The search for a DX engine (Part 1)

MY DS had originally been fitted with a red tag 'DX' engine but, somewhere along the way - and while it retained it's original ancillaries such as starter, carb and alternator - it had acquired a 'DX2 engine block and cylinder* I'd come to realise this soon after I acquired the car, but never got to the bottom of it. I'd always wanted to reinstall a DX engine in my car, but while I was driving it around and enjoying it, it simply wasn't a priority. Now that the current engine was out of the car well, that was a different matter, and a 'DX' engine went up my priority list again - especially as I now suspected my current DX2 engine was tired and badly worn.

In October 2015 I started to track down a 'DX' engine. They were only fitted for a few years, so were relatively scarce compared to the DX2. After several false leads, I discovered that Adie Pease (Peacock Engineering) over in Norfolk had one. It was a little rough but was fairly complete. It lacked the ancillaries, but I would swap these over from my current engine. 

Very early one rainy Saturday in November, I drove westward to Winslow in my Zafira to meet Richard. Picking up an old pine table top from his firewood store, we drove on to the barn to pick up additional pallets and cushions to pad out and protect the back of the Zafira from the engine I planned to pick up that day. In driving rain we set off on the long trek east to Norfolk to meet Adie with a view to a potential purchase.

When we arrived, Adie's barn workshop resonated to the sounds of choral music. Now it wouldn't normally be my kind of thing, but I could instantly see how it was great background music when working on cars in such a big open space. Adie already had the DX engine up on an engine stand and had started stripping it down. The block was caked in mud, rust and oil, but under the rocker cover the rockers and spring assembly looked clean an tidy (not tar-covered as  they were on my current engine), and the tappets were shiny and smooth. Adie showed me others in his workshop to  demonstrate what 'bad' looked like. The engine wouldn't turn and one of the pots looked dry and crusty. It received a liberal squirt of WD40 and I had instructions to repeat the exercise for several  more weeks. Two bolts had been sheared when removing the head and Adie showed me and Richard how these could be removed by welding a nut to the end. The sudden burst of heat is thought to 'shock' the frozen metals, allowing the broken stud to be gently loosened and teased out.

I told Adie I was going to have a go at rebuilding an engine - my first. I tested my rudimentary knowledge on him and he gave me some further pointers and the offer off telephone help if I got stuck. Money changed hands and Adie helped load the booty in the back of the Zafira with an engine crane. Richard and I began the long drive back to the barn, arriving at teatime in darkness. We backed my Zafira into the barn and, using Doug's engine crane, carefully placed the 'DX' engine down in a quiet corner with a squirt of WD40 and threw the cushions back in a corner before heading home. It had been a long day, but very satisfying.

DX Engine - Small Barn, 21 November 2015

* I still have the original "Certificate De Conformite" that came with my DS when it rolled out of the Quai De Javel in early 1968. This lists both the cars chassis number and its corresponding engine number. In 2014, when updating my V5 with my new Bedford address, I was amazed to find that not only was the engine number on the V5 different to that on the "Certificate De Conformite" but it was also significantly different to the engine actually now fitted to my car. So it looks as though the engine had been changed at least twice before the car reached me!

Quick Word About.......Fire Safety: Carburettor Fuel Inlets

I’m resurrecting something that has been raised on the CCC (Citroen Car Club) forum, as any safety tip is worth repeating.

For those that don’t know, there is a possibility that the brass fuel inlet fitting can work lose from the carburettor body.

Loose Inlet Pipe (Photo: Colin Smith)

If this happens while you’re driving, your pump will spray fuel over the engine as you splutter to a halt. If you’re lucky, you push the pipe back on and off you go. If you're unlucky, you get a fire....... 

Photos: Gerry Freed

The solution is to replace the brass push-fitting with something that’s going to stay in place and hold the hose tight. With that in mind, Richo - a much respected contributor to the ‘Aussiefrogs’ forum down in Oz - made threaded and barbed fittings and sold a few batches of kits on a non profit making basis. The kits consist of a fitting machined by Richo, a cutting tap of the correct size and pair of hose clips. The fitting has a threaded end to go in the carb body and a barbed end that the fuel pipe fits to. Richo also sold just the fitting if you were so inclined.

