Cylinder wash ?
 

The XK8 has been running very well, but today it won't start at all. The battery is very good and strong and the starter motor is turning over, maybe a bit faster than normal. The car makes no attempt to fire up though.

On Sunday I started her up and moved her away from the garage door so that I could get the Lotus out. The engine was only running for a minute, so I am hoping that this is just cylinder wash. I tried to start it with my foot down on the accelerator tonight, but still no go. how much oil do I need to put into each cylinder, and do I need to do all 8 ? Also do I still need to push the accelerator all the way down, or just try to start normally after the oil is added ?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Try starting with foot all the way down before turning the key, then after the starter has engaged for a few seconds, keep the starter engaged and slowly lift your foot. This allows the fueling to start again after you have cleared the cylinders.

If that does not work, add about a half teaspoon of engine oil to each cylinder through the sparkplug holes. Use the above operating sequence when trying to start.

Experienced techs will often only add the oil to one bank as it is less work and likely to be just as effective.

Thanks. I just found another thread with the info too, so will try again tomorrow in daylight. The car always starts first turn of the key, so I am sure this will be the issue after the very short running on Sunday. I will report back.

This is a link for a no start procedure Link JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource at the bottom of this link is a procedure for Nikasil no start process. I hope this helps!

Ok, tried removing the fuel pump fuse, cranking a few times, then with fuse replaced had a go at starting. No joy so went the whole way as advised. I used a syringe and put 40ml of oil into each bore with the help of a short tube. Cranked for 20 secs with fuel pump fuse out, and then tried again. It started first crank with only a few seconds of white smoke from the exhaust. Great result and many thanks once again to this forum.

Glad you're sorted, perhaps a little generous with the oil.
500 mls cylinder capacity at 10:1 (AJ34 is 11:1)gives only 50 mls combustion chamber capacity at TDC - probably a bit of a simplistic calc but.....

Ha ha my typo ! You are right of course, I should have typed 4ml which is about a teaspoon of oil. Well spotted and duly corrected. The oil was a very heavy 40/70 weight too, which I figured might stick to the sides of the bores and not just drain away down the sides. Anyhow, it worked and all is well. I wonder how many engines have been diagnosed as no compression and written off as a result of simple cylinder wash ?

Kudos to you!

Just curious, do you add Restore at your oil change? A very respected tech recommends it. Maybe we need a poll on Restore use vs. non-starts.:icon_beerchug:

Brutal has endorsed the use of Restore in Nikasil engine and I have been recommending it as well following his lead. It is a great and effective product for the Nikasil no start problems.

I remember the very first one of these that I came across years ago. No compression after a short run time. I was about ready to pull the heads when we used a bore scope to view the valves etc. They were incredibly caked up with black gooey carbon. We carefully used a Motorvac (probably the older version of a Terraclean) to clean the top end and everything came out just fine! We didn't know the "add oil" trick to temporarily restore the compression at that time. Since then, we have done it many times, with good results!