My wifewants this car but his description of smoke concerns me.

1999 Jaguar Vanden Plas

 

I'd check for signs of the head gasket saying "good bye"...

115k km is just over over 70k miles. Although this will generate many comments, my personal recommendation is to stay away from Nikasil lined motors. It seems that you already have a 98 X308 so my comment may not hold validity with you either.

I understand that many will swear by it and on paper its a longer lasting motor than the steel sleeved one. However, in real life Jaguar indeed replaced many of the nikasil blocks albeit rather quietly and under warranty. To me, having a Nikasil motor is like sitting on a loose pin grenade - no telling when its going to go.

Just my 2 pence.

 

Smoke at startup is a sign of HGF, theres water on a piston that is being burnt off at startup. Read my previous posts, you dont want to be caught out like I have on this one. Plenty more out there, keep looking.

 

....or 14 year old valve seals. Not a normal presentation of a bad block.

 

Tirefriar, your logic is based upon reality, but is flawed.

The majority believe that a CURRENTLY working Nikasil engine IS better than a steel sleeved one. High (phosphorous?) levels in gasoline attacked Nikasil and caused the damage that has become infamous... however, these levels have been reduced by law in both the US and UK for many years now, reduced to the point that Nikasil is no longer affected. The fact that many Nikasil engines were replaced (10 years ago) has nothing to do with the current state of properly working Nikasil engines.

The thought is that if the Nikasil in your engine is still providing high compression, it will continue to do so for many years to come - indeed, most likely longer than simple steel liners can. Based upon this train of thought, as long as a Nikasil engine is providing high and even compression, there is no reason to avoid it.

RE smoke - if it's white it's most likely coolant - head gasket. If it's blue/gray it's most likely oil - if it's short lived after startup it's probably leaking valve stem seals; if it's under load and not just at startup it's probably rings/cylinder or valves.

Craigslist posting has been deleted... sold already?

 

Yes the problem is solved, someone bought it. It was about half the market price, so I'm not surprised. My Nikasil engine is fine, by the way.

 

Quad, I just posted my opinion. Perhaps it is skewed towards non-nikasil motors, but then again I like to eliminate as much uncertainty as I can. I'm aware of what caused the damage to nikasil lining and their successful application in Porsche motors. However, when I was searching for my Jag, the master tech also stressed the importance of avoiding a nikasil motor. And just for laughs and giggles I found a letter from the original selling dealer to the owner confirming that his car was not equipped with a nikasil motor. Dont recall the exact date of the letter, but much much later after the purchase. Just sayin'....

The new owner probably did not check with this forum before buying that car. Keep an eye out for a new member with a white VDP and head gasket questions...

 

Quad....you are correct in most of your assumptions but i would like to point out (enlighten) a little about the Nikasil 'drama'
It was high levels of Sulphur in the fuel that was available in the late 90's not Phospherous that reacted with the Nikasil.
BMW also used it in their V8 engines at the time and were caught out as Jaguar was through no fault of design.

The fuel situation seems to be mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and was practically eradicated by 2000-2001 when sulphur levels were reduced dramatically.
Luckily this problem never really surfaced in our fuel here in the Southern climes.
But, the damage had been done and besides the bad publicity concerning this it has persisted into folk lore now.

In these times the Nikasil 'problem' is virtually null and void and these engines are now suffering from 14 years of wear and tear, owner abuse and common neglect.
My own Nikasil engine has covered 200,000klm and gives a little light blue puff from each pipe on COLD start up and is gone in a second....I put this down to worn valve seals but is no big deal....there is no smoke trail on throttle overun....uses negligible oil betwen changes and NEVER start an enngine from cold and then immediatley shut down before the warm up cycle has completed which only takes a couple of minutes....usually when the engine settles back down from fast idle.

I never touch the throttle(gas) pedal at alll when starting from cold....there seems to still be people around who insist on pumping the pedal before start up.....this is a NO NO!
I have found the use of an oil additive that reconditions seals sems to work exceptionally well at this distance.

These of course are my own personal views based on experience ;o)

 

Thanks, Xjay - as my ? showed, my memory of the offending material was nebulous and I was too lazy to search for it.

