Good afternoon fellow Jaguar owners,
I love reading this forum. so much info for this challenging car. This is my third Jaguar-xj6,1998 xj8 vandy and now I have a beautiful 2001 Jaguar xj8L with 46000 miles that I bought from an estate last year. Owned by the proverbial "Little old lady. I decided to update the tensioners and replace a few other items at the same time. I replaced the tensioners with the "zip ty" method and rechecked the flats on the cams as well as the chain tension. The following pictures show the looseness of the passenger side chain when intake and exhaust cam are flat and the difference in the flats of the intake/exhaust cam from drivers and passengers sides.
Picture 1 shows the loose secondary chain.
Picture 2 shows that the driver side intake and exhaust cam with straight edge
Picture 3 shows the passenger side out -the intake and exhaust are the same amount out (very small amount) My question- I now have the timing chain tool kit . I can adjust the exhaust cam for chain tension with the tools -correct? How do I align the passenger side cams with the drivers side? Any help will be appreciated. As a side note I have updated my stereo to an Alpine 149 with JBL speakers , I know, some of the purists will not be happy-but oh the sound quality now is wonderful

Chain Slack


Drivers side cams flat


Passengers side both cams out a little
. I will also be installing a Pioneer " sub and amplifier after I fix the engine.

 

Welcome to the forum Pibman,

I've deleted your duplicate of this thread.

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some information about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

If you're trying to do adjustments to the cams then you need the tensioning tools to take up the slack in the chain while tightening the cam sprocket bolts. If you're doing this you'll also want the proper cam locking/alignment tools. You can get a tool kit on ebay for around 70 bucks that has everything you'd need.

I'd also check out the large files section on this forum for some good guides on how to do the setup (and refer to the factory manual).

 

Thank you,
I appreciate the correction made to my post-was working on another car I own and did not review properly. Will add update on all of my cars(Jaguar Xj8L,Porsche 924 and 944 turbo s ,Maserati 3500 GTI and a 1969 Camaro).in the new member section when I get home Tuesday.

 

 

My first question is do you have some type of symptom you are trying to correct? Rattle on start up? Chain rattle noises?
The small amount of misalignment looks to be chain and or sprocket wear and I doubt you can adjust it out. The sprockets can be adjusted but the distance is so small that the slight misalignment will probably not go away. Changing the position by one tooth will most likely make the misalignment go to the reverse side of the flats.
Check the sprockets for wear at the teeth and if it is noted then change the sprocket. If the sprockets don't show wear you can change the chain. Most likely the misalignment is an accumulative error from wear in both the primary and secondary chains. A little wear in each would lead to a misaligned cam flats.
If you are not experiencing chain noise/rattle then I would leave it alone.
The slack in the tensioner can only be eliminated by changing the tensioner. I experienced when changing tensioners, one fresh out of the box, was defective and when I pulled the pin it did not extend as designed. The supplier replaced it.
The upper tensioners, sprockets and chains call all be changed without removing the front chain cover.

 

 

Good afternoon fellow Jag owners,
After weeks of studying all forum areas for info on how to replace those primary and secondary tensioners I felt up for the challenge. I had already bought all of the parts and had all of the tools necessary to do the job.I went ahead and changed out all the tensioners ,chains,water pump,hoses and the serpentine belt. I verified the cam flat alignment and locked down the cams and set the crank with the appropriate lock. All new bolts for the sprockets. Verified the VVT unit counterclockwise and finished the install. I primed the tensioners by starting the engine but did not install the spark plug coils on the spark plugs. After all of this the car will not start.I then tried some starting fluid ,nothing. I have fuel,spark and the rpms advance to about 200 rpm when I try to start.I then added oil to the cylinders as my compression in a cylinder I checked was about 60 Psi.Then then engine backfired .Thoughts on what to do next other than drink heavily to calm my nerves and depression and have the car towed to my local shop?.
I appreciate any help or advice given.

 

Gee, I feel for you, so frustrating. As you used the timing tools I can't think that the valve timing is off........unless, the only gear that does have a "timing mark" on it is the double gear on the crankshaft, and it must only go on one way, otherwise the timing will be off by a tooth. As long as you are sure you checked this upon reassembly, it's the only timing setting I can think off that could be wrong.

The other thing I would look at is the condition of the spark plugs, I'm wondering if they got wet/fouled during the "dummy start" without the coils attached. I would install a complete new set of plugs, if you haven't already done so, and try a normal start.

Sorry, can't think of anything else, others smarter than me may have better ideas?

Let us know how things progress..


.

 

Thank you for the reply,
I went ahead and took the valve covers off and discovered that the cams are out of alignment.Really don't know how that happened, but it did. Now need to sort out if there is valve damage. Was thinking of realigning the cams and doing a compression test. Thoughts anyone?