MrMoonstone

Hi > car is a series 2 HDi 2.2 auto estate on a '54 reg with 170k miles This time last year I had all the full symptoms of a blown head gasket and mothballed the whole situation until the weather and inclination (and funds) recovered and here i am now hopefully on the brink of getting a fixed resolution!! I wish. To get some upgrade on modest expenditure without getting into a potentially lengthy head off job on a high milage engine I purchased a replacement 90k engine off a '54 reg donor C5 saloon that was sold in gwo which I have no reason to doubt and take in good faith going by the seller's reputation and efficiency - this was also an autobox car. I have spent the past week swapping over the two engines which wasn't as horrific as it sounds albeit some faffing shoehorning the mill in and out of the tight access of the engine bay. The weather has been gorgeous and I have actually enjoyed the spannering right up to the point where it won't start. The autobox split and reconnection went smoothly and I have taken my painstaking time swapping the cut donor loom for the original recipient car one. Right - so it's all now plugged in together but won't start with fresh diesel present in the low pressure filter housing side of the diesel feed all primed and full but there is no sign of high pressure diesel injection - I have a bone dry injector feed and a starter that comfortably turns over a correct sounding compression 2.2 HDi engine. I have Lexia and the only error listed under Injection I bring up is a permanent fault on the fuel pressure regulator - 'short circuit to earth or open circuit' P0090. The immobiliser seems happy saying ECU is not locked / is matched and 'no problem is detected' and the central locking all operates with folding mirrors etc. The only hassle is the car is keen to keep going into battery economy mode. I have tested the glow plug relay switch / installed tested new glowplugs, can live feed the %age of accelerator pedal and have double checked all multi plugs and flywheel sensor and have poured over 100's of digital camera pictures I have taken at every stage of the engine swap - that's why it took me so long!! I couldn't get any vibration or buzz from the pressure regulator that came with the donor engine so for a 20 minute punt I have swapped to the original engine pressure regulator in case that yielded a result with a known working unit but there's no change and that's as far as I have got. I have checked and rechecked all the gaggle of wiring and ecu's on the nearside 'consumer unit' that had to be removed and all the fuses and earths. What could be significant is the vacuum pipes had originally seen some previous owner butchery and I have tried as best as possible to match factory setting pipework on the donor engine with the various plumbing and vacuum valves on the car and spent a while looking at my many pictures and service citroen for the gas recycling circuit set up - I have the standard egr pipework setup BTW. Is there a trick to priming the pump that was drained before it was shipped as I don't have the old bulb primer as found on previous Xantiae or button on the filter housing as per CX / XM? For all the world it seems like the classic old fuel cut off switch problem on the CX DTR 2.5 that had the tiny electromagnet plunging pin that locked into shut mode when failing. I love this car and don't want to give in just yet but have spent rather too much time bending into the engine bay lately... Any ideas? I don't mind answering all / any / silly questions. Charlie

Thank you for the welcome Paul, It's nice to know I can talk with someone who knows these beasts better than I? I think events are overtaking me with my C5 now. As I haven't touched the car for over a fortnight after typing the post above I have looked at the car again afresh. Whilst the car started instantly it cut out and struggled to restart and did after running on about 3 cylinders but is idling happily again. It now seems the symptoms have had a chance to worsen and now look like a nailed on gasket failure as the exhaust steaming is far more pronounced and the sucker punch is a white frothy film present in the expansion header though not it isn't pressurised (yet). It must have started to go when I was looking at it last and it now needs full mechanical attention. I want to make a fix as I value the car and haven't seen one with quite the same spec even spending lots of £'s and it drives beautifully and still has a month old MOT. The current situation brings me more to the second query in my first post - what is the compatibility of the 172bhp 2.2 engine I am interested in - is the change purely down to the twin turbo and manifold? Do I attempt an 'upgrade' to make it run 172bhp with likely engine management incompatibilities and potential unsuitability to a highish mile but fully working autoadaptive gearbox or can I plug the 172 head/block in to run in my C5 as is. Does anyone know the differences between the 138 and 172 2.2 engines and whether I can make this engine available to me work and even whether they physically would plug in as replacements to one another? I can get access to a Lexia diagnostic laptop although it may be a case of the blind leading the blind using it! Thanks, Charlie.

Hello, I'm making my first ever post here on this forum and I really hope that the knowledge and expertise I have already read will help me make sense of an issue I have with my particular C5. My C5 is a 2005 facelifted mk1 2.2 HDi 138bhp Exclusive estate auto with 160k miles. I believe I have cooked the head gasket but the symptoms don't match my experience with older diesel and petrol CX's / Xm's and I would appreciate confirming my thoughts with those who know the C5 well, or certainly better than me, as I have only owned the car for just over x2 happy years with no issues. On the way into town on a reasonably quick moving dual carriegeway it started warning of excessive engine temperature so I stopped immediately and checked the rad which was cold so likely an air lock? I limped the car home later after allowing the engine to cool right down and checking water levels and the temp gauge seemed to yo-yo from normal at the 80 or so vertical to max in seconds so I wasn't even sure if a sensor was sending a stable signal? On checking the car a few days later, as a precaution I fitted a new thermostat and bled and levelled the water and the engine starts and runs sweetly and stable. The water doesn't drop in volume that I can discern and doesn't pressurise the expansion tank, the oli is clean and its level is on the mark and the cap doesn't show moisture build up nor mayo creaming in the oil nor does the dip stick. Outwardly the car seems fine. However it has started to steam white clean water vapour out of the exhaust and hoping it was just trapped water in the exhaust I have sat the car idling for around 20 minutes and the temperature seems to sit at around 70 and not go any higher - it doesn't even seem to get hot to get the fans cutting in. I have tried a dose of K-seal in the hope any minor water to air leak could be highlighted but this has made no difference. What am I missing, is this a small head gasket failure or is there another way water can get into the exhaust via for example the induction / exhaust pipework autobox heat exchanger or turbo etc. I can get help from my son to change the head gasket but have read online it's a tricky job and the cost of maybe gettting a new head matches a whole engine to swap out that would require similar time to remove/fit and could be a better option using a known quantity donor. Is the gasket reapir job as bad as some say online? For a fair price locally I can get a full bar the cat 100k 2.2 HDi engine but it now turns out it's a 172bhp twin turbo version - is this compatible with my car / loom engine management? I need a to gain a lot more knowledge about whether this engine would fit/work? Any advice/guidance would be most welcome. Charlie.