Hello,

A few months ago I bought an X308 XJR year 2000 in a desolate condition for little money.

I spent a lot of time on the car: new performance brakes front and rear, rims repainted, new tires, new flex pipes, timing chain and tensioner with new seals, new bearings for the wheels of the 2 belts, ABS module pins soldered, seat repaired, ...

Now that I have finished changing the timing chain, I have the problem that the engine smokes on the front left cylinder bank. I have to say that when I first tried to seal the bank, it was not tight and oil was leaking slightly in various places, but mainly at the bottom and rear of the bank. Cooling water was also smoking in the area of the injectors (this was probably caused by the compressor hoses which I teared down). This also smoked. I then sucked it out as far as possible and blew it off with compressed air, and thoroughly cleaned the engine again at the sealing points.

On the second and last attempt, the seal seems to be tight. Can't see where the smoke is coming from. You would think it was coming from the fuel injection line at the very front (blue cap valve)

Here is some additional information:

- Smoke is only produced after the engine has been running for a few minutes.

- When I unscrew the oil filler cap, the smoke level remains the same.

- Timing chain kit with engine gaskets comes from Jaguar Spirit. The round seals in the center of the valve cover were also replaced. I only didn't change the round seals of the screws as they seemed to be in good condition.

- The timing cover is not 100% aligned with engin. It is very slightly higher than the engine. As the new gasket is quite thick I don't think this is a problem. No oil seems to be leaking at this point.

- I can't do a vacuum test of the cooling system. No plug from my toolkit seals the tank.


I think the smoke is caused by cooling water, but I don't know from where.


Here is a link to the video :


Many thanks for your help

 

I got a feedback from a german Forum:

It seems that the hoses from the compressor are twisted. I laid the hoses as they were on the car before I bought it, but this was apparently wrong.

I will twist them and test them! It will take a few days though.

Wbr

 

Not sure if this is what you mean by compressor, but the coolant lines going to both of the intercoolers are not hooked up right. You should recheck what goes where and adjust as needed.

Photo of my 2001 is attached if that helps.

 

exactly !

Compressor = supercharger

Thx

 

not sure why that would cause the smoking though. To me it looks like coolant burning off and I'd imagine its from the large hose going to thermostat

 

Good point. If it s just in and out the supercharger, like on the pic below, both ways should work, or am i missing something ?

 

Might not be causing the issue, but its still not routed as designed and worth correcting. I don't know what's inside the charge air coolers (like if there is any valving for example, but they might not like having coolant running through them backwards after going the right way for 20 years. After the car is warmed up and smoking, are the charge air coolers still cool to the touch or are the hot like the rest of the engine?

Is the big coolant line that comes off the back of the thermostat housing swollen in that video? It looks like it to me, but I can't be sure. If it is, it should be changed before it gives.

How much coolant are you losing?

 

Hello,

I swapped the lines today. It doesn't smoke anymore and both manifolds stay cool and don t heat up !!!

Thanks for all your inputs !

Raoul from Luxembourg