I bought a 1999 xj8 with 109,000 mile on it. It is in pretty good shape I think for the year. I have been reading this great x308 forum for about a month after I decided to get a xj8. I live in Ohio and the car was in Missouri and that worried me to drive it back that far with the tensioner problems I read about. Made it back home with no problems. I thank My Good Lord for that. The wife loves the car. The last owner said the secondary tensioners were replaced with the second generation tensioners (plastic also). I want to replace all the tensioners and chain guides just to be safe and not worry. I will be doing the job myself thanks to many great posters here. I looked for a complete kit with everything including gaskets. I could only find one source and he was on ebay. "Christopher's Foreign Car Parts" My question is has anyone here used one of the kits he sells ? the price seems good. I have already ordered the correct tools for the job. Thanks everyone for all the help so far !

 

Congratulations on your new ride! Have you also checked with the P.O about the gearbox? If the box has not been rebuilt it will fail.

 

Congratulation on the new purchase, seems you got the right attitude to bring her up to date.

I bought a full set (alloy thermostat tower, thermostat (!), tensioners, chains, and all (good quality, non leaking seals) from Berkshire Jaguar Components:

Berkshire Jag Components - Jaguar Spares and Jaguar Spare Parts

Watch it, there are 2 different kind of cam covers, depending you have a AJ26 or AJ27 engine.

There are lower quality seals offered as well, but stay away from them, too many stories of leaking after a couple of 100 miles.

 

Thanks omgimali, after motor work is done I plan on doing another trans fluid & filter change also getting a Transgo 5HP-24-PR kit. I guess I need to check engine # to Know for sure which one I have Eric. I think I will take a chance on the full kit. If I have to replace gaskets later on so be it. Then I can let the x308 forum know what not to get.

 

I used that kit some five years ago and it was fine except for one thing. There are umpteen little rubber sealing grommets that go on each bolt holding the valve covers. The ones that came in my kit five years ago were of course an aftermarket supplier and not quite the correct spec for the application. They may fit, but they don't provide enough tension on the valve cover gaskets and thus they leaked. I ordered a valve cover gasket kit separately from I think it was Felpro and replaced them a second time. But the gaskets were the same in both sets, only the Christopher's grommets were softer and squishier. I think you may be able to get the grommets themselves separately from Jaguar and if I were doing it today, that is what I would do. Welcome and good luck.

 

Thanks pdupler, that's good to know and I will do that. Did the Felpro gaskets stop the leaking ? I want to get this job started before the weather gets to hot here.

 

Where in Ohio we you at?

 

Paulding County, NW Ohio

 

I replaced my secondary tensioners with the third gen metal ones from Christopher's with no issues.

 

I used Christopher's about 6-7 months ago to do my '99 XK8. I sent him the serial # so he could be sure that the kit he sent had the correct parts as friend had order a set for his 2001 XK8 from a different source and there were some important parts that weren't correct.

Chris guaranteed that what he sent would be correct for my car.

100% satisfied with the kit and the cost.

By the way welcome to the forum and be sure to go to the stickies section and download every manual and topic you can think of. Even search for easy to digest videos etc. on things like smoke tests, diagnosing vacuum leaks, and getting a good quality OBDII scanner and possibly an reputable SDD scanning program and cable.

And ask question before you buy as many of us have been there done that and not always with good results<G>

 

Thanks Samalcar that helps.

 

Wow RD you have had quite the collection. You must be a wealth of info and that info is much appreciated. I am going to give Chris a call and get things moving on the kit. So much to take in that I will just take one step at a time. In time I will have to do a search on getting a good quality OBDII scanner and possibly an reputable SDD scanning program and cable. I'm sure I will have many questions in the near future. Thanks Again RD

 

Yes, but I'm convinced it didn't have anything to do with the gasket itself, rather it was identical to the one in the Christophers kit. The only things different were those grommets. But I'll caveat that was five years ago.

 

Got the complete timing chain kit ordered. It should be here early next week. Looking forward to starting the rebuild.