Europ'Raid 2023 in Macedonia

[Goce]

Last few days the Europ'Raid past thru my country, as a peugeot entusiest i extended my reach if they need any help in parts or place to work and they took me on my offer. They had couple of cars with big engine trouble, the organization has 4 vans full of parts and mechanics but no complete engines. So they ask if i can find them a engine, trying to pick an engine is difficult especially for near 40 year old engines. I had the 1,9d that i wanted to use in my homemade tractor build and the niva engine swap, i know its a very good and low mileage engine. I offer them that engine and they wanted it, also they ask if they can use my place to install it. I'm man of my word and told them sure they can use my garage, my tools everything they need if i'm being honest it was a difficult decision to let complete strangers come in my place and take their car completely apart and change the engine espacily not being able to understand them. They know so little english that hand signals and the words fix or go go turn out to be more useful.

They contacted me when they wore in Athens Greece, and said two cars will head towards me a day earlier to change the engine, i had a link to there gps and sees them. As they covered the nearly 700 km with very broken engine i have time to clean up the garage get the engine out and attached fuel and a battery to start it. Its been sitting for few years but it fired right up, so i took this short video and send them.

 

As they get near my city i ask them should i wait for them to the entrance of the city because is easy to get lost, they said no they will come to my address. Half an hour later i got a call from a fello macedonian are you expecting some french people- yeah are they lost, yes, i told him escort them to the main road i'll find them from the gps. I got in the 406 wagon and found them, escorted them to my home. Got the car straight in the garage and they began taking it apart immediately, i went to the house to bring drinks and snacks in that time they had it on jack stands and the front bumper was coming off. They needed to change the thermostat housing but a bolt snapped in the cylinder head, i helped them to remove it with map gas and by welding a nut with my mig welder. For the rest of disassembly i was only handing them tools, it was 6 of them i was alone. When it come time to pull the engine it was obvious they have not pulled one because they did not know how, i step in helped it come out without issues, i've pulled many engines i know the routine i can do it with my eyes closed.

, i also help with the more technical parts like changing the timing belt, i have a new one, attaching the engine and gearbox. Installing it went without issues, it fire up on the first crank. The headlight gass decided to feel off thankfully we had syrphone on the ground for doing job for under and it did not broke, i had some windscreen glue we re attached it.

Drive it around works fine, they paid me for the engine and for the belt, i gave them the engine for less money than i bought it because i've had it for so long they become cheaper they did put in a tip that i try to give them back but they wouldn't take it. They did clean up after them and are very respectful, i did escort them to a near by camping spot and show them the way to the highway. A big thunderstorm hit so they did not use the camping spot. But the next day they had camp spot in the next town over so i went and visited them and the rest, there was around 300 peugeot 205 and more than 800 french people. The local school got a big donation from them and they had put on a traditional show. I did meet couple more people from the event but not knowing french was a real issue but seeing so many 205 in one place was worth the trip.

 

 

 

[SRDT]

They got very lucky with the headlight glass, these days with decades old sealant it is not uncommon at all. Some headlights have a metal clip on each side to retain the glass but others don't.

Your engine wasn't exactly the right one displacement or period wise but they managed to sort it out. They can now enjoy a well deserved 5 hp and 1 m.kg boost.

[Goce]

I know that they have 1.7d engine code A9A but 4000 km from france, this was only engine that will fit available its 10 years older then the car. I did ask them don't they have trouble at registration because of the bigger engine. From what i would understand them no one looks at the engine numbers. That XUD9 is in good condition very low mileage, i was saving it for my cars i hope they take care of it and it last them milion more kilometars.

[SRDT]

It's illegal but you can pass regular inspections as long as it's still a diesel engine and emissions are fine ; and there is no special inspection before registration.

The only potential problem is with insurance if someone ends up disabled in a crash.

In theory it should be easy to make it legal because Peugeot had a 1.9d 65 hp 205 for export (with EGR) but there is no realistic way to do so anymore.

[Mike T]

Wow fantastic! Great story!

[Goce]

On 8/12/2023 at 1:29 PM, SRDT said:

It's illegal but you can pass regular inspections as long as it's still a diesel engine and emissions are fine ; and there is no special inspection before registration.

The only potential problem is with insurance if someone ends up disabled in a crash.

In theory it should be easy to make it legal because Peugeot had a 1.9d 65 hp 205 for export (with EGR) but there is no realistic way to do so anymore.

It seems a lot of those cars run whatever engine they found, here is one with 1,9td but running non turbo, the inlet manifold is the same as 406.