Vintage Thing 44.2 - Citroen C15D

September 2014 and Mighty Whitey's future hangs in the balance

I still have my aunt's old C15D van, which she christened Mighty Whitey. It's something of a family heirloom having been supplied new to her by Arnold's of Penryn in 1986. It used to have a dealer's sticker in the rear window that showed Falmouth mis-spelt as Falmoth but it's disintegrated entirely now.

My parting comment on VT 44.1 was about sustainability and the intervening 10 years have been a testimony to that. 

Following an engine failure on the M5, my C15D van is now a C15TD. 

What happened was.... a complete loss of power just the other side of Exeter with lots of white and black smoke. I pulled onto the hard shoulder and when I tried the engine again it span over very quickly. No compression! On a diesel no compression means no ignition.

There had been no indication of anything wrong with the engine. I remember a slight whiff of antifreeze going up Haldon Hill but the water temperature warning light never came on. A post mortem revealed that water loss had occurred although all hoses were new and so was the steel pipe round the back of the engine, I had heard that these could corrode and let go, so had replaced mine. However, water loss had definitely occurred and I had not been made aware of it. At least twice in the past the warning light had done its job and I'd saved the engine. Not this time, though.

When I got it home, there was clearly water in the bores and the pistons soon stuck from corrosion. I began to search for another engine.

I found some rust beneath the headlamps

I had originally foreseen this powertrain going on indefinitely. It was still the original normally aspirated 1769cc diesel engine with a four speed box. I had already invested time and effort into repairing the bulkhead and inner wings front and back. Scrapping Auntie Margaret's van - Mightey Whitey - was not an option. Finding an uprated powerplant with a five speed box was the obvious solution, no sensible person would have binned this little van or bought something newer.

I couldn't dismantle this cheeky little chap

I got off to a flying start by purchasing a complete Peugeot 205 Sceptre for £500. Buying a complete and running car allowed me to confirm that the engine actually went and that the gearbox had all its gears. However, this little Pug went so well as I drove it back from Leicester, I soon realised what a cracking little car it was. It just romped up the hills as I came further west and by the time I'd ascended Haldon Hill from the other direction (in some style I might add) I knew I was going to keep the car (VT No.142) and began searching again. 

I manage to bring myself to rob this one of its heart

A Citroen Xantia popped up on Gumtree and turned out to belong to the friend of a friend in the Citroen Car Club. This had a bigger 1905cc turbocharged engine complete with front mounted air to air intercooler. Much as I admire the Xantia's shape and Citroen's hydropneumatic suspension, the driving experience was not quite to my taste. It was nowhere near as lively as the smaller-engined Peugeot. I would definitely be tempted by a manual V6 version....

Dismantling the turbo diesel Xantia was somewhat involved as I had to do it in a mate's garage. My workshop was full of van and the only available space I had was on a considerable slope. Andrew said he couldn't bear to see the inevitable kipple happen, kipple being a good Cornish word for a messy collapse. 

The resurrection of my old van began.

Call me Professor Vankenstein.

Out with old 1.8 4 speed powertrain

Out came the old engine box and and in went the new powertrain, complete with new cambelt, water pump and clutch. 

In with the new 1.9 turbocharged, 5 speed powertrain

Of course, it wasn't quite as straightforward as that.

Getting the engine in was one matter...

Squeezing in the cooling system was another.

I had hoped to keep the C15D looking like any other pre-facelift C15. I didn't want to frighten the villagers with the monster I was creating but discovered that the Xantia radiator and front mounted intercooler were too wide to fit between the C15 headlamps. If I mounted them right down low and made a new cross member I managed to squeezed them in. Even so I had to trim some clips and brackets. The trouble now was that the bumper and radiator grille wouldn't fit.

Left to right we have here, the Xantia intercooler, the Xantia radiator and the C15D radiator, all stood on end. I could have sourced smaller custom substitutes but chose to use standard Citroen parts to move the project on and reduce any potential future overheating issues

I had to make up a new gearbox mount and exchange the Xantia downpipe to the turbo for one from a ZX as there was insufficient room against the bulkhead. I still had to trim away the sound deadening insulation. I used a slightly modified pipe from there back to sections of stainless steel. That front pipe has probably been on there from new (I have never replaced it since I acquired the van with 48,000 miles) and is still serviceable. Originally there was a central silencer under the floor but I dispensed with that, reasoning that the turbo would act as a silencer and so it has proved.

