Timex and friends

[citsncycles]

There is a thicker head gasket fitted - 5 notch insead of 3, which will hopefully avoid any problems.

[citsncycles]

Timex lives! Sort of anyway. Finished bolting everything together this evening and after what seemed an age (I had to try priming it several times) it rumbled into life. I had a split leakback pipe on the injectors (sorted by trimming the end) and tightened a cover plate on the head to curer a slight water leak and it seems to run well.

Unfortunately I now have a fuel leak on top of the injection pump where the throttle spindle is (Bosch pump) - watch the tech section for a question onit!

[citsncycles]

Well the fuel leak seems to have cured itself. Considering the early head is supposed to produce several bhp less than the later one, the head I removed was knackered! The engine is definately quieter than it was (the straight camshaft probably helps there!), it seems to fire up without even turning over as soon as the glowplug light goes out, and is smoother at lower revs. For the first time I can remove the radiator cap several hours after a run without it either throwing water at me or needing topping up! I've not pushed it hard yet as I always treat them gently after a new head gasket (a legacy of owning a Skoda Rapid that would spit it's gasket out at the drop of a hat), and I want to double check a couple of things before a run longer than the 9 miles to work (planning a longer trip tomorrow) but I wouldn't mind betting performance is at least as good as before!

I do have to sort the exhaust though - I can hear it much more now the engine is quieter! I have ordered a couple of clamps, just need the intermediate pipe now, but the ones on Ebay don't seem to be listed too clearly, and of course giving them my registration will result in the wrong part (if it recognises it at all - I know Citroen doesn't!)

[Dollywobbler]

Great stuff Mike! Glad she's up and running again.

[citsncycles]

Finally managed to upload a load of pics from the camera, so here goes:

As Timex looked before, with early 1989 engine (and I assume gearbox!), with what I thought at the time was a blown head gasket:


This breather pipe was split - so that's where the oil was coming from (this time!)


Reference pics while removing the thermostat housing








This inlet was blocked with crud, although when I cleaned it out it didn't seem to go anywhere anyway. The other end of the pipe goes to the radiator, so I'm at a bit of a loss about what this does.


Some of the other outlets didn't look too clever either, but I managed to clean them up OK


The inlet manifold came off, allowing me to get down the back of the engine to the exhaust manifold


Next the rocker cover came off, enabling me to remove the cam, before disconnecting the final hoses etc. and undoing the head bolts


Removal of the head revealed a horror story of cracks between each pair of valves, badly cracked swirl pots and one cylinder where the head surface had been so badly eroded that it had starting undercutting the valve seats. Just as well that I'd bought the bits from Andy to convert this engine to a square port head!


The head gasket in comparison actually looked quite good


After the state of the head, I was a little worried about the state of the block, so I checked that next


Luckily, other than some carbon deposits both the pistons and the cylinder walls looked good, with no nasty marks or wear ridges that I could see

[citsncycles]

Time to sort through what I had - Hmmm, looks like I had a sqare port manifold on a round port head!


While the replacement head was off being checked and skimmed, I cleaned up the other parts


Valves before grinding in


And after - One of the exhaust valved was damaged badly enough that it wouldn't grind smooth, so I swapped one from the head I removed


I also have before and after pics of the valve seats, which luckily all cleaned up OK




Head back for for the 3rd time and being assembled. 1st time away it had 7 thou taken off the surface, and was checked for cracks. There's minor cracking to a couple of swirl pots, but not enough to necessitate replacement apparently. I then took it back briefly after problems fitting the cam, to find out it was bent - a lot! The Westons came up trumps after pulling a cam from a corner of their workshop for me. That was when I discovered the cam bearing caps were scrap, but the machine shop rescued me on the 3rd visit by finding a set of 2nd hand ones that fitted both head and cam!


Head brought home from my mate John's garage ready for refitting


I fitted the exhaust manifold first after discovering on strip down that the front pipe wouldn't move far enough away from the engine to allow the manifold to be removed (& therefore fitted again) with the head bolted down.


Head bolted on with new bolts & washers - Citroen have substituted bolts for the 1.9D Berlingo, which are different to both types of BX bolts, so I decided to torque them down to the instructions in my Xantia manual, resoning that they were the closest to correct that I had.


I cannot tell you how good it was to finally bolt the cam in for the last time after the number of times it was fitted and removed while shimming up the valves!


After consulting the BXC resident Mk1 experts (thanks Andy & Tim) I created this breather system with some rubber tube and a plastic Y branch, which seems to do the trick. Eventually (if I find one) I'll fit the correct dipstick tube, which has an extra breather point and a sealed top


So, Timex is back on the road, as shown by this pic of my personal provate parking spot at work - even the 4x4 drivers park out on the road rather than here when the car park's full! Personally I'd worry about parking Timex out on the road all day in case it was reported as abandoned!

[Mothman]

Cracking explanation of your head change over Mike.

Glad to have helped with the bits etc.

Andy

[citsncycles]

Thanks, Andy. I'm thinking of starting a roll call of everyone who has contributed to keeping Timex on the road - there might even be a badge!

[Tim Leech]

How does she drive Mike?

[citsncycles]

Definite improvement with the new head. There doesn't seem to be much difference in power, although I think I'm using a lighter throttle now, which shows bad the other head was! It's starting better, and is much smoother at lower revs, as well as pulling better from those revs. It's also quieter, which is a mixed blessing as before it was masking how much the exhaust was blowing, and how bad one of the front wheel bearings was.

Still haven't had to refill with fuel yet, but 270 miles down the road it still has roughly 1/3rd of a tank left - it's difficult to tell for sure because the fuel guage is flicking all over the place.

[vulgalour]

Impressive salvaging there, and it's really rather brilliant to see Timex getting some love still.

[citsncycles]

Thanks. I could have gone the easy way and bought a recon head off Ebay for less than I've spent sorting the correct type head, but then again if I'd gone the easy way I wouldn't have Timex in the first place.

[citsncycles]

Finally managed a fuel fill tonight - I'm happy with 50mpg !

[Tim Leech]

Finally managed a fuel fill tonight - I'm happy with 50mpg !

So would I be!

[Dollywobbler]

48mpg was the best I ever managed, and that was driving like a saint. Glad it seems perkier as it was always very flat for an NA - which is saying something! Does it pull better through the rev range now? When I had it, the flat spot at 3000rpm was so bad that I just didn't bother revving it more than that. Had to keep the revs low to maintain progress - very odd!