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!

 

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.

 

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/

 

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.

 

NCA2127AC This is the gasket you need prior to installing the timing cover back on.

 

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?