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Hi Mark . It never occurred to to me up until I read of Kim's post over on the ftype forum regarding the troubles he has been having regarding his engine noise . I seen photos of the older and newer 6mm to 8 mm chains . I took it for granted that a xkr 2011 car would have the older 6mm chain . Up until today when I had a look at Dr steves car . His has the 8mm chain . I thought it must have been upgraded by the previous owner of his . Confused .com . Could w
you or any one please clarify which chain a 5l xkr 2011 should have on a AJ 133 engine
Did a bit of reading and possibly the 8mm's weren't used until midway through 2013,, build date for mine was Nov 2013, so I sho?uld be on the later chains.
George, have you had a look in the oil filler hole of your car?
If you have I'm guessing you know for sure that it has the older 6.3 mm chains as the visual difference between them and the later 8.0 mm chains is very obvious.
Just count the links across the chain, the 6.3 has way more - 9 - than the 8.0 which has 3.
George, have you had a look in the oil filler hole of your car?
If you have I'm guessing you know for sure that it has the older 6.3 mm chains as the visual difference between them and the later 8.0 mm chains is very obvious.
Just count the links across the chain, the 6.3 has way more - 9 - than the 8.0 which has 3.
Thanks Kim , I was reading your thread over on the ftype section and wondered why the main dealer wanted to replace your chains , obviously in his opinion this is causing the engine noise you are having , leading me to ask can the newer 8mm chain have problems
Thanks Kim , I was reading your thread over on the ftype section and wondered why the main dealer wanted to replace your chains , obviously in his opinion this is causing the engine noise you are having , leading me to ask can the newer 8mm chain have problems
It wasn't a dealership it was an independent shop.
But I'm now starting to worry a bit about their advice, competence and honesty.
Not the actual mechanics, my experience with them has been great, but with the boss of the shop.
He kept telling me the rattly engine was "timing chains for sure" and "its always the timing chains, we have done heaps of them" without once even looking at the car let alone listening to it. And then he hits me with a quote of $5,000 to $7,000 to replace the chains, tensioners and guides. I explained to him that I was fairly sure the car already had the 8.0 chains but he insisted that the factory upgrade wasn't until 2016 and therefore my Oct 2014 build V6 would have the old problematic chains. He may have been talking about another chain/tensioners/guides update that maybe happened in 2016 and not the switch from 6.3 to 8.0 but he wasn't clear and I didn't press him.
I took the car in to the same shop for some unrelated work a week ago and I asked the mechanic to have a listen to the engine and give me a report, but then he finished the work way earlier than I expected and in my haste to grab the car and get home (60 km across the other side of town, trying to avoid damn peak hour traffic) I forgot to follow up on the rattly engine question and didn't speak to him again.
Maybe just maybe there was another chains/tensioners/guides factory update in 2016 and it would be good to find out for sure one way or the other.
In the meantime my plan is to wait until my next oil change in just over two months' time, when I will stick some 0W-20 GF-6A in for the first time and see if that makes any difference to the engine rattle.
Has any one that has had this upgrade done had any problems ?
What makes you think it is an upgrade? Just because the number is bigger? It refers to the pitch not the width. The earlier 6.3mm chains were way higher quality, I believe they were changed to the latter purely as a cost cutting exercise. One of the engines I rebuilt had those early chains and I put them back in. They are more expensive for a reason.
Last edited by kansanbrit; Jun 28, 2021 at 04:15 AM.
Yes, so much better engineered. Just look at the difference in quality in the photograph. And don't forget if you change the chains to 8mm you need 4 new expensive cam sprockets also.
Yes, so much better engineered. Just look at the difference in quality in the photograph. And don't forget if you change the chains to 8mm you need 4 new expensive cam sprockets also.
I thought about change of a timing chain for 8mm during a winter (for now all is good, about 60k miles covered), as a prophylactic exercise. Now I'm a bit confused. I agree new one looks a bit cheaper. But I need to understand what is better: less, thicker links vs more, narrow links on a chain. Intuitive - chain is as resistant as the least powerful link/part in it.
