Hello again all,

Bought myself a 2002 (plated 2001) S-Type V8 4.0L

It was advertised with a few problems, rear tyres had gone through to the canvas because the monkey spanner didn't track them after fitting new arms, rear parking sensors were playing up (found the bad one), air con hose leaking in the engine bay (found that wrapped up), but the reason the owner decided to sell it was because it had just started to overheat.
When I spoke with him he said it started to overheat as he got home, and seeing as he had just spent £400 on getting it through the mot, he wasn't going to spend any more money on it.
I think the little lady with the new born sprog in her arms might have had a bigger say in this than he was letting on.

But the car is in really good condition for it's age, starts first turn of the key, purrs nicely, throttle picks up perfectly, no unusual knocks or rattles, goes into gear without thumping, lovely clean interior, no bolster damage on the seat, a few minor scratches but no dinks, and only 86K miles on the clock backed up by the mot's.
There is a wad of Jag main dealer receipts up til a few years ago, then normal garage stuff.
So I had it. For the princely sum of £480.

The overheating was the first thing I wanted to look at, and if I'm honest, I was halfway hoping it was going to be a head gasket, just so I could get my hands on the lump and rip it to pieces. Been a while since I've done a V8, especially still in the car, last one was a Mustang on the engine stand.
Anyway, started digging, and sure enough, found it leaking at the back of the right hand bank. Checked the oil and it was just starting to go very slightly creamy.
Definate head gasket to me.
So ordered the full top end gasket set and got stuck in.

Soddin' wiring brackets always getting in the way of things!!!

Now I know there has been a proper monkey spanner working on this car.
Apart from the heat shrink tubing over the leaking air con pipe, and not tracking the rear wheels, when I got to the water pump, it had been gunked up to high heaven all over the metal gasket.
Checked the pump fins, because I know they can split, found a few starting to tear, but no missing bits, so new pump ordered.
Got to the thermostat..................someone had actually cut the thermostat part off, leaving just the outer ring and sealing rubber in place. Then added more gunk for good measure. Oh my lord............

I can't believe some of these people ever went to college to learn the trade.

Anyhoo, finally managed to get all the front off the engine, had a good look at the top tensioners, right hand one looks to have lost it's oil pressure somewhat, the chain is a bit on the slack side whilst the left hand one is good, so those will get replaced for good measure.
Haven't got round to the other tensioners and guides yet, bloody other work getting in the way of my stuff again, but will soon and then I'll post an update for you all.
I'm looking forward to having the heads off, you can see by the back of the intake valves that it was coming due, black and oily on at least half of them so the stem seals are starting to go, that or it was running so cold due to the thermostat that the choke must have been on all the time.
Never mind, soon be nice and clean again.

 

Little update then.

In between doing other work, like the neighbours son's Honda CM125 that dropped both the cam sprocket bolts down the tunnel, managed to get a lot of work done...............nearly

After getting to all the timing gear, it was time to fetch the heads off at last.
So I set the cams with the flats level, then proceeded to attack the exhaust manifold bolts.
At which point I found that they would not budge in the slightest on the right hand bank.
The fear of rounding off the bolt heads was extreme, so I thought OK, I'll split it at the downpipe.

NOT A BLEEDIN' HOPE!

You can quite easily get to the lower nut, but have absolutely no chance of getting to the upper bolt due to the fact that it is close to the bulkhead and round a corner, and at such an angle that no amount of UJ's or extension bars will get to it AND fit properly on the nut.
So extreme measures were called for.

OUT WITH THE DREMMEL AND THE LITTLE GRIND STONES.

I had to dremmel through the nut, then tap it round with a LONG piece of steel with a point ground on it. Basically a long centre punch.

It took me 6 hours to get through the damn thing and fetch it off due to how little room there is to actually move your hand around. The best you could hope for was just moving your fingers back and forth.

After that it was just a case of fetching the head off complete with the manifold, then taking off the manifold when it's on the bench.

Then more problems showed their faces.

Whilst taking the manifold off the head, on the bench, 2 of the bolts snapped off leaving about 1/4 of an inch proud.
No amount of heat was going to move them, so they got ground off flush, onto the pillar drill and drilled and re-tapped.

And this is where I found out something that surprised me.

When I put the head on the drill bed, exhaust ports up obviously, it was perfectly level. I didn't have to pack it anywhere.
Just a simple case of bolt it down and away we go.
Thank god, a simple enough job at last.

