Who did you get to fab the new rods?

 

I didn't - since the factory rods are already forged, and I didn't have an unlimited build budget, I decided to keep them (and get two replacements for the two that had spun bearings). I used ARP bolts in the rods I had the big ends of the rods line-honed to compensate for differing clamping forces. Some see it as overkill but I thought it was worth doing.

 

So I hoped I wouldn't be here, but....




I have an issue with the Exhaust Cam phaser on Bank 1 putting the car into Restricted Performance mode when I creep it forward on idle when the engine's warm. However, it consistently happens when the engine's warm.

I've spent a few weeks on this one and firmly ruled out any kind of issue with the solenoid (which is the obvious first go-to), the wiring, and the sensor, using all manner of test equipment. I do now have a dual-channel oscilloscope in my array of tools though I have my Autel graphing the exhaust cam advance/retard angles and you can see when the engine is hot and you put it under load at idle, Bank 1's exhaust cam "struggles to maintain" the angle and over a period of a few seconds it drops back down to it's default position, at which point the ECU throws a code, it goes into restricted performance mode, and the ECU stops trying to modify the exhaust cam timing.

Sadly, if it's not an electrical problem, then it has to be mechanical. Given that it only happens when the engine's hot this means that it's either: the oil pressure when the engine's hot (and the oil's thin) is dropping too low (maybe due to too-large bearing clearances), resulting in a lack oil flow to the phaser, so it's unable to keep the timing advanced; or the phaser itself is faulty.

I was able to rule out the first possibility with my permanently connected electronic oil pressure gauge as well as a mechanical gauge to verify - the oil pressure is meeting the specs in the Workshop Training Manual for the engine at temperature, and in fact looks consistently healthy (which I'm very relieved about). Additionally, it's unlikely an oil pressure issue would only affect one phaser, but more importantly the Training Manual explains that the cam phasers (unlike previous designs) are not dependent on oil pressure, only a supply of oil. It's possible the tiny mesh filter is partially blocked with some crap and lower oil pressure when hot can't get enough oil to the phaser to maintain it's supply (and of course when removing the phaser I'll replace it anyway), but this also seems pretty unlikely.

Which leaves the phaser itself. All four phasers were purchased brand new when I built the engine, from one of the many Jaguar Dealers that sell on eBay. However, the Service Manual is careful to state that if these phasers are dropped or subject to impact that they must be replaced.

I don't remember dropping this one or subjecting it to an undue impact, but it's entirely possible someone kicked it around in a delivery van or warehouse on it's way to me - I don't remember the boxes arriving particularly well-packed.

So that's where I am. I've already purchased a new phaser (from my local Jaguar dealer to avoid any damage in transit) along with replacement filters for both the exhaust and inlet cams whose phasers have to be removed as a pair, and other items like front crank seal etc. The plan at this point is to just remove the phasers and maybe check the exhaust one for rattles lol, check and replace the mesh filters behind them, and then fit a new exhaust phaser. At least I have the advantage of having done this before.

Oh, and I've bought new heat insulation pads for the inlet manifolds due to the mess the last ones made of my beautiful cam covers!

Hopefully the next update I give will be better news...

 

Damn... that sucks!
Hopefully the phasers were the problem and all this is not for nothing.

 

I have enjoyed reading this this thread on the forum but sorry you have to go back in there to replace the VVT, it is certainly time consuming.
Does anyone know if there are oversize crank rod bearings (0.75) available on the market for the 5L V8? Or where can I buy an aftermarket or replacement crankshaft? My LR4 had a spun rod bearing and my machine shop said it's only salvageable if we can get oversize bearings.

 

Very depressing. Rebuilding engines today isn't what it used to be. Chances of success are much lower now.

 

Quick update: Engine reassembled with new VVT phaser, problem appears to be permanently fixed. These things seem delicate, so worth bearing in mind. If I ever had to buy another I'd get it from the dealer rather than having it shipped from somewhere. Dealers pack their boxes better when shipping.

Still - now to put some miles on it!

 

hopefully the new VVT phaser will give a longterm solution to the problem.
Curious to learn whether any damage can be seen on the old phaser which
potentially caused the malfunction.
Have you already checked it in detail ?

Best regards
Ulrich

 

Hey Ulrich,

I haven't disassembled the faulty VVT phaser, but it's sat on my shelf ready for analysis! I will update with pics if I find anything.

 

Perfect work with engine. Can You help me find oem connecting rod and main bearings? Standard size. I can't find it.

 

I used these.

 

Thanks. This is good quality? You have any picture?

 

Dave, what's the latest? How's the car running?
================================================
Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar
Current: '15 XF (X250) Portfolio AWD 3.0 (it's aubergine...)
2018 JCNA Class N Slalom 2nd-Place
Past B: '08 S-Type 4.2 "Satin Edition" (250.06 whp / 259.67 torque)
2015 JCNA Class M Slalom Champion
Past A: '05 X-Type 3.0/auto Jaguar Racing Green

 

Hey pab - Car runs so good - I'm still breaking it in so not really spanking it yet but even at 50-60% throttle it pulls like a train. It sounds great and honestly drives better than it ever has. Ever since I replaced the suspect exhaust VVT phaser I haven't seen a single DTC so I think that's permanently fixed too.

