Past few months have been jammed for me, but I have a special little problem with my daily driver. I've been noticing a lot of white smoke from the exhaust lately, but it did that last winter so I wasn't too concerned. Well, I was at a stop light and the car started stuttering and puffing both white and blue smoke, then the low coolant light came on. Once I got up to speed, the stuttering and smoke stopped, but the car felt "tired" as I call it when I drove it last. I noticed my oil was a funny chocolate milk color and most of my coolant was gone, and while I had extra coolant (girlfriend's old car had a severe water pump leak) it was enough to get me home. But my concern is, could this truly be a head gasket? If so that'd explain the fact that I have oil spray all over the lower half of my engine, and that my oil pressure would drop considerably once the engine was nice and warm. But back to the main concern, if that is the problem, what am I gonna end up getting into to have this fixed? I took auto classes in high school and I have enough knowledge to dive as deep as a valve cover gasket, but not the head! Looking for all the advice I can get, as I do not want to get rid of this car. It's the nicest car I've ever driven, and I've driven brand new vehicles before.

 

Well it doesn't sound good, but oil spray down the side of the engine doesn't necessarily mean much other than you have a bit of a leak somewhere ... Low oil pressure indicated on warm isn't usually anything but a failing sender - but if that "chocolate milk" was in the sump, that means the coolant has entered the oil galleries or engine internals somehow and one possible cause of that would be a head gasket failure.

The first thing to do is a compression test.

If you do have to do the head gasket job there are a few tips that you can follow in the archive.

Several members have documented the job. It's a bit of a grunt because the head is very heavy, but for the most part it's pretty logical and there's only a couple of "gotchas" involved - one of which is that you should probably use new head bolts - depending on a couple of factors.

All shall be revealed if you read the various threads on the head re and re's.

Like most jobs on the Jag it's a little intimidating at first, but once you get stuck in, it's just another job.

Good luck, and get that compression test done asap!

Larry

 

Thanks for the info! I recently replaced the pressure sensor, and recall it doing that since the new sensor was installed (well after the resistor was installed so that the gauge wouldn't constantly spike), but once I get the automobile started (for it's been in the negatives here and I've just been scooting around in my girlfriend's new car, since we scrapped her old one) I'll get a compression test done, but first I'll make sure it's got enough oil and coolant to get to the garage. Will see what is found.

 

You can do a compression test easily yourself (if you have a place to do it) - just pick up a compression tester at Harbour Freight/O'reillys/Autozone or local fleamarket for not much money. If you don't want to buy one, rent one. You'll need one with a hose and screw thread as the plug holes are deeply recessed on the 40.

Just pull each spark plug one at a time and screw in the tester. Remove distributor cap so engine doesn't fire up ...Get girlfriend to crank motor - read the gauge, write down the number. Replace plug, move on to next cylinder. Repeat.

 

I've experienced XJ40 head gasket failure three times, once on our '88 and twice on our '93 (about 90,000 miles apart). I never had oil spray down the side of the engine, so as Larry suggests, that may not be related to your head gasket. However, the white and blue smoke and stuttering and loss of power are exactly what I experienced each time our head gasket failed

Replacing the head gasket is not terribly difficult if you do your homework, and it's not terribly expensive if you do it yourself. The Haynes manual has a pretty thorough step-by-step procedure, and as Larry mentioned a lot of members have posted helpful tips in this forum as well as at the Jag-Lovers forum.

Let us know how the compression test goes and if you need to replace the head gasket we'll offer some tips.

Cheers,

Don

 

Along with doing that compression test,you may want to rent/buy a block tester from someplace like Autozone. They cost about $25 and you need to buy a special fluid for about $8 more. It's an accurate way to test for combustion gases in your cooling system (bad head gasket). You add the fluid to the tester (about a 1/4 cup) and the tester will suck gases from your open radiator tank. If the fluid changes to a certain color then you've got a bad head or intake gasket letting combustion gases into your cooling system. The test takes a matter of two minutes to do. You can also find videos using this product on Youtube.