Then I had to sort out the damaged downpipe bolt, which ended up being drilled through and 0.5mm over-sized so I can just pass a nut and bolt through. This way I can get a crowfoot on the bottom nut and gun the top to tighten it. I also over-sized the spacer that goes in between the two faces.

Those jobs done, I moved on to fetching the left hand head off.
Guess what......................
Came off like a dream.
No broken bolts on the manifold this time.
And for those who don't already know, when you drop the manifold off the head, you can pull the exhaust forward about 2 inches, which allows you to
get to the upper downpipe bolt very easily with the help of an extension bar and gun.
Absolutely whizzed it off.
So that was that head off. Great.
Now both are on the bench.

I've tapped out all the holes on both heads so I know that there are no problems with manky threads to come back and bite me in the **** later.

Started to clean the valves, then decided enough for now, time for the pub.

I'll post another update as I get round to it.

 

A little update then.

I did do this a few days ago but for some reason it hasn't appeared. (admin?)

After setting the cams, I started to attack the manifold bolts; only to find the ones on the right hand bank were absolutely solid. There wasn't a hope in hell they were going to come out, so I went for the split at the downpipe jobbie.
Now comes the other nightmare.
For those who don't already know, you can get to the lower bolt easy enough, but forget about gunning the upper bolt out with the manifold still on the head. No amount of extension bars, UJ's or flexi's is going to make any socket sit properly on that nut. It's because of the way it follows the body round, it's just a mare.
I spent over 6 hours with a dremmel and grind stone going through the side of the nut, then made a LONG pointed centre punch to tap it round and eventually off. There is so little room to move your hand under there, that the best you can hope for is just moving your fingers back and forth.
Anyway, got it off, split the downpipe, then proceeded to have the head off.
With the head on the bench, I started on the manifold bolts, and 2 of the buggers snapped straight off, leaving about 1/4" above the surface.
Hells bells. Another job to be done.
Got the rest out, tentatively. Threw them all straight in the bin.
Good job I have a pillar drill in the workshop.
Put the now manifoldless head on the drill table and to my surprise it was near as dammit perfectly level in both directions.
What a nice surprise for a change. That made things easier, just bolt it down and get stuck in. Drilled out the 2 broken studs to tapping size, re-tapped them expecting any stray threads from the old stud to come away, but nothing. Looks like I got them bang on, and you can barely tell they have been done. No oversizing of the manfold holes required to accommodate the new bolts either. Job done.
Whilst I was on there I tapped out every hole I could find, just so there would be no crud in there to come back and bite me on the **** when I put it back together again.
Whipped all the valves out, not the worse I've seen, all cleaned up spotless now, de-coked all the ports (found a brass wire brush that fitted nicely down the ports), all that's nice and clean again as well.
Some people say that on today's engines it's not really necessary to lap any of the valves in, but I'm an old skool spanner and it's my way to lap any valves in again once they've been out and cleaned.
No need for any course paste, just the fine stuff, the seats and faces came up great.
All washed off to remove any stray paste anywhere and half the valves are now back in. Tricky little blighters those tiny valve collets aren't they................
Also drilled out the now damaged downpipe bolt, oversized the hole by 0.5mm so it will now get put back with a nut and bolt that can be got at from the top of the engine instead of underneath.

Anyhow, one head all done, one to go.
I was a bit hesitant about the manifold bolts on the left hand head at first, but they all cracked nicely, manifold off and dropped down.
It is then you can see how the exhaust is able to be pulled forward a few inches to allow you to get a socket and extension bar on the upper nut to gun it off quite easily.
Which I did. New nuts will be used on build.
That head is also now off and sitting on the bench waiting for my attention.

I've had a look at the primary guides and tensioners and they appear to be as good as new, no wear or cracks anywhere, and good strong tensioner operation, so they won't need to be replaced for a few thousand miles yet.

I'm going to modify the wiring bracket fixings that are held on the back of the heads to make it easier to bolt up the wiring housing again, instead of having to bolt it back on the head and then put the head on.

That's it so far, nightmares and struggles, but onwards......................

 

Might want to hold off on that idea for the moment. Hopefully somebody more in the know can chime in. I think those pesky wiring brackets are there for a very specific reason. If I remember correctly, it had to do with crash safety. In an accident, the engine can shift and damage that harness if the brackets weren't there. The damage lead to sparks and if any fuel has spilled, suddenly a minor accident turns into a Car-B-Que.

