The PSA X engine is a family of
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...
s used in
Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
,
Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
,
Talbot
Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
and
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
automobiles. The X family was mainly used in
supermini
The B-segment is the second smallest of the European segments for passenger cars between the A-segment and C-segment, and commonly described as "small cars". The B-segment is the largest segment in Europe by volume, accounting for 20 percent of ...
s and the entry level models of
midsize vehicles. It was designed and manufactured by the company "Française de Mécanique", a joint venture created by Peugeot (as predecessor to Groupe PSA) and Renault in 1969, and built in
Douvrin
Douvrin (; vls, Doverin) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Geography
Douvrin is an ex- coalmining town some east of Béthune and southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D165, the D163 a ...
in northern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
It is commonly called the "Suitcase" engine, the "Douvrin" nickname being commonly given to the bigger 2.0-2.2 L
J-Type engine, which was also built in Douvrin.
The X design was introduced in 1972 with the
Peugeot 104
The Peugeot 104 is a supermini designed by Paolo Martin and produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1972 and 1988. It was the first model produced at the company's Mulhouse plant. It was also the first new Peugeot introduced sin ...
. It was an all-aluminium alloy
SOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
inline-four
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...
design with two valves per cylinder driven by a chain, using
petrol
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
as fuel. It was applied
transversely in
front wheel drive
Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional lon ...
vehicles only, tilted by an almost horizontal attitude of 72°. The integral transmission is mounted on the rear side of the
crankcase
In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block.
Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel/a ...
(thus appearing to be underneath the power unit when it is mounted in the vehicle), and is driven by transfer gears which give a distinctive "whine" - a trait shared with the
BMC A-Series engine, which uses a similar construction. Displacement ranged between . The side mounting of the transmission onto the crankcase is what gives rise to the nickname "suitcase engine", as the transmission and engine assemblies resemble two halves of a suitcase when they are split for disassembly.
The X was used until 1990 in PSA vehicles - Renault discontinued the unit in 1982 when it reverted to its own
Cléon-Fonte engine powerplants when the R14 was replaced by the
R9 & R11. It was replaced in PSA vehicles by the more modern
belt drive
A belt is a loop of flexible material used to link two or more rotating shafts mechanically, most often parallel. Belts may be used as a source of motion, to transmit power efficiently or to track relative movement. Belts are looped over pulley ...
n
camshaft
A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion. Camshafts are used in piston engines (to operate the intake and exhaust valves), mechanically controlled ignition systems ...
TU which was introduced in 1986 in the
Citroën AX
The Citroën AX is a supermini which was built by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1986 to 1998. It was launched at the 1986 Paris Motor Show to replace the Citroën Visa and Citroën LNA.
Overview
Development of this model started in 19 ...
. The TU engine was fitted with the now conventional end on gearbox with separate lubrication. The TU engine is an evolution of the X engine.
(*) ''These names have never been used, it is an extrapolation of these engines on the new Renault engine designation system.''
In the beginning, Renault and Peugeot used the same motor types (Française de Mécanique designations), in the 1980s, each used its own designations.
The "X engine" type X5J (1360 cc) of the Renault 14 GTL (from 1982) is the only one to benefit from the new Renault designations. The designation of the engines is organized in 3 characters: a letter, a number, a letter (Example: C1J, X5J, F2N ...).
* The first letter designates the engine block: X ("X engine") or C ("Cleon-Fonte engine") ...;
* The number corresponds to the type of engine: 5 for hemispherical cylinder head gasoline, single body carburetor; 6 for hemispherical head gasoline, dual body carburetor; ...
* The last letter corresponds to the cubic capacity:
::* G from 1150 to 1249 cc
::* J from 1350 to 1449 cc
XV
The XV had a displacement of , with a
bore and a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
of . It used a single barrel
carburettor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...
, good for .
The XV was applied to the
Citroën LNA
The Citroën LN (Hélène) and Citroën LNA (Hélèna) are front-engine, front-drive, three-door, four passenger hatchback city cars manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1976-1986 over a single generation — as a badge engineered varia ...
,
Citroën Visa
The Citroën Visa is a five-door, front-engine, front wheel drive supermini manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1978 to 1988 in gasoline and diesel variants. 1,254,390 examples were ultimately manufactured over a single generation, with a ...
,
Peugeot 104
The Peugeot 104 is a supermini designed by Paolo Martin and produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1972 and 1988. It was the first model produced at the company's Mulhouse plant. It was also the first new Peugeot introduced sin ...
,
Peugeot 205
The Peugeot 205 is a supermini (B-segment) car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1983 to 1999.
It was declared "car of the decade" by ''CAR Magazine'' in 1990. It also won ''What Car?s Car of the Year for 1984.
The 205 was intro ...
and
Talbot Samba
The Talbot Samba is a city car manufactured by the PSA Group in the former Simca factory in Poissy, France, and marketed under the short-lived modern-day Talbot brand from 1981 to 1986. Based on the Peugeot 104, it was the only Talbot not inherite ...
.
XW
The XW had a displacement of , with a bore and a stroke of . It was initially powered by a single barrel carburettor, good for . A double-barrel carburettor version (XW 3S) raised power to . A detuned version with was used in a few markets in place of the XV.
The XW was applied to the Citroën LNA, Citroën Visa, Citroën C15, Citroën BX, Peugeot 104, Peugeot 205 and Talbot Samba. The version could be found in the sporty Visa X and the 1975 Peugeot 104 ZS.
XZ
The XZ had a displacement of , with a bore and a stroke of . It was powered by a single barrel carburettor, achieving at launch, later for the Visa Super X. The XZ7R variant used two double barrel carburettors which raised power to .
The XZ had a brief career, and was applied to the Citroën Visa, Peugeot 104, Talbot Samba and
Renault 14
The Renault 14 is a compact car produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1976 and 1983. It was first shown in January 1976 with production beginning in June of that year.
It was the first car to be produced in large volumes at the compa ...
. The could be found in the Peugeot 104 ZS Coupé and Talbot Samba Rallye, and their respective
racing
In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...
versions.
XY
The XY was introduced in the place of the XZ. It had a displacement of , with a bore and a stroke of . It was initially available only in a double barrel carburettor with , but later became available with single barrel, twin single barrel and twin double barrel carburettors. This one could reach , depending on the model it was meant for and the level of tuning.
The XY was applied in to the Citroën Visa, Peugeot 104 and Peugeot 205, Talbot Samba and
Renault 14
The Renault 14 is a compact car produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1976 and 1983. It was first shown in January 1976 with production beginning in June of that year.
It was the first car to be produced in large volumes at the compa ...
GTL. The variant could be seen in deluxe versions of these models, such as the Samba Cabrio and 205 XT, the Citroën BX and the
Renault 14
The Renault 14 is a compact car produced by the French manufacturer Renault between 1976 and 1983. It was first shown in January 1976 with production beginning in June of that year.
It was the first car to be produced in large volumes at the compa ...
TS. The version was reserved for the intermediate sports levels Visa GT, 205 XS/GT, Samba S and the 104ZS. The two most powerful variants were used exclusively in the Visa Chrono and Chrono II, which had a successful career in
rallying
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
, especially in France. A with over was used in the
Group B
Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...
racing model used by the factory team.
Sources
Guide des moteurs Peugeot Citroën(in French)
{{PSA Peugeot Citroën
X
X
X
Gasoline engines by model
Straight-four engines