1999 HDi engine swap - It works and has driven home!

[JonL]

HI,
As the engine is 'only ' at 200k then its worth saving in my opinion. Mines on the same miles and still works fine and takes the punishment. I DO however ensure that all is well serviced and looked after.
A secondhand head might be worth investigating...or ebaying what's left to recover the money.
(I still have a good nick 1.9 td spare head if anyone wants it btw? ...from a bottom end repair)

Whilst its up on the ramps then the bottom balljoints will be relatively easy to do, especially if you have access to a blowtorch and air chisel as they ARE troublesome to remove. Presumably they're the originals? If so you'll need to change them by now.

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff25 ... V00043.flv

For 20 ish quid its worth the investment believe me. A lick of copper grease on the thread upon refitting will help for for
future removal if necessary.

For the record we had to change the engine on a 1.9 td due to the soft conrods/split piston problem and a 306 td engine was employed . All that was needed was to use the 406 turbo & manifolds etc on that engine. All proved fine and the car is still running now 6 years on. The Hdi I imagine should be ok as all the castings are probably the same.

Hope this helps.

T

Thanks for the advice. I have paid for the replacement now so I will stick with the change. I will try and sell on the bits from the old engine to re-coup some of the cost.

I have just heard that the seller has put off the collection of the engine until next week so I am another week behind in my schedule, not happy at all. Still I will try and get to purchase the parts needed for the swap, and get all my ducks in a row before it arrives.

[steve_earwig]

You already paid? I hope it exists!

[JonL]

It had better bl00dy well exist! I have spoken to the bloke and he seems genuine, he also had to go and look at the engine to get the code, and I was talking him thorough it, so he is either a very good actor or genuine. I have also seen photographs of the engine sat on the floor next to a gearbox that he was also selling on e-bay. I am sure that he is genuine but just being a bit of an ass about the hand over at the moment.

[JonL]

Well after a 7 hour round trip yesturday I finally have both engines in the garage. At first inspection they looked identical, the injectors and wiring especially, and I have taken photos and will post when I get home. The biggest dissapointment is that the engine looks like it has covered several hundred thousand more miles than mine! There is slight corrosion and just dirt everywhere, overall it just looks shabby. I am not sure if this is because it has been out of an engine bay for a bit but not quite what I was expecting for an engine that has covered half the miles of mine.

I have started to strip bits and pieces off the "new" engine and ther are some diffreences and I am after some advice. The first is the air intake. On the 306 engine the intake pipe is metal and runs slightly differently to the 406 one. The dump valve(?) is in a slightly different place but looks relativly similer. The other is part of the coolent system that runs over the engine gearbox join. On the 406 there is a pipe that runs from the base of a large metal section bolted onto the engine forwards. On the 306 engine this is blanked off with an inset plate.

I have checked the engine code and they are the same, RHY, but have I bought a complete pup here and is it worth trying to swap over all of the pieces to convert the 306 engine to the same as my 406 one?

Appologies for the spooling mistakes, I am on another computer and it dosent have my normal spell checker on it!

[JonL]

Well it has taken me a bit of time but here are the photos! Apologies in advance for the quality, they were taken on my phone in a garage lit by fluorescent bulbs! I will post the original 406 engine first and the "new" 306 one immediately after.

First the general shots of the injector wiring, the place I was told was the likely difference.



The 306 engine has different coloured wires (a lovely shade of pink!) but looks identical:



I think that there is no differnce at all between these two so I was very excited.

Now onto the sad bit of the evening and the differences.

Here is a shot of the 406 air intake from the passenger side showing the plastic intake pipe.



On the 306 it is much shorter metal pipe as seen here:



Most of the fittings look to be the same but I am not sure how they come apart and if it is an easy swap. As you come round the rear of the engine the differences continue.

The 406 has, what looks like, a dump valve sited vertically at the right hand end of the inlet runner, seen here:



The 306 set up is slightly different and the same part is located lower under the top inlet runner. It is a little difficult to see but you can just make it out. It is also at the right hand end but somewhat hidden:



The turbo downpipe also has a different end fitting. On the 406 it has a bell shaped end that is clamped to the exhaust but on the 306 it is a bolted flange. I think that I will have to swap over the complete inlet / exhaust set up form the cylinder head as one piece. This would solve all of the problems but I could not see how difficult a job that would be. Has anyone done it?

The second difference was part of the coolant (?) system. To the right hand end of the engine, as viewed from the front of the car, there is a large metal part that has coolant pipes running from it. On the 406 there is a pipe that runs from the bottom of this part directly forward to the radiator, I think. You can see it here:



On the 306 this pipe has been replaced by a blanking plate that is heavily recessed into the main body of the part.



I am not sure what this part is and will have to look it up in my Haynes manual but again does anyone know what it is and how I would go about modifying it to fit the 406 or will I have to swap the parts over again? If so how difficult is it likely to be?

Sorry for the long post, but I am a firm believer that a picture is worth a thousand words, even my poor attempts on a camera phone.

