I am not the fastest mechanic in the world, but I have succeeded nonetheless. From my "Sudden Fail" post back in June I am now very happy to say my XJ8L is back on the road and running smooth as buttered glass!

Except for restoring the heads and fuel injectors, I did everything myself in the driveway. For the record, the project included:
- Restored both cylinder heads
- New primary and secondary chains, guides, and tensioners
- Fuel injectors cleaned and balanced
- Replaced spark plugs
- New aluminum T-Stat housing & new coolant pipe & temp sensor
- New part-load breather hose
- New heater hoses
- Cleaned throttle body and intake plenum
- Cleaned oil pan and pickup screen
- New gaskets throughout

She started right up and really purrs. At 71K on the meter she is running like a new car.

A huge thank you to everyone here at Jaguar Forums for all the helpful information and good advice along the way. Huzzah!

 

I forget jaginblack, what was the original issue...tensioner lead to a chain failure?

And, how much did you end up spending, knowing your own labor is not in this figure at all. I would be curious to hear.

Its very good to hear you stuck with it and persevered in the end.

 

Nice to see, things are good with your ride and you're happy with that
It makes me feel so brilliant that forums help you out solving your problems associated with the car ,thanks for the feedback much appreciated
Enjoy your ride

 

My laptop armed with AllDataDIY, Google, and JaguarForums.com was a most essential element - along with my Visa debit card!

h2Oboy - a secondary tensioner failed and the chunk lodged in the exhaust sprocket, snapping the secondary chain. I spent almost exactly $2000 on my rebuild, roughly $625 was the head job and $175 for the injector servicing, both outsourced. The rest was all parts, cleaners, and new fluids and filter.

I did things I didn't really have to do like the injector service, t-stat housing, new coolant pipe, or heater hoses but it seemed silly not to, as far as I had gone in.

And, even with a pretty good toolbox to start with, I spent maybe $100 or so renting the timing tools and buying some other misc. sockets, etc. Total out of pocket was around $2200 plus liquor.

 

So . . . about $3k . . . not bad.

Congratulations! No one will understand how much you can love a car until you love it back to running status from complete failure.

Great example for the forum!

 

It could have been $800 in liquor... but I can't recall exactly.

 

In case anyone else is interested in exactly where the money went on my project, here is my list. Some of these costs are rounded off a bit, but this is everything.

Primary Guides - Curved $75
Primary Guides - Straight $50
Primary Tensioners $90
Primary Chains $60
Secondary Chains & Tensioners Kit $299
Coolant Outlet Pipe with O-Rings, Water Temp Sensor $70
Heater & Bypass Hoses $34
Part Load Breather Hose $35
Upper Engine Gasket Set $275
Oil Pan Gasket $38
Cylinder Head Bolts $138
Oil Pump Pickup Seal $19
Aluminum T-Stat Housing with gaskets & t-stat $76
Cylinder Head Machine and Restore $625
Injector Clean & Test $175
Replace Coolant $20
Oil & Filter $40
Tools, Misc Supplies, Shipping $138

Total $2,257