When reassembling should the cam cover gaskets be fitted 'dry' or with some sealant?

 

Just use a dab of silicone sealant at the two timing cover seams, the rest should be dry.

 

Want to give a big thanks to all who have provided such valuable info to this thread! Replaced the secondary tensioners on my 70k mile 01 this past weekend. All went well. Even had no issue getting the dip stick tube to pull up and out of the way! Both tensioners had the usual cracks and looked to be headed to failure. Took about 2.5 hrs. start to finish. Bought the tensioners from the local Lincoln dealer for $63 & $71 bucks.
Plan to look into the trans issue next.

Thanks again from a very happy XJ8 owner,
Jack

 

Super, Jack. Congrats.

 

Just done my 2ndary tensioners using this method. I found it critical to turn the engine over untill the cam lodes were all off load as far as possible. Other than that no problems, a great procedure.

 

I'm glad it all worked out. At the time I did mine I didn't worry about getting the flats lined up. When I removed the cam I loosened the bolts holding the caps very little at a time and they just lifted up by themselves until all bolts were loose enough to remove by fingers. Installed the same way. A little at a time. No problem.

 

The Cam Position that results in "All Pressure Off Lobes" is NOT the same position as "Flats Aligned".

 

I know. That is why I didn't bother with aligning them. Just loosen the cam bolts evenly and a very little at a time and they will lift themselves.

 

hi i m vipin i want to know how to fix timing chain in jaguar super v8 2006

 

I just removed the secondary tensioner from the right hand bank of my 1999 XK8 4.0 V8 engine with 78,000 mile on her. As the attached photo shows, it has split completely and only by some miracle held together. The bottom "shoe" is gone, likely down in the sump.
The lesson: change out those early secondary tensioners as soon as possible!

 

You are very lucky. Now, go out and buy a lottery ticket.

 

I have just done this on my 2001 XKR. I found the hard to get to bolts on the corners of the covers were easy to get to with a suitable universal swivel and extension. The bolts by the suspension turrets were a bit trickier and I also had to go out and buy some deep sockets to get at the bolts with the extensions on them for the wiring loom.

I also had to buy a new torque wrench that went down to the 10nm needed for the bolts - my existing wrench had no where near the low settings needed.

I didn't need to cut a notch in the dipstick tube bracket to remove it - it pulled out with quite a bit of force needed. I had to use a hammer to reseat it as it would not go back in using my strength alone.

The old tensioners (photo) looked to be in perfect condition. but close inspection revealed tiny cracks forming in the corners of the cut out. The car has 45,000 mainly motorway miles on it, which I guess explains why the tensioners weren't so bad as others have reported.

Thanks to ezdriver and everyone else who posted information on this thread for making this such an easy job to do.

 

Will be doing mine as soon as the tensioners and 1/4" torque wrench get delivered (I must stop buying tools!).
Does anyone have a photo showing the optimum rotational position of the cam on each bank for easy or safe removal? or doesn't it matter that much?

Thanks - Mark

 

I didn't worry about this when i did mine and both banks came out and went back in with minimal force needed. It's obvious what position the cams are in when you have the cam cover off, so it should be easy for you to work out where they need to be by looking.

 

So did you rotate the crank to balance the lobes out, or just left them as they were? (apologies if I didn't describe that particularly well!)

 

No, I didn't rotate the crank, just did it in the random position it was in. Of course I could just have been lucky, but once you have the cover off it should be obvious if you need to rotate the crank.

The hardest part of the job was all the tedious fiddling about getting the cam cover bolts off and moving all the bits that were in the way, after that it was easy.

 

You should rotate the crank clockwise from the front until you can confirm the flats line up, then rotate again until there is a minimum of pressure on the exhaust valves.
You can remove the exhaust cam without taking that step, but there have been instances of broken camshafts, so play it safe.

 

Hello,

I finally get all parts for my 1997 black XK8 (185.000km).

- complet cam chain tensioners (British parts uk)
- water pump (british parts uk)
- thermostat tower + thermostat (Jaguar spares N.E.)

I hope, this week I will get this job done. Hardly wait to see the original plastic parts in the engine (I will take some pictures).
Bellow some pictures.


Timing chain tensioners with water pump.



Complete kit thermostat tower (ALU)