Richo's Fittimg

The fitting can be used on a Weber or Solex carbs.

Richo's Fitting - Fitted......

Reports from grateful customers in Oz prove they are a hit. Here is some fitting advice by Richo, lifted from Aussiefrogs:

"The kit fits either the Weber as fitted to the later 21 and 23 engines as well as the Solex fitted to the D Specials. If your D was built from 1966 to 1974 then this kit fits.

I recommend removing the carburettor top and then tapping the thread required, BUT others will simply slap some grease on the tap then gently and carefully, making certain the tap is square to the hole, turn the threading tap a couple of turns, remove the tap, clean off the swarf, put some fresh grease on, thread some more until the job is done. At the very least, remove the filter nut at the top left side of the unit and block the access. You can also gain access to clean out swarf.

A small amount of thread tape, probably one wrapped turn will be sufficient. Next, thread the new fitting into place, with your 11mm or 7/16" wrench. I prefer to also use the hose clamp supplied in the kit on the new fitting, even though the barbs will hold the plot, no worries."


The last few kits that Richo made (in 2013?) found their way to New Zealand and the safe hands of Roger Simpson. Kiwi’s have been slow to take advantage of these and Roger is happy to see them go to good homes in the UK. Following the trail from Aussiefrogs I was able to contact Roger who happily sent me a couple here in the UK. Roger now about 6  fittings left. No Taps. Price for the fitting for NZ customers are NZ$15 (about £7) including postage. Contact Roger direct via the ‘contact’ form on his website and he’ll give you a price for the UK: 

http://www.ds23.co.nz. 

This will not include a tap to cut a thread, so you will need to purchase your own. The outer diameter of the brass push-fitting you are replacing (and so also the hole it leaves in the carburettor body) is about 8.15mm. To cut a thread, you need a tap slightly larger, which is why these fittings have an M9 threaded end. You will therefore need to buy a M9 x 1.00mm bottoming tap. Or contact me and you can borrow mine.

Colin Smith here in the UK picked up on the same idea. Colin used a 1/8” BSPT brass tail fitting readily bought in the UK, for example from Tom Parker Ltd for the princely sum of £2.04.

<<EDITED JUNE 2019: just guesswork, but I now believe it’s a 1/8" x 5/16" fitting that Colin used. 1/8" refers to the imperial thread size of the threaded end. If you buy an imperial fitting, you will need to buy an imperial tap of course. A 1/8" threaded end has a diameter of  about 9.7mm so before you tap for 1/8", you may need to drill out the hole in the carburettor to about 8.7mm or 8.8mm - otherwise your tap may be too tight for the hole.

BSPT also means that the fitting has a slight taper on the threaded end, this would mean that it got tighter as you screwed it in. there is a risk of it then cracking and splitting the carburettor body if you are too forceful.  This could lead to a fuel leak - the very thing you are trying to avoid.....So, instead, try to find a 'BSPP' variant as the threaded part will have parallel sides - just like a bolt.

5/16" refers to the internal diameter of the rubber hose you will push on to the fitting. 5/16" is about 8mm so the size of the DS fuel pipe you would use with the original non-barbed end piece.>> 

So anyway, you can buy off-the-shelf fittings that will do this job. I think Richo’s fittings are a little less-obtrusive than the off-the-shelf ones but there’s not much in it and at the end of the day, either version is better than an engine fire.

EDIT: fast forward to my post dated 30 June 2018 HERE and you can see how I got on fitting my 'Richo' fitting to my Weber carb.

If you don’t fancy your ability to do this without messing your carb up (or causing a fire!), Colin first tried a less elegant but equally effective solution using a tie rod of copper wire held on with jubilee clip. 

You can find Colin’s write up and fitting advice for both methods on his blog:

http://citroendsrestoration.blogspot.co ... afety.html

I hope this provides some food for thought. If you want one of Richo's fittings, contact Roger in NZ while he still has a few left

Rockers and Cylinder Head Removal

With the engine fairly clean now, I could see what I was doing and set to work getting to the heart of the matter.

Glued-Up Rockers - 19 October 2015

Removal of the rocker cover revealed thick, baked-on, tar-like oil caked over everything. It was very doubtful that oil had been circulating as it should. If it was like this up top, what was the bottom end going to be like?

