85 XN6 Project

[Peugeots_505]

New to the forum, been part of the Facebook group for some time now. I'm the proud owner of two Peugeot 505 wagons. 1984 TD with 251k and a 1985 XN6 5-spd with 174k. I just purchased the XN6 last year and had been driving it regularly until I ran into some issues. Fortunately that issue has been somewhat resolved, but I've decided to go a little deeper and address some problems plaguing this car.

Already started today by changing the oil again. Yes, ever since I bought it the oil seemed to have a milky substance, but the car ran and drove fine. Along with that problem, the oil had a strong odor of gas. Probably due to the fact that my timing was off, and the car was flooding. I decided to run some Marvel Mystery Oil along with some fresh synthetic oil, and everything seems much better!

My last task of today was to fix the lighting. My left sealed beam was shot, so I just decided to swap the whole assembly that I pulled from a parts car and now I can see.

Next couple tasks will be checking valve clearance, and changing my coolant.

Also, quick question, I've got some basic Rustoleum black paint, and was wondering if that would be safe to use on my valve cover. It's pretty rusty. I'm curious if it would get too hot for the paint to handle.

 

[Bean]

Welcome to the forum!

The milky oil is usually from a head gasket failure which is fairly common with XN series motors as the head bolts don’t get retorqued to specs.  When you do the valve adjustments you might want to do the head bolts just to make sure.  If you get the milky oil again it could be head gasket. 
 

Another thing to check is the pcv screens are clean and in place, and that the car is getting up to temp with a good drive to boil any moisture out of the oil.  Short trips can cause some condensation which will be enough to cause the milkshake on oil cap.

Rabin

[Peugeots_505]

Hey Rabin, thanks for the welcome!

The head gasket theory although always plausible, I don't believe that's the case. The coolant is green, the car does not smoke, and does not overheat.

Now I will say this, I believe the owner I bought it from began to neglect it towards the end of his ownership. When I bought this car, the number of issues was staggering. Dirty oil, no brake lights, bad shift linkage, bad clutch slave and master cylinders, no reverse lights, (still haven't fixed those), radio didn't work (was just a fuse), probably some more things I'm missing but it's a long list.

Anyways not too get off on a tangent, the thing I mostly believe to be correct is not getting the car up to operating temp. You see, I bought this car from a guy who lived on a small island in New York. My guess is he didn't drive it very far for very long and the car never got fully warmed up. I've also noticed that after my most recent change there is no milky substance in the cap, or on the dipstick. I already pulled the valve cover before my last oil change, and there was some milkshake there Cleaned it off and it's been fine since.

 

[Peugeots_505]

First update:

Got somethings accomplished over the last two days. Began to install some light bulbs for my climate controls, need two more for the ashtray, and ignition light.

 

Pulled the gauge cluster as well, the board is damaged badly in many areas. I'll have to see if I can get a new one, if not I'll have to locate a new cluster.

 

 

I did begin to drain my coolant but was having trouble removing the drain plug out of the rad. I did drain all of the coolant from the expansion tank, so at least that is fresh.

Finally I did one small cosmetic improvement. I went over my grill with a permanent marker that closely resembles the original "chrome" color. I'd say it looks pretty good! Now the lion stands out!

 

Next thing to check is valve clearance, probably retorque the head as well. Does anyone know exactly what it's supposed to be torqued to?

 

 

[Peugeots_505]

Small Update: 

Got my valves adjusted, and valve cover painted. Makes my engine bay a little more tidy. Will eventually re-torque my head. So many other things need to be done so will focus on those now.

Not sure what I will tackle next. Still have to order a bunch of parts.

[Peugeots_505]

More progress has been made, I got all light bulbs installed and most of the interior is back together. The ashtray light bulb socket seemed to be worn, so that wasn't working correctly. After messing with it for a while I lost the bulb, fell somewhere. I'll eventually get that working but it's fine for now.

Also in need of a shift knob and the shift boot in better condition. I think I've found a shift knob, finding the boot shouldn't be that hard either.

[Peugeots_505]

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thread, mostly because much progress hasn't been made. However, more recently some improvements have been completed. I installed the correct driver side sun visor. The one in the car was from a later model 505, and was in terrible shape.

Also cleaned the relays, and grounding trees in the black box under the hood. Removed the fuel pump, accumulator, and filter as well, I need to get the fuel filter, and I'm considering replacing the fuel pump. I have had the accumulator for a quite sometime, just need to install.

The most recent improvement I have made, has been getting a Peugeot oem stereo. Thanks to fellow Peugeot owner Karl Nelson, I finally was able to acquire two radios. They both need work, but they look a heck of a lot better than the Honda radio the car came with, and sound quite good. Next thing, on my list is a fuel filter, and fog lights. That should get the car up and running again, hopefully well. I have noticed a slight coolant leak, as my expansion tank is low. I'll have to look into this when I get the car running again.

[Peugeots_505]

Small update: A little more progress has been completed. Pump, filter, and accumulator bracket was sanded, and coated with rust reformer, then painted. I also finally acquired some of the hardware for the bracket. New nuts,washers, and screws. I went ahead and installed the accumulator, and it looks great. Something about new hardware is very satisfying, not sure I can quite explain it.