Many thanks again,

jon

[mjb]

Personally, I'd strip both down and just swap all the bits over, making everything nice and shiny clean as I went. You learn more that way

[JonL]

Personally, I'd strip both down and just swap all the bits over, making everything nice and shiny clean as I went. You learn more that way

Yes, but that raises two questions;

Firstly what is the part in the second set of pictures?

Secondly how difficult will it be?

[TopDonkey]

That 'large metal part' is the coolant manifold and its only held on by 4 or 5 bolts, i wouldnt bother trying to modify it, just swap them over with a new gasket, its only a 10 minute job

On the wastegate, again i would just swap your manifolds over from your existing engine, its an easy job to do, new gaskets needed, and you get the chance to scrape out all the soot that blocks the inlet manifold at the same time !

[JonL]

Was just about to post that I had discovered that the coolant part was the coolant inlet manifold, but was beaten too it Nice to get that confirmed though. The Haynes lists both jobs, coolant manifold and the inlet / exhaust manifolds as relatively easy jobs so will be taking the old engine apart later this week. I will have to collect a set of gaskets as i go to ensure that I get the correct ones to replace them, a little more cost but still less than the dealer was going to charge. Onward and upward.......

[steve_earwig]

Much easier with the engine out

That 'large metal part' is the coolant manifold and its only held on by 4 or 5 bolts

Looking in the pics 3 bolts, 2 nuts, might need a gasket (1340 51 under 2 quid).

[JonL]

Right here is tonight's update:

Got into the garage about 1900 hrs and started to strip the manifolds off the 406 engine. Trust Peugeot and there were far more bolts then are really needed and I was unsuccessful in my desire to strip them off as one piece. I eventually got them off and there are not several bits of pipework and assorted other parts on the garage floor. I then turned my attention to the coolant manifold and, yet again, there are a number of pipes that are hidden behind that need to be disconnected before removal. Still I stuck at it and that too now graces the floor of the garage. I then unloaded the new 306 engine from the trailer and sat it next to the, now slightly shorter, 406 one. The next problem was immediately obvious, the looms are completely different! Not just a little different but completely. I nearly threw in the towel at this point but Malcolm, bless his heart, appeared at this point with a cup of coffee and just laughed at me. Thus strengthened by his obvious delight at my predicament I set too checking all of the connectors and sensors on the engine. They all looked like they matched and were in the same places so I decided to swap over the looms as well, in for a penny and all that! The loom came off very easily and revealed a block that really needed a good clean. Thus I got out the plastic bags and tape and set too covering all of the exposed bits I didn't want getting wet. I then went too town with the engine degreasant, again, and hosed it all off. After drying with an airline it all looked a little better. The new 306 engine is now sitting next to the 406 one and tomorrow I will get hold of some gaskets and remove the manifolds from the 306 engine and replace them with the 406 parts. I will then replace the 406 loom and then will got round to doing the cambelt, water pump and bottom pulley! After that I need to refit the gearbox and get the whole lot back into the car. then all it has to do is actually work and I will not have wasted a week or so of my time. We will wait and see......

[Welly]

Great stuff! it seems right to swap over all the ancillaries just to save any trouble later although I can't understand why the 306 is so diferent

Good luck with the rest of it

[JonL]

I didn't manage to get much time in the garage last night but did get to Camberley Auto factors and get some of the bits I need to complete the job. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any of the cylinder head gaskets so I could not start to fit the parts I need to swap over. I did, however, manage to strip the 306 engine back and it is now ready to accept the bits I want to swap. I will try to get into my local stealer to get the gaskets and then get into the garage tonight to fit the 406 manifolds to the 306 engine.

[JonL]

Just back in from the garage and I have hit a slight snag - so answers on a postcard please!

I have refitted the coolant manifold and associated pipework, whilst doing so I noticed that the 306 engine does not have a rear engine mount fitted so swapped that as well! I went to try and clean the inlet manifold but that was coated in a 2 mm thick (at least) layer of what looked like thick tar! I guess that this is from the exhaust gas recirculation system, but it was horrible. I tried to clean it out using normal products but it has had to go for a soak in Malcolm's cleaning tank so work stopped on the swaps there.

I then turned my attention to the timing belt, I have to attempt it sometime so thought I would get a head start on it tonight. The bottom pulley was an absolute bitch to get off, even with air tools. I eventually managed it though but here is where I ran into trouble. I can see the 8mm hole in the camshaft pulley but cannot see the hole in the flywheel. I do not have a gearbox fitted and this might be the source of my problems. There is a tooth missing from the outer section of the flywheel, gearbox side, that would appear to line up with a threaded hole in the bell housing. Is this where the 8mm bolt goes to hold the flywheel? Do I have to re-fit the gearbox to change the timing belt? It seems a little vague to use a missing tooth, the gap is much bigger than 8mm, but if that really is the timing mark then so be it.

Any words of wisdom?

[jasper5]

An easy solution is to line up the camshaft hole, then mark each pulley with tipex or paint, you will not need the other timing marks as you just created your own.