 

Thanks for the advice. Will be checking my coolant and compression ASAP. Sorry, has been crazy on my end. Finally have some free time, I keep my car parked outside, so it's been victim to the harsh cold for the past few months since it last ran. Would it be safe to hook a jumper box to the battery and attempt to start it or should I try to get it somewhere "warmer" before I try starting it? Or even cranking it for that matter..?

 

I am planning to do the compression test today. Any precautions I should take, considering that the last time the car has ran was November (I think), and is parked outside in the elements, don't wanna risk damaging the car in any way..?

 

Hi dhatfield12,

Since the car has been sitting, if there is a head gasket leak that allows coolant into the combustion chambers, it is possible the engine could have enough coolant in a cylinder to be hydrostatically locked, or "hydrolocked." If so, cranking it could cause serious damage. My suggestion would be to remove all six spark plugs before you crank it the first time to eject any coolant - and if you do see coolant spraying out of a spark plug hole, you'll know the head gasket has a problem.

You will probably need to charge the battery before it will crank the engine.

Once you're sure any coolant has been ejected, you can reinstall the spark plugs and try to start the car but you don't need to start it to conduct your compression tests if the battery is strong enough to crank the engine enough to test all six cylinders.

Please keep us informed.

Cheers,

Don

 

Alright, at least I know the car still runs. Fired up without hesitation! Gonna do the compression test today since we got rain yesterday. Going to do two: one when the engine is cold, and then again when the engine is at operating temp. The car runs fine when it's cold but starts burning coolant and oil and starts stuttering and losing horsepower when the engine is warm.

 

On a side note: while the car always had an oil drip, now the drip has taken on the color of chocolate milk instead of straight oil..

 

Sounds like you've got coolant in your oil. I'd drain the oil first before running it any further that way so it doesn't clog your oil galleries.

 

Good idea. Should I also go for a new filter as well?

 

I would. Even a cheap filter is good enough. Most likely you'll want to change your oil a few times after you replace your head gasket to make sure all impurities are out of the system and you've got a fresh flow of clean oil.

 

Will make sure all impurities are out. A coolant flush may be in order as well. Better safe than sorry!

 

Okay, i got the engine gasket kit, but I don't know why the kit came with two intake manifold gaskets, and I don't know what these other gaskets are..?

 

Well,the two thick round donuts are for the exhaust manifold to downpipes. The one on the bottom right looks to be a thermostat gasket. The two half moon shaped black ones are for the ends of the valve cover. The bunch of little black ones look like valve stem seals.The three silver ones look to be for the EGR valve. Not quite sure about the rest.

 

**Correction** The one on the lower right may be for a water inlet manifold or if it's a universal set with six of these then it may be for the later X300 coil to valve cover gasket. Depending on what type of Thermostat housing you have you may either have a similar gasket ( only larger ) or one of those large o-rings.

 

I only saw one of those that's on the lower right. I just realized that those two square shaped gaskets may be for the oil filter housing. One goes on the block, the other goes between the oil cooler adapter and oil filter housing. In the midst of everything, I also ordered a new idle air control valve. Figured that I might as well get a new one cause i had trouble getting the old one cleaned. I may also see if I can get the oil filter housing off and change those gaskets since the top half of the engine will be removed. Still wondering why I received two intake manifold gaskets. Oh well, it's no big deal

 

Definitely a good idea to address all the common left side oil leak points while it will be so easy. I don't see the oil filter housing gaskets in your photo but you can just use RTV, which is what our '93 had from the factory. The earlier cars had gaskets and I happened to find a set so I used them, but on freshly-cleaned surfaces I think Permatex Ultra Grey RTV might be even better than a gasket (the Grey is more rigid and stronger than the Black so that's why I recommend it for metal-to-metal joints that do not require flexibility):

Common Left Side Oil Leaks

Cheers,

Don