After reading around on the forums I noticed some talk about the plastic tensioners in the Jag V8. As a precaution and to ease my mind, I decided to take my valve covers off. Guess what, plastic! They are cracked too. I caught them maybe within 1k miles of failure. The tensioners looked pretty bad, thankfully nothing happened. I work on my own cars and since time is not a huge concern, I would like to replace the tensioners myself. Are there any DIY guides out there? Should I just replace the secondaries or should I replace the primaries too? What about the guide rails etc? Any input is appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

At the top of the XK8/R forum is a FAQ sticky with more information than you ever wanted to know including pictorials on the tensioner replacement and discussion on the secondary vs both.

 

Thanks a ton!

 

Boy are you one lucky guy!

Congrats!~ Now..., get to work!


Julie

 

If I were luck they would have been replaced already by the previous owner . But yes, I am very glad I caught it. I just informed my friend who has a 2000 lincoln LS with the V8 to have his engine looked at too. Chances are it still has it's plastic tensioners. Man was he happy to hear that lol!

The procedure for the replacement is quite involved. Looks like my DD is going to be parked outside again while the jag gets the garage for a few weeks. After I get that all squared away, I'll start working on the transmission. PLEASE BE A SENSOR PROBLEM!

 

Your not alone...ole girl is currently in the O.R. herself for a bit of forward engine surgery.

 

[QUOTE=JagScott;298791] I just informed my friend who has a 2000 lincoln LS with the V8 to have his engine looked at too. Chances are it still has it's plastic tensioners. Man was he happy to hear that lol!

Sorry, but your friend is the lucky one. The Lincs already have the metal tensioners. Go figure. BTY, it seems that there is a lot of debate here about the need to replace just the uppers or everything. I just replaced the uppers myself so I could have piece of mind. It's not really all that hard. Mine were split on the side but there's no telling how long they would or wouldn't last.

 

Are you sure? I was reading somewhere that the early LS Lincolns had plastic tensioners as well, and then in 2001 they replaced them with the metal ones just like Jag. Most of the Lincs had the metal ones because the models years for the LS started in 2000. So only the few early ones suffered. Everything else on up to 2006 was fine. In either case, I will still let him look into it. I'd rather him hate me for making him spend $40 bucks for nothing and have something confirmed, then have the engine blow up on him . I plan on doing the uppers for sure, idk if I want to replace the primaries and the guides yet. I'm too eager see what the transmission problem is. I WANA DRIVE IT! Its painful buying a new car and not being able to drive it.

 

Don't know about the early Lincs. At least he'll have no cam cover leaks. I just crawled out from doing lower ball joints. Boy are they lovely! Major pain. Good luck getting yours on the road.