Continuing story of my '99 with 155k on the body and a just replaced transmission. Shop called today and yes the head gasket is blown. Options are to replace the motor or junk the car. They fear that it is a waste to put money into a repair of the car with this many miles.
I am thinking about doing the head gasket replacement myself as I love this old car. I did one on my e-type years ago. Are there any gotta's on doing the head gasket replacement? The issue of the cam chain losing phase with the crank shaft is my only concern. Any recommendations or advice is greatly appreciated. This will be a non rushed project so I hope to post lots of photos of the progress.
Thanks!

 

Hi LaRue,
It seems a little strange that the shop is advocating that the engine needs to be replaced, although they're being honest about querying whether it makes financial sense.
It can be a hard decision, and knowing when to call it a day is just as important as when to go on.

Having said that, it's a head gasket. In a heartbeat, the very least I'd do is a tear-down and take a look at what's happened in there. There's no cost in that other than your time.
OK, I haven't done a head gasket for a while, and the nearest was on a Jaguar 3.4 straight six, but with the collective genius of this forum I'm pretty sure you can pull the old girl through.

I think you've almost made the decision already, and the devil you know...

Just my 2c


Mike

 

Agreed. Doing a head gasket (actually do BOTH of them) isn't really that difficult; take parts off, put them back on. Since you are in no hurry, a complete engine rebuild with 155k miles would make more sense, and not take much longer. As long as you take your time, keep to the specs and follow the procedures, you'll have no problem.
It would be a waste of a beauty to trash any XK8.
Of course, if you DON'T want to keep it, can I have your convertible top-to-glass weatherstripping???

 

i will sell ya my 03 with only 98k on it.

 

Or do an LS1 swap.

Russ

 

I agree and think it's worth a look see and take her apart. My 97 is so pretty I made a hard decision recently as well. I invested in her and am glad I did. Hopefully you get her up and running soon. good luck.

 

I have done several head gasket jobs on AJ27s in the past few weeks. I don't know what is going on, maybe it's 'global warming' or something?????? (sorry, CLIMATE CHANGE)

But seriously.......... It is not difficult, just time consuming and the engine does need to be TIMED correctly.

I'm guessing around 18 to 20 hours plus a bunch of gaskets and head bolts.

XKs are a little 'tighter' than sedans for cylinder head access. I leave the cataverters loose but in place and pull the heads with exhaust manifolds.

Check the head surface with a straight edge for FLATNESS before reinstall or send to a machine shop if you want a full valve job etc.

bob gauff

 

Check out what you can I.E. thermostat and fan operation, so you don't end up with the same problem after you get her fixed.

 

UPDATE-
I did a lot of thinking and decided to let the shop do the replacement of the head gasket, they will also fix the lack of heat problem I have been having. Now I have more in the car this month than it is worth!!

 

Let me guess...the shop offered to buy the vehicle if you decided to junk the car....

 

You can buy a good used engine with warranty for $2,600. Unless you can do all the work yourself that is the cheaper route. Maybe find a nice donor car with a bad transmission. You can use some XJ8 engines as well to increase the number of candidates.

 

Don't we all!!!......Good luck....Mike

 

While at first glance that doesn't sound too bad, it still kinda puts you in this situation:
ROCK .... you .... HARD PLACE
Unless you can verify that your replacement engine has already had the timing chain tensioner problem rectified, you have the choice of performing that chore before installation, or else you're left waiting for that axe to fall.

Even in the case of an engine with some sort of warranty, the time and/or mileage range of the warranty probably wouldn't help too much. We've all read about the tensioner problems cropping up at mileages as low as 50k miles on up to almost 200k.

 

If I were replacing my engine I would install new chains, guides, and both upper and lower tensioners if they had not been done already.