Folks,

I picked up a 97 XK with 115k miles. It had been parked about 8 months ago because the motor wasn't running properly (loss of power, rough idle, noises). The gentleman lived out in the boonies, so there were no local mechanics willing to work on it. Anyway, he put it up for sale and I made a 10 hour return drive to pick it up.

Here is a video of the engine, and no that isn't a compressor running in the background. Seems like there is, among other things, a vacuum leak.

79fbc256.mp4 video by drinkdontdrive - Photobucket

For some unknown reason, I started on the passenger side removing the valve cover. I was hoping it would be as clean as some of the other pictures I've seen on here... not so much. The one thing I can say is I know lubrication/oil flow isn't my problem...









I am familiar with Toyota's, but have never touched a Jag before. If anyone has any input, please feel free to chime in. Open forum:

I will update as I work on it.

Jonny

 

Care to share what you paid for it? How does the rest of the car look?

Like you, I have turned wrenches on other types of cars, but a car is a car.

Read up, this forum is terrific. As knowledgeable as any there is, plus you don't have the 20 years olds sniping at each other saying their neon and coffee can exhausts are better than yours.

B

 

It has obviously jumped time, notice that the flats on the cams (just behind the first bearing caps) are not aligned.

 

You may have escaped with new tensioners, which should be replaced anyway, and associated alignment of cam timing. Sorta got to do that before you can determine if there is further damage associated with a piston and valve attempting to occupy the same space at the same time.

Good luck.

 

Thank you gentlemen. I hadn't noticed this so I appreciate you noticing it. I have a friend who is a little more familiar with this who will be coming over tomorrow to take a look.

Here is the drivers side - please let me know if you see anything here that I might not have:







Thanks again for your help - truly appreciated. Regards,
Jonny

 

Can anyone point me in the direction of a thread where I can find info on how to correctly time the engine in relation to cam orientation? Thanks for any and all help,

Jonny

 

Beav, that is exactly why so many of us are here. Guys like you just see a picture and already know more about what's going on than some of us do by standing there staring all day. Thank you (and those like you) for sharing so freely.

 

Hard to be certain by the pics but I'd guess one tooth off. Search 'tensioners' to find out all you never knew you wanted to know about Jaguar cam timing and how to rectify your problem.

 

Jonny, your Left tensioner is missing it's shoe! The chain is riding on metal. I'll bet your Right one is in similar shape (the tensioner piston is on the bottom for the right side).

Dan

 

I am considering removing the valve covers to see if I have the old plastic timing chain tensioners, can anyone point out in the above pictures where you can see the tensioner?

A jag mech said you can see em from up top like this...

 

Post #5, first two pics. Directly behind the chains you see six bolts in a row, parallel to the chains. The two center bolts retain the problematic, secondary tensioners. *'behind' means between the camera and the chains as the front of the engine is at the top of the pictures.*

 

Thanks Beav, so theres no way to see the long curvy primary chain tensioners from up above?

 

So for novices like me, these are the two parts to replace??

$95 x2= 190
JA-C2A-1512 - Chain Tensioner Revised Type, V-8, "B" Bank (+A bank one)

$32 x2= 64
JA-NCA1998AB - Chain Guide, V8 Lower

 

For my money (and especially since I'm an EVT where everything has to be 110% at any given moment) I can't recommend doing half of a job. What if you just couldn't see that one space where it might be broken, etc.? A lot of peeps only do the secondaries and if I told you that was fine and something happened down the road you'd be calling me every name in the book. So... ;-)

 

OK gentlemen, a status update. Upon further inspection of the passenger side I noticed this:



which turned out to be:



which led to:

(video link) a26ab5cf.mp4 video by drinkdontdrive - Photobucket

So is this part of my tensioner, part of the slider? I figured it was part of my tensioner. I also notived that the tensioner on my pass side is very different than the drivers side. At this point it looks like I will be replacing all tensioners just to be safe. Are there 1 or 2 tensioners per chain? So 4 tensioners total or 8?

Now to put together a parts list of what all I need to order.

Valve cover gaskets interchangeable with Lincoln LS? Tensioners? What about O Rings etc? Thanks gentlemen,

Jonny

 

On a '97 your can use the Ford/Lincoln tensioners, but you must use the Jaguar gaskets and O-rings.

 

It looks like you have a great project car full of opportunities.

 

Thank you both for your help - much appreciated

Gus - I hope so! Your website is wonderful and a huge help

Do you know which year Lincoln I order from by chance? Thank you

Jonny

 

Ford Lincoln LS (3.9L) parts:

Ford PN 2W9Z6K254BA Right Secondary metal bodied Tensioner (1 required)
Ford PN 2W9Z6K254CA Left Secondary metal bodied Tensioner (1 required)
Ford PN W500301S300 Bolt (4 required)

I got good pricing at http://www.sunroadfordparts.com. The Ford parts even said 'JAG' on the box.

 

Well gentlemen, next course of action is to replace the top 2 tensioners and go from there. Can anyone tell me the cheapest place to locate the specialty tools I need? So far I have found this:

http://www.motorcarsltd.com/303-530.html

and this

http://www.motorcarsltd.com/jaguar/x...nsioning-tool/

Are these the 2 tools I need to replace just the tensioners up top (secondary)? I am not in a position to build my own, but would like to find the cheapest source and make sure I have everything I need to do the job without getting stuck for another week ordering a new part.

Thanks again,
Jonny