ChristmasGT's 2001 Jaguar XJR Owners Thread
 

Hello everyone!

I'm a first time Jaguar owner, but a long time Mustang tinkerer and have decided to pull the trigger after a bit of looking on an 2001 Jaguar XJR that I've wanted for some time

The car has 188k miles on it, and is in remarkably good shape for the age and mileage. It had been sitting outside for about 2 years, and was last running in 2021 from what I was told. Once home, I decided to give it a bath and a new battery and it cleaned up pretty good! I'm not sure of the timing chain guides, but it looks like the valve covers have been off from what I can see as they have a bit of Orange RTV over them.

• Car cranks OK and sounds healthy
  • Didn't hear any noise from the timing chain area
• No fuel pump noise from either of the in tank pumps
  • Tried a jumper wire on both Fuel Pump 01 and Fuel Pump 02 Relays
  • Checked all of the fuses, did have a blown fuse 17 in the trunk if I recall correctly and was replaced
  • Zero fuel pressure at the rail
• Put a new battery in
• When the key is in Key On Engine Off (KOEO) mode, it sounds like there's a fan or something similar sounding running in the engine bay, but I haven't been able to track it down. Is this normal?
  • The Fuel Pump relays don't appear to click on during this process
• Currently pulling codes P1230, P1671, P1000
  • These were with the jumper wire in place of the Relay

From here, I'm thinking it's probably best to replace both Fuel Pumps with Walbro 255's as I've had great luck and durability with them on my Mustangs. I had a question on the 2 Fuel Pump leads that appear to be Radio Interference Suppressors. Are these actually needed? From searching, it looks like they can fail and cause damage to the fuel pump and am unsure of their actual purpose and they seem to be pretty pricey to replace.

Overall, I'm not planning to mod the Jaguar in any capacity, I think the car looks perfect as is. The goal on this thread will be OEM style replacement and maintenance where able, hopefully I'll be able to document most of my work in this thread as I move along with it.

Link to car Images on Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/1egHuuA

Welcome. I've had a few old Mustangs myself. These cars are notorious for having the fuel pumps seize up from sitting unused even for a relatively short time. Don't know why they'd be any worse than other cars, but I've read enough posts about it here that seems to be the case.

With the key on engine off, there should be two things making noise under the hood.
1) The throttle body makes a humming noise and when you depress the accelerator pedal, the pitch in noise changes.
2) The auxiliary electric water pump for the supercharger below the air filter box may make a small amount of noise.

I can’t comment if you really need the stock fuel pump wiring harnesses or not because I’ve always just reused them. When you go to replace your pumps, **do not** just pull the tank back without disconnecting both of the fuel lines from underneath the car first!

Thanks! I've seen a lot of posts where the grounds always seem to burned from the Radio Interference boxes, so I may just try ditching them and see how they go. And for sure, I'll be disconnecting all the fuel lines while pulling so as not to stretch the line as that looks to be a problem.

I'll document the process as I go through it, hopefully this will bring her back to life.

Both Fuel pumps replaced, and now she runs! The Electronics I tested seem to work well with things such as the Stereo, Moon Roof, Fan and Windows being alright. The Transmission seems to shift just fine while doing a quick drive around the block. Being under the car for the last few days, it appears the car has no rust, so it has a great base.

Unfortunately that's about where the good ends, I'm 99% sure the car has a head gasket problem. The car starts right up, but starts billowing quite a lot of white smoke which tells me coolant is entering the cylinders. The smoke persists the entire time the car is running and is definitely quite a lot. This probably explains the Misfire Detection that the ECU is reporting (2, 4, 5, 6). From here, I need to determine the future of this car:

• From standpoint A: If I'm going to replace the head gaskets, then I might as well do the timing chain, Upper and Lower timing tensioners, water pump and hoses as well. Though, I don't know long the lower end has been running, especially as the car has almost 200k miles.

• From standpoint B: I could just go with an LS swap. That would keep the car on the road for the foreseeable future.

