Just wanted to let everyone wo posted things about timing on the XJ 8 I greatly appreciate all the different approaches I've seen to check and confirm problems. I pulled a chain off a spare engine that came with my car and reinstalled it on my running engine( with a nasty miss) and was ale to confirm that no valve damage had occurred!! I will now order the parts and do the full and correct repair so I can have it for my upcoming vacation. I wouldn't have had the confidence to have purchased and tackled this car without the helpful insight of the good and bad isssues that everyone has posted. Thanks again and I will update this repair once I have it complete, I can't say enough good about what I learned here. I consider my self fairly carsmart but these are very expensive vehicles to guess on

 

Thanks for the feedback.
If you can confirm yours is the X308 version I'll move your post to the right section so the guys that did the work can see the thanks.

 

It's very nice to see you got some help from tech guys
You can also view Mediafire files

 

Yes I do have a x308, sorry I didn't know where was best to place it so it would be seen by those who helped. Thanks