Oh Dear... Is it worth fixing?

[benczuk]

Cant tell you I'm afraid, all I had was a verbal "belt was changed at xxk miles" from the previous owner. if i had know how easy they were to change i would have done it when I got it. Much easier than my old 405 1.9

[Doggy]

Yes, I found it much easier than the HDi 90 Xsara I had before, that extra 1/2" of space betwixt engine & inner wing makes a huge difference.

Didn't 405's have a kinda barmy 'extra bulkhead' behind the engine too?

[benczuk]

Back on the road! total spend £382 in parts plus about 4 days of work for me and my Dad (and 1.5 months off the road). Not too bad I think and it is so nice to drive after the Ford Galaxy I was using as a temporary measure. You forget how comfortable they are!

Question: I'm currently tootling about with a self imposed limit of 2500 rpm. Am I right to do this to allow everything to bed in? How many miles should I restrain myself for?

[jonsowman]

Well done!

[Doggy]

Excellent result young man!

Simply not on letting one of the world's finest armchairs expire for want of a little TLC,

[GingerMagic]

Nice work, glad the steed is back on the road.
Is the cambelt really easy to change on the 2.2? I was quoted £450 - 'cos its 4 hours work, mate' - at a local garage.
I declined his offer.......

[Doggy]

I've done easier ones and the other kind, I'd say it's a good 4 hours for a competent DIYer, (which is why it took me about 6 hours).

[benczuk]

Thanks for the comments.

The most annoying bit is removing / refitting the plastic cowling, took about an hour to remove and the same to refit skinning my knuckles and moving 2 flats at a time on some of the bolts. That and taking the bottom pulley off (in gear, someone with foot on the brakes or borrow a decent impact driver)

4 hours is probably about right now I know what I'm doing. Its time consuming, but not terribly tricky or complicated so "certainly something a competent DIYer could do if you have the time" as Ed China would say.

[benczuk]

Anyone have opinions on how long I should take it steady for? I promise not to shout at you if it blows up

[Doggy]

What did the rebuild entail?

I would have thought you only need to worry about running it in, if you've changed the rings, shells, cam bearings or the like. Having said that I'd probably take it easy until i rebuilt a bit of confidence *

* or until some arsehole in a Audi/VW needs sorting, whichever comes first

[nutski]

Nice work, glad the steed is back on the road.
Is the cambelt really easy to change on the 2.2? I was quoted £450 - 'cos its 4 hours work, mate' - at a local garage.
I declined his offer.......

My mechanic was £240 for parts and labour, that was the belt and tensioners etc....

[benczuk]

Sorry been away for a week so slow to reply.

@Doggy Thanks for the reply. back up to speed it is

Question:

When rebuilding we started to torque down the cam cover and noticed that the bolts were going around a bit too easily. Took one out and found it was stretching (by a good 2 mm) so decided against torquing them and just did them up "as tight as we dare", suffice to say that the one we took out snapped a few seconds later but luckily held just enough to wind back out and allow us to replace with something that fitted.

there is now evidence of a very small weep of oil from between the cam cover and head. I am assuming that using hylomar or similar is a bad move as it will raise the cover slightly allowing the cams to move about, so I was looking to buy a new set of bolts to torque down properly. I have looked on ebay but I cant find anyone selling cam cover bolts for the 2.2hdi. Can anyone tell me a part number or suggest a source?

Ben

[steve_earwig]

#17 here?


I suspect not

[benczuk]

Not 17 but 10 thanks