Howdy all, so despite my car running absolutely great, i noticed a bit of white smoke out the exhaust and that got worse last night. When the car warms up its fine but when it cools off coolant is getting into a cylinder. No doubt this is because the prior owner, who is a lying scumbag, overheated it at some point.

Anyway, im going to take this time to redo the primary chains/guides/tensioners.

A few questions.

1. Mls or composite. Going to do it in situ, so finishing the deck surface wont be ideal. Have people had issue with the mls gaskets leaking without a low rma?

2. Manifolds stay on when pulling heads right?

3. Will take heads to machine shop...beyond checking for warp/decking them, do they commonly suffer from othwr issues such as valve guides, spring issues, valve seals, etc?

This sucks and its making me reconsider my plans on keeping the car but regardless it needs to get fixed first.

Thanks all

 

Get Payen MLS head gaskets, (excluding the 4 small bolts in front of the heads) get 20 new head bolts, as you mentioned take heads to the machine shop and have them check for cracks and warpage, have them do a valve job (with new seals) and valve clearance adjustment. This won’t be cheap at the machine shop but, after it’s back together it should run strong if everything was done properly. I did all new valve springs on mine at the time but, the car had 234K miles on it at the time and I’m sure they were very tired. I had originally planned on fixing it up mechanically to sell (2014) but, after it was done with the engine work I was very impressed with the amount of power that it had so much so I ended up keeping the car. I gave it to my daughter 1 1/2 years ago and it still runs great today.

 

you blew the head gasket because it’s a 99 xjr. this is good news, you just have them deck the heads it and get out of there

slap the felpro head bolts, payen mls head gasket and roll. yes exhaust manifolds stay on

 

Thanks for the tips gents.

On the upside, i had the blower off, all the top end stuff and pulley stuff off in 2 hours 30 min. 7 dirty cylinders and one clean one.

 

I hate head gasket jobs; however it allows you to get clean things that normally are not.

 

How are you guys prepping the block? I have some roloc plastic disks that do a nice job but they might be too aggressive for an aluminum block

 

plastic razor blades and gasket remover spray. or the motorcraft wipes but those will bankrupt you

if you use a roloc it has to be white no exceptions. cover up any passages to be safe

 

10-4 thanks for the tips.

Now to get the stupid crank pulley off

 

Oh wow, so sorry to hear about this. That seller seems to be the gift that keeps on giving...No helpful input to add, but hopefully you get it all fixed up and then no more worries.

 

+1 on the MLS gaskets, not sure who the oe supplier is but you have such a choice in the USA.

I once did an EGR delete on a friends R and reused the head bolts as per JTIS but only to keep costs down, the delete included full de coke and MLS head gaskets/water pump and valley hoses in the end!

There used to be a major price difference in Oem head bolts from LRover vs Jaguar, $5 vs $15, but the last time I checked they’re both expensive now…but still worth a call…

I wouldn’t beat the previous seller up too bad, it’s crap head gaskets fitted to a hero engine, like I blame Sachs for that plastic timing junk they swore worked….wouldn’t be surprised if the head’s good to go.

 

Are the head gaskets known to be bad on these engines? I have only heard of the infamous plastic tensioners as you stated. Are they prone to failure from overheating or just in general? Would not look forward to doing that job if mine had an issue (98 R).

 

I guess it is what it is. Was hoping i'd make it a little longer, but so be it.

The crank bolt is being a bitch as expected, as is the pulley, but I'll get them off. The rest should be straight forward

 

A short burst of heat directly on the bolt head with a wet towel around the pulley, protect the rubber damper material, and break the threadloc.

 

I can only say its the luck of the draw. Regular service and maintenance, things like an oe t-stat, with the correct OAT coolant really helps with things like this.
20 year old forced induction with 370bhp - composite gaskets....there's a time limit on most things in life!

 

OEM headbolts, nice and cheap

https://www.britishparts.co.uk/jagua...bolt-kit-p9708

 

I bought the felpro bolts.

Some heat, and banging on it with my dewalt mini impact got it off.

The dampner is being difficult. One of the 8mm bolt holes stripped, but im giving it another go.

When people say they hit it with a hammer, in what way? Outwards on the lip? On the face, perpendicular to travel? Thanks

 

26 is composite and they do blow if you drive them hard or overheat

27 and later is mls.

 

Pulley off, onto the good stuff

 

sit rep:
Cams are out, tappets out, all timing gear off. Tip 1: Take all plugs out when trying to get crank tool in. Also note that cams turn half speed so you may need to spin motor over again to get the flats where they should be.

My Pass side slack guide had a crack, DS was starting a crack. No crumbling but probably good to do it.

holy hell are these head bolts tight. Cracked a socket which is annoying and you can't get many 1/2" drive units in there.

I'm halfway through the bolts on the Pass side (the one with the bad HG) and its a helluva arm workout.

 

Heads are off. Not too bad a job really. Head bolts were damn tight. Gasket fire ring badly blown on one cylinder and beginning on two others. Heads seem totally fine. Little bit of scoring on the cams but nothing too crazy.

Gonna drop them at the machine shop and have them polish the cams while i clean up the block.