Hi,

Does anyone know what type of tensioners were put in the engines that jaguar replaced under warranty?
The car i have purchased, but have yet to see ( i'm offshore and i haven't looked at the service records ) had
a new engine fitted after 40k miles. It's originally 1996. registerd 30th Dec 1996.
My rough guess is 40k would be 5 years? so new engine put in around 2001/2002?
I believe it's been well looked after and is now showing 120k miles, so my guess is the tensioners will have been replaced if they were the original ones.
Just wondering what type the new engine might have as i'm picking it up in two weeks and driving it 250 miles home.

Cheers

Chris

 

Hi Chris,
You might gain an insight if you can determine when the motor was replaced, but the only way to be sure is to either:
i) have documentary evidence that metal-bodied tensioners were fitted, or
ii) lift a cam cover and look.

My car had a motor replacement on my watch in July 2004, and it does have the third-gen tensioners. I have, however, read of Jaguar reman. motors with plastic tensioners as recently as 2002. Makes sense really, given the introduction date of August 2001 for the metal type.

Absent any proof, it's a bargaining chip.

 

I expect they had whatever was in them at the time. Worth checking visually.

 

Chris,

There's a good Youtube channel by O&DR Jaguar XK8 who cover this subject well. Link below. The trouble is it's not known when in time these upgrades were installed in the factory.

On my 99 XK8, my original 4.0L AJ26 engine was switched out with the later AJ27. There's a good thread in 2018 by CarnivalKid, link below, showing the obvious differences in engine types. Later Gen3 cars got another upgrade to a 4.2L engine.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...4/#post1866618

With the age of our cars, it's not readily apparent who has done what and when. The service receipts are worth going through to check, but nothing beats getting the cam covers off and having a look. Simple job with a ratchet set. Only thing is that the gasket is set with a blob of sealant where the front timing cover meets the engine block.


View with the cam cover off


The secondary tensioner is readily visible.

Start the car from cold and listen carefully. As someone else said, if you hear a rattling chain (like on a bicycle), tread very carefully.

Good luck.