Hello All,
I'm so pleased the forum is still running.
After 20 years of owning Espaces, I have possibly the need to replace or refresh the injectors on one of my 1998-2000 2.2DT engined Espaces.
Now this is a job I've never had to do and I think it's only needed because after 380000 kms and following the fuel strikes last year, when some bad fuel may have been pruchased, I am getting some surging and or lack of power and black smoke from the exhaust when running at around 75-90kph in 5th gear. It feels like in these circumstances it starts running on 3 cylinders but then runs fine at tickover and at higher revs in any gear - so I suspect an injector?
Does anyone have any other advice or suggestions, please?
Is removal of the injectors easy and not at all like removing the common rail units that have put me off the DCi engined espaces?
I have seen an advert for replacement injector nozzles - would you recommend these or do I need complete new injectors? (big price difference)

Thanks for any advice,
regards,
Mark.

2.2DT Grand Espace 1998 RHD
2.2DT Espace 2000 LHD

Ha ha! Yes that does look like a surprised facial expression, Anders!

And a nice simple tool for undoing the tank collar too.

A clear indication for all owners here too, note the underside of the tank sender flange has a location notch on the left in the photo, which will align the sender in the tank correctly, when refitting it, so the float arm can swing without being obstructed.

Roy

A few photos showing some progress while the cylinder head is with the machine shop:

• The fuel tank vent valve fitted in the better location
• The tool I made to unscrew the locking ring in the tank
• A surprised looking top part of the tank unit - derusted and pitted, ready to receive fresh paint. Yes I managed to carefully remove the connector without damaging it!
• The rear of the top fuel tank unit, also in need of some petrol resistant paint, but still fresh looking.
  

/Anders

I found the problem with the fuel tank sender which, as can be seen in the picture attached, has a broken wire some way down - or actually, near the top. The brass arm seems to have broken off causing the ends to catch the wire and break it. The sender unit is otherwise in very good condition and wire looks like 0.1 mm konstantan wire so the rheostat should be repairable if I can dismantle it without breaking anything and can find a suitable brass arm to replace the current broken one.

Roy, I've read your recommendation of the Spiyda gauge wizard, but I have not been able to find a replacement rheostat that will fit. I can only find complete in-tank units.

/Anders

Thanks again, Roy, for your additional advice regarding the tank vent. I am now working on the conversion. Getting the fuel tank sender unit out so that I can drill a new hole for the valve was quite a struggle. It took a two iterations before I managed to make myself a tool that allowed me to unscrew the retaining ring. The sender unit seems to have developed a problem so I will be looking into that once I'm done with the valve. I'll be picking up an M10x1.25 nut to fit the valve in the tank and a similar sized bolt to seal off the opening where I removed the valve. The valve and the hose connected to it are both fine, so I'm just moving the valve.

The pictures today shows a particularly disgusting looking electrolytic derusting process happening today. The brown substance consists of a combination of rust, paint, and waxy rust protector as I was derusting a cover supposed to sit under the brake balance valve in fron of the right rear wheel. This cover is thin, made from 0.5 mm sheet steel. I plan to give it a coat of cold-galvanization and rust protection like I'm treating the chassis.

Thanks Roy for picking up on it now and for your advice against my idea! As I have the engine out again, drilling the tank and sealing off the original hole is rather easy as I can now stand in there to complete the work.

Roy, you know what happened, but the reason I have not been updating lately is that progress turned to regress as I tested the water system by connecting all hoses, filling up with water and running the main electrical water pump. Now, this pump is rather powerful when it runs full speed (as it was, I had connected it directly to my 12V battery in the garage) pumping 80l/minute - that's more than a litre a second. So even though the water was cold as the engine was not running, this was a good test. Actually, it was a perfect test, as it revealed a major defect which I noticed when I wanted to check the water flow through the hose with the vent screw exiting from the thermostat housing and put down the end of a zip tie through the hole. The zip tie was not only wet, but OILY!

The blurry picture below shows what I saw when I took off the valve cover: Notice the blue coolant in the oil.

The second picture shows the valve train after I had sucked most of the oil and water away using my hand driven oil change pump (I bought it some years ago for changing oil on a Smart CDI engine that didn't have a drain plug, but I'm now finding it very handy.

The third picture shows where the problem is as the head gasket was clearly not sealing in the corner of the leftmost cylinder on the exhaust side where there are both water channels and an oil return line. Notice how the hole for the cylinder head bolt is not round.

The fourth and last picture for now shows the issue namely that the left rear bolt hole in the cylinder head has a small indent which came when it was welded and polished for my years ago. When I fitted the cylinder head, this bolt could not reach the thread in the block so I filed enough off the indent to make the bolt fit. Obviously the gasket was damaged in the process and/or the bolt was never tight enough.

The cylinder head is now with a local machine shop for proper drilling of the bolt hole and minimal skimming of the head. The water channels will also be pressure tested, just for peace of mind. Meanwhile I'm doing other work which I'll share later.

/Anders

(I didn't pick up on this previously, Anders)

Yes but Ron had saved drilling a hole in the top of the tank because he fitted the vent valve in the tank sender unit flange.  There was just enough room.  You still need to get rid of the original vent valve in the filler neck behind the filler cap (but behind the bodywork) as that is lower than the fuel level as it expands and will still potentially cause problems.  And his solution also forgot about the need to open as the fuel is used up and the level drops.


