I've got much of the way into removal of the blower to access the burst coolant hose. I've quit for the night but the next step is to remove the bypass valve from the rear of the supercharger, It is looking like the nightmare part of the task. Looks like the EGR valve has to come out to access the lower bolt on the right-hand side of the bypass valve. If anyone who has had this out can give me some tips on how they accessed the fasteners I would be grateful. Looks like I'll be purchasing some 1/4" drive universal joints and longer extensions than I currently have but even then it looks quite daunting.

 

I would look on the S Type forum as the S Type R is almost identical to your car under the skin?
Here are a couple with pictures;
EGR Removal
and maybe this one?
EGR Help

If those don't help search for super charger removal as the EGR has been a problem from the beginning and now with corrosion and time it's only worse. Please use anti-seize when you put it back together too.
Help's if you put your car info in your questions.
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The second of those linked posts had the information that I needed, thank you. Knowing what other models share the same components would be a big help when searching, I'm new to Jaguar ownership and not familiar with info like that.
The S-type R cabin air filter removal gives access to the EGR. I'll be exploring whether this applies also to my car, any way to get more space in there would sure help.

My car is a 2010 XF 4.2 supercharged, I thought that was evident from the header although I left out the year.

 

Read this link. It is what i did. Very detailed. Might help a lot espesially the part about the heater hoses. I folded mine forward and secured with rubber snubber. Tons of room to work then. jaghelp.com: 2006 S-type supercharger removal.

 

Thanks for that link. It seems that the XF differs from the S-type in that the cabin air filter is accessed from inside the passenger footwell. So no cover to remove to enable EGR access! Going to see if I can remove the trim that covers the firewall, if I can get that out there should be a bit of room around the plenum and EGR as there is a gap between the trim and the firewall.

 

When trying to get to stuff at the back of that engine, you should remove the scuttle, cross beam and bulkhead trim, that'll give you loads more room to work in, otherwise its a pig. And yes, get a selection of universal joints and extension bars of different lengths, that'll make it much easier to get it off, otherwise you're going to loose most of the skin on your knuckles.

 

Just stopped for the night after another 3 hours wrestling parts out of the way. It was very obvious that the scuttle and cross beam had to come out, they were pretty much where I started. Getting the bulkhead trim out looks like the only way to gain some space behind the engine, To get the bulkhead trim out involves starting with the right-hand air cleaner box and then working back from there. The aluminium tubes for the heater that go across the bulkhead were fun to remove but with them out of the way there should now be room to get to the EGR valve retaining bolts. Also the heater pipes needed to come off to get the bulkhead trim out but I'm now a bit stumped as to what is still holding the bulkhead trim in place. I've taken out every retaining screw that I can find but there's possibly another couple above the bell housing. I'm beginning to think that engine removal would be a realistic option for this task.
I'm taking lots of photos as I go to facilitate reassembly. Once victory is complete I'll post up what might be helpful. Meanwhile if anyone knows what's still holding that bulkhead trim in.....

 

From memory you need to:

• take the air box out
• remove the screws from the vacuum bottle thing that I can't remember the name of
• pull up the hose that goes through the trim near the dash
• remove the 4 screws/bolts that hold the trim on

it then just wiggled out.

 

@POD XF , the 4.2 supercharged engine is in many cars. For example the xkr, xjr...
The service manuals for the cars clearly lay out the procedures for tasks as these. Do you not have that for your car?

 

One thing that is a problem on the EGR is rounded off bolts. Be sure and use a six point socket and get it squarely on before trying to remove the bolts. One poor guy on the S-Type forum has been struggling for several months and is about ready to scrap the car because of it!
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Thanks again for the replies. I really appreciate it. The manual- yes I have the manual. I'm using a combination of (a) looking at what needs to come out; (b) looking at the manual; (c) searching forum posts and internet pages; (d) asking questions here. So far, (a) is most functional, followed by (d) which mostly assists with (c); (b) gives a general idea but I'm finding particularly with this task that it totally lacks any help with accessing the items it instructs you to remove. For example, it appears that I may have to remove the front part of the exhaust system to access the two lower bolts on the "secondary bulkhead panel". The manual simply has a picture of the panel, seemingly floating in space, with the bolts having magically unscrewed themselves. Much more helpful is a write-up by someone who has done the job and says 'I had to remove the bloody exhaust system to get to the two cunningly concealed lower screws on the plastic bulkhead thing'.