From a suspension standpoint, the XJR absolutely needs new Struts, Shocks and Wheel bearings and probably more than a few more maintenance parts. That's do-able and completely understandable from a car of this age and mileage.

Thoughts?




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I opted for the Walboro 340’s which is overkill but, they’ve been reliable in the GN so I carried it on.

As long as it doesn’t appear to have much sludge build up with the miles it has, no milkshakes and a debris free oil pickup screen, I’d be completely comfortable with doing head gaskets on it. I will highly recommend sending the heads to a machine shop to check for cracks, milling the gasket surface, complete valve job, valve adjustment with new stem seals and if all else is fine, it should pull quite strong. When I acquired my 98’ XJR in 2014, it had 234k miles on it. I bought it knowing I was going to pull the heads. After the heads were gone through and the engine ran, that car pulled hard. It now belongs to my daughter and it has 280k miles on it still running strong.

At this age, yes, it needs a whole lot of maintenance. But if you do an LS swap, that doesn't relieve you of having to all of it, rather, all the suspension stuff would still need replaced plus if you were to get a used LS that's like 10 years old then you really need to replace all that same sort of stuff on the LS motor while its easily accessible. Its either that, or spend a whole lot more money on a crate engine and all new ancilliaries. At least pull the old motor apart and inspect it. If the repair itself is inexpensive, i.e. just headgaskets, then its probably worth doing all of the deferred maintenance.

Hey Guys,

I'm trying to go down the route of seeing what's all wrong with the engine. When idling, it seems to sound like there's a large vacuum leak near the drivers side area under the super charger. Right now it idles pretty rough, and I'm assuming it's due to the leak. Here are a few videos showing what it sounds like at the moment:




I checked the breather valve on the driver side of the valve cover gasket, and it doesn't appear to be coming from there. Any general things in that area that may cause it?

EDIT: Added a third video to try without the super charger pulley and resulted in the same sound. When turning the pulley by hand, I definitely hear the sound in the area which I'm assuming I shouldn't. Perhaps the super charger gasket failed?

There’s a few ways to diagnose this. A mechanics stethoscope, hold a flexible hose to your ear and use the other end to move it around the engine to see where it’s loudest, a can of brake cleaner and flashlight to *gently* spray a small amount around gasket and vacuum hose areas until the engine revs up.

The supercharger in my 2000 XJR makes that same diesel-like rattle, but I don't have that whooshing sound at all. When I pull the engine for the LS swap, I'm going to investigate to see what's wrong with it, mostly out of curiosity...:icon_wink:

Get a Stinger smoke tester, one of the best tools you will ever buy - that will show the leak, and it does sound like there is one.

If the supercharger looks like someone has been in it before, there’s a good chance that a solid coupler has been installed in place of the factory Eaton spring loaded coupler. You could simply remove the supercharger belt and start the engine. If the rattling noise is gone, Bobs your uncle. If the noise is still there, then look at the timing chains.

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delay here. Since the $1000 dollar jag turned into a bit more than a fuel pump problem, I wanted to finish my 1984 Mustang 2.3 Turbo GT and get it road worthy before I dig in to the Jaguar any deeper. The good news is that it should be wrapped up by Tuesday once my new Brake Line arrives. In the meantime, I'm going to be doing some additional diagnostics on the Jag to see what's going on.

Ultimately, I've decided that I'll try and repair the 4.0 and replace the head gaskets and all things timing related as well as seals. During the process, I'll send the heads off to get re-done, though if I find out the pistons / valves are bent then I'll probably attempt an LS swap at that point (signs seem to point to no?). The good news is that the smoke has subsided significantly, and may have just been a symptom from sitting for so long.

That was my thought as well. So, a few nights ago I went ahead and removed the Supercharger belt and the sound was still there which didn't give me a lot of faith.

Yep, I should have bought one years ago. I picked one up yesterday and am going to take a look today to see where it's leaking today and will post a video if I can.