But this is different.  The reason for the fuel return hose to the tank, is to prevent a build up of fuel pressure on the carburettor needle valves as they try to close when the float bowls are full.  Sometimes this pressure means the float bowls overfill slightly (or even get stuck occasionally) causing rich mixtures and/or flooding.  This was important at the time of the design, to allow carburettors to meet the tightening emission regulations.  Blocking off the return line means the car breaks those regulations.


No, you should not leave the original vent valve in place in the filler neck, close behind the filler cap.  It is lower than the expanded fuel level and will still cause problems.  Simply remove it and cap it off.

Also you say - use a one way valve, but as I pointed out you need a valve that can vent out and allow air in too.  If you look at the valve spec. it has an over-pressure vent figure AND and under-pressure opening figure.  So a one way valve will allow venting out as the fuel expands, but will not allow air in as the full tank fuel is used up and you will create a vacuum.  I was wrong when I said my article was still OK - I had forgotten about the under-pressure.  It is now modified.

If you wish to save drilling the top of the tank, then you could tee in the original vent valve with some short rubber hose pieces above the fuel return from the carburettors to the sender flange.

Roy

This it the connection that I have moved to the unused connection below the temp. gauge sender, as in my cooling system article.  It means the vent hose has a gentle curve away and not the tight 180 degree of the original.  Moving that connection also left the ideal place to fit the engine temp. switch as it has exactly the correct thread.


Thanks Anders, I have rechecked it, and it seems to be still up to date.  Moving the tank vent valve to the top of the fuel tank has proved to have a few benefits and is something I seriously recommend all Murena owners should do.

Since changing mine I have found, first that I can now fill much quicker without any blowback.  Second, you can fill the tank and not have to worry about any overflow from the tank, since the large air space above the maximum filling point (which is the top of the filler hose connection) can easily accommodate any expansion of the fuel as it warms up.  The vent valve is so high compared to the top of the fuel in the tank, that no fuel will ever contaminate the valve and therefore cause it to stick or fail to vent either in or out, as happened originally.  Consequently, I have had no more occurrences of any tank vacuum or inrush of air when removing the fuel cap after a long run from a full tank.  And since you can never have any pool of fuel under the parked car from the overflow, it now prevents any danger of fire from igniting any fuel vapour under the starter motor.


Please remember the tank vent valve has to be able to vent both ways, to vent pressure as you fill the tank, and to allow air in to prevent a vacuum as the tank contents are used up.


Thanks, I'll bear that in mind!

Roy

Progress is steady.

I've fitted the long gearchange rod after painting it with Hammerite. The gear change feels very good. I have not modified anything, just fixed everything.

I've also corrected my engine wiring loom and refitted that.

All water hoses and the two pipes are now fitted, as well as the thermostat housing, so I'm almost ready to fill water on.

I have a few electrical checks to do today before I do that, and I have also decided to rectify two hose connections, one being the return hose from the thermostat housing to the water pipe on the inlet side of the engine (this connection is for heating the inlet manifold on a normal 2.2 but is straight on an S/K142), and the other is the thermostat housing vent hose going to the top of the header tank.

The return hose suffers with a sharp bend from the thermostat housing, so I'm going to order a 90 degree knee to improve that, and the 6 mm silicone vent hose I had is too short. This puzzled me as I had it fitted before removing the engine, but there was a catch: When I originally fitted this piece silicone vent hose, I had the original header tank fitted, which had a 16 mm stud on the top so the factory fitted a plastic 16-6 mm converter (I had already upgraded this to a brass converter). However, when I fitted one of the aluminium header tanks we had made some years ago, the converter was no longer necessary. I frankly don't remember why, but instead of fitting a correct length 6 mm silicone hose, I replaced the 16 mm piece with piece of 6 mm rubber hos and a 6-6 mm plastic connector - obviously a temporary and sub-optimal solution

At least I only have myself to blame for that, but I'll be ordering the 90 degree 16 mm knee and the correct length of 6 mm vent hose before progressing.

I've also measured up the exhaust manifold which had a broken flange towards the U bend connecting to the muffler. I have gotten a new stainless repair piece for that as well as a a few other exhaust parts. The welder has time for doing the work for me in about a week from now. He will also fit the bung for the O2 sensor. The sensor bung will have to be fitted close to the flange to come free of the gear change mechanism.

Finally, Roy, I reread your fuel system article start to end. It's really an excellent article, and much better and more informative than the short instruction from Matra on moving the tank vent from the filer to the top of the tank. Thanks again, for reminding me of that!

At the end of your fuel system article, you mention that Ron suggests putting a T-piece in the return hose from the carburettors and venting off from that with a one way valve, eliminating the need of drilling a new hole in the tank. I have not had a return hose on my car since I converted to an electrical Hüco membrane pump years ago when I fitted the sidedraught Webers so I just have a piece of 6 mm fuel hose sealed off with a bolt sticking up from the tank. It therefore dawned upon me that I can just leave the orignal, factory fitted vent in place, fit a T-piece in the plastic hose venting out under the car, and connect the T to the return hose stud via a one way valve.

The picture shows that the evenings are getting shorter, but that I have light in the garage and a bench outside for having beer with friends on. Yes, this is an invitation, in case you're around

The light is powered from an old 12V battery and I've put a 60W solar cell the roof to charge it during the day. I will be buying a correct battery for the Murena soon. I will then connect the two in parallel through a pair of Anderson-connectors so the solar cell will keep the Murena battery charged, even when the car is left unused for some time. I will buy a standard lead-acid battery, keeping it charged will extend its life.

/Anders 

Hi
I would like a certificate of original configuration for my 74 Bagheera.

But I am unsure who to contact, Spyros, Dokkedal or ?

Best regards Frederik