Hey Rock,

Just so we're on the same page:

I hope your case is like those that FJT has seen. Mine have all been broken secondary chains accompanied by bent exhaust valves, and worse.

Nothing is done off of TDC on these engines. The datum point is a single cutout on the flywheel, accessed through the hole for the crank position sensor.A factory tool engages with this one hole, which works out to #1A at 45 degrees ATC or something like that. That's trivial, the point is that the crank is in a specific point and all four cam flats are face up and pairs are parallel. That's what FJT is describing too.

The rough check, if you don't have a crank tool, is turning the engine just like you did to see if the cam lockdown tool aligns with bothpairs of camsat the same time. You already found that to be your problem.

How that happened is another question. I've seen slack primary chains, but never one that allowed a sprocket jump: I think FJT offered that already. So if three out of the four cams are properly aligned and the A bank exhaust cam is 180out:

"A" bank secondary tensioner allowed enough slack to permit exhaust cam sprocket jump;
"A" bank exhaust cam sprocket bolt loosened, andthe cam isprobably not rotating now when you turn the engine over;
Somebody was in there before you, maybe thinking he could tighten up chains to quiet down the rattle caused by the loose primary chain (?), or to reset the exhaust cam , thinking it had jumped, or who knows what, but he won't be picking lottery numbers for me anytime soon.

You can always do a quicky leakdown in the absence of a tester, as long as you have compressed air. Use your compression gauge adapter, pull the exhaust camand blow it down that way.Last backyard resort:

Remove the crank position sensor, find the magic hole in the flywheel. The book says it has a paint mark to locate, I've never found one. I have read [a.voss, Belgium] that you can use a socket to locate the flywheel instead of the factory tool. Check your left (B) bank cam alignment with your Snap On tool. If that's OK, remove the A bank exhaust cam sprocket bolt and sprocket. Progressively loosen the cam caps, FJT's mention is the third time I have read about possibly breaking a camshaft from uneven spring pressureinducing abend force while removing/ refitting a cam. Keep the caps in order, they are numbered "5>" front through "9>"
rear on the "A" bank exhaust cam, on top of the cap under the sludge. I suspect someone fragged an XJR motor recently by mixing these up, just myspeculation.

Even with crude measurement, you will probably see if a pair of exhaust valves isbent. With the cam out, all the tappets should protrude exactly the same amount above the top of their respective bores in the head. Two jokers might be sitting perceptibly low, 'cause they're now not getting pushed up quite as high by the valve spring as they used to be. Throw the "interference" flag, penalize 15 hours and loss of green. If youDON'T see evidence of abent pair...

Use your Snap On tool to make sure the intake cam on the right (A)side is at least close.
This next trick I haven't tried, and I don't know what kind of numbers you will get. Pull the flywheel index tool out, hold up the secondary chain with a ratchet extension to avoid letting it get jammed up, and you cancrank the engine over. We know three cams are safe, #4 ison the floor, you can't hurt a thing. I'm guessing an uncompromised cylinder with no exhaust valve opening will makecompression very quickly. A cylinder with bent exhaust valves will not.

You need a two pin spanner wrench to hold the exhaust sprocket during reassembly. Look in this forum from earlier this week, "brakebuster" did a great job documenting his secondary tensioner job. If you still haven't condemned any valve pairs, I'd reset the cams and check compression again.

As far as parts go, the proper public response for me to offer isfor you to consult with sponsors of this forum first.

The last thought is none of my business, but I'll mention it anyway. You don't owe me an explanation, just consider it...

Most people think that Jaguars are worth alot of money. Those of us who sell them from time to time know better. When I drive up in an XJ that I have put back together as you are doing, and tellsomeone I have $4,000. in this beautiful car, they think I am a liar. That'san accusation youshould be avoiding in your present circumstances.Happy motoring.

 

That's funny about what you said you have into your car. I got this one for a pretty good price, I've gotten one other for cheap as well. I'll elaorate more tomorrow when I can. It's a little late here now and I've had a few beers so I'll have to reread your post. Thanks alot for now though. I'm off to bed.

 

ive seen that before were the exhaust has been out alot but still running. .. some buddy actually drove into my shop like that and the car drove like crap.. after finding the exhaust cam was out .. the lady confessed she just had the motor rebuilt at a gas station lol.. and then i noticed that the knock sensors were bolted on the front cover lol and then i saw bedplate bolts were there shudnt be bedplate bolts.. lol

that engine does look like grimme death lol if you get that running i wud pour some engine cleaner in there or even some trani fluid in there. to clean that up.

 

Hey genius,

It sure seems like that cam got put there, didn't it. There's some people who swear by a product called AutoRX for cleaning sludge motors like that, once they are running again. I never tried it, are you familiar?

 

it does.. look like the cam was put there.. auto rx never heard of it.. i just use trani fluid.. does a good job for it's price lol $4.00 lol

 

lol....Genius....I love those customers.

I agree that either the cam was put like that or as Ohio said, the bolt is loose on exhaust cam at which point that is an easy check. Time it back up and see what happens as it runs.