Richard started working on me again: since the engine was already out, it would be madness to put it back in without changing the timing chain and piston rings. And if you were going to do that, ou might as well inspect and replace the bearings. I gulped. Surely all this was beyond me? I'd never anything like that before. I barely knew where to begin. However a second glance at the rockers convinced me he was right: it had to be done.

The head would have to come off. I removed the water pump and water pump housing. I was shocked by the amount of grit and sludge I could see through the aperture into the cylinder head. I scooped it out but it seemed to be never-ending. I stopped short of removing the cylinder head - worried about tales of snapped bolts and then problems with their removal. Although, as it turned out, overcoming that uncertainty was surprisingly easy: all I had to do was pick up the phone.

One Saturday in October 2015, I took a call from Richard: he was up at the barn and together with Doug had pulled my cylinder head! Only two bolts had snapped!

Cylinder Head: Blocked Waterways - 19 October 2015

At the earliest opportunity, I used a lunchtime to get over to the barn. Lifting the dust sheet covering the car I found a box of oily springs, rockers and bolts. Examining the underside of the cylinder head my suspicions were confirmed: the waterways were badly blocked. Pulling the head had been the right decision. This engine was going to need some serious work.

Cleaning The Engine Bay

Having pulled the trick off with the engine, I thought I'd do the same with the body before it was winter, and give it spray clean.

An Uncharacteristically Empty Barn! 19 September 2015

I re-fitted the steering rack to hold the wheels parallel and, with the pump-up dollies fitted once again, was able to wheel and manoeuvre the car outside.

A Wash and Brush Up - 19 September 2015

Armed with white spirit, my Karcher and an air compressor, I set to work. 

I dismantled and removed the extra heat shielding that Pallas cars have on the bulkhead........

.......before drying everything off with compressed air - paying particular attention to the box sections and forcing moisture out of the holes in the bottom. Finally,  I wheeled the car back into the barn once again.

It had been ONE YEAR since I embarked on my journey.

Engine Out

At the end of May 2015, and with the help of Doug, his son and their engine crane - the engine finally came out of my DS...... 

Engine Out

As I told my kids when I got home: it was miraculous - I just opened the bonnet and it just floated out! It was all I could do to stop it floating to the ceiling!

Now it sat on a simple trolley - rigged from a pallet and some sturdy castors borrowed from Doug.

I sprayed the engine liberally with cheap white spirit, leaving it to soak-in, and repeated the exercise on several quick lunchtime trips from work until.......

Engine Clean Up - 7 June 2015

.......I was able to give it a clean-up.

Armed with more white spirit, rags and toothbrushes, my Karcher pressure washer and Doug's air compressor, I wheeled the engine outside. Luckily for me it was a lovely warm day.

I blocked the main apertures that I could see. After more squirting with white spirit........

..........I gave it a blast with the Karcher........Yes! a Karcher!!

.......before going over it all quickly with compressed air.

The aluminium parts came up a dull and disappointing dull grey colour. Yuk!

I looked for some positives: at last - no more dirt. No more rat shit. It still wasn't a pretty sight, but I felt I was making visible progress.

Preparation

Christmas 2014 came and went before I was able to get back to the barn again. The thought of long, cold gloomy hours there did not appeal. The initial joy of getting the car running was a fading memory as my thoughts turned to the problem of getting the car out from it's corner.  There wasn't enough room to manoeuvre it using it's own steering. It was boxed in on all sides. It was like one of those nine square puzzles with eight pieces you can slide around one empty space. How was I going to do this? Who owned all these other vehicles? How could I coordinate them to all move their cars so I could get mine out? Even if they were moved there wasn't enough room to steer it out and pushing it back and forward suggested the rear brakes were seized.

By February 2015 I had managed to ruthlessly clear a lot of rubbish from the garden shed and had even managed to to install my old workbench that had been stored in the lock up. Double result! I had more space in the lock up AND workspace in the garden. With a bit more effort I retrieved the majority of DS parts from the lock up - already packed in sturdy green cardboard fruit and vegetable crates from a well know high street supermarket. These were stacked floor to ceiling in the corner of the shed. The bigger DS parts at the lock up were left stuffed up in the eaves - out of sight, out of mind. I'd already had one break-in there but with the floor then full of crap, it was hard for anyone to get past the bent and busted door - so nothing was stolen. I had to admit to myself, though, that my big worry was someone breaking in and steeling my DS panels for their scrap value. I would have been gutted. By March 2015, the lock up was just about empty - save for two DS gearboxes and some '5J' wheels


The car-moving problem was starting to resolve itself too. With winter just about over, some owners were retrieving their vehicles, or at least planning-to.

