I'm 47 (first car was a RED 1978 Chevy Camaro 350 short block)
Two things I dont do ( body work, concrete work! )
My passion is motorcycles ( 2008 R6 --got that one past the wife )

My Step-son just bought a used Jag -- 1998 XJ8 120kmiles (1 owner)
He had it for about 2 months then the transmission went out
(rebuild was $3800 installed).

He followed that up with not paying attention to the idiot lights, and let
the coolant get too low and actually made it to our driveway with the blown headgasket.

I figure that out after we put more coolant in and he tried to turn it over and it would only do a partial. I told him he likely had hydro-lock and a blown head gasket.

I took the spark plugs out and turned it over, left side sprayed tons of coolant out - definite blown head gasket. Jaguar here to do the work $3800, he doesnt have that much saved up so, we are going to do it as a father son project. I've done everything on my cars in the past.

Moving fast forward, I found that the water pump was screwed too, so we got most of the parts today (gasket kit - with main bearing seal - timing chain rails etc).

I ordered a Jag dvd off ebay "simple jack one" it was missing the torque setting for the head, luckily some nice chap posted it here so I now have the basics to get everything back together.

It's all apart right now, taking the head bolts off I used a 1/2 vs the 13mm since it was a tighter fit and the first 13mm socket broke so im using the 1/2 1/2inch socket with a breaker bar and 4' extension to get the head bolts off... that was actually harder than the crank pulley, I couldn't believe it.

So we are at the half way point, I did take some pictures to ensure we could get everything back to original .

No special tools used! I marked the timing chains and the sprockets. I used the serpentene belt wrapped back on itself to hold the crank pulley in place I'll do the same torqueing it on. Yes we are getting a new belt..

 

Welcome to the forum Backyard Mechanic,

A tough introduction to Jaguar ownership!

I see you've already found your way to the X308 section so no need for me to give you a link. That's the place to find information and post questions on the XJ8.

Remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User ID button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.

Good luck with the rebuild. Enjoy the forum.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum Backyard Mechanic,

Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.

If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.

 

That sounds like a real interesting trick. How is it done?

BTW, Motorcarman has posted a copy of the Jaguar engine repair course manual in a few threads. It has a *lot* more engine specific information than JTIS. It may be worth your while to search around for it.

There is also a new post in the X308 section with a link to JTIS in PDF format for the X308.

Finally, remember that while the factory allows *one* reuse of the head bolts, many consider them to be 1 shot. The bolts are the same for certain Land Rover engines but priced lower. The 3.9L engine on the Lincoln LS and Ford Thunderbird also use the same bolts.

 

welcome aboard, good to have you here with us here at JF

Looking forward to your posts

Nice intro thanks for sharing.....................

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