 

Well, today I picked up my leakdown tester and feeler guage from work. Went over to my dads place to work on the car some. Before I started to leak test I went ahead and measured clearances. I started to laugh after I got all the way up to .050 on the first cyl. My dad was there and asked what was so funny, and I told him you could stick a cassette tape in there. Poor guy has never been mechanically inclined so it wasn't as funny to him. Found out the whole head was toast. (well exhaust side) Every exhaust valve is bent. I started tearing it down and quit once I realized I was too weak to remove the headbolts today. lol. I don't know why, I'm only 25, but I guess I didn't eat the full bowl of wheaties this morning.

After I removed the intake, I got the first wave of the burnt oil/engine death smell. It wasn't too potent but you cant mistake the smell of an abused blown engine. I also noticed that the gas has fermented, so that made for a pretty nice headache. The rats that decided to build a nest under the intake were pretty cool too[sm=bs.gif]. I really liked the fact that chewing through wires cleans and sharpenstheir teeth. Glad I could help with that one. The exhaust cam front journel is washed out, so I'll need to micropolish the cam and replace the cap too. These cams can be machined as any other correct? As of now, I'm adding prices up to see what's going to be more or just what's worth it period. This engine isn't in the best shape. It's apparent the previous owner just drove the car and changed the oil every so often. I tried to be really optimistic in the beginning, but it's time to make serious decisions. So, I'm contimplating doing the head job along with the tensioner update, or just replacing the engine with a used one with like miles. Right now, I'm leaning towards a used engine. If you look at brakebuster's post and the pictures of his engine, there is a clear difference on how the car was maintained.

That's the update for now. I'll pull the head tommorrow and take pics of the carnage in case anyone wants to see 8 bent valves in a row. Oh and sorry, but I vacuumed the rat nest, but I haven't repaired the wires. lol.

 

Hey Meaty,

Sorry to hear about your luck, but that was a great post. Injector harnesses will forever be known as "mouse floss" in my shop from now on.

I saw in your pics that you have the early V V T's, so that is an AJ26 engine. Donor cars are limited to '97-'98 XK8, and '98 XJ8 only. You can adapt a later AJ27 ('99-'02), but you have to swap over everything onto the replacement long block. And that still won't get you the correct mouse floss, which should still be on a good used AJ26 motor.

If you decide to fix yours, I have a good used complete head. If not, I might be interested in picking through the remains, should you not have to give up Mr. Toasty as a core. Hit up my mailbox if interested, and...Enjoy your Wheaties!

 

Well, just got back from an auction. There was a 99 VDP with 12k miles on it.[sm=insomnia.gif] I know it's the AJ27 vs. the AJ26 but, with that low of miles, I'll do some swapping. The interior was all screwed up, the front seats were from an early model xj6, the carpet was nasty, one door panel was different, the glove box was different, there was a blow pop stuck to the backseat (half eaten [apple I think]). All this nonsense with the interiorand theeffin cup holder wasn't broken. lol, and I could've used it too.The entire exterior has been repainted poorly. I suspected it to be a totaled vehicle or a theft recovery. Anyway, I didn't buy it. The owner wanted 3k and I'm only willing to max out at 2500.It sucks because it was in the worst shape body and interior wise, yet the engine and transmission were perfect. I was looking to part the rest of thecar out to recoupmost if not all money invested back out of it. I've got two more auctions tomorrow so I'll see what turns up. I'm also considering running this one back through to get my money back (hopefully) and buying another without having to deal with the bs. That's the update for now.

Oh, and one thing I did notice in the difference of the AJ26-AJ27 was the obvious placement of the vvt solenoids. However, on the AJ27 it still looks like they used the same head casting but put a freeze plug type deal where the old location was. If I were to buy an AJ27, how much of the vvt system has to be changed over? Are the cam gears different as well? Or hell, are the cams even the same? Again, I'm trying to decide if I want to mess with it anymore or if I'm going to buy a different one, so if it's more work than I want to put into it, I'll just stick to the AJ26 or a new car.

 

Ok, yeah I know the subject on this matter was supposed to change see quote from the XJS forum in reply to Ohio's question.

Annnnnnnnddddddddd here were are now. I still can't seem to give up on the 98. I'm not willing to swap heads and do the thorough aj26-27 conversion. My question here is if I obtained the 99 vdp could I remove the engine,trans,harness,and ecu and use it all as a whole swap into my 98?

In theory to me it seems feasible. However, like some Japanese cars I have done complete changeovers in, the engine harness will run behind the dash and meet up with the BCM harness. On just about every Honda I have built, I was able to put and gen. OBD motor into any car (integra motors intocivic's, prelude motors into civics, TSX and RSX motors into civics and integras, prelude motors into accords, european accord motors into civics) LOL seriously anything is possible with these cars because the wiring and ECU location is very simple. The engine harness runs through the firewall on one side and plugs into the ecu. The only worries is making sure you have the corresponding ECU to the engine/trans combo you're running. Nissan and Toyota are essentially the same in ease to convert.

So again I'm asking if my XJ8 is set up similar. I will only fix this car by obtaining an entire running car (the 99 vdp)because I don't know the condition of the trans, but I am not gonna swap an engine only to find out the trans is bad too. I've been there before, it sucked.