Will an engine rebuild on a Nikasil engine take care of the issues and fix current low compression/high percentage leak down for the long run? Is it a better idea to just install an engine that does not have Nikasil in it? If the rebuild will cure the issue, I might have my mechanic rebuild it while he is doing the tensioners, water pump, thermostat, etc...

Anyone know how much does a typical engine rebuild costs on an XK8?

Thank you.

 

A full proper engine rebuild can cost over $5K it is why a lot of people go for a low mileage engine change

 

A good reason to rebuild the engine is to get a bigger bore and may be able to get 4.5 or even 4.8 liters.

 

1 youll not get that big without steel cylinder liners and the nikasil issue also is still there without sleeving the block.
Op would be $1000 ahead to just buy a later xkr. More power than youde ever get out of a over bore or even stroking. Going rate just to sleeve a block properly is over a $1000, and i do stress properly. For instance, for how big houston is there is only 1 company that can sleeve blocks correctly. Then youre talking custom cp piston and rings, $1600, might as well offset grind the crank and through in a set of custom billet paghter connecting rods for about $2000 and then youll need bearing, gaskets, chains tensioners, a performance valve job and with bowl and port blending and and and ...

 

How bad is the issue? Does it smoke, is the power low, how much oil does it use?

 

Thats the strange thing, the car runs great. It starts quickly whether hot or cold, doesnt smoke, and has plenty of power. I have several options I am going over. I need to install the tensioners, water pump, and t-stat no matter what icluding some other odds and ends for a total of $2,380.00...but I got a leak-down test showing 20%-25% in all cylinders. I don't really want to spend $2,380.00 upgrading parts with an engine that is leaking that much and am thinking about rebuilding or replacing the engine with a used one that already has tensioners etc included.

I don't hot rod the car and will probably drive it another 5-7 years at 4000 miles a year, do you think it is worth replacing the engine because of the leak-down test even though it runs great?

 

I am looking at the same situation. It would be helpful if you could tell us what your oil consumption with that leak down rate.

EZDriver 2000 XK8

 

Not sure what the oil consumption is. I have owned the car for less than a week.

 

Genomac:

You didn't say what model year your car is. The engines changed in 1999.

A used engine is your least expensive route. Try Car-Part.com for a list of the engines available. Of course, you should be looking for the lowest mileage one you could find.

Unfortunately, there may not be many used engines in the Northwest with low mileage, and Boise is kind of off the beaten path.

When engines are replaced, you should visually inspect the engine's problem areas--secondary camshaft chain tensioners, water pump impeller, thermostat housing to make sure the later generation parts have been replaced. You're usually going to be replacing the thermostat, antifreeze, serpentine belt, plugs and oil (and filter).

This website is a wealth of information about he above items--just keep on reading.

 

You do not have a Nikasil problem. You're creating a fictitious one in your mind.

Even if you did, one mechanic told me that when you cylinder wash, they pour a little oil into the cylinders and the problem is usually 'fixed'.

 

My apologies, the car is a 97 w/75k miles. I was only assuming nikasil may have attributed to the 20-25% leak-down test. The car was ran for an hour to warm the engine and then the leak-down was performed. Even without the nikasil problem, shoudln't I worry about the 20-25% leak down on all cylinders? I hear that a healthy engine's leak-down test should be less than 10% and anything over 20% is asking for a rebuild/replace. I have the car at a mechanics shop right now pending ordering parts on Monday. If I can find a low mileage motor, it sounds more cost effective in the long run to purchase a low mileage used motor with all of the updated parts, then do the t-stat, serpentine, and fluids on top of that.

 

If it were me I would get a second option. It sounds like you are looking to fix problems that may not be there. Has anyone out there done a leak-down test and got different results? It just seems that if you got the car last week and it runs fine, but your ready to replace the engine, you may want to just take few days a think about it.
Just my option, for what it worth.

 

If you are passing emmision tests, why worry? It could last thousands of miles before you need to outlay any serious money.

Or you don't fix anything, dont worry about the tensioners, when the day comes, which to be fair could be again thousands of miles away. Of course 'sods law' predicts it will die in a massive cloud of smoke one week after you make the decision to do nothing!

Personally if the car drives well, it probably is well, what you need is to find someone with a similar car to make a comparison.

 

#12 & #13--+1

Second opinion--yes

This engine shouldn't be worn out @ 75K miles. If emissions are ok, keep on running it. You don't want to open a can of worms.

 

Are you kidding!!! 15-20% leakdown on a street production engine is normal, 25% is still good and you wont get down to under 10% unless on a racing engine with tight clearances, file fit ring or gapless. I run gapless rings on the top and second rings in my race car and suburban. The 580cid has 6-8% ld, and the suburban is about 12%. My newly built supercharged 40 nissan engine with custom pistons and i file fit those rings is 15-18%(i cleaned honed only, no overbore and fit)
so based on that youre fine. Forget about it

 

There's the answer I was lookin for! Thanks everyone!