After a big end failure it took me 3 times to put the cylinder head back on without the tapper noise.
After 6 bend valves and total despair and loss of all fait in myself and everything surrounding me,
I had a long think about what the fu** was going on.
Then I realized the dawn thing kept bending the inlet valves.
The camshaft was good, the pistons where ok and not damaged by the valves.
So something else had been bending the valves.
Since there is nothing more in there than valves it must have been the inlet valves hitting the exhaust valves.

Now if you read the Peugeot repair cd it states:

A: empty the hydraulic lifters



To empty the hydraulic lifters slap the lifter on a wooden block and separate the plunger (24) from the lifter.
Let the oil out of the plunger by pushing on the little bullet (26).
Let the oil out of the low pressure chamber ( B ) by turning it upside down.
Put a little oil in the low pressure chamber ( B ) before fitting the plunger back in.


B: Time the camshafts before putting the head on the block.
And why didn’t they state WHY you should do this….. Would have saved me lots of time and money.



Place the camshafts so that the gap (23) is at 12 o’clock and the gap (24) is at 11 o’clock
The gap (23) is placed vertical and the gap (24) is in line with the hole for the timing pin.

So this is the way to put the camshafts in without the valves hitting each other.
Please note that the exhaust camshaft is NOT on the pin so it can slip and you have to turn the exhaust
camshaft a bit to get it on the timing hole. NEVER EVER do a full turn you will end up with a tapper!

I decided to take no chances and timed the head on the work bench and put the head pre timed on the block.
Now if you put the timing pins in before you put the head on the block, the valves will open and you risk hitting
a valve on the block while you are putting the head on the block. There for take two old head bolts and
saw of the head of the head bolts. Put the head bolts in the corners of the block and lower the head over the head bolts.
Make sure that you saw a groove into the top of the old head bolt so you can get them out with a screw driver once the
head is safely fitted on the block.

Of course you make sure the timing of the crank is ok. Watch out for the slipper pulley!
The standard pulley has a rubber damper and the outside can spin on the inside.
Than the timing hole will be out of sync with the piston timing.

Secure the head with fresh head bolts, put on the timing belt, adjust the timing belt spanner, and take out the camshaft timing pins.

NEVER EVER, rotate a camshaft on it’s own!

The problem is that on a RFS head the valves are so BIG that they cannot pass each other!
Plus that the exhaust valves are stronger than the inlet valves, so when the valves hit each other the inlet valves will bend
and the exhaust valves will stay straight.

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White 1988 LHD 205 GTi5 LSR

Xsara RFS engine (fully rebuild) and Xsara 5 speed gearbox | Quaife LSD | Lynx SC kit| Lynx flywheel and pulley | Mocal oil cooler | Mocal oil cooler thermostat | Spal fan | RunnCool radiator | Constella Gear Linkage | Spax RSX 810 front dampers | Spax RSX 810 rear dampers | Home made rollcage (sparco copy) | Home made uniball arms/309 ARB/309 driveshafts | 306 24mm rear ARB | Megane Brembo brake calipers | Ap racing discs on bells | Xsara Brake Servo | Partner 23,8 MC | 4 x C5 alloys | 4 x Teamdynamics | 4 x Toyo 888, 4 x Michelin slicks | Polycarbonate bonnet & aerocatch bonnet pins | Green windows | Sparco Pro 2000 seats | Sabelt Harnass | 309 16V speedometer | Car Guardian Recorder | CXI B3 Comfortblinkmodul |

I made the same mistake

Cost me a bit too

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Team 205 1.9 GTi ™

Team: Hmm™

No probs, mine were only verrrrry slightly bent (2 of them) and it was only obvious by spinning them up in a lathe.

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Team 205 1.9 GTi ™

Team: Hmm™