Tire - As far as I can recall, through 3+ years on this forum I have yet to hear of an existing, currently running Nikasil engine in which the Nikasil had subsequently failed. Please correct me if I am wrong.

As to opinions:
There's nothing wrong with opinions until they run contrary to fact - then they just become folkloric misinformation.

 

Heheheee...we can all suffer from the occassional 'brain fart' ;o))
I agree, there has been no recorded failure of a Nikasil engine through the use of modern fuel after the early 2000's.
The entire point of this matvellous design was built around the extremely close tollerances afforded by the use of Nikasil....as witnessed in F1 engines.
The Nikasil engine is intrinsically a better engine and will be long lived as long as proper servicing proceedures are followed and the use of good quality fuel on good journeys.
You wouldn't treat a thoroughbred like a pit pony now would you?
The early problems were not so much down to design flaws but flaws in supplied components which were outsourced.
A well sorted AJV8 engine will out live many of it's contemporarys ;o)

 

Hi All,
I just did a top end rebuild on a Nikasil engine with 204,000 miles, Compression is around 120-130 psi No blow by, no steps in the cylinder bores.
The valve seals were badly worn, but the engine was not burning a lot of oil on cold start up, just a little.
I change the oil every 5-6000miles, sometimes around 10,000. (Over a period of 13 years)
I would have to say that a Nikasil engine is a good reason to buy an XJ or XK.
By now the bad ones are gone, and the ones still around should be good for a long time.
Obviously, tensioners and chains are a major concern, and buying any AJ26 or early AJ27 engined car needs to have the valve covers pulled to check if it has genIII tensioners.
If it does, congratulations, if it doesn't invest the $800 to get the timing gear system checked. It's cheap insurance, and certainly would not stop me buying a car.
A few weeks ago I looked at a 2000 XJR on craigslist. It was literally in my back yard, no runner no start, fuel pump issues $3000, it is re-listed this week as running, with an obvious fix of the mechanical problems for $6900 from a different seller. someone is going to make at least $3000 on this car.
Don't let simple mechanical stuff stop you buying a good car.

 

As to opinions:
There's nothing wrong with opinions until they run contrary to fact - then they just become folkloric misinformation.[/QUOTE]

I guess an opinion from a jaguar master tech with 10+ years of experience can be chalked up to folkloric misinformation.

 

There are still nikalsil engines that were on the bubble in the day and not replaced that have accelerated wear from long ago.
Any nik engine exhibiting problems deserves close scrutiny, especially if low miles.

 

Many steel-linered engines run to huge mileages-I had the head off an old BMW straight-six many years ago & you could still see the evidence of the original cross-hatching on the bores-even after 180,000 miles. There was no wear ridge either...

Nikasil failure was more due to corrosion working downwards. When high-sulphur petrols burned they produced traces of sulphuric acid. As the Nikasil bore was effectively a plated Nickel lining on an aluminium block, you had an acid in direct contact with 2 electropositively dissimilar metals-producing galvanic corrosion.

The nickel/aluminium interface was exposed at the top of the bore by the head gasket rings, so the acidic corrosion from the combustion gasses would start at the top of the bore & progressively work downwards-like rust-until it reached the level of the top piston rings. At this point the compression would start to be affected & the engine was effectively scrap. Failed Nikasil engines would show signs of greenish pitting around the top of the bores-the green coming from the colour of the salts of Nickel...

 

Jaguar also had a bad run of faulty WATER PUMP IMPELLERS that also led to Nikasil failure due to severe OVERTEMP (pistons swelling etc.)

Both problems contributed to the decision for cast liners.

bob gauff

 

His experience and expertise should be lauded, and his suggestions should be considered carefully... however, his opinions are often no better than anyone elses - as defined by Webster, opinion is most often based upon that which is less than absolutely certain.

And Ross - I agree, but I believe that my caveat: "as long as a Nikasil engine is providing high and even compression, there is no reason to avoid it." would tend to eliminate those that may be on the bubble.


Look, the original argument was solely to tire's implication that one should simply run away from any Nikasil engine... there are XJ8 Nikasil engines out there with over 300k on them so this is simply an over reaction or over simplification.

Be careful, but don't automatically shy away from a Nikasil engine that has made it this far and exhibits good and even compression... that's it! I expect mine to outlast me.