Dear ladies and gents

This is probably going to be my last post. After spending a lot of blood and sweat on my cat the final death calls have shown oil in the cooling system. Heating matrix hasn't put heat through for a while and ive changed the oil thermostat and oil cooler which worked for a couple of days, but after my commute to work Im afraid the problem is back. Sad as theres no loss of performance and the car still runs sweet, but can only be the head gasket that's on its way out. (150K miles). engine over heated on motorway as there was a coolant leak and the tank was empty by the time I reached a filling station. I'm very sad to be getting rid of her but the age and issues now showing their head are to much to keep throwing money / parts at it. Ive received some invaluable help from the people on here and I would like to thank you and wish you all good luck.

 

The last of it's 9 lives? You could replace the head gaskets, not a horrible job. I see you changed your oil cooler which would have been my suggestion to check as often people see the water/oil mix and automatically go "head gasket", but the diesels have the cooler problem more often than head gaskets.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/12263078942...evt=1&mkcid=28

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...gasket-158564/

 

I had considered changing the head, but when I thought about the can of worms Id open in disturbing surrounding parts and the additional costs that would likely create, I decided to bite the bullet and cut my losses. I havent got a spare vehicle to use while this is being repaired and my circumstances have now changed where I haven't got the time to give in repairing her any longer. Got loads of spare parts though will get up for sale.

 

Hex, time to upgrade to an XJ or XE? I know I made the jump up to an XJ and have not looked back. Sad to hear the girl gave it all, but that doens't mean you can't hang out and pass on what you have learned. You know I still float through the X-Type forums to help out where I can.

 

The term "Better Living through Chemistry" has been around since the early late 1940's or 1950's, and look: We're in the 21st Century now!

There are some amazing block, head and gasket sealers available here in the future. It would be simply a shame if you did not give the Kitty one last chance, and a bit of Modern Medicine. Just flush the cooling system one last time (or two), fill her with distilled water, and leave enough room in the system to feed her a big bottle of one of those rather expensive - yet Money-Back Guaranteed - magical formulas!

You have NOTHING TO LOSE, and EVERYTHING TO GAIN!

I personally have driven my 5.9 Liter Dodge gasoline truck engine now for over 10 years with a blown head gasket, and that is with some of the cheapest types of sealants: (Barr's Leak, which looks like hunks of boiled cloves suspended in diarrhea, less than $10 USD and small containers of "Silver Seal" - small cardboard tubes of a silvery powdered compound that retail for about $5 USD each)..

Every couple of years I need to "restore" or "refresh" them (the fix will begin to fail), so I flush the radiator out and pour more of that crap back in it!

(I finally broke down and bought new head gaskets and the upper-engine gasket kit, and hope to "shade-tree" the fix this summer, but only because I want to bring my truck's reliability back to 100%)

I bet your Kitty will surprise you and have a few of those famous Nine Lives still left in her - all you need is one of them!

Best of Luck to you, and Best of Luck to your Kitty, as she starts her 1st Round of Chemo.

 

Hex, check out: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...et-fix-236890/. Seeing this first hand, it gives me hope for your case. I would give it a try. What is the worst thing that is going to happen? You need a new car?

 

X-Type engine runs beautiful when it's good, but once something happened it give you lots of head ache, time and money. I like the X-Type body style and sheet metal seem like never rusted; I thought of when my cat come to its last 9 life, I'm going to looking for a wrecked Tesla model3 to convert my X-Type to be the X-TypeE. I know it's not going to be easy, and probably costly too, but it'll be fun and worth it. If any body think about that?

 

My own fault, I went on a longish trip the weekend before and didn't know shed sprung a leak in the coolant system, but worse still didn't check when I used her again for the week so shed run completely dry. After a quick belt down the mway, the needle shot straight over to hot so I pulled off but couldn't find a garage that supplied water believe it or not, finally got some from a local supermarket but think by that time the damage had been done.

Fancy a V8 XF but not sure the pennies are there just yet

 

Hi Bruce
Ive spoken to the technical department of a few of these sealant firms and the problem is theres oil in the water but not the the way round, one of the techs actually had a blow S type with the same problem and was very helpful but assured me a water fix wouldn't work. I could look for an oil repair but its not certain how long it would work for. As my entire reason for spending the money and working on the kit was to get her reliable this defeated the object and my concern is that even repairing the gasket, id end up having to do lots more work on ancillaries disturbed when doing the job, I dont have a second car to run round in and theres no spares shops up here close so virtually everything would need to be ebayed in etc causing long delays. Perhaps in another world I could keep her and repair but my new granddaughter demands my time now.

 

That would be an impressive project but not sure you'd achieve, as electric cars are set up completely different with banks of batteries under the car etc. Would be amazing if you did get there though and post the progress on here

 

I'd still drop a can of "Stops Oil Leaks" into the oil, and a big bottle of "Barr's Leak" into the coolant system, and maybe put a For Sale sign on it. It will likely mitigate much further damage, and allow a future owner the chance to slap the new head gasket on your beautiful car.

Anything else is murder, plain and simple. NOT "euthanasia", but m-u-r-d-e-r. You could still possibly profit from that, however: Drive the car to the Wrecking yard / "Bone yard" / Auto Disassembler - whatever it's known by on that side of that pond - and try for a high-quality VIDEO of it being CRUSHED.

Apparently, there are quite a few really sick people around the world that pay good money to watch kittens getting CRUSHED and STOMPED.

(Hey - I'm doing my best here to try and help you mitigate your financial loss - okay?)

You're Welcome!

 

Hex,

Feeling frisky? Do a manual Jag X wagon. Only one in the U.S.? Same idea as this sedan...

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-x400-211034/