This shows the difference in turbo swan neck downpipes. In the foreground the Xantia pipe and in the rear the more compact ZX item

One thing I did wrong was the clutch actuation mechanism. The Xantia box uses a pull off clutch rather than a push off type. This means it moves in the opposite direction! I didn't know this although the new clutch and all its appurtenances had struck me as a bit weird. Should have told me something, I suppose. Having connected everything up and got the van to run, I tried selecting a gear and the clutch made a strange noise and a funny smell. 

Gradually, I evolved a new cross member that supported both intercooler, radiator and cooling fans beneath the C15D grille. I also had to allow for the positions of the water hoses not forgetting providing space to get the gearbox out if - oh I dunno - someone had to replace the clutch in the near future.

When I eventually got hold of a Xantia workshop manual, my mistake became apparent. Swapping the clutch with the engine and box in the van was much more awkward. It only just fits! All that care in making the new front cross member paid off.

There was another issue with the stop solenoid. I could get the engine to start but not keep going. I couldn't find out what was wrong and in the end asked Rob Libby from Taylor's Motors in Liskeard to come out and have a look at it. Working back through the harness and checking against the wiring diagram with painstaking logic, he eventually found a loose connector on the bulkhead. It must have been disturbed in the in/out/in/out/shake-it-all-about hokey-cokey of the engine swap. Connecting this properly ensured the motor ran and kept running.

In my heroic struggle against rust, I had already made many repairs to Mighty Whitey over the years. Auntie Margaret had had it Ziebarted from new but even so it had rotted in the sills and inner wings. A good poke around underneath revealed more rust although that I am happy say that my previous repairs were still good. What had rotted was often next to them! 

French rubbers don't seem to deteriorate much, he said, brightly

I took the screen out and patched the window aperture. I fitted two replacement doors after fettling and repainting them. I made up repair sections for the floors (vide remarks above on rusty windscreen surround) and around the rear floor. I fitted a new sill to the nearside and found a lot of rust around the nearside bonnet hinge. Quite a few panel joins had rusted and these needed at least two repair sections (one for each corroded panel). Often access was tricky but I found chopping out good metal in a way that allowed me to re-weld in after I'd replaced the rotten bits was the way to go.

The lower lip was even worse

In view of the extra power I fitted brakes off a Peugeot 306. These proved too big to fit behind the standard 13 inch wheels but fortunately I had been given some 14 inch wheels from a Citroen BX and cleaned up and sprayed the right Citroen Gris these look standard. Only a C15D anorak can tell (but these are surprisingly numerous)

I also took the opportunity to change the master cylinder as for many years Rob had suspected this had been drawing in air as the pedal was never to our satisfaction even though the stopping power was good. I remembered from new that the brakes had always been wooden to say the least.

A greater help in improving the feel of the brakes was dismantling the brake linkage cross tube that RHD C15s have and welding up and re-drilling the pivot holes. These had worn in over 200,000 miles and increased the pedal travel. 

Although still a bit wooden, the brakes feel much better.

Meanwhile, I bought a complete secondhand rear axle and had that overhauled by AB Axles in Axminster. C15s can get a bit knock-kneed at the back as the suspension arm bearings fail. Sometimes, the inside of the tyre rubs against a flange on the inner wheel arch! I fitted up the reconditioned assembly with complete new rear wheel cylinders and linings. 

Once I had got the van running and had confirmed the packaging, I began to consider the look of the front end

I gave up on the original plan to keep Mighty Whitey looking like a normal C15D. I could have put an intercooler over the engine like in a Peugeot 306 but tuners of these cars reckon an FMIC (Front Mounted Inter Cooler) is the first performance tweak. 

So, I didn't do that. 

I just said, "More power, Igor! I must have power, I tell you!"

Having managed to squeeze everything in between the headlamps, there wasn't enough depth to the original front bumper.  In the process of acquiring replacements side doors, I turned up another bumper from a Citroen Visa and mounted this under the original one to make a much deeper front bumper. After careful shaping and making some in fill panels and a new radiator grille I managed to cover up all the new gubbins crammed in between the headlamps. It took me some time to make a one off radiator grille surround and join that to the ABS bumpers and the aluminium support brackets attached to the wings and front cross member. 

By degrees, I evolved a new grille surround and made a GRP mould.

I also made up new brackets to support the new front bumper and tie the leading edges of the bolt on wings to the structural panels. I also treated the van to a complete respray, which involved turning the garage into spray booth. I kept some of the dust from the rafters off the fresh coats but somehow managed to coat everything in the workshop with a fine dusting.