I'm finding that there doesn't seem to be much on-line experience with removing the supercharger from this specific model, especially a RH drive variant. The access to the rear of the engine appears worse than what I can see in posts of doing this job on other models with the same engine. It's all helpful but not definitive.

It would be heartbreaking to round off those two EGR bolts. I will do everything in my power to avoid it. But then I'm almost looking like having to remove the engine anyway! In fact I'm thinking that I should have started on that assumption, I'd probably have it out by now and have all the access in the world to the bits I need to actually replace.

I'm hoping to get a little time on this again this evening, then I'll probably not get back to it for a week. At which pace, I won't be driving it again for months

 

Thanks Fivel. The R/H drive is perhaps slightly different in what needs to be got out of the way, but it's encouraging that you were able to wiggle the panel out- I worried that it would be too rigid to allow removal in the limited space. Last night I got to the stage where I thought it was ready to come out but it seems there are still two screws lower down holding it in. Manual pic confirms this. I just need to locate and access them.

 

My last hope of being able to get access sufficient to get to the necessary bolts at the rear of the engine failed me this evening; the secondary bulkhead behind the engine has proved impossible to remove without damaging it. I've decided to lower the engine and subframe enough to enable clear access to the rear of the engine as it is ridiculously tight back there, I can't even fit one finger between the plenum and the secondary bulkhead and there is absolutely no way I will be able to get to the four bolts that hold the plenum onto the blower. The photos I've seen of this area on the S-type are like a concert hall by comparison.
I plan to disconnect the driveshaft coupler from the rear of the transmission, drop the exhaust, loosen the transmission cross member, take the radiator etc out and then lower the engine and subframe assembly pivoting on the trans cross member. I should be able to get the problem area opposite the bell housing tunnel which will provide ample room. I've already removed every component in the engine bay that would hamper this.

I was just saying to a friend that everything that makes this car a dream to drive, makes it a nightmare to work on. Anyway I'd rather spend a couple of days removing things that I can access, than hurt myself and curse trying to achieve what seems impossible. And no, this isn't my first rodeo- I actually qualified and made my living as a mechanic for the first 7 years of my working life and have worked on everything from scooters to bulldozers to semi trailers over the past 42 years. So I can recognize when something can and can't be got at.

The only really annoying thing here is that I'll have to discharge the air-conditioning system and then pay someone to recharge it.

 

Sorry I did not see it was a RH car which does make a difference!
One tip that night help is the motor mounts attach to the frame pointing straight down. So you can remove both nuts and using a piece of wood than jack the engine up while watching for any binding. It's surprising how far it will come up and it really helps with access. I found this out when I changed the AC compressor since it's on the bottom of the engine.
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Thanks for that; unfortunately the motor is going to have to be lowered rather than raised, so that the offending parts are opposite the opening of the bell-housing tunnel area of the bulkhead, which should provide clear access to the rear of the engine. The workshop manual shows engine removal on these vehicles by lifting out through the top but I'm confident they will have been assembled at the factory by inserting the assembled drive train from underneath. I'm going to partially reverse that process. First mission today will be to make certain that this is possible. Really wishing I had a 2-post hoist!

 

same here for not realizing rhd when you clearly stated as so

 

No problem guys, this forum is mostly North American populated and you guys don't encounter too many RHD cars I'm sure. It's quite common for people here to import classic US cars (there are far more 57 Chevys and 67 Mustangs on the road here than there ever were in 57 and 67) and convert them to RH drive. I'd defy anyone to do that with one of these Jags!

It's actually quite liberating to accept the fact that the engine has to come out. There's a helluva lot of things to remove but none of them are particularly difficult, certainly not as difficult as trying to get to that EGR and plenum with the engine in place. I'm thinking I'll drop the engine & trans assembly completely and wheel it out, need to make a set of dollies to do that but then I can give it a 160,000km birthday with access all around. As stated earlier, I'll take lots of photos and post a thread on the process later.

 

Sorry to hear that has to happen but looking forward to your documentation. As you state many things are a piece of cake when the the engine is all out in the open!
So many cooling hoses on the SC 4.2L engine and I changed all of them out in the car!
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this is reason why i will put complete 5SC charger on 4.2sc . very messy back with EGR, Throtle body and their hoses, a aditional zillion unesesary gaskets and charger parts do not help either, a very complicated layout. but its same in the electronic- jags have very complicated electronic( while enginiers tried to do very simple diagnostics/repair procedures) without any reason.

 

I think I can get to the EGR ok now.


I'll make a separate thread on the engine removal when time permits.