Hello guys,

I own a S-type and a Daimler XJ40 which are in very nice condition.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/662588...57649224957426



https://www.flickr.com/photos/662588...57658328442872

And since a week i am also the owner of a X300



The X300 has given me already big headaches.
After i drove it home from the seller i discovered it had almost no oil in the engine, maybe 2 a 3 liters at most.
It has a blown valve cover gasket which i also discovered when i got home
I guess the last owners were no Jaguar lovers...
The oil indicator was going on and off sometimes but i thought it was a broken oil sender... stupid i know.
The engine did not make any weird noises and the X300 drove fine.
Anyway, i will repair the valve cover gasket and fill her up with oil again, and hope for the best.
Only question is: is it very unusual valve cover gaskets that are blown?
The gasket is partly blown out of the engine and the oil leaks out like crazy.
In this pic you can see the valve cover gasket hanging out between the firewall and engine.

 

Others will chime in but I'm not aware of X300 cam cover gaskets failing *in that fashion*. My first thought is that you have a problem will crankcase pressure building up


Cheers
DD

 

I too have not heard of a failure like that.

It's possible that the cover was removed by the previous owner or his/her mechanic and just not fitted properly on reassembly.

 

+ crankcase pressure

 

Replacing the gasket is the correct first step, and thereafter, fingers crossed!
Excessive Crankcase pressure is the obvious concern, as mentioned above, but if it was sufficient to blow an otherwise perfectly good gasket out, I would have expected there to be other symptoms, particularly related to idling, which you say is fine. So maybe just a poorly fitted gasket? (my New Years resolution was to try not to always fear the worst!)

 

When you have the cam cover off make sure the "mesh" area that acts as a breather is clear. Once you replace the cover simply run the car for a bit and while running pull the oil cap, if there is excessive pressure you will know it as you pull the cap. I really do think the gasket fault is just negligence on the POs part BUT negligence with oil changes could result in the breather area becoming gunked up.

 

Well, my car mechanic (a friend of mine) has replaced the valve cover gasket yesterday.
There was a crack in the gasket nearby the half moon pieces, and a part of the gasket was sealed with silicone by a previous owner in the past.
When the new valve cover gasket was mounted my mechanic tested the oil cap filling hole and he could not feel or see any excessive pressure coming out of the oil filling hole when the car was idling or revving.

I took the X300 for a test drive and she drove fine, pulls hard and feels good.
Idling is good, but a little shaky sometimes...

Today i drove the X300 some more miles and besides of some other small issues it drives very good, i like it

So i'll hope for the best for the future.

 

RedXJ40 the previous owner must have not install the gasket properly. Cylinder area does produce extremely low pressure and it exits thru the breather hose and impossible to blow out the rubber cylinder head cover gasket, wonderful pictures you took.

 

OK now that the valve cover gasket problem has been solved i have time for some other problems with the X300

It has a power steering leak.
I saw some drops hanging on a hose underneath the engine in the front?
Is that a well known place for power steering leaks?

Second problem is that the engine stays cold all the time, even when i drove on the highway for an hour.
The indicator on the dash goes up for only the first line.
The heater is getting warm so that's good, but the fans are running all the time, quite hard.

Are the fans running too fast or is the thermostat dead?

Thanks guys...

 

While the power steering can leak on a multitude of fronts, the most common occurrence is perhaps the one you'd least expect: The non-pressurized hose from your reservoir down to the pump. Less than $20 (I think) at Rock Auto and a relatively easy, if somewhat messy, change.


Thermostats on these are notorious for sticking in the open position, which will result in the behavior you describe. Also a relatively cheap/easy DIY - don't break the ears on the housing!
Fans will always be on "Low" if you have the TSB mod. Your hands are kind-of in the way in the pics above...but I only see one switch on your a/c lines. I forget what solution they applied on later cars...but the early ones had two switches, one that turned the fans on low at a certain pressure - which frequently failed, causing the fuses to blow and car to overheat when the other one or the radiator-mounted coolant switch decided it was time to turn them on "High." If yours are truly running on high at all times, then you may have one of those two switches stuck closed.

 

Okay, yesterday my friend, which is a mechanic with his own garage, had some spare time so he asked me if i wanted to review my recently purchased X300 on his bridge.
He also bought the correct thermostat for me so he installed that also.
The coolant temperature gauge goes up to N now and the heater is nice and warm, superb!
The underside of the X300 looks in nice condition, no rust whatsoever.
I did not find any rust on the body as well, so i am glad about that.
A previous owner installed 4 new tires, brake lines for both front tires and a new rear muffler.
Not bad for a cheap *** X300

So now that the thermostat is fixed, i need to fix some minor oil and powersteering leaks.
I also have to take a look at the front suspension, it clunks on oneven roads.
The engine is idling a little rough, although the rpm is steady but the car shakes a little.

I also want to do some cosmetical work.

-mount some rvs exhaust end pieces
-place rims in better condition
-new floormats (old ones are dirty and smelly)
-new taillight drivers side, there are some cracks in the old one and it's not watertight anymore
-mount chrome mirror covers. (i like them)
-repair some small parking dents and paint a little piece of the body where the paint isn't nice anymore

I had a nice ride yesterday with the X300.

 

Well done.

Rough idle, clean the internal bore of the throttle bady, fixes 98% of that issue. Clean rag, some solvent (petrol if thats all you got), and get dirty, it will be caked with ginge.

Wrongly gapped spark plugs also gives that roughness.

Change the p/steer fluid, do it a few times over a few days, can be known to sort leaks, and if it dont, fresh fluid will do no harm.

The fans need looking at, for sure. I thought I had the TSB and other stuff about them, but cannot find them at the moment. Search this section, Bob Gauff has posted them many, many times.