"Let us spray!"

There wasn't a lot of polishing out to do but white is surprisingly difficult to spray unless you have the lighting in the right position to show the dustiness or thickness of the coats you're applying.

Work in progress on the rear suspension mounts 

By December 2017, I felt Mighty Whitey was ready for MOT. There had been a lot more emergent work than I had anticipated and progress had been impeded when my workshop had a new roof and up and over door fitted, not to mention a few other projects that had demanded my attention while all this was going on.

To prevent another engine failure I fitted a water temperature gauge and having got used to what is the new normal on this gauge, checking it at intervals with an infra red thermometer gun, I am happy to see it get hot and then the thermostat opening and the needle dropping again.

That pesky temperature warning light flickered on a few times, quite inexplicably. I have learnt to ignore this now, having checked things with the infra red gun and trust my new gauge more. I am tempted to fit one to the 205 as that only has a warning light as standard.

I was concerned about heat build up from the turbo coming through to the footwells but this has not been a problem. It's not like I get the zorst glowing orange like in the photo of that Lotus engine on a test bed.

Ground clearance issues at the front meant I had another go and the front cross member under the radiator and intercooler. At first it was so low that it almost wouldn't go over the rollers or post ramps for the post-resuscitation MOT test so I remodelled the front cross member so that I could just poke the van's nose over a standard height kerb.

I have experimented with different lengths of rod for the gear linkage. I've cut and shut or extended where offended. The gate is still not quite to my taste and living with it has thrown up a short throw on second. I have made a little sticker to indicate that it's a five speed and where reverse can usually be found.

There was also a slight down-at-the-bows attitude when I put everything back together, despite fitting all new front suspension components. I studied the workshop manual and found that instead of cutting the springs I could experiment with the spacers holding them in place. I bought the incredibly expensive Sykes-Pickavant rear spring compressor tool to dismantle the rear suspension only to discover that the special forks to fit Peugeot 305s and C15s had become unavailable! After a great deal of messing about, my mate Adrian Booth was able to modify another fork that was available. He subsequently leant this to help another mate in the trade to replace a rear damper on a C15 Romahome.

I have to say that it is nice having the proper tools for the job! That spring compressor tool made life so much easier.

I made some shorter length damper cotters to lower the rear end slightly. This made re-fitting more awkward but overall I am happy with the compromise between ride height and ground clearance. I survived, though, I still managed to skin a knuckle (first finger left hand) on reassembly.

I found the seated ball to one of the dampers was terribly worn on my axle. It looked alright initially but on disassembly it was obvious that the gaiter had been keeping water in rather than keeping it out, Luckily, one of the ones on the old axle was in good condition so I swapped that over.

Ready for use again as a C15TD. Professor Vankenstein is pleased it almost looks discrete.

In terms of driving experience it's still a commercial vehicle. I could do more to the suspension to help the handling but I don't want to compromise the load carrying capacity by lowering it any more. 

It's not as lively as the Peugeot 205 turbo diesel, and I was surprised to find that the C15D is heavier than the five door hatch at 970kg vs 880kg. This is despite five doors and more windows on the Pug, glass being quite heavy. I reckon the rear suspension has a lot to do with this, having staggered around with it several times in the course of this rebuild. I don't think my C15TD will be cocking an inside wheel on a corner at any time.

The original normally aspirated 80 x 88mm 1769cc XUD7 engine gave out 44kW @4600rpm and 112Nm @ 2000rpm. The turbocharged 205 motor gives 57kW @ 4300rpm and 157Nm @ 2100rpm. The XUD9T engine from a Citroen Xantia provides 66kW @ 4000rpm with 196Nm @2250rpm from 1905cc (83 x 88mm). The Xantia weighed 1287kg and did 0-100kmh in 14.1 seconds. The Peugeot 205TD managed 0-100kmh in 12.2 seconds but its in gear acceleration wasn't far off that of a 205 1.6 GTi and that's the kind of real world performance in which I am far more interested.

I may tweak the pump in due course but Mighty Whitey definitely pulls well and doesn't notice hills anymore. It's also a Lucas one not a Bosch pump like the 205. I would like a rev counter in both my PSA turbo diesels but you can detect when they're running out of puff anyway. These motors are about torque and I don't want to compromise their reliability,

As Mr J L B Matekoni of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors in The Ladies Number One Detective Agency would say, there is something honourable about one's big loyal diesels.

Mighty Whitey feels much mightier after being brought back from the dead.