Unfortunately, I got the J056 flash done on it by Jag which reset the ECU (required emissions recall, thanks California), and then when I took it to be smogged today it failed emissions because the sensors weren't ready Hopefully tomorrow I'll get it through a drive cycle with the help of my Autel and then I can re-test it.

I've got the 3 gauges (Boost/Vacuum, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temperature) in a cluster velcro'd to the top of the dash at the moment, just so I can keep an eye on things while I'm driving it. Once I've got the registration sorted I'll drop it back to Jag for the Airbag recall, and then once that's done I can work on the dash top to smooth the gauge cluster in properly and then get it recovered. However, the good news is that oil pressures and temperatures are exactly where they should be at all stages of engine warmup and show no signs of changing, which I'm taking as a tentative sign that the engine is in good shape after the rebuild.

Now I'm just focusing on getting miles on it (with a planned drive to Vegas soon to put a significant number of break-in miles on it plus, let's be honest, a desert stress-test) to finish breaking it in.

 

Great news DaveTibbs!

From reading all this I thought the 5.0L engine does NOT have an oil pressure port.
But that you found a fitting and added one? Just wanting to understand this point.
Sorry it's been a long thread and you did a wonderful job of it!

Pictures of your gauges would be great. Not sure how you will integrate them into the dash.
.
.
.

 

Let me know when your making that Vegas run, I might meet you there!

 

Sorry for the confusion - to clarify:

The 5.0 engine does not have an electronic oil pressure SENSOR. The ECU is not aware if the engine has low oil pressure, and it is only able to estimate this at all based on timing inconsistencies. I never had any kind of warning when my oil pressure got low enough to spin two conrod bearings, so based on this and the lack of oil pressure sensor, it's safe to assume that if you have a 5.0 it is pretty much impossible for the car to warn you of low oil pressure.

It's important to note that while electronic dipsticks are becoming more common, oil pressure switches that put an idiot light on the dash are cheap and a good idea, so I'm very surprised that Jaguar decided not to fit one to this engine. This is made all the worse by the fact that the owner's manual alludes to warning messages on the dash related to oil pressure, even though on the 5.0 these won't show.

It's only when you look at the wiring diagrams that it becomes clear that the oil pressure switch was only fitted to the 3.0 engines, not the 5.0, and since they share a block design (kinda) both these engines have a 1/2" threaded port that tees directly off the high-pressure oil feed from the pump - on the 5.0 engine this is fitted with a threaded plug from the factory (early ones had insufficient sealing resulting in oil leaks, this is discussed in a Land Rover TSB early on in this thread). I haven't seen one, but I assume the 3.0 engine uses this port to fit the oil pressure sensor.

I also have to assume that the reason they don't fit the sensor on the 5.0 is because the threaded port is very close to the passenger side exhaust manifold, and maybe they saw reliability issues with heat damage? The 3.0 v6 doesn't use the rear cylinders of the v8 so presumably there's a larger gap between the manifold and the threaded hole.

On my engine, I removed the threaded plug and used a series of adapters with a -4AN braided hose to locate the oil pressure sensor away from the engine.



Thanks! I'll try and get a video of them in action. At the moment the plan to integrate them into the dash is to pull the dash top off (once the airbag recall has been done, pull the bubbling leather, and then cut a hole in the dash top to mould in a pre-made 3 gauge cluster above the "infotainment" screen - the one I'm currently running with (here) is from a 04-09 Mazda 3 and the profile "slope" of the bottom of the cluster is near enough exactly the same as the XF dash, with a little modification.

I will then get the dash recovered by an expert as I'm OK with building engines and some bodywork, but things like interior trimming is a skill I'll pay for. It also may not be possible to trim the dash with the gauge cluster and have it look good with all the tight curves around the gauges, in which case I'd either look at reshaping the cluster slightly or maybe investigate having the dash flocked, though I'd prefer to keep the interior as nice as it should be, so the strong preference will be either leather or alcantara (at which point I'd get the door panels and steering wheel trimmed to match).

Watch this space!

 

Here's a vid showing the gauges working, and their rough mounting position on the dash, though obviously the angle would change slightly once the gauge pod is smoothed into the dash top and sits at the same profile - currently the bottom of the gauges are pushing the cluster up away from the dash.

Hopefully there won't be too many clearance issues with the gauges - there's a chance it could interfere with HVAC tubing in the dash but I'm pretty ok with modifying these if neessary. There's something broken in that area that's causing an (occasional) awful rattle on idle so I need to get in there anyway to fix that.


The gauges were custom-made by New Vintage USA, with silver paint and font similar to the existing instrument panel, and a blue backlight - the color of the blue is very slightly off compared to the rest of the dash illumination but not enough that I think I want to go messing with them just yet. Even with small (unchangeable) differences like the gauge needles being red, I still think with matched font styles etc they were worth the money.

I'll try and get some driving shots of them later.

 

>The 3.0 v6 doesn't use the rear cylinders of the v8 so...

V6 rant begin:

Ya, that just boggles my mind. The V6 block has two plugged holes.
But even worse, to manage 90 degree V6 vibrations they created a "split-pin" crank shaft AND added balance shafts!!!!!

V6 rant end
================================================== =
You dreamed of a big star -
He played a mean guitar -
He loved to drive his Jaguar...

So welcome to the machine

 

Wait... What!?

Are you saying that the V6 is actually a V8 block with 2 holes plugged?