Club 80-90 Forums

You can pick up a Citroen XM 2.1TD off ebay often with a shot autobox for less than £100. The engines are good for hundreds of thousands of miles.

Make sure you dont go for the 2.5 TD XM though as its not nearly as good as the 2.1.

They are slightly harder to get bits for than the standard 8v 1.9 XUD found in millions of Xantias, ZX's, 405's, 406's amongst tons of other cars.

Bear in mind though a 1.9 XUD turbo has 93BHP straight out of the box and a couple of minor tweeks get them to just over 100bhp.

dont forget you can tune the 1.9 td pug engine and with nitros get 190bhp and around 170 without nitrous.
prob with the xm engine is that you dont get the vacume brake pump as on the non abs 605/406 engines.
these are about 60 pounds if you can find one in a breakes. cobling up the belt drive one from a 205 is a bit messy but works.
but yes good reliable engine for a lot less money than subaru or vw!
if your keen the pug engine loves cooking oil!

Thanks Billy.


So whats the torque like on these french engines? BHP is one thing but for pulling a heavy van around a bit of torque is nice too.

well you must always remember we are talking vans not cars here.

but i did 40000 miles in my last pug van,i have 2 pug vans now a caravelle auto and a panel camper so i am sharing the miles!
torque is great,i can use either van to tow another van on the a frame!
its almost like driving a car,lots more than a standard t25.
i used the caravelle auto to tow a devon poptop from brighton,about 150 miles,steady pace no problem.
and relability,just oil/filters, new cambelt when fitted,so good for 70000 miles,and i run k&n air filters for easy,simplicity and lack of maintenence
my friend has a 1.9 non turbo,bullet proof he just drives it foot to the floor,does 80 mph all day,but he is rubbibg smaller wheels/4 speed.
na is just a tad slower than a vw dg as i fitted one to a local man in his high top,hes happy as he blew 2 dg engines up(think this was more his driving than the engines!)