Before you do the head gasket remove the thermostat and add 1 bottle of sodium silicate head gasket sealer
I had luck with land Rover lr3 years later still working fine

Hey Mobile1,

Went through the smoke test and it looks like there's a huge seal leak at the valve cover gasket. That would explain why I wasn't getting much of a response from the carb cleaner. On the good side, it appears someone must've known because I found a brand new OEM Gasket in the rear seat.

Will change that today which should give me a good glimpse on the timing chain tensioners as well. Also, I had major smoke leaks from after the MAF on the intake side, so will need to add that to the list as well.

The valve cover gasket easy to do but since you gonna do the tensioner I think it's better to change the head gasket while you there here's parts number you may need and always go with OEM or Ford or mahle gasket felpro is bad for our jaguar its was better than the Subaru OEM gasket honestly but for the jag no way it's very thin I had to throw them check autohausz for tensioners and guides I like eBay but the guys here seem to hate ebay I run ebay tensioners 3 years zero problem but honestly autohausz and rockauto better quality


​​​​CHAINS / TENSIONERS / GUIDES

EAZ1286 Timing Chain Primary x 2

EAZ1269 Timing Chain Secondary x 2

AJ82325 Tensioner Primary x 2

C2Z2642 Tensioner Primary Bolts x 4

C2A1511 Tensioner Secondary Left

C2A1512 Tensioner Secondary Right

JFB10607B Tensioner Secondary bolts x 4

NCA1998AB Chain Guide x 2

NCA2025AB Chain Guide x 2
VALVE COVER GASKETS

AJ88285 Cam Valve Cover Gasket Left

AJ88400 Cam Valve Cover Gasket Right

AJ87206 Spark Plug Tube Seal Inner x 8

AJ87242 Spark Plug Seal Center x 4

NCA2575CA Camshaft Cover Grommet x 28

AJ82856 Valve Cover VVT O-Ring x 2
BUSH CARRIER GASKETS

NNE2622BA O-Ring VVT Bush Carrier (2 Each Side) x 4

KSH108624 O-Ring Bush Carrier x 2
CRANKSHAFT SEAL / TIMING COVER SEALS

AJ83698 Front Crank Seal

AJ89909 Front Crankshaft Bolt

AJ89854 Front Crankshaft Split Cone (Collet-Split)

XR81139 Front CrankShaft O-Ring

AJ83700 Timing Cover Gasket - Outer

AJ83699 Timing Cover Gasket - Inner

KSC145624 Timing Cover O-Ring x 2
OIL PAN SEALS / FILTER

NCA1730AD Lower Oil Pan Gasket

EAZ1354 Oil Filter
MISCELLANEOUS

Loctite Ultra Gray 5699 RTV

Hey guys,

Valve cover is off! Looks like the tensioners have already been replaced. The chain has no play at all. In the second pic, the leak was in the top left portion of the second picture below. Going to pick up a new Felpro set (VS50724R) as it looks like I'll need to replace all of the O-Rings.

I'm also going to replace the coil packs and plugs too. Will update later (hopefully today?) on progress.



https://i.imgur.com/x3uFs7Gl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZORRQhTl.jpg

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In the second picture, I’m fairly confident that is an original tensioner. I can’t quite tell due to the glare of the light. If you took another picture of the top photo with flash on, that would be helpful.

Actually, looking at it in comparison with the new style, it appears you're absolutely correct. It has to have been replaced before I'd think as there' a bit of RTV around each corner, and the chain feels super tight. Looks like I might as well order a new kit at this point as well as the cam lock kit.

Would this work?

Oh no not Christopher this is rebadged ebay parts
This is the narrow chain guide its for later model
Get the wide guides much better
get from ebay this is genuine ford part
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...1af8fd8a70.jpg

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At rest, the valve springs are providing tension in one direction or the other so you can't really judge by tugging on the chain. If the whole body of the tensioner mechanism were about the same plastic color as the shoe, then it would be the old style. In the first photo with the yellow rag, that's kinda what it looks like but in the second photo, which seem more clear, it looks like an aluminum tensioner body where it bolts to the cylinder head.