Side note: I got rid of the rusty blown up muffler

 

 

First coat of rust reformer

 

After a coat of paint

 

 

Finished product, not the best job sanding, but good enough.

 

 

[Peugeots_505]

Well l have made some more progress, the fuel filter, pump, and accumulator are now installed, and the car is running! A little smokey at first but all seems well now. I put some coolant in my reservoir, and had tightened what appeared to be a bleed screw that had a slight leak, so everything seems fine there for now. I had some small fuel leaks on the filter and accumulator at first, but everything is tight and sealed. The other thing I recently accomplished is finally getting a pair of fog lights installed. The car appears to have previously had them, as the brackets were already there, I just had to install a relay, and wire up the new ones. I went ahead with the Uro brand, so far so good. For $50 they seem like a good deal, since Bosch Pilots seem to go for a ton even with broken lenses. Maybe I'll luck out with a pair at my local junkyard next time I visit.  Next thing I want to tackle is the exhaust, I've got some leaks to sort out, and need a rear muffler. Happy new year to all!

 

 

 

Finished product, barbed hose fittings on the accumulator and on the inlet of the fuel filter. Only original fitting is on the pump. Took me a while to find all these fittings, and figure out the correct sizes (especially for the accumulator) but it all works great. I used 3/8's fuel injection hose and viton o-rings around the accumulator and filter, the pump retained the old metal washer.
For anyone else who might need the fitting sizes:

Pump to accumulator fitting: M16 x 1.5 to 3/8

Accumulator to filter fittings: Accumulator: M14 x 1.5 to 3/8, Filter: M14 x 1.5 to 3/8

Before:

After:

First picture after sitting for 4 months, now it's out of the way for the tree my neighbor would like to cut.

[Bean]

Looks great - But can I ask what pressure the fuel line is rated for?  Zooming in it looks like 25psi?  If so that’d be bad as the CIS pressure side will be very high - like 80psi iirc.

Definitely needs high pressure fuel line on the high pressure side.

Wagon looks great btw!

Rabin

[Peugeots_505]

8 hours ago, Bean said:

Looks great - But can I ask what pressure the fuel line is rated for?  Zooming in it looks like 25psi?  If so that’d be bad as the CIS pressure side will be very high - like 80psi iirc.

Definitely needs high pressure fuel line on the high pressure side.

Wagon looks great btw!

Rabin

Hey Rabin, glad you brought this up. For some odd reason I never thought to check this out. At first glance I thought it said it was rated for 22.5 psi, but after looking up the part number that the hose was under from Napa, it appears to be 225 psi. Thanks for the compliments too! She's rough around the edges, but with a new filter and accumulator replacement she's runs and starts great hot or cold! The paint isn't too shabby either.

[Peugeots_505]

Been a while since I updated the thread. I haven't driven the car much with all this snowy salty weather. I had another fuel leak at the pump this time and decided that my clamp wasn't the right size. so I put the right size and re-tightened it. Hopefully we've finally got passed the last of the snowy weather so I can get this car out more. The gas is getting quite old and it smells quite bad. I would really hate to have to siphon it out. Just waiting on the muffler.

[Peugeots_505]

It's been nearly two months since I updated this thread, been very busy lately! The car however is doing quite well. The new muffler is installed, (fitment is far from perfect, but it's good enough for me) and the other exhaust leaks have been patched.  It seems to be running alright, but I think it's time for a new set of injectors, I have a slight hesitation under load. Despite that problem, I did daily drive the car for a little while, and even got it up to Lime Rock. More recently I noticed that the car is still leaking a bit of fuel from one of the fittings underneath, so I have once again parked it in order to take care of these issues.

 

Up at Lime Rock a couple weeks ago, was a 100 mile round trip but the car did well

 

Crossed over 175, I think I've only put about 600 miles on the car since I've owned it.

 

[Bean]

I’d make sure your vacuum advance is working and timing set as well - these are known to have the vacuum advance diaphragm fail over time.  The engine will run fine, but be down on power, sluggish and possibly hesitant if base timing is off.

Thanks for the update!

Rabin

 

[Peugeots_505]

It's been another 3 month break but I'm finally back on here. I actually haven't driven the car too much since this last update, but I have done a couple things. I recently decided to swap the set of injectors that were in this car for another used set I had laying around. Seems to have a little more pickup, but I'm not sure these are any good either. Also Rabin, I believe you are correct. I need a new vacuum advance as well. I actually have a couple spare distributors laying around with vacuum advances on them. Might swap one on, or maybe just swap over the whole distributor. Otherwise the car is more less, the same. I am noticing that the rear end is leaking quite a bit, so that's the next thing to investigate!

[Bean]

Easy enough to test by applying vacuum to the diaphragm if it holds vacuum and it moves the plate inside it’s functional.  If it won’t hold a vacuum or the advance plate is stuck then same boat.

If advance is static when you rev it, then timing advance is not working and the car will be pretty leisurely.

leaking rear axle is a fair amount of work - it’s similar to Ford 9” where the seals are behind the axle bearings, and there’s a pressfit collar holding the bearing.  IIRC you have to drill a hole into the collar and then strike with a chisel to break it so it comes off.  Pull bearing, then replace seal, and reassemble.

Rabin