The valley hose change is something I don't know the history of on my 2004 XK8 convertible that has 117,000 miles, so I am going to change them out next week. If anyone who has done this job could speak up and tell me what else I should do at the same time I would appreciate the assistance.


There is no big rush to get the project done as this is a Canadian car and I don't get her out until May.

 

Beautiful car.

What made you decide to change the valley hoses?
Any symptoms?

 

No symptoms other than the age and miles and the fact that I have read on the forum that it is something that should be checked. I like to take 3000 mile tours and would rather be safe then sorry. I did have to repair a small leak at the top of the thermostat housing last year so I suspect the material of the housing is starting to break down.

 

Please take/post lots of pics and detail where/what about parts used.

Doing this job is getting closer to the top of my list for my 2004 and I am interested for sure.

 

if you are in that deep to replace those you may as well do the octopus hose also. That will be the easiest time to do it. