If the purpose of shakedown testing is to discover problems - then I'm doing splendidly. So far I have discovered I have:
- a possible leak from the shaft of my HP pump
- an ongoing small leak somewhere in my radiator
- a pinhole leak in the corner of my cylinder head
HP Pump
The HP pump is really annoying as I replaced all the seals. You can read about that HERE. That means it could be user error, but (of course) I don't think so......I'm using 'Hydraurincage' rather than LHM in the hydraulic system. it's virtually clear in colour - so no green clues. What I'm seeing might be melted bearing grease that has been caused by the hot engine and spinning bearing/ shaft blob of epoxy repair stuff. However it has dripped on the ground rather than solidified again so I'm not sure about that theory. I suspect it's a mixture of grease AND Hydraurincage.
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| Source of the leak - behind the pulley |
I've got a second HP pump, though it only has a two-belt pulley and is missing the triangular brackets. I'm thinking I may need to strip that down alongside my leaking pump, just to make sure I (re)assembled things in the right order/ right orientation. At least then I'll have a spare i can try if the leak persists.
Radiator
I've only just fitted the radiator. I estimate the radiator had not put in more than 12 miles of on-road use before the car was laid-up back in 2000. As such, I'm now wondering whether it suffered frost damage at some point in its many years of lay-up.
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| 'New' radiator - as at September 2014 |
I remember when I 'rediscovered' the car back in 2014 that I'd needed to top up the cooling system, but there was a leak in the rubber hose under the manifold - so I wasn't surprised about that. I'm hoping I can get the radiator pressure-tested and avoid a re-core or replacement by just having it repaired, or even a single leaky tube isolated.
Cylinder Head
The cylinder head was an old 'DX' head bought from Citroen Classics. When I had it vapour-blasted it revealed a pin hole in the waterway from internal corrosion. You can read about that HERE. At the time, I used a high temperature epoxy aluminium pump repair product to repair it from inside out, and remember a little bead of filler squeezing through a hole - so assumed it was fixed.
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| Cylinder Head - Titanic disaster? |
Apparently not. Or did I miss a second hole? As a get-by, I may just roughen the outer surface and try and apply another blob of my pump repair stuff.
At least I have some things to think about.
Paul