The Barn. My DS Under the Sheeting - May 2015

Living in Winslow and with three Citroens stored at the farm, Richard was there often and managed to speak to a couple of owners who agreed to let us shift their cars. That included the Aston Martin owner! We turned up one Saturday and set to work, pushing a few vehicles out of the way and using Richard's 'H' van to tow another. Using a compressor we got the tyres reinflated and, using four pump-up dollies with castors borrowed from Doug, the race car builder, we fitted 'roller skates' to my car. These made it far more manoeuvrable and with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, we finally got it out of the corner and into a more open space.

I started the car again - almost just to prove to Doug that I was serious and that this was a viable proposition. With the car now free, Richard persuaded me to try running it out of the barn. I struggled. I couldn't get it into gear. The car made some moaning noises - which might have been down to fluid under pressure. Were the brakes seized? Had I simply forgotten how to drive a bvh? I fiddled with the clutch lock lever under the dash.

The Beginning - March 2015

Eventually the car began to roll forward and out of the barn where it made a graceless circle around the yard. This felt good! I tried to reverse back in to the barn and the car protested. Lifting the bonnet I could see a fresh 'squirt' of LHM down near the bonnet and, on closer inspection, LHM bubbling from about half way along the cluster of pipes from the gear selector brain to the gearbox.  Looking at their profile several months later, I suspect the pipes had been bent and when the engine had been previously removed and my ham-fisted attempts at starting the car may have ruptured a week spot on the pipe. Regardless, it was another job to add to the list.

The car was slowly driven back into the barn and the serious work of removing the engine began. Without engine and hydraulics, the car would sink to the ground, and I needed it to be at road height to work on it and move it around. Jacking up the car and propping it on axle stands, I removed the spheres and inserted cut lengths of broomstick before replacing the spheres *

Bit by bit the car was taken apart and all the smaller pieces coming off were put in freezer bags marked up with a Sharpie pen. I also took a good number of reference photos - though with greasy, dirty hands, handling my phone was not always practical, so i didn't take as many as I'd like.

Sometimes I'd use lunchtime at work to pop over and see the car. Maybe just to remind myself of how something fitted or where it had been taken from. Maybe just to take some measurements. Maybe just to make a movie...... 

10 April 2015 (Part 1)

Or maybe two.........

10 April 2015 (Part 2)

Getting There - 8 May 2015

My time at the barn each trip was limited and, at the end of each visit, all the pieces removed were  taken home and carefully placed in yet more green cardboard vegetable crates - which were slowly growing in number in the garden shed. 

I cut through the exhaust flexi-pipe under the car - being careful not to cut the downpipes from the manifold.

When I couldn't get to the barn, I busied myself inspecting and cleaning up some of the parts removed. I'd fitted a low cost bench grinder with wire wheel to the end of my workbench. One of the best car restoration investments I've ever made.


* A WORD OF CAUTION: Some people are dead against inserting anything in the suspensions cylinders. Partly this is because of fear of damaging the damper valve on the suspension sphere after it is re-fitted and, in the case of wood, partly because of the risk of  introducing contaminants (splinters) into the hydraulic system. There is also the risk of wood swelling up and becoming jammed in the cylinder. As I was going to re-fit sacrificial spheres, I decided to take this chance and was prepared to accept the other consequences (or at least remind myself that I'd gone in 'eyes-open').

If you plan to take out your engine and need to move the car around afterwards - but aren't willing to take such a chance, then there are alternatives. Citroen Classics sell a handy gizmo that screws into the cylinder in place of a sphere. You can find it here:  http://shop.citroenclassics.co.uk/suspension-up-tool-pair-483-p.asp

Interlude: Citromobile 2015

With a growing 'wants' list of parts, I convinced my wife, and myself that it was more economical to go to a big Citroen meeting in Holland to buy parts, than it was to buy them piece by piece from the UK. there was also more likelihood of me finding the things I needed and wanted. 

