Hello Jaguar folks. I am new to this forum and here is my story.
I have a 2013 XJ with V6 s/c with 84,000 miles here in Southern California. I bought this car as-is on auction and found there is a problem with overheating. I put a new water pump, take off the thermostat but it doesn't help at all. Then I found that there is a combustion gases in the coolant system. Jag slowly gets up to 95 degrees Celsius in about 30-40 minutes and then gets up to 120 C in the next couple minute. Coolant starts boil and I shut off the car. So it looks that I need to put new head gaskets and this should resolve all the problems.

Did someone here do this job before? I was trying to find any information but haven't find anything similar. I am a mechanic, but never worked with 3.0 Jags before.
What type of special tools do I need to have to complete this job?
Any information would be helpful.
I will keep you guys updated. Firstly, I need to order special tools and figure out how to put marks on timing chain.
Thank you!

 

I would test for combustion gases in the coolant before I did any head work.
Find out what your problem is first.
There was a reason it was sent to auction.
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That's right. There are combustion gases in the coolant. Tested with a special tester and there are bubbles in the coolant reservoir.

 

OK just did not you to change stuff unless it's needed. Now you have a bigger decision to make?
Since you don't know what happened the heads and engine might be junk and you will need a new engine. Sometimes if over heated severely it ruins the entire engine from warping the heads and the block.
Pull the heads and see what you have as you have nothing to lose at this point.

Do you have the shop manual? It's free and located in the stickies at the top of this forum.
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You're right. I need to pull the heads to see. Do you think that the block can be warped as well as cylinder heads? Is it aluminum?

 

Block and heads are aluminium. What you have to do is check the block for warping when you have the heads off. If it is, then parting-out the car might be your best option, unless you can find another engine cheaply. The problem you have is that the car is now 7 years old and its mileage, whilst reasonable for that age, means its value is not very much even if it were a good running car.

 

Hang on a sec. Did you use a single chamber or double chamber cooling system tester? The single chamber ones are known for producing false positives. Experienced this myself on my XJS V12.

Next thing I would do is examine the spark plugs (leaky cylinders should look too clean), and do a compression test. Then you will know which head. Why pull both?

Head gaskets do fail and usually blocks survive. The head might be slightly distorted but could be skimmed if it isn't too bad.

Last head gasket failure I experienced resulted in erosion of the head which had to be built back up with a TIG welder and then skimmed. Hope that hasn't happen to the block.

 

Hi Loompy,
Any update on your head gaskets?
Still own the Jag?

 

Has anyone ever heard of Blue Devil?
They have a line of head gasket, head/block crack sealants and so forth.
I had tale-tell signs of a warped head, not in my wife's Jaguar though.
In this case, I noticed coolant loss, with no sign of coolant leak, and pressure building-up in the coolant system, misfires on start-up and diagnosis by a dealership of needing to replace a head.
Anyway, enough about me.
It took me a few bottles of the Blue Devil before I got it right, mostly as far as making sure I had all the air out of the system after flushing.
But after running the Blue Devil head sealant through it, it's been fine.

I did not want to use any of the general coolant sealers that gum-up the system with "particulate matter" of various sorts.
The Blue Devil has nothing solid in it, just chemical.
Other than having to remove the the thermostat, flush the entire system, fill with clean water, inputting the Blue Devil into the cold engine and letting it run for 50 minutes, letting it sit and completely cool for a few hours, then flushing the Blue Devil & water out, replacing the thermostat & filling with proper coolant and returning to normal use, it was easy. At least much easier than pulling a head, possibly replacing the head, and putting the top end back together.

It's a relatively cheap & easy option to try if the next alternative is an engine rebuild.
I know many will trash-talk it and say it'll ruin an engine, but I've noticed those people have pretty much never used it, or have used other products that just gum-up the coolant system.
This doesn't seem to do that from my personal experience.

A JLR dealership mechanic that I've known over the years actually mentioned Blue Devil as the only alternative they would try before having a very costly head gasket repair that may find more damage than just the gasket.

 

hi, my brother and i are running into the same issue.. We have a 2013 jaguar xf 3.0 v6 supercharged. We have verified it is the head gaskets. The issue is we are a little leery on moving forward.. We were hoping for a video but none exist or i just cant find them for this specific vehicle....were you successful? Does anyone maybe know of some videos or even advice to share? Thank you.

 

Well, this is very interesting. My coolant tank has been decreasing coolant level by about an inch every week. No sign of a leak under the car, but the leak is so slow that is likely seepage. Mine is a 2013 but when I bought it I noticed it has already got the new model of JLR plastic coolant pipes - i.e. no seam at the front. But the bad news in that is it may mean my engine was over heated by the previous owner...? So what is the chance it is my head gaskets? I have very slight bubbles in the coolant tank but only intermittently - i.e. 1 in 6 or 7 times.

Tomorrow, I have my coolant system checked for a leak. Is there any advice on not over doing the pressure on the coolant system, or anything else to bear in mind?

Thanks for the advice on the Blue Devil.

 

The coolant reservoir cap on my XJ is 30psi, so that is an incredible amount of pressure, but when you pressure test the coolant system, you should test it to the max pressure.

You should also test for exhaust gases in the coolant system at the same time with one of these testers that you can buy at the parts store or online.

 

Old post, but for anyone else looking for this information, this is a good video on the head gasket replacement on our engines. Keep in mind, the engines are the exact same in the Land Rover cars, so their videos are very relevant:

 

Be sure and check the block and heads for warping before just replacing gaskets. If the engine got hot enough to blow the head gaskets it's very possible it got hot enough to warp either or both of those items.
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Very true, otherwise it's a ton of work for nothing. In the video I posted around 3:25, he shows the process of checking for warping with a special engine flat edge and feeler gauges.

 

The easiest method for doing work of this sort on the X351 is to remove the engine and gearbox from the car:

 

That seems easier, but when I think about the effort to move to a house with a garage that can fit a lift or tear down my garage and build another one, it ends up being more work, lol.

How hard is it to remove the engine out of the top vs dropping it down? Using an engine hoist is not an issue in my garage.

 

Never tried it that way.

Getting to the back of the engine, even with the cowl removed, is difficult at best with the engine in situ.

 

For those curious, this guy pulled the engine out of the top on his XF, and engine removal is probably about the same on the XJ.

 

I did an engine swap on my 2013 XJ Portfolio through the top. The gearbox had already been removed which made life easier but it was not that hard. Mine was right hand drive so not sure how much interference there would be from the steering rack on left hand drive cars.