Hello everyone,

My parents in law just replaced their 2004 Jaguar XJ8 with a new vehicle since they were told that it has a blown head gasket. I am pretty handy with vehicles so I said i would take it on. They just shipped it out to me here in Vegas and i am excited and nervous for the undertaking ahead of me. I have only done a head gasket replacement for a honda civic which was WAY easier looking than this beast. I've been taking lots of notes and doing research so hopefully with everyone's help here i'll get through it just fine and dandy. I'll be buying a service manual and software from tradebit.com here shortly and begin within the week. I'll be posting some specific threads as i need to verify that it is in fact a head gasket (they were told that by a mechanic). maybe i shoudl just trust that. there are some random other things but ill leave that for different threads.

Thanks for the great looking community and look forward to what this project has in store....mostly.

 

Welcome and good luck. Please let the X350 area know what manual you find. I am not aware of a print one available. Take more pictures than you think youll need, and keep us posted on your progress.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

What is the reason for suspecting the head gasket have failed? Was the vehicle overheated?

 

It goes through coolant really quickly is what my father in law said and he can only really drive the vehicle for like 10-20 minutes or so before it starts overheating too much. That is what caused him to take it to the mechanic who than told him it was a blown head gasket and that it would cost $15000 to repair which he denied and gave to me.

 

There have been some that i found online as a downloadable for like $15 or $25 on allservicerepairmanuels and emanuelonline or something like that.

 

Welcome aboard...good luck.

 

If the engine has been overheated, it would be far simpler to find a good used engine to replace the one in the vehicle. The AJ-V8 gets very cross when overheated with warped block and heads.

 

Welcome to the Forums.

I am with NBCat here, if an alloy engine of any brand gets overheated, it is generally a boat anchor.

Good luck.

 

Welcome to Jaguar Forums Hyrum,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help

 

Welcome to the forums Hyrum,

The $15K quote was probably because the mechanic expects the heads are warped which is the the usual result of overheating a Jaguar V8. If so, a new gasket or even skimming is unlikely to fix this and you would find a replacement used engine is a considerably more cost effective repair route.

Follow this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-x350-x358-28/ to the X350 forum for help, advice and information. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues. You can also use the US Western Region forum by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/us-western-38/ to find other members in your region.

Please add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

Enjoy the forums.

Graham

 

welcome to the forum - enjoy!!

 

Oh shoot. Ok ill go start a thread on what would be better to do for that. i didnt realize the whole engine would be poop. ill start a thread over in that page. thanks

 

Hello, Hyrum,
I will add my own experience with alloy heads to the others.
Although it was only a 4-banger, after it blew the gasket, the head Never was right after that, even with planing and other flattening techniques. The problem was only resolved with another engine.

I wish you success.

Welcome to the forums from ElinorB.
(';')

 

now that's just not true. the AJV8 is an exception if it frequently warps the block as much as is said here.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone. I opened a thread in another forum about the actual issue and some more details on it if anyone has more insight to post there. Thanks!

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ooting-230423/