seen snow...



Needless to say it was no more then peeking at the white fluffy stuff anyway.

David.

[CitroJim]

Cats don't like it do they David? Right pussies aren't they

That's some hairy-chested quad you’ve got there

I like the look of the private plate on the V6. I imagine you'll be keeping that when the car becomes the Activa donor...

[DHallworth]

I like the look of the private plate on the V6. I imagine you'll be keeping that when the car becomes the Activa donor...

Hi Jim,

That plate belongs to the Series 2 XM V6 that I imported from Malaysia. That's staying in one piece and won't be the Activa donor! The Activa donor is round the corner from the shed covered in snow at the moment!

David.

[CitroJim]

Silly me David I didn't even notice the silver car was an XM. I thought it was the donor Xantia

Sorry, that's unforgivable especially as I've been spending some quality time with my XM today. You'd have thought I'd be able to recognise an XM when I see one... Seems not...

SpecSavers here I come

[DHallworth]

Well I had decided that due to time constraints I was going to shelve the Activa V6 project however after driving Cheryl's 207 GT yesterday I really enjoyed driving something that's quick, handles well and is a manual so today I've decided that as all I needed was a gearbox I'd get on with the V6 Activa.

The engine in my Xantia V6 has done 123k miles but runs beautifully, the only problem is it doesn't warm up properly. It stays very cold compared to all the others I've owned and doesn't warm past 75 degrees when thrashed or on long distance.

Whilst looking for a gearbox tonight I stumbled upon this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200890566594? ... 1497.l2649

So after a bargain I now have a much lower mileage engine with a gearbox. I'll pick this up on Monday whilst I'm down south and then hopefully I'll be able to get this project started shortly.

David.

[Hell Razor5543]

Just a thought, would it be possible to replace the steel bolt on the new calipers with a stainless steel one? If so, might this go some way to preventing a re-occurance of the corrosion issue?

[Citroenmad]

That is a bit of a find

Will your Xantia donor be staying in one piece now? I guess you will still need bits for the conversion?

[DHallworth]

That engine ecu and wiring loom etc are from a Peugeot 406, not a Xantia so reckon I'll still need a fair few bits...

Loom, ECU, Body Computer and transponder from key
Front Hubs and calipers for the brakes
Coolant Pipes
Breather Pipes
Radiator
Engine Mounts top and bottom

And anything else that's V6 specific between hydraulic pipes, sphere brackets for centre spheres etc.

David.

[hattershaun]

Hi David,

How far south are you coming? If near Hertfordshire, I'm north of London, so come and have a drive of my Activa V6 & have a chat with the folks that converted my car. Or get yourself a cheap day return flight to Luton, I'm close by.

You'll need the HP pump from a Xantia V6, due to the fixing points/brackets.
From memory, as it was 4 years ago that my car was converted, you'll need to do something with the driveshafts and suspension struts (I think one had to be used from my donor Xantia V6) & high pressure supply pipes. Also there was something to do with the steering rack supply pipes.
My Activa was a late model, 1999, so already had the larger brake calliper set up, same as the V6.
There are 4 different engine wiring looms for the V6 engine depending on the car's build date, so we had fun getting a feed to the a/c pump and ended up running a separate feed to it.

[DHallworth]

Shaun,

That's a very generous offer and I'd love to take you up on it. On Monday I'm only coming as far south as Lancashire unfortunately but flights are less then 40 quid to Luton from Glasgow.

If you could spare a Saturday morning at some point then I'd be more then grateful for any tips etc you can share from doing your build.

Thanks

David.

[hattershaun]

PM sent with suggested dates.

[DHallworth]

Following on from Shaun's generous offer I'm flying down for the day on 6th April to see his masterpiece and hopefully find out the solutions to any problems I'm likely to come across during my V6 conversion.

Am really looking forward to a day looking at and talking Citroen's.

David.

[CitroJim]

Excellent David Hopefully that'll include a ride/drive maybe and that'll convince you it's a wonderful modification to make to an Activa..

You'll not be very far distant from me so maybe we can arrange some kind of meet-up perhaps?