Didn't buy the car in Part 1. Bought this 2002 XK8 in June. Had not registered until now because waiting until sold my 996.
I was watching Marketplace for a blown engine/tranny XK8 for an LS swap to match my XJ8. Car was at $8500, then $6500 and then on same day down to $3820. I later asked him why the non-rounded number. He said on Marketplace you can click for a recommended price to sell fast. On his own dropped to $3700 because he noticed a small crack in wood veneer by gauges that he had just replaced. Last price was somewhat more than I was willing to pay for a very good body/interior roller. Seller told me he bought for his wife who because of her bad back had trouble getting in and out of car. He said had another guy wanted to see that afternoon. Based on price, I think that was true. Meet him at my bank parking lot. Drove car, scanned with no major issues and no P1000, brought floor jack to look underneath and rust free, no milkshake oil, coolant clear, top works fine and looks good, receipts for shocks and isolaters all around, and four new off brand tires. Did the deal. When driving him back to his home he mentioned his girlfriend which I thought was strange but who am I to judge.
Working on in garage and sweet smell. No white smoke out of pipes at idle. Rev to a few thousand and white smoke. Not billowing. Just looks like exhaust on a cold Wisconsin day. Goes away at idle.
Decide to work on seat back which is stuck in reclined position. Fore/aft works. When move forward to get at back seat bolts, bottle of coolant behind seat.
Engine has third generation tensioners.
Anything but a blown head gasket? Can a blown head gasket just allow coolant into the cylinder but not mix with the oil? Same question for oil not getting into the coolant.
Going to a coolant pressure test, combustion gases in coolant test, and cylinder compression test.
Options:
Head gasket replacement. I could disconnect one cat to see if only one side.
Do nothing and drive until kaput and then LS swap or find a wrecked good engine XK8 or XJ8.
Do nothing except add CRC head gasket repair and drive until kaput and then LS swap or find a wrecked good engine XK8 or XJ8.
What are parts for a head gasket replacement going to cost? Guessing use all new bolts. Any special tools I'll have to buy? Obviously, I'm doing the labor.
What do you think of CRC? Not all chunky like the old Bar's Leak. Danger of more problems?

 

Yes, any type of stop leak will introduce the danger of heater core failure and or heater valve / plumbing stoppage.

I would not try any bandaid fix on these cooling systems.

 

Thanks for the advice. Even if end up switching engine wouldn’t want a trashed heater core. Guessing dash has to come out to replace. Did that once, no fun.

 

Did cooling system pressure test. Didn’t lose 1 psi after 50 minutes.

 

Possibly a cracked head? I don't think a coolant pressure test can accurately detect that. Have you done the exhaust in the coolant test yet?

 

Picked up from AutoZone today. Probably won’t get to until the weekend.

 

I'm missing something. Apart from a bottle of coolant in the car, what symptoms lead you to believe there's a problem?

 

I had a similar issue with my 2004 XK8. Intermittent sweet smell, slowly depleting coolant, no evidence of engine usage.
Turned out to be the rather common coolant reservoir crackhead. Look that thing over very closely, it's not an obvious defect that leaks so little.

 

This;

 

Sweet smell may not be in exhaust - there are a -lot- of hoses on the car and the leak could be from any one of them hitting something hot and evaporating and giving off the sweet smell.

The only way to tell is to put some dye in there and get the leak detector pen and go looking - and study the hose diagrams first because they can run everywhere - esp the octopus hose.

 

Could be leaking coolant reservoir. Could be leaking Norma connectors. Both are quite common issues on these cars given their age....

 

Thanks! I read that several times and still missed that.

I agree that the smell is likely to be a leak rather than escape through the exhaust.

 

Shine a light down into the “V” of the engine and see if there is any coolant there (or discolouration).

 

Thanks for all the input. Main reason think through engine is white smoke on high revs after engine warm. I have the UV light. Will pick up another bottle of flourescent dye today. It worked wonders on finding a leak at my air/oil separator on my old 996. Coolant wasn't making it to the ground and burning off. Dried out dye still showed leak.

 

Could it be burning oil? Modern synthetic oils burn white, a lot like coolant. The coolant smoke does evaporate quicker and has a different smell than oil smoke. Just thinking out loud.

 

Rethought above. Hose or coolant resevior leaks would have shown up on pressure test.

 

I'll watch for that, but I know that sweat smell. Smoke also disbursed fast.

 

Reservoir leak may not show up until at normal temp