howdy all, getting pretty busy coming up for the end of 2019.

Plenty going on and have had a good amount of spare time to dedicate to research.

Anyway getting to the point of my post, during my surfing have come across some ridiculously cheap timing kits for the 3.0 and 5.0 AJ133.

Has anyone been adventurous enough to fit or have purchased one of these kits either seriously for fitment or just due to being inquisitive.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Timing-C....c100667.m2042

the price of the entire kit is less than two genuine hydraulic tensioners, I kinda have my reservations as my initial quote from a recommended "reasonably priced" kit here in Oz was $1700. for chains, guides and tensioner 8 pc set.
So are we getting massively ripped of for a JLR sticker? Yeah yeah I know everything made in China is cheap crap right. Sorry but everything seems to be made there nowadays even from the highest brand snobbery tiers, it all comes down to production cost resulting in profit margin, so keeping this in mind..............
I am also wondering where the genuine timing parts are manufactured, as the guides in this kit look nothing different from the JLR, but the piston/button in the hydraulic tensioner is definitely different in comparison to the JLR article.

So it is really just a matter of interest, and am seeking forum thoughts on these kits especially if you have handled one or fitted.

 

IMHO there are lot more parts in the kit than you need. When mine was done the chain was in good shape with no stretching so there were a lot fewer parts needed. My tech has done many of these updates and has yet to replace the chain. My SuperSport is purring like better than new and I have 103,000+miles on her now and the update was done a year ago at 92.775 miles. Personally, I would have alot more confidence in the new OEM parts than off market parts in a 30K engine.

 

If you buy from a Jaguar main agent, you're going to pay top dollar, no doubt about that. However the same stuff may be on the after-market as OEM, i.e made by the manufacturer that supplies Jaguar. You'll probably pay quite a lot less than the main dealer price for the same stuff. Then there is the copy stuff that one has to be a bit suspicious about.

 

Thanks for your thoughts, I will of course be replacing with genuine parts, as I am not feeling like taking a chance on unproven fitment of aftermarket parts.

While the newly designed replacement JLR parts are sufficient to alleviate my concerns and the JLR blunder in under engineering the mechanical valve drive train, I am still going to purchase one of these kits from these aftermarket Chinese/Taiwan suppliers the next time ebay gives me a site wide discount, I am curious and would like to do an in hand comparison. That being said I don't want to front the coin for a metallurgical test or Rockwell hardness test on the rotating components but certainly want to have a good look at the parts for a rudimentary assessment.

My reasons for my research of late and sourcing parts is I have dived in on Stuarts Black Friday offer and have a tune, crank pulley and 200 cell cats and also Mina intake all headed my way, while my XJ has only done 60thou kms,.I am not going to be throwing mods at my engine without taking care of the necessary notable mechanical foundations and risking a top end disaster with the higher stresses of performance mods. I still do not yet have my car and delivery date is set for 12th of Dec.

While I won't be tracking my vehicle and my strip days are well behind me now, left far behind with my small block, but the AJ is a wonderful piece of mechanical engineering despite a few shortcomings in production development, and who does not want a double OHC VVT 5 litre super with 6 bolt mains and over 600hp at the rears for no other reason than, well.....because we can.
The XJ while having a huge size, to my mind is a GT luxury tourer, with body lines and the foundations in its aluminium heart which will put down sub 12's all day long if you treat her with the respect she deserves, and hey I cant afford an XJR-15 or a 220 let alone to re-build one.

I have purchased my dream car(realistic budget), one day I will start a thread and hopefully document my build, I hope you all hang around to offer your experience and wisdom.

Happy holiday season to you all, drive safely. And if you can't be good, at least be good at it.
Play safe
Regards
B.