2002 XJR Crankcase Ventilation System
 

Hello All,

I have a very clean and good running '02 XJR with a 150K miles on it. I bought it a few years ago with 139K and have put the last 10K or so miles on it. It has always had a very small valve cover leak that would drip on the exhaust manifold and stink up the place when the oil burned off. I recently did upper tensioners and VC gaskets due to a drivers side tensioner failure. I thought for sure the new VC gaskets would eliminate the leak and it seems they did for the first few hundred miles. However I got on it pretty hard through 2nd and 3rd the other day and it dripped a drop at the rear on the passenger side manifold afterwards again. The engine has good compression 145-150 all cylinders and runs strong with no blow-by. I just feel like the crankcase ventilation system must be restricted a little or something.

Is there a common issue on these cars with the PCV system or does anyone have good diagram of the system on these cars.

Thanks

Part-load breather blockage was an issue on all models up to year 2001. Your car is 2002 so it should not have this problem. Anyhow, you can do the procedure described in the attached bulletin.

Thank you Stojanovic. I will try this procedure and post the results.

Well, I checked it out. Pulls a very slight vacuum off passenger side valve cover with breather tube disconnected. I did the drill bit clean out on the drivers side. It didn't seem to be plugged though.

The leak seems to be at the very back of the VC around the lower rear bolt but its hard to pinpoint exactly. The bolts were all tight. I might end up changing the passenger side VC gasket again before it's over.

Do these plastic VC covers get warped? I don't want to do this a third time.

I don't think the warp but they may develop cracks which could be difficult to spot. Remove the cover and inspect carefully the area where it leaks. You may need to use a magnifying glass.

Is there any brand of gasket that seem to be the "preferred" type? The gaskets I used just came with the upper tensioner kit that I bought.

Hi colleagues, may I add a question to the crankcase ventilation of my XJR from 2000? Today I have changed the spark plugs and the air filter, so I wanted to inspect the full load breather hose also. Everything OK with the hose, but taking the hose off, I found this "open hole" of the breather. Is this correct or is there a restrictor or something else missing inside?

https://up.picr.de/40374512mz.jpg

Thx from Germany, stay well,
bernd

Nothing missing, it's just a large hole. The metal piece you see inside is part of a metal plate, approx 15 x 15 cm, attached to the underside of the cover and which holds some coarse steel wool to prevent oil splashing up the hole.

Good news, thank you very much!

Take care!

I believe the valve covers are composite? On a vette I had, it had composite valve covers. I was chasing a valve cover leak for a while. Took the leaking side off. And it was warped, along the gasket channel. So it's worth a check, imo.