Hello All!

After two X300s and one X308, it was time for me to buy my perfect XJ. A gorgeous 95 XJ12 in Morroco Red with 40k miles. I have yet to see the car in person (had a PPI done by a Jaguar shop) but I am aware that it is leaking some oil, particularly from the valve covers. I'm an avid DIYer but I do have a few 6.0 V12-specific questions

• What is the level of difficulty of this job? Should I be budgeting a spare night after work or an entire 3 day weekend to get this done? I've done valve cover gaskets on my XJ6s in the past and they were an absolute walk in the park. The intake manifolds on the XJ12 look considerably more daunting.
• What Parts do I need to do valve cover gaskets? So far my list includes the following (I'm just not sure if I need to purchase new bolts, bolt seals, or Fuel Injector O-Rings too):
  • Valve Cover Gaskets
  • New Aluminum Half Moons
  • Intake Manifold gaskets
  • RTV
• How difficult is it to replace the sandwich plate gasket? I'm considering also doing the sump gaskets just to be on the safe side and reduce the potential for leaks in the future. The lower sump looks pretty straightforward, but I can't quite find overly detailed photos of the sandwich plate. Does this require dropping the subframe to get too?

 

Hello! Valve covers: The job is long because of the number of fasteners involved, but nothing about it is complicated. The 6.0 used an aluminum composite valve cover gasket, which goes on dry unlike the earlier paper 5.3 gaskets. So save the RTV for the half-moon seals only!

Sandwich plate is a completely different story. You have to remove the suspension. That means the engine needs to be hung off and engine support bar. Suspension removal requires messing with the brake lines and other connections. Once you’ve done all that, which is an enormous amount of work you can get to the sandwich plate. I did it once, and swore I would just let any future sandwich plate leak as much as it wants!

 

G’day Swagger,

Re the sandwich plate, you might try re-tightening all the bolts holding the sump and sandwich plate as they all loosen a bit over time.

Cheers,
Jeff.

P.S. Some extra info.

 

Question: Am I able to tighten the upper sump bolts with the front subframe still in the car?

 

G'day Swagger,

You can tighten the oil pan bolts no problem but to tighten all the sandwich plate bolts you will need to remove the oil pan as some of the sandwich plate bolts are inside it.

Cheers
Jeff