I’ve been planning on a new radiator before the old one fails. So ordered one from UK, £285 plus £180postage to NZ, but, well, I need it.
meanwhile the XJR-specific harmonic balancer has failed, getting rebuilt but that takes a while, so I found a spare one in UK and that is on the way too.
And the fan relay has also failed so a brand new one arriving from UK.
Then my mechanic phoned and said there is a fair bit of noise coming from the timing chains. We already did the upper chain tensioner about 2 months ago, but it’s still noisy, so going to take the opportunity to renew all the lower chain bits while the radiator is out and the pulleys off...
While all that’s going on, going to replace the sway bar, shock and inner lower suspension bushes, which are all knocking a bit.
I have had my XJR for 4 1/2 years now, use it daily, done about 80,000km in that time. Still loving it, and seems worthwhile to keep going for the time being.

then a friend who’s new Tesla model 3 has nearly arrived after a 2 year wait got all excited and confidently challenged me to a drag race. I asked what a Model 3 can do, he reckons 0-60 in 5.6 secs. I told him I’d done a 0-60 in 5.5secs in the XJR, so maybe it’ll be ‘game on’!

 

Motorcarman ( Bob ) had some recommendations on oil viscosity some time back I can't remember

See page 61 of the doc below if you don't already have it

The bolt torque values are on page 8

 

Interesting. Let us see if a great keeper can beat technology!

 

Hehe...counter-challenge him to continue to a destination 600 miles distant immediately upon conclusion of the 1/4 mi drag race. That's fair, one refueling for the each of you...and make it on a brisk, cold winter's day.
(or 300 miles out and return to start)

 

I went to see my car at my mechanic’s place today. Still awaiting the new radiator from the UK.
these photos show the wear in the old chain tensioners, and a new genuine part which is poorly made. It is the tensioner for the chain to the oil pump, and is photo’ed next to the original. The welded triangle brace replaces the pressed one-piece original. It came in the genuine parts bag shown. My mechanic thinks the welds are poor and will not install it. I am going to attempt to find a better one on eBay.
Also taking the chance to renew the ******* octopus hose as it has a pinhole leak at one of the rubber 'welds' where one of the side pumps is joined on.

Old vs new oil chain tensioners

New ‘genuine’ tensioner, poorly welded

Genuine parts bag it came in

Wear on cam chain tensioners

Wear on back of cam chain tensioner

Wear on chain surface of tensioner

 

Hi Al,

I think your mechanic is absolutely right - those welds look awful and incomplete, if the triangular brace were to break free from the tensioner it could cause tremendous damage to your engine.

We once owned a Ford van that had welds that looked like that at a Tee in a short pipe that fed oil to one of the gear sets. When the welds failed at 70,000 miles and the Tee pipe fell into the transmission, oil was no longer supplied to that gear set. As the gears disintegrated the metal bits contaminated the entire transmission. My late father, who designed components for the Big Three and Toyota, said the pipe probably cost $1.50 to make and that that particular example should never have passed quality control. Rebuilding the transmission cost me nearly $3,000.00.

Hope you can find a better tensioner. Looking forward to your next report!

Cheers,

Don

 

Why not redo the welds? Its a 2 minutes job looking at it and yes they do look pretty awful from your pics.

 

That was my initial thought, but would the heat have any effect on the way the friction material is bonded ? wouldn't mind knowing as I could see this cropping up for me in the near future.