Hey Everyone,

Gosh do I need some help here. Thinking that this was a relatively simple task with minor consequences if done incorrectly, I attempted to change out my leaking valve cover gaskets last weekend. Well shortly after starting the Jag back up I felt some minor stumbling with the engine (which never happened before, before the job the engine was as smooth as can be) and eventually incredibly dense plumes of white looking smoke came out of the exhaust tips.

The job ended up being more difficult than I imagined to the tight spaces but I managed to take them off, replace the gaskets, and reinstall. I thought I had done a decent job and was really careful to not get anything into the heads. There was one hurdle that I suspect may be related to my problem and that was the removal and installation of the ignition coil by the strut on what I think is bank 1 (the side of the engine by the intake). The coil was blocked out by strut tower so it came out with a fair amount of force and was really difficult to get back in. In fact, I took it out while trying to get it back in and notice the rubber boot had a serious gouge from the edge of the head that was showing in the plug hole.

Has anyone had experience with this happening before or any suggestions on what might be happening? I have yet to try to replace the coil as I have been busy with work and I have left the car sitting for the week. I find it hard to believe that the head gasket or any other serious internal engine failure could have resulted from replacing the valve cover gaskets otherwise I would have never attempted it. Also, do you guys have any tips or advice for getting the touchy ignition coil back in without damaging it?

Thanks!

Corey

2003 XKR

 

My first thought was a failed ignition coil, also. By serious gouge do you mean torn? If so, it will most likely need replaced. The connection of the ignition coils to the wiring harness may be suspect, too, and it is always a good idea to clean them with a non contact electrical cleaner and check the connections are secure. When replacing the ignition coils into the tubes make sure the tubes and top of the spark plugs are free of oil and debris and as extra precaution apply dialectric grease to the inside of the ignition coil before inserting.

Is the check engine light on? Any codes showing on a code reader?

When I changed my coils out one of the coils was a tighter fit due to the strut tower, but not as tight as you are describing. I was able to pull out the stock Densos and replace them with Airtex/Wells with relative ease. Do you still have the stock ignition coils? Overall length should be close to the same irregardless, but sometimes the boot material at the end is different (some are pliable rubber, others are stiffer like plastic) so that could make a difference in difficulty as you try to make the bend.

 

White smoke usually means water! Strange that you would have white smoke from the project you described. Yes, changing out the value cover gaskets is a PITA but necessary. Yes, follow the suggestions on removal and replacing the coils and pray that is the problem.
Good luck!
LaRue

 

Definitely going to try a new coil this weekend. As for CELs, they did come on after a bit reading P0171 and P0174. Restricted performance came on a bit later and I did not check to see if any new codes were associated with it. This is just awful, it is horrible seeing such a beautiful car hurting so badly! Ha, hopefully it is something simple. I remember that I once had very major misfires and issues with a 99 Lexus RX300 to the point where the mechanic thought it might be time to junk it and I fixed it with a $90 part and 10 minutes of work.

I am thinking that if I get her up and running nicely I will concede and take her to the mechanic to redo the gaskets. The driver's side is leaking as well. I suspect that one of the bolts was actually stripped before I started working on it which led to the leaking oil as the area of the leak was right under a bolt that was not tightening with the same feel as the other bolts.

 

 

That hissing sound is from the full load breather leaking and that's why you have lean codes.

 

 

Where is the piece that chipped?????

 

 

I agree, both of your banks are showing lean, most likely a massive air leak affecting both sides. If you are hearing a hissing from a hose that was not previously there, it is most likely a broken or disconnected hose. If that does not fix it, you could always readdress the valve cover gaskets, as that is the last repair performed before the problems. But I wouldn’t tear it back down until the known leaks are corrected. It doesn’t hurt to check O rings in the end of breather pipes, oil dipstick, etc.

You mentioned in the original post that you fixed a leaking valve cover gasket. Were you getting lean codes prior to the repair?

Any leaks causing a lean condition in both banks has the possibility of making the engine stumble and run rough. Do you have a way of pulling fuel trims?

The smoke is what is weird. I’m assuming you didn’t have any smoking prior to the repair. Typically smoke is cause by a liquid being dumped out, be it water (coolant, condensation, etc), oil, or fuel. Once you remedy the air leak it will probably be easier to diagnose any smoke coming out, if it continues after the air leak repair. As of right now, your car is trying to compensate for a lean condition and could be causing other weird things to happen.

A month or so ago I had a multiple misfires and high fuel trims. It was caused by a variety of things...a faulty PCV valve, failing coils, and air leaks. It was probably running poor up until that point, but I didn’t know until the coil went kaput and threw a code. When I started poking around, on recommendation of the forums members, is when I noticed all the other things.

 

Sorry for making you uneasy, if it´s not a production-failure,
you should search it!

 

Oh I completely agree. I did not see anything in the head when I was looking. What would you recommend doing? My thinking was that whatever it was was not good but that it must've happened a while back and been digested by the engine. Or perhaps there was an internal failure of some kind that was rectified by the PO. If you look closely at the picture you can see that the color of the faces of the chip match the other parts of the head which led me to believe that it was not recent damage.

 

Thanks for the info. How would you pull the fuel trims? I invested in a feature-rich code reader when I purchased this car. Have yet to use it but I understand it has many diagnostic capabilities that go beyond my simple code reader. Would I use that tool?

As I learn more about the valve cover and breather hoses, PCV valve, etc. I am thinking that the vacuum leak must be the cause of almost all, if not all, of the issues. I never realized there was a vacuum created in the valve cover and I think you are right that I need to reattempt the valve cover repair especially since I can see part of the gasket sticking out of the driver's side valve cover. From there, I will check all of the hoses and their o-rings and I probably should replace the PCV valve for good measure.