 

Ah, let me clarify what was going through my head.
I've no intention of removing the brackets, I will keep them on the back of the heads, but the way that the wiring housing itself bolts to those brackets needs to change.
As it stands at the moment it is near impossible to take the wiring off that bracket because the nuts that secure it are at the back, facing towards the bulkhead, and access to them is very restricted.
By turning the bolts around to face into the engine bay, it will allow you take that housing off without the need to use special tools.
It will still retain all the strength that it was designed for, but it will be easier to disconnect from the two brackets for any future work that may be needed, like electrical continuity testing for instance.

 

Time to update this me thinks.

After being off on the jollies across Guernsey, France, Holland and Luxembourg on the bikes, managed to get some more work done on the jag.
Now got both the heads all done, all the ports cleaned, no trace of carbon anywhere, valves cleaned, new stem seals, lapped in, every threaded hole had a tap run down them to clear out anything that may be in there, all nice and proper again.
Both heads back on the engine, all torqued up.
The upper tensioners are the new type metal body ones so all good there, and it looks like I already have the upgraded morse primary chain. Main chain tensioners and blades have no cracks or wear either.
All new exhaust manifold bolts used after 2 of the previous ones snapped off in the right hand bank. Not wanting to risk that when I'm re-building it.
Cams in and locked down, secondary and primary chains back on, guides in, tensioners in, all looking good.

Then it occurred to me..............

I hadn't marked the position of the VVT in relation to the cam position, and I know for a fact that I HAVE moved the VVT on the shafts, although I HAVEN'T removed the VVT FROM the shafts.
And now I can't remember which way is retarded and advanced for the VVT timing, or even if it does need re-positioning.
I think I'm having a senior moment.

I'm having trouble with installing the JTIS on the laptop, both 32 and 64 bit versions, to the extent that I have re-loaded the laptop with both versions of the OS just to try it, but no luck so far. And Autodata on the VVT's is none existant. So no help there at the moment.

Obviously, until I sort this out, there is no way I'm going to try and start the engine although I know it won't connect any valves or anything, it's just my **** retentive OCD monkey thats decided to come out and ride my back again.

So, if somebody would please put this to bed for me I would appreciate it.

When you are standing in front of the car, looking at the engine, are the VVT's turned left until they stop or to the right? Then put the primary chain on.

Or do I need to do nothing seeing as I haven't had them off the shafts?

Like I said, senior moment...................

 

WAHEY
Just got JTIS working

 

Found the answer to my VVT question in JTIS

 

Well the old girl is up and running at last. Sounds nice enough.
Had a couple of small(ish) problems.
When I attached the serpentine belt tensioner, the tensioner pulley was hitting the breast plate. Made an awful racket and made me panic a little, thought I hadn't torqued the cams down properly or something drastic like that.
Couldn't understand what was going on with it, the mounting plate is in a fixed position, so I shimmed it out by 3mm so it clears the breast plate now, and there is no problems with the belt running out of line or anything of that nature. Used a longer fixing bolt as well to compensate for the shim washer, just to be sure.
Also changed the thermostat housing for the upgraded aluminium one, and that bloody useless 'O' ring, why they didn't use a flat one is a wonder to me, when I torqued it up to it's stated 9Nm, it pops out of the inside of the cap and goes into the housing, and gets a piece nicked out of it in the process. So that got changed for a proper one, no more leaking there now.
Went to change the rear tyres because the previous monkey didn't track them when they fitted new rear arms, and one lug nut snapped itself off clean. It would have been better if it had snapped the wheel bolt instead, at least that wouldn't have been a major pain in the proverbial to get replaced. Took me 2 hours of grinding with the Dremmel, smacking it with a dot punch, then a longer punch, then cursing at it, then stopping for a cuppa, more cursing.
Got it out eventually with some minor damage to the rim hole, but nothing that can't be dealt with when I decide to refurb the alloys.
Had the sump pan off the check for anything floating around in there, checked the strainer for anything, nothing, nice and clean. A few drops of water sitting on top of what was left of the oil but otherwise all tidy in there.
I do have a minor issue with a cam sensor though. On bank A.
I can start the car normally, run it fine, all good, no check lights.
Turn it off, start it again, and I get a check engine light.
Diagnostic says it is the cam sensor on Bank A, but I'm getting no unusual engine symptoms, no stuttering or anything like that, although I have noticed that the nearside exhaust note does have a little fart every now and then.
It did make me think about something I read on here about the magnetic properties of the bolt nearest to the cam sensors that could be causing that particular problem. If anyone has any info on that please chime in.
What I'll do in the meantime is change them over and see if I get the same problem on the right hand bank, that'll point directly to the sensor if it is indeed faulty, if not.............we'll see.
There is also a small water leak under the bottom of the car, appears to be in the vicinity of some hoses directly under the drivers seat which I'll have a look at tomorrow hopefully. Can't have any leaks on this engine, it's too sensitive to over heating from what I know of them.
Also got to bleed the system properly.
I won't do the anti-freeze until I've cured any other leaks.
So after much work, sweat, and only a slight amount of blood, I now have a nice clean and fully re-built top end.
New head gaskets, valve stem seals, all new gaskets and rubbers on everything, new water pump, new thermo housing, thermostat, oils, filters, belts, tyres, and new lug nuts that should be here tomorrow.
Got to take it for 4 wheel alignment, I printed out the different specs from on here so they can use those and not the Jag stated ones.
Then it's just the in-car audio that I want to upgrade, need phone connectivity these days in the car, and most definately want to have DAB+ so I can get my favorite radio station, PLANET ROCK.

