Hi Everyone, first off a huge thank you for the wealth of information and expertise provided on this forum. Without such, I probably would not have taken on this project.

I finished the right bank (passenger side) today. It went surprisingly smooth. The engine was very clean for a 12 yr old car with 50K miles. But I took my time, as I am in no hurry. There was a small crack in the original tensioner, looks like a "Y".

And changing the spark plugs, since I'm already in there.

Tomorrow morning I'll do the drivers side.

 

That is a job I am glad I did not tackle. I had them done on my 97 and checked in on the mechanics work as they were doing it. TOOOO MUCH for me.

 

Dave-

Looks like you have a very well maintained engine! I found the same cleanliness inside when I did mine, and felt very fortunate.

 

. . . and the best part will be that you get to explain how simple the tensioner replacement is . . .

. . . for the next 100 posts on the subject.

We should have a badge " I changed my own tensioners".

As an invited guest to a North Georgia Jaguar Club event I was introduced by my sponsor as 'he changed his own tensioners'.

. . . and your engine does looks very clean!

 

That engine looks super clean. Mine had a uniform brownish glaze over everything. Maybe by using Penzoil Platinum I'll clean it up a bit. Just for fun, can you pull off the plastic slipper that the chain rides on? Mine just flipped off easily and was probably ready to fly off.
Welcome to the tensioner club. We do need a patch. Any graphic artists out there?

 

Great idea. Maybe a rocker underneath specifying the method used: twist tie, cam lock with factory tools, cam lock with homemde tools ...

(Steve11 says that brownish glaze is some byproduct of oil in the presence of high heat. I forget exactly how he described it.)

 

Jeesh, it is one mighty clean engine. I wish previous owners of my car were like that. Instead I have good old florida gunk all aver the damn thing. What do you think, is it too bad?

 

When you do driver's side, make sure small breather is not jammed with deposits. Mine was nearly completely shut, so I opened up shield, cleaned wire sponges and unclogged the hole.

 

DaveNC,
It's nice to here that the first half went smoothly. I order the parts for my car last week and should be tackling the job in a few days. Hoping that my engine will look as clean as yours.
Test point, I like the idea of a grill badge. Hopefully I can get one in a few weeks

 

Mish,

Your engine is ok . . . you just have the 'walnut' finish. Dave has the clear maple. It's bad when you have black sludge.

 

The drivers side cam was a bitch...more tension, and the way the cams were aligned. But after awhile I got her to do what I wanted and slapped in the new tensioner. This one was also cracked, like a mirror image of the first one. Small, shaped like a "Y".

I warmed up the car for 10 minutes, watching for leaks and strange sounds. The old oil on the exhaust manifold quickly burned away. So I went for a 20 mile drive and we are back in business...Idles the same as it used to, so I that's fine.

PS - I could not figure out how to remove that part load breather tube. So a quick search on here, came up with a JTIS, that showed inserting a clip into the plastic housing to expand it. Well no clip, so I took a pair of pliers and gently squeezed opposite of the where the JTIS shows it expands and it popped right off.

 

I've been following these 'cam chain tensioners' threads with great interest, as I'm getting ready to tackle the re-fit on my 2000 xk8.
I must have missed the thread on the 'tie wrap' method, however, Anybody know where (or when) that approach was discussed?

Thanks in advance

 

As I am planing on doing the same operation next week, do you have any suggestions that might make it easier? Is it just a matter of loosing up the cam "very slowly"? I know the cams can break so any help would be wonderful. Thanks!

 

Hi Glenn,
I spent a good 90 minutes or so messing with that cam. And I'm glad I did... That one had tension on opposite ends, from the chain and the last two cams towards the firewall. Problem was the chain end of the cam wouldn't come up from where the cam rests, so it was stuck. (this did not occur on the passenger side). So I ended up repeating the whole loosening/tightening sequence about 3-4 times to kind of urge that chain end up. I hope that helps, it's hard to explain. Basically I finessed it free, and went on with the rest of the job.

Edit: I wanted to add that the final tightening down of the cam on this side took awhile to keep the stress even across the cam, so it seats properly. Not a rush job by any means, at least for me.

 

Scott,
Glenn,

Unsolicited advice follows; may well be worth what you paid for it.

The twist-tie method really, really scares me. Here's a recent example of a broken cam. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49784
Other things can go wrong that might not show up immediately.

If everything goes just right this method is, I suppose, the easiest and requires no special tools. But things can go terribly wrong.

By way of comparison, the cam-lock method (secondaries only) requires locking only the cams, not the crank, and it's pretty hard to do anything horrible with this method. There was a loaner set of locking tools around when I did mine. Anyone know if still true?

I'm sure there are other opinions on this. I just like to take the worst possible outcomes off the table.

FWIW. Good luck in any case.

 

Thanks, Dennis. I still can't seem to find an explanation of the 'tie wrap' approach, but it would seem to involve removing a camshaft, and breaking it upon re-installation. Guess I'll avoid that one. I've gone over Blackonyx's step by step tutorial, but it goes way deeper into the engine than I had planned (hoped!) Also, his replacement tensioner appears to be plastic also. Would these be the 'second gen' tensioners, now replaced by 'third gen' metal ones? I'm trying to get a grasp on what I'm in for if I tackle this myself by studying these pictures carefully. It sure looks as if secondary chains with a master link (I saw this mentioned somewhere) would greatly simplify this procedure!

 

Here is one of the tie wrap discussions:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ford+tensioner

 

The use of a repair link for the secondary chain is only considered, and not for very long, when you have a broken chain. It has nothing to do with replacing the tensioners.

That is when I would consider removing the intake cam to install the chain from the rear.

This is not rocket surgery, clamp down the cam flats, remove the exhaust cam sprocket and replace the tensioner.

 

Scott,

Yup, that busted cam thing could ruin your whole day.

This thread from a UK forum ... http://www.jaguarforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=11333 ... has a great discussion of the secondaries-only / cam-lock procedures. Trouble is, it looks like the image links are dead. They were very good, as I recall. But I think you have pictures from another source, right?

(My only disagreement with it is that I do not see a need to lock both cams simultaneously, and did not do this on myown car. But keep the car keys in another room, just to be safe.)

Anyway, let us know if you can "see" the job from this description.

Anybody know the whereabouts of loaner or rental tools for the cam locking?

 

I borrowed mine from maxperformancecars.com - they're listed under the max! tab. You may have to join the forum, but that's okay (assuming the forum is still going). Arguably the best way is lock the cams, unbolt the chain sprockets, and replace the tensioners. The only hard part I had was getting the sprocket bolts loose, but a breaker bar worked. Impossible to mess up timing or break a cam. And BTW, getting those cam covers off is really annoying.