Since I am only getting the 0171 and 0174 codes would you guess that I am not experiencing a misfire? You mention your coil throwing a code, I never got one of those codes so perhaps the coils are doing their job. I did notice that the coil I pulled had lot of oil on it. Would you surmise that is from the poor repair job or something else?

Thank you again for your help. You guys on this board are amazing and I hope the be able to help others in the same manner at some point.

 

If it´s recent, the piece should be in the cylinder head,
or you have a damaged valve (or more).
I´ve never seen such a chip at a running motor, but i´m not a motor-specialist.

 

Reading fuel trims is a fairly common feature in diagnostic tools. If you have a “feature rich” tool I would imagine it would have the capability. What tool do you have?

Jaguar ECU’s on 4.2 engines are not the greatest at communicating misfires. Typically if you have a misfire it will throw a fault, but on these engines it is not all too uncommon for a “ghost” misfire to cause other issues, such as the transmission shift quality to deteriorate. If you had oil in your ignition coil hole, there is a chance that the oil alone could cause a misfire. Oil inside the hole can be caused from a deteriorating spark plug boss seal. While you have it apart you can check those, too. Ignition coils and spark plugs on these cars usually have a useful service life of around 100,000 miles, so if you are near that mileage and they have not been replaced, you may look into replacing those in the near future, anyways.

PCV valves on these cars consist of a plastic housing, a silicon like diaphram, and a spring. They are considered a wear item, but some members have had success in cleaning them out. Typically they get gunked up with oil residue and cause the parts inside to stick and malfunction. You can use hot water and a degreaser to clean it out and let it air dry afterwards.

The best (and usually least expensive) repair procedure is to fix the known issues first. If both of your banks are showing lean, I would tackle that first. It can help to pull fuel trims for this in order to monitor what is really going on and to gauge repair effectiveness, but with the codes you have and clues to what might be leaking, you could probably get a good handle on it as is. If you suspect an air leak and cannot find the leak, you can always run the engine and spray carburetor cleaner (some have used water in a small spray bottle) around likely leak points (gasket and o ring areas, or brittle plastic hoses) to pin point an air leak. When you spray, listen for the engine’s RPM’s to fluctuate as it sucks in the foreign mist.

Another place to check for while you are in there is a damaged or not properly secured intake pipe. Cleaning the MAF sensor may help, too.

 

This is all great advice, thank you! Hopefully the oil in the plug holes is related to the old valve cover gasket. Regardless, I am going to redo the job and replace the plugs while I am at it. The car has 80k on it. As for the air leaks, will try what you suggest and I am going to replace the PCV valve for good measure since it is a pretty reasonably priced part.

By the way, when I took the intake pipe off, which I do believe is properly secured, there was a fair amount of oil by the throttle and supercharger. I am wondering if that is related to this issue as well. My initial thoughts were that this oil was from the valve cover but it doesn't seem to be the case after getting a good look. Then I thought maybe the supercharger was leaking but what I am now leaning towards is leaking breather hoses.

As for the scanner, it is the Actron 9185 Elite. Much better than my Actron Pocker Scanner. I have yet to use it though but I will research how to check the fuel trims and report back. Looks like Sunday will be my day to work on the Jag.

Thanks again

 

Corey:
Have you ruled out the 2 non-captive cam cover bolts not being in the correct location? They are ~.100" shorter and a different alloy as to not interfere with the cam position sensors. They are located in the rear upper position on each bank.
REF: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-179433/page3/ post #59
If a (longer) standard captive bolt is in the non-captive location, I would think that it could bottom out and cause an oil & vacuum leaks at the rear and / or damage the sensor. (I'm not sure about my last statement, just my thinking, someone correct me if I am wrong.)

 

I was wondering why those bolts were different! I did put them back in the same exact spot. Unfortunately, that is not the issue. Wish it was so simple :-/

 

The only time I ever had both codes, a rough running engine and an RP, was when one of my brand new, after market seals between the S/C and the intercoolers ripped. That certainly wouldn't have been anything you would have touched while replacing the valve cover gaskets, but what made me think of it was your mention of loud hissing. A leak upstream of the Throttle Body wouldn't hiss - so it would have to be coming from downstream; either before or after the S/C. Hang in there.

 

Hey Guys,

Wanted to provide an update on this issue. I had the car towed to a mechanic and let them work on it. Basically, I wanted them to redo the valve cover gasket job and see if they could get it running smoothly again. Good news is that the car runs great. They redid the gasket job, cleaned up the breathing, replaced the plugs, replaced the mass air flow sensor, and also cleaned out the supercharger. For some reason, there was a fair amount of oil in the supercharger. They tested the compression and thankfully found it to be in good shape. There really is no definitive answer as to what specifically was causing it to have all of these issues but it must have had to do with breathing and vacuum.

Unfortunately, a new issue arose once I got the car back (go figure, the story of a Jag owner). The "Cruise not available, Check rear lights" warning popped up and sure enough my cruise doesn't work. Rear lights are okay and all research leads to a brake switch. They had a used one in the shop from another car and installed it but it did not fix the problem. I ordered one and it should come in the next few days and they said that they would give it a shot. I am really hoping that it turns out to be the switch as the alternative is probably not pleasant.

I am surprised that this issue came up from the work they did on the car. It might just be a complete coincidence. Will follow-up with how the new issue turns out.

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. It is great to have this community as a resource and you guys are always incredibly insightful.

Best,

Corey