 

Sounds like the fun I had when I bought a cheap XJ6, the new ally body one. Got to do both head gaskets and a few other bits to get it running sweet.
Keep up the posts you will solve all the remaining niggles soon I am sure.

 

Thanks for sharing.
Thats an interesting read. I looked at a couple of early S-type V8's before settling for the 2 1/2.
Sounds like an old Jap bike with all those bolt problems.
Thank God for the Dremmel, I've had the same one for maybe 10 years now and its had a lot of use !
Primary function is to cut off corroded and wrecked bolts and nuts and machine screws. But it is equally useful for the car.

 

I ordered a new set of wheel nuts for the car that turned up today; I had found that the previous owner or his mechanic monkey had used ordinary tapered nuts on some of the wheel studs instead of the proper shouldered type. Plus whatever he/they had used were a different sized socket fitting as well. Had a mix of 19mm, 20mm and 21mm socket sizes on it.
Nightmarishly stupid.
What kind of problems would that have caused on a simple flat tyre situation..........
Anyway, went round the car replacing all the nuts, snapped a wheel stud off the rear and found an already snapped stud on the front that had been disguised with the nut barely grabbing on to it by a couple of threads.
I'm just counting myself lucky that I've found them out now instead of later on.
Spoke with MTec Racing in Tamworth, not too far from me, they have all the studs in stock over there, so I'm going over in the morning for a full set of new high tensile wheel studs.
And the price is pretty good I think, £28 for the 20 studs.
If I remember I'll put a few photos up of how to do the stud changes on the front and rear hubs.
The fronts are so easy to do it's wonderful, shouldn't take more than 20 minutes a side, the rears I haven't looked at yet.

I found the suspected water leak that I thought was coming from under the drivers seat, It wasn't a hose, just overspill from when I topped up the coolant header tank. It was running down from behind the inner arch plastic and travelling along the pipe, giving the impression it was a hose that was leaking.
Haven't sorted the cam sensor thingy though, not swapped them over yet, was too miffed about the wheel studs to be honest.

 

And while I'm thinking about it, I've been looking at the audio today as well.
I've got the OE radio/cassette out and now have a big hole where it used to be.
BUT............the right hand side of the metal framework has an angled section towards the bottom edge, so you don't have a proper sized "square" for a new double din head unit.

My thoughts on any upgrade are going three ways at the moment.

1. Buy a quality single din head unit and facia plate adapter with the DAB+ and bluetooth functionality, add the steering wheel interface to keep the controls and hope it doesn't look out of place.

2. Take the entire section to Bass Junkies and see what double din units will fit, if any. Plus I should be able to find a compatible facia surround

3. Keep what I already have and add the Alpine DAB+ standalone unit (with bluetooth) that will work through an un-used FM frequency, and add a DAB aerial

Locating the Alpine unit is also another mind bender because I really don't want it plonked on top of the dash and looking out of place. But I did think that I might be able to cut out the front of the big storage box that is next to the OE radio and sit it flush with the front, and it would maybe keep the functionality of that storage box as well.

We'll see what transpires when I've sorted these studs out first.

 

Now then, got a little cam sensor problem and a blowing cold air problem.