I'd not been before, but by 2015 'Citromobile' was based at the exhibition centre in Haarlem, just south of Amsterdam. Held over the first weekend in May, the meeting consists of all things Citroen, including cars on display and for sale and, importantly, a large auto jumble. The car park alone is worth the visit.

Taking Richards Citroen estate, we caught the night ferry from Dover on the Friday night. We found ourselves in good company, with a few other Citroen Car Club members making the same journey. We had a curry, watched the ferry fill up, had a drink and chatted with the other obvious Citroen travellers. This was quality downtime for me. Taking a cabin, we were woken early to find ourselves in Holland and, after a good breakfast made the hour drive up to Haarlem. The event did not disappoint. I deliberately took a very ambitious list of wants - knowing that I would be able to come back with at least some of the things on the list.

The event was also an invaluable source of reference material and I took many under-bonnet shots

After two days of browsing and buying, split by a night on a nearby campsite, we caught the Sunday night ferry back to the UK - arriving at Dover for breakfast. Having left home on Friday evening, by Monday mid morning I was home again - with a load of DS treasure.

The Citromobile weekend is now firmly established in my calendar and I am indebted to the continuing indulgence of my wife Gayle, who not only tolerates my rabid and incessant DS fascination, but who also lets me clear off to the Continent each May for a 'lads weekend'. XXX

The Plan

The car was a runner.

I had no off-road parking in Bedford. The DS had not been a consideration when house-hunting in 2004. Now 2014, the initial plan was to give the car a hose down at the barn to remove the dust and rat shit, and then to trailer it back to the lock up in Bedford so that it could be cleaned up closer to home.

Lying on my sunbed in August I had no thoughts of stripping the car in any serious way as there was no space at the lock up. 

Visual Aid: My Lock Up and a DS

Some careful measurements had shown that the car might fit in the lock-up with about 5cm to spare, but it would be impossible to drive in and out anyway as there was zero room for opening a car door. The lock up could only ever be for storing the car - assuming it fitted. Which was far from certain.

In my head I had hoped that, once back in the bright sunlight outside my Bedford lock-up, I would simply wipe it down with an oily rag and then drive off smiling into the sunset. However the reality of what I found under the bonnet at the barn that September - the years of dirt and rat shit - meant this was not how it was going to happen. Much of the engine was inaccessible and, without a more serious plan, the car would always stay looking like a very tatty DS. I owed it to my car to lift it beyond that. I also harboured a long-held desire to drop an original 1968 'DX' engine in the car, to replace the 'DX2' engine it had found itself with

While we struggled to get the car to start, I spent plenty of time thinking about what to do next if, and when, I got it going -  walking through it time and time again. Pondering the variables. Making notes, checking facts and assumptions. Plotting new solutions. It was tiring.

Brining the car back to Bedford meant clearing the lock up to make room. That meant throwing away some things and storing other things elsewhere. THAT meant clearing stuff from the garden shed, which meant throwing some things away and storing other things elsewhere......... the fact was that I had finite storage space and needed to make the most of it. There were also a couple of things in the lock up that were waiting to be sold on Ebay or installed in our house.

Strip Down: Small Barn - March 2015

I explained my storage and dirty engine dilemma to Richard. Richard started to work on me: while the DS was up at the barn I should make use of the space: pull the engine out and give it a proper clean up. Doug had two engine cranes and Richard assured me he could be persuaded to let me use one. 

Richard's nagging started to sink in. Removing the engine wasn't that mad was it?  I could whip the engine out, give it a once-over, give it a more thorough clean and then drop it back in. Easy! I started my research, turning in particular to a three-part video from Steve Hammond I found on YouTube. You can find the first part here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPsreBggsBw.

Watching the videos several times, I typed-out a check list of the removal stages. I cross-referenced this against the procedure listed in the factory workshop manuals and amended it accordingly. In my head I went over the process of pulling the engine out. Seemed simple enough. One of those lists is dated 2 December 2014. So with the car only running from 30 November, Richard must have started working on me pretty early on. 

I made the commitment - verbally and psychologically: I would do it. I would pull the engine. I could also explore the scope to drop that 'DX' engine in........