Hi all,
After much studying of articles on this excellent forum I have decided to lift a cam cover to inspect the top tensioner and see if it has been replaced.
The car is a 97 xk8 with 100,000 km on it. After ECU dramas it appears to be going well with no noise from engine
If the old style tensioner are still installed I plan to replace them with later design using the 'cable tie' method described elsewhere on this forum.
On reading it does seem frighteningly straight forward. Perhaps I'm being lulled into a false sense of security.
I do have the following questions.
I am aware that some might say "do the whole job rather than just the top tensioners " but I believe these are the critical ones and the ones whose failure can lead to total destruction of the engine. Is this so?
Should the engine be rotated to a particular spot to make the cam removal easier? If so what is the easiest way to rotate the engine and is position at the crank sensor easily visible. Should I rotate till the flats on the cams align?
I presume the cam must be lifted upwards a little to allow tensioner removal after caps are removed.
Is there any danger of cams coming out of 'time' if procedure is correctly adhered to?
Do the new bolts generally come with the tensioner ?
I here the term 'third generation' tensioner used. I presume that this is what I want and what should be supplied to me.

Thank you to anybody who has any thoughts on the above queries and any tips or experiences greatly received
Kind regards to all
Alan

 

The secondary tensioners are the ones that fail and destroy the engine. The primary set fail nosily and usually at high mileage.

Rotate the engine, clockwise, so that the cam lobes on the side that you are working on provide the least tension on the cam. Once that side is done do the same with the other side. That point is NOT where the cam flats are parallel.

The tie will maintain the timing, maybe put two on, I would.

New bolts are needed and are not included with the tensioners unless specifically stated. Some eBay sales include the bolts and say so.

Actually, I have heard that there are a total of 21 part changes to the series of tensioners but yes, you are looking for third generation tensioners. Unsure if you are in the US but '00 - '02 Lincoln LS V8 tensioners are the same and considerably less expensive than Jaguar units. Your early engine cannot use the FelPro gasket set which, again, is less than half of what Jaguar prices are.

First generation was plastic and rattled before they failed when the body split or the shoes came off, second generation was plastic and had external springs that eliminated the rattle before the body split and or the shoes came off. The third generation are metal bodied with completely different shoes and have yet to be reported to fail.

 

Only if you do not remove the fuel injection relay and crank the engine for a few seconds before the first start-up with the new tensioners.

 

Just a minor addition to test point. You will need a 24 mm socket for the crankshaft, a 1/2" ratchet will turn it easily. Before taking the caps off the camshaft, line up the flats and check with a straight edge. If off by more than about 1 deg, you might want to consider getting the tools to lock the crankshaft and camshaft to adjust. If you are happy with how the car runs, a slight mis-match will cause no damage.
You can not see the timing mark on the flywheel easily, nor do you need to for the zip tie method.