Seriously. Don't start it until you take off the valve covers and inspect the tensioners- I learned the hard way.

 

Vincent YES stop driving til you know and YES a skiped tooth will make the car shake and run rough and 1 skipped tooth is 1 too many. This may or may not be the issue but it very well could be and if it is you chance a grenaded motor everytime you start it.

Bballan is correct make sure you follow the torque specs the cam hold down bolts feel like they are not being tightened enough because of how hard they are to break torque due to the sealant and age. Also you may see some fluid retained under as well this is completely normal. Be careful follow your torque specs and sequence it will go just fine. Cant stress rechecking the cam timing 2 to 3 times before buttoning it up. All of them I have done have gone great and I zip tie to keep the chain where it should be as well as mark it with a piece of chalk. Verify the cam timing after all is back together turning the engine over (its a 24mm i prefer the deep well) and turn it slowly by hand. Then I take out the fuel pump fuses in the rear fuse box in the trunk. The I relieve the pressure at the shraider valve so the car will not start. I then turn the motor over until the oil light goes out meaning oil has pumped through the system. remember these tensioners come with no oil and need to be pumped up by the engine to acually do their job. So even though they have been changed and such with no oil in them they can still jump a tooth on the timing chain if you try and start it without it being pumped full of oil, seen it happen.

 

thanks, so there are 2 upper tensioners that I have to replace?

is that something that all mechanics can do or dealer service is preferred(of course I absolutely try to avoid going to them since they will rip me off)

 

You can do it if you take your time and have some nice tools including a torque wrench and such

 

thank you for every one's kindly advise

parts were just ordered and I will stop by my friend's shop tomorrow for the immediate change

 

to bad your not closer id do it for ya in a few hours

 

At some point you are going to have to start the JF upper tensioner replacement tour. Food, beer, gas and lodging in every city along the route from members needing tensioners

 

Hahaha tht would be a fun trip and get to meet many people ......... im game LOL

 

ok, i am at my man's shop now as we speak.

he said that I should better replace water bumper ,tensioners , timing chain, of course all new gasket since he had to open up the engine anyway so do it at one shot

it ended up a big job. killing me

 

How much did he want?

 

"Better replace" and "critical" are two different things.

You are experiencing why many folks just give up and sell these cars as is and why some of us pick up VERY good condition jags with timing tensioner problems for peanuts, fix them for very little $$ and drive them for years.

It is "critical" to replace the secondary tensioners, pretty "important" to replace the water pump and "a good idea" to replace the lower tensioners...


The difference between "critical" and "better replace" is about $2k.

If he only changes the upper tensioners, the only "opening up" he will need to do is the valve covers- we are talking less than 1 hour per side. If you do the lower tensioners/chains, now we are talking ALOT of work (READ: labor $$) I don't know the book time on that, bu I am guessing it is tween 8 and 16 hours. I still don't know if the timing chain tensioners broke, or if your chain skipped a tooth or if you have any bent valves..... thos would help to decide whether you need to do more.

 

Very well said.

 

I will not change the lower one at this moment, just too costly.

 

ok, I ended up changing the followings

replaced 2 top tensioners to the upgrade metal one

new water plumb

new timing chain

and all kinds of gaskets from the engine.

parts and labor -800 bucks

 

$800 for everything is super, super cheap. I think you got a very good deal there.

 

wow, that was my best buddy's shop

 

great to hear and will take a load off your mind

 

I hope that will solve the engine shaking issue, the original plastic tensioners had cracked already as we took out.

 

Any on e know the difference between the 3rd &4th generation tensioners

any one installed them

What thread # was the zip tie method shown in

E Bay purchase of tensioners

Success or------------?

Txs

 

I have not heard of 4th gen, where did you get that info. There are many writeups on doing the replacement. Click on the link below for one of them:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ics-how-52653/

Many members have ordered parts on ebay.