The Christopher's tensioner kit will do fine. But if you do a headgasket, order the MLS gasket for the later 4.2L engine. I did mine once with I forget, whatever Rockauto listed for my x308 and very shortly had to do it over again. The second time I did a little research on here and found that many people in the know were using the later style hg.

Looks like this is the route I'm going to go with for the time being as a starting ground:

Replace the Thermostat: Link
Pick up a new Timing Gear Set: Link
Pick up the Fel-Pro Valve Cover Set: Link
Pick up a new Water Pump: Link
Range Rover V8 Timing Tool Kit from Ebay: Link

I've also go a new set of Coil Packs and Spark Plugs that I'll put on it as well. I'm a bit hesitant to pull the heads as the car sounds just fine, and the smoke cleared up almost completely, and am wondering if it was just because it was sitting for so long (3-4+ years).

Thoughts?

As long as it sounds good, just carry on with your plan. Make sure the spark plugs are the NGK Iridium 7866’s. If you have the original Denso coils currently installed, I would continue to use those as aftermarket coils just aren’t very reliable in my opinion. Carry a few in the trunk as an insurance since you have them.

Unbelievable it still has the plastic tensioners.

Hey guys,

Finished up work on my other project and am delving pretty deep into the Jaguar now. Some quick notes:

• Someone's definitely had the Valve covers off before, as there's bits of Silicone (where there should be), but the passenger side Valve Cover to Head Spark Plug area bolts were sheered off from over torquing
  • I was able to extract them yesterday without damaging the head or threads thankfully
• I spent an absolute ton of time cleaning the front underneath area of the car where it had been sitting. The Timing Cover to Crank seal was definitely leaking, but the vast majority of the cleanup was Mud
  • The back end of the car looks totally fine from the front of the transmission on which appears good at first glance
  • The picture below is after cleaning, the mud was a good 1/4th inch thick in a lot of places
• The Water Coolant sensor plug was pretty badly damaged and the plug had what appears to be Silicone on it to keep the plug from coming off
  • New Plug and Pigtail are on the way and will get those replaced as well
• Drained the coolant yesterday and it looked...otherworldly good. Completely shocked at that.
  • From a glance inside the Water Pump jacket, everything looks
• Drained the Oil as well, it looked Dirty, but otherwise fine, no signs of any coolant mixture
• Pulled all 8 plugs and they look completely uniform
  • Maybe a bit rich from the color, otherwise uniform and dry
  • Running what appears to be OEM Denso's
  • Picked up new Champion RC12YC's as a replacement
• Both pairs of cams look to be dead on with timing as all 4 Cams are Flat on the cam lock tool
• The Drivers side Sway Bar end-link was pretty beat up, and the passenger side was on the way out, went ahead and replaced those
• Both front KYB Struts were pretty shot, they've been replaced with the OEM Bilstein Sport Greens
  • Have the rears as well and will replace them in the next few days
  • Replaced both front strut mounts as well
• The Water pump was definitely plastic as well and didn't seem to turn too well and was probably on the way out in the near time
  • I have a new Metal Gates one that will be going in as well
  • A new Gates Thermostat will be going in at the same time
• Replaced both front Hood Struts
  • No more using the spare broom!
• Picked up a new Mina Gallery Intake to replace the OEM unit as it has several leaks post MAF found during the smoke test

Right now I'm waiting on the Balancer lock to arrive and I can continue getting everything removed to replace the tensioners. Just to have a bit more caution as I know this engine has at least partially been gone through, I've gone ahead and picked up a new OEM Crankshaft Pulley Bolt AJ89909.

I'll update over the next few days as I get through things, thanks!

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If you’re careful enough, you could remove the pins from the broken connector, remove the new pins from the new connector and insert the old pins into the new connector.

Having clean coolant in these cars is pretty common as they can leak a lot of coolant over the years and most people just choose to add vs repairing the issue.

It’s also very common to replace the valve cover gaskets every 3-5 years on these cars.

Yeah, that's my plan since I'm used to re-pinning things on my mustang it should be a pretty easy job as it's only 2 wires.