She's thrown up codes P0340 and P0341

P0340 = Camshaft position (CMP) Sensor A, bank 1, circuit malfunction
Probable cause = Wiring, CMP sensor, ECM

P0341 = Camshaft position (CMP) Sensor A, bank 1, Range/performance problem
Probable cause = Insecure sensor/rotor, air gap, wiring, ECM

Looks like I've got some electrical testing to do as I have today changed the left hand bank sensor for a new one, and still got the same codes.
Providing of course that I'm not barking up the wrong tree and Bank 1 is the right hand?????????????
And why the hell are they handed sensors???????????????
Why didn't they use two of the same kind?????????????
Would of been easy then to just swap them over and see if it is the sensor that's at fault.

Then there is the blowing cold air to sort out.
Now this is the important one!
All the hoses are hot except the 3 that go into the bulkhead, these are barely warm to the touch, so I'm suspecting that they have an airlock in them somewhere. But what a bitch to get to, can barely give them a squeeze to assist the water getting in there.
Any Tips?

 

Sorry to say... Bank 1 is R, 2 is L...

 

@JagV8
Would you believe I just found that out on the Autodata files..............strange, I always thought Bank 1 was the left as you sit in the car.
But thanks anyway for replying, I'll order a new sensor tomorrow morning from my suppliers, strangely enough they didn't have one in stock today when I went down there, just the left hand one, otherwise I would have changed both just for the hell of it. And of course to rule them out the equation.

 

Here you go, specifically posts #2 and #6:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ol-how-185002/

 

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

That's not a write up, it's a bloody novel.
Think I'll print it out and have a read while I'm soaking in the bath.
But I must say, well done in all of that. Very detailed from what I've read so far.

I noticed at the end that you were looking for a guinea pig.............think you might have found one here.

I've ordered the right hand cam sensor today, so that should be at my suppliers tomorrow for me to collect, I'll sort that issue out first then move on to the not blowing hot air issue.
One thing though, are the "normal" cabin heating systems and A/C systems interlinked at all?

If I explain a bit more;
I was told when I bought this car that there was an air con hose that was leaking in the engine bay somewhere. So far I haven't addressed this issue, mainly because here in the UK, A/C isn't something that is terribly useful, especially when you have a big sunroof, windows and the full open facility on the fob. To me air con is open the window, plus I ride a bike and prefer the feel of the wind.
In your opinion, is it necessary to correct the air con hose issue in order for the cabin "normal" heating side of things to work properly, even though I have no need for the A/C side of things?

 

So, more done today.
Picked up the new cam sensor, discovered why the other one was so hard to remove. There was a metal "spur" inside the hole.
Had to remove all the intake again just so I could work on it. Now it's all nice again, sensor slips in and out nicely.
Guess what though............still got the codes on that bank, pending after being cleared.
So I'm going to have to do some deeper investigating I think.
Doesn't affect the running of the engine as the cam sensors are only used for the initial start-up, then the ignition takes over.

Moved on to the cold air issue.
Printed out kr98664's post about how the system works, quite a few pages there. Had a think about it.
Checked the new thermostat to see if the jiggle pin was at the top, haven't got one. Hmmmm.
Oh well then, out with the fan shroud, let start attacking the DCCV valves and auxillary pump.
Tested the plug to the auxillary pump, NO VOLTAGE with ignition on.
Did a resistance test at the pump terminals, all good there.
Grabbed a spare battery, jumped the pump terminals and it fired up good, all working and water flying everywhere.
Ok, so there's something to look at the wiring diagrams for.
Does the auxillary pump work off the ignition, with or without the engine running, triggered off a sensor or what?
At the moment I don't know, but I'll have a dig around and see what I find.

Moved on to the DCCV valve block.
Stripped it out the car, onto the bench for a better look and inspection, clean as a whistle inside. No crud build up and it appears that the valves are open.
I haven't tested for voltage at the DCCV plug yet, but it is in the plan for tomorrow.
So maybe my problem is just the lack of power feed to the auxillary pump plug.
I've been through all the fuses in all 3 fuse boxes and found no blown ones, so at the moment I can rule out those as a problem.
Not checked out the relays as yet.
However I shall continue to read through KR96684's post about the system and see what I can find.

Pictures below:

 

Just been reading this post about the heating lssues suffered by another forum member
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-works-172453/

Loads of wonderful information in that thread that will be put to good use tomorrow.