Do a Google search: there are engines available for far less. Yes, you will need to pay labor for removal and installation, plus a myriad of obvious upgrades (water pump, TST, TST tower, hoses belts, new timing gear -- to preclude same outcome, maybe new gaskets) to assure the replacement works. But should be less than $6500.

Run through a couple of pages on this forum; another member had his engine rebuilt by a tech in SoCal for less than $6500.

 

So, did you get any indication as to which generation tensioners wer ein the car? And was it the primary or secondary chain?
Sorry about your misfortune. My $.02 is that $6000. is on the higher side of reasonable.

 

6K for a head r&r seems veeeery steep. I will give you a free valve (or 2 if needed) if you want it, I have some heads laying around. There are ways to shave down the cost and still get a reliable fix- ask for an estimate for replacing ONLY the head with a good used one. My son just did head gaskets on his XJ8 (he did the work) and his parts spend was below $500. Granted, an R is harder to get around, but not $5000 harder. I see you are a VR6 guru, are you SURE you don't want to tackle this on your own? I have worked on a VR6 jetta, and it was MUCH harder than these beasts.

They are probably factoring in replacing all of your cooling hoses while they are in there (not a bad idea) but I think you should be closer to 3k all in. IF you decide not to keep it, let us know- one of us may be looking for their next project...

 

VR6Guru,

Where did you take it and get that estimate?

I have personally visited this shop, they know the X308's really well and might be able to get you a better price for repairs...

http://www.justjaguar.com/

Doug

 

The shop with the vehicle is hopefully a Jaguar specialist and may be able to find you a reasonably priced used engine then make sure it has the latest secondary timing chain tensioners along with new primary timing chains, guides and tensioners.

The work is much more difficult with the engine in situ.