John Dragon Man's Citroen BX Diesel Estate

[Dragon Man]

Well here I am, now an owner of a BX Diesel Estate in Sliver!

so yesterday (the 20th of June 16) i took a trip down to London with a car transporter and picked up this nice little... (umm.. a little more larger than i am use to) estate car!

i am pretty happy with it, the overall cost was £400 for the car and around £350 to get it delivered here to Derby (yes i know i could have got it cheaper now ).

bodywork wise the car is a little "used". given what i have seen of London (first time i have been!) i think the car survived well!

the engine is dead. the bottom end may be savable but i think i am going to go down the complete engine swap fix route. i am not sure if it may have damaged anything else bar the head. so that said i am now looking for a low miles XUD engine. be it a 1.7 or 1.9 (ill worry about that camshaft pump pulley further down the line)

the hydraulics are untested. the spheres are dated 2001 so are 15 years old they they need changing but are near the bottom on my list of things to change for obvious reasons. i will try and test the hydraulics by spinning the pump using an electric motor. being as it is cam driven it does not turn very quick even with the pulley ratio. maybe even a battery drill could do it.

the LHM fluid is more of a cloudy yellow/cream colour, i have read that it should be green. so i will change that when the engine is in and connected up.

who wants to see some pictures?

now some have already seen the pre buy photos:









now i have the car at work, i was able to take more photos. sadly its in a dark unit.. yes all the lights were on, its just most dont work!





















and this is what it looks like when a camshaft breaks caused by a snapping cam belt! ouch!

note snapped belt..



lets take a closer look at that camshaft.. also note the camshaft journal caps smashed to hell. you can see that valve number 6 (cylinder 3's exhaust valve) was open when the piston smashed into it sending the force up the valve stem and into the camshaft.



Thanks for looking and please do stay tuned! there will be frequent updates of the repair work and even online Video Log!

[JayW]

Done so many of these it's getting down to an afternoons work!

Easy fix, good luck.

[Dragon Man]

ohh is that a complete engine swap or just a cylinder head replacement? do you have any tips or know of any threads that would help me out?
maybe if all goes well with mine, i will write a "how too" article on it for any future seekers in the ways of BX diesel repairs.

[JayW]

Swapping the complete engine takes the same time as swapping the head and in my opinion is a better bet if the rest of your lump is an unknown quantity. It's one of the simplest units you can wish for and REALLY self explanatory, the only tricky bit can be separating the exhaust manifold from the downpipe.

Cliff (rutter123) had a complete unit going unless it's already gone to scrap. Find his "breaking" thread or check out ebay.

[Defender110]

Good save and well worth it for the condition of the bodywork alone, you have caught that rust on the n/s just in time. This rust comes from mud trapped in the rear subframe mounts / rear of the sill where there is a cavity behind and underneath the door shut so make sure you attack this from underneath and not just the bit on show in the door closure. The mechanicals are all very simple so no worries on that score.

[rutter123]

Hi Dragon man i still have the complete engine here if your'e interested, i know its high miles but it can be heard running still in the car, trust me these engines are bullet proof if they have been well looked after-which this one has being serviced every 9k . To be honest i think you will be hard pushed to find another bx t/d lump on offer-plenty of n/a's available, even if you strip it down for the head and use your original turbo, pump etc. It has the lucas pump and kkk turbo on it and all the intercooler and associated pipework, all it would need is a set of gaskets replacement as a precaution, its up to you the choice is yours, my t/d is near on 300k's now and still fine with no issues only needing a turbo rebuild @ 250k. let me know either way if your'e interested as the car will be going to get canned soon.

[Tim Leech]

Hi John

I didn't realise you were also from Derby, Im very local

[Dragon Man]

hmm i'm really going to have to think this over.. i have so many ways i can repair this and each one would be good but its figuring out the best.
i really would like to go down the whole new cylinder head, belts, water pump and pulleys route.

anyway.. i made my first video on the car. i hope it embeds in this forum:

[morningglory]

Perfect colour for that car I love it. Good luck with the restoration.

[Dragon Man]

i have the front end up in the air now.. enough to get any access i would need to do anything on the engine. sadly one of the hydraulic lines went pop when i did it though and i made damn sure i was no where near any of them when i lifted it up too. i really want to replace all of them.

oh before i jacked the car up i did test the suspension by unbolting the pump and spinning it over with a battery drill.
i am happy to say it lifted up perfectly.

i am still undecided on what i am going to do engine wise.. i think a good start is to remove the engine and gearbox from the car completely. that way i can get access to ALL of the steel hydraulic lines.. and replace them. i have no faith in old steel brake lines so old steel "everything" lines.. no no no! get them all changed! looks like a big job as there's quite a few lines to do
should give me quite enough time to source a replacement maybe..

the underside is a little scored where we dragged it onto the recovery truck but its nothing really. i do plan to give it the full works in rust proofing, cavity wax and underseal. ill get the mechanicals good first though.. but i may rust proof the engine bay when the engine is out.. just to make it more easy.

any tips and things folk can recommend me replace, let me know!

[Dragon Man]

does anyone know the size of the pipes on the BX? they seem to be.. metric? is that right? also how many different sizes are there?

[rutter123]

I wouldn't waste money changing all the steel pipes unless they are corroded or look suspect in any way, i would go down the lines of replacing all the pipe seals tho as a precaution if you are going to be stripping them all out, generally all the steel pipework under and behind the engine will have survived quite well, this would also work out quite expensive to replace all the lines unless you have access to a pipe bender and flaring tool.
I believe the pipes are 3.5mm and 4.5mm.

[Dragon Man]

hmm.. i didnt realise that Citroen made all of the pipes "only Citroen" sizes. i guess thats why theres hardily any old Citroens around now.. because no one can repair anything or even get hold of replacement pipe or fittings!


ill look to see if i can find a way to adapt ALL lines to common pipe sizes. i work next door to a hydraulic specialist, they make custom pipes and even do converting from metric to imperial so maybe they can help me out.
it would be nice if i can get some adaptors made up to take the silly 3.5mm pipe to something like the 3/16" pipe commonly found on everything.

sadly i know i have a few pipes on mine that look very crusty. so i think it is a worthy thing to do.

[jamescarruthers]

Pleiades in Sawtry will sell you pipe related stuff, mail order. Telephone Martin.

[Dragon Man]

so when taking the engine out, the best way is from the top? and also i am guessing you can leave the gearbox attached and just pop the drive axles out of the gearbox?
i watched a video of some lads fitting an XUD to a BX estate and they just drop it all in with the wheels still on so i am guessing that they will all just come out fine.

it needs all the CV boots doing as the 2 outer ones have split.

also has anyone ever gotten away with using a standard flare like the ones used on brake lines for the suspension pipes? the idea of the rubber seals mixed with flares seems a little... not advanced (well not future proof!) for saying how advanced Citroen was back in the day. i cant see what is wrong with the good old standard flare? i have done loads and even completely renewed all the pipework on both of my pandas and never had one leak! is it something to do with the thin sizes of the pipes?
to me the way i see it is the pipes being thin was just a way to help reduce costs.
i really hope i get a chance tomorrow/today ( i need to get some sleep!) to speak to the guys next door about the adaptors.