While city-driving, my XK8 made a mild bang like back-firing. Turns out the 4-litre V8's coolant reservoir top and bottom half popped, sending a hugh steam trail out the rear of the Jag.

I am really lucky the local Jaguar Land Rover distributor in Hong Kong has the replacement in stock. Just when I am about to fit it, I noticed that one of the tandem bleed hose inlets was blocked solid (see attached pic). After drilling the whole length of the inlet ( > 1 inch ) with a 3/16 bit the passage is cleared.

I have no idea how such a major flaw can escape quality inspection. The offending part has a 2012 year mark moulded to the bottom. So fellow Jaguar owners make sure you inspect all inlet stems before fitting the replacement. BTW, this is the first mishap after owning my '97 XK8 convertible for 33 months and adding a meagre 25,000km on the clock to 70,000km total. And this winter we have an extended period of mid-teens Celcius weather to warrant top down driving and I'm totally loving it.

 

That was not a mistake. The new tanks have a single outlet and the two hoses can be connected with a tee.

 

Thank you for your explanation. The logical choice would naturally be to include an explanatory note in the packaging, reminding owners to drill out the inlet stem if they have twin bleeding hoses, or just attach to the single open inlet stem if their bleeding hoses were joined by a Tee. But alas nothing was included, a typical Jag practice.

I had no choice but to drill out the inlet stem because it is Chinese New Year's eve and I just have to get back on the road for the festivities.

Happy New Year to all Jag owners.

 

The Bleed Hose from the Expansion Tank to the top of the Radiator was soon discontinued as it served no useful purpose. The second Expansion Tank outlet was subsequently blanked.

You could have just connected the Bleed Hose to the blanked Expansion Tank outlet and this would effectively have sealed the Radiator outlet.

Your efforts have got you back to the original design and I'm impressed you managed to drill out the blanked outlet successfully!

Graham

 

More information here :
http://www.jagrepair.com/images/TSB/XK8/303-15.pdf