I've been chasing down an oil leak from the front of the engine on my 1999 XK8 Coupe without success, but today, after removing the A/C condenser and radiator, I found what looks like two 'unplugged' openings in the front of the upper oil pan. This car has been abused by the former owner's boyfriend, Bubba with banana fingers. I've attached a pic showing the location of the two openings. As you can see, I've temporarily plugged each opening. Are these openings the inlet and exit for an engine oil cooler that is missing? This car has no engine oil cooler on it at this time. I think Bubba took it off and tossed it away. If these are in fact inlet and exit for an engine oil cooler shouldn't they be blocked off if the engine oil cooler was removed? Will these 'unplugged' openings leak oil and/or allow water to enter into the crankcase? Any insight will be gratefully

The pointer shows the two temp plugs that I've put in.
appreciated. Thank you guys, Warren C. Warburton

 

Most Jaguar V8 engines do NOT have an oil cooler.
The SuperCharged engines were most of the ones that had the coolers.

 

If those plugs are just wedged in the holes, then I very much doubt if they would be able to contain the pressure.

The outlet and return ports in the casting are blanked where there is no oil cooler fitted. Also, the hole in the middle for the hose clamp retaining bolt is not threaded. This post from JayJagJay shows what I mean:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post2312654

 

Michaelh, the plugs in the pic are just temporary plugs that I put in when I was washing the area before I put the radiator and a/c condenser back in. I have not started the engine as the radiator & a/c condenser are out of the car. When I saw these holes in the casting, it appeared that they may be a source of my oil leak. One of my fingers hits the back of one of the holes, but the second hole on the right does not bottom out with my finger. Now it may bottom out further into the casting. I may just hook up my air compressor and give a blast of air into each hole. If they are blocked, my compressor attachment will just pop back out of the hole. If the hole is open into the casting, air will freely flow into it. Thanks for your input.

 

I can't see any sign in your pic of there having been a retaining clamp fitted, so you may be lucky.

Hope I didn't sound too patronising.

 

I just put a 2000 engine into my 2002 XK and I came across the same thing. Thanks to the folks here, relief, in the fact that machining (or casting) wise it was prollllly cheaper just to make the upper pan for versions WITH the cooler, the same as those WITHOUT... meaning, if the finished product was to have a cooler they would drill or mill out the holes and if not, they would leave them blanked off. I was surprised to even see the center hole for what I am guessing to be the start of a threaded hole,,, a relic,,, in mine...


Yup. Leak free, lol

 

My2004 XK8 has an oil cooler...factory 2 piece lines coming off the block, but the previous owner replaced the stock cooler with an aftermarket. When I had to replace the lines, I had NO problem finding them....so, maybe most JagV8's don't, but plenty of XK8's had them, or there wouldn't be so many available on the market.

 

FOLLOW UP to my post. The holes in my upper pan casting are indeed blocked and preventing any oil from escaping from the crankcase.