Hello all!

Will i am in the middle of a cylider head rebuild on my 1998 xj8 and it has been about a week that my heads have been at the machine shop and I have been having a tough time sourcing a top end rebuild kit. Its looking like I will be putting one together myself, but, before I jump to that conclusion I thought I would check with you guys first. I am going to go with the updated chain guides and all new chains and tensioners which I see are going from $700-$900. Is there a recommended kit everyone is going with? I will also be upgrading the thermostat housing which I see runs around $100. Are there any other updates or upgrades i should consider? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

Not sure about the chain kit, but several of us have used the housing from Welsh Ent. without problems.

Welsh Enterprises - New Jaguar Parts, Used Jaguar Parts and Accessories - XK120 - XK140 - XK150 - E-Type - MK - XJ6 - XJ8 - XJ - XK8 - XK - XJS - S-Type - X-Type - XF

 

I'm not aware of anyone rebuilding a head for these cars but you might explore the use of Lincoln LS/Thunderbird parts. Ford used the Jaguar AJ engine in these cars in the 2000-2002 time frame. FelPro has a gasket set but the valve cover gasket will not work on your AJ26. Most of us have used the Ford boxed tensioner successfully.

 

Finally received word from the machine shop. Head is warped! Still can't get them back tho =( need valve stem seals.

 

Hopefully it can be machined.

Christopher car parts provides the best price for tensioners, chains, and kits (as noted above, same as a Lincoln LS).

JAGUAR, LINCOLN items in CHRISTOPHER'S FOREIGN CAR PARTS store on eBay!

 

My advice from the local guy I have worked with for 20 years was if the head has dropped seats it is less expensive to get a good used head rather than the expense for repairing the old one. Something about you should replace all of the seats if any dropped because they are probably already loose from the head overheating. For me that approached $800 instead of a used head for under $200.

I am not sure if that is your issue here, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

FYI- many of the head gasket kits (I got mine for under $400) come with the valve stem seals.

 

A good source of used parts.

Search Results

 

The machine shop said the head is within spec to be milled. So i'm going to go ahead with a complete head gasket and timing chain kit.

 

Welsh Enterprises is on Ebay too. The theromostat housing is around $50.
Replace the water pump with the one with metal fins, replace ALL the coolant
hoses, lines, heater hoses etc. New serpentine belt and idler pulley. If any of
these go bad, you get to start all over.... Coventry West near Atlanta is a good
source for lots of new and used parts. Good luck.

 

Well its been a while since I last posted but I have some good news! Head job is complete and the car is running! Not without some idle issues which ended up working itself out. I will be needing a new thermostat housing since the plastic one decided to leak after the first warm up... was I little angry at that one! Other then that the car idles smooth and drives rather nice as far as I can tell which isn't much since I have snow on the ground and that renders ALL RWD cars useless around my area. A little disappointed at myself for not getting this done sooner so I could workout any other drivability issues. Guess it will have to wait til spring. I also had another project I might be interested in that came across my scales recently... 1982 XJ-S V12. Its too clean for me to crush! But I'm not sure what I'm getting into... again... lol. Will post pictures in the correct area soon.

 

Replace the housing with a metal one. Welsh Enterprise has a good deal, includes thermostat.