Time for a head gasket change

[sgould]

Well done!

My 9-5 is back in favour after a long period last year with poor starting and no codes, but nothing to pin down.  Eventually, after a failed hot start, I changed the CPS and it's been fine since.  I should have done the CPS earlier, but it's a pain with the 3 inch down pipe in the way, and the CPS itself was barely a year old.

[carrera]

A couple of weeks on and I have managed to add about 300 miles on local commutes, one longer one of 40 miles each way. Short commutes are not great for a diesel, even though it does get up to temperature.

She seems to be running OK 

I have noticed that she does seems to have more torque lower down and is a more responsive. In addition, I have observed that the boost is being held back when the engine is cold. Perhaps that functionality is just more noticeable now.

There had been quite a few occasisions in the past where the engine has stalled when coming to a stop. It doesn't do that now, I can also feel the injectors restart at the point when slowing down where fuel needs to be injected to avoid a stall, there's a little bit of acceleration as power is restored.

I have come to the conclusion that when the cambelt was replaced at 35,000 miles it was not done with the proper timing tools and was one tooth out on the camshaft.

Either that, or the cleaning of the intake manifold, swirl flaps and lubrication of same has made a noticeable difference. There was some soft carbon build up (via EGR I assume) on the inlets, and the inside of the subsequent main plastic void, but I would not have said it was excessive.

I still need to do a longer distance run to see what effect this has had on MPG