Hey Guys,

Just a quick update. I've got everything torn down and the new chains installed. the timing cover was absolutely filthy, and spent an absolute ton of time to clean everything up. The original timing guides were removed and in rough shape, but not worse than anything else I've seen. I'm not sure why someone tore down the engine so far just to install plastic guides. On the next update, I'll get a good picture of the old guides for documentation.

While I'm down this far, I figure I might as well go ahead and replace the Alternator and Pulley since visually they look in pretty rough shape and it wouldn't be the end of the world to replace them when I'm already this deep in to it.


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Hey everyone

Getting the timing kit installed and noticed that the Right Hand Side secondary chain looks to have a ton of play while that tensioner doesn't feel correct. The Left Hand side feels just fine.

I'm assuming I have a bad Right Hand Secondary chain tensioner? I'm in the process of taking it back apart but wanted to see if there would be any other explanation. Thanks!


Quick Edit: With the timing locks in place (Both Cams + Crank) everything stiffens up as expected and appears fine. So, I'm probably missing a step; so I'll go through documentation and see what I can find.

If it's any help, when I did my secondariy tensioners I found that at points in the engine rotation the secondary chains do seem slack. I think it's when the valve springs are pushing the cam in advance of the sprocket position, I know it came & went as I turned the engine over by hand to prove to myself nothing would hit each other as I tried the first start after the work.

Sorry it's a bit vague, it was about 4 years ago I did the job.

Thanks for the replies everyone, that definitely helps my confidence level a fair bit! I've started getting things back together, and decided to start by putting the new Alternator in place. My goodness, that was a complete pain in almost every sense of the word. While probably not needed, I'm glad I did it with things torn down this far.

While getting the surface area prepped for the new timing cover gasket, I went ahead and unboxed the timing cover gasket and prepped it for install when I noticed that it doesn't completely align up. Was the timing cover changed in late 2001 / 2002?

After a bit of reading, it looks like it should still seal just fine, though might require a small amount of Gasket sealer. Thoughts?

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ioners-102385/



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I would **hold off** on that timing cover gasket!!! Something’s not right! That will 100% leak oil! I think that’s a 4.2 (??) cover gasket!

Yeah I wouldn't be happy to use that seal either.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...d2e81d5dd0.png
NCA2127AC This is the gasket you need prior to installing the timing cover back on.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...943a25595.jpeg
This is the one you currently have and I looked it up for a 2005 XJ 4.2.

Yeah, I ordered the correct one last night. A staggering number of places list the seal I bought as 2001+ Jaguar XJ seals when it's obviously incorrect. Should be here within the next few days.

Thanks!

When you put the timing cover back on, make sure those 3 o rings on the inside are sealed up against the front of the block. It’s the 3 small diameter holes where the supercharger idler pulley bracket bolts go through it.

For correct part numbers
https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.../brand/jaguar/

Quick update:

I've received the new Timing Cover Gasket and have the valve covers and Timing Cover buttoned back up. I decided to go ahead and perform another smoke test before putting the cooling system back together and it appears that there's another leak somewhere down below the Supercharger. So, I'm guessing the intake gaskets?

Hey guys,

Quick update on the car. Been receiving parts throughout the week and have started to tear down the upper portion of the engine to replace all of the leaky gaskets as well as using it as an opportunity to clean the engine and replace every hose I can in the process.

Looks like whoever took things apart originally broke off the brake booster line and wrapped it rigorously with electrical tape of all things. So, I've ordered a new seal kit to lower elbow (C2S15816) which should fix that as the hose is in good shape.

Also, the picture of the hose clamps to the Intercooler was how I found it, so the upper clamps weren't even attached properly. Does anyone know what the part number for those hoses are as I would like to replace them as well.

When I took off the lower elbow, I found a small pool of Oil at the bottom, perhaps blow-by? Going to be keeping a close eye on it for sure. Lastly, I'm debating to see if I can find someone that could perform a dry ice cleaning on the Intake valves now that everything's disassembled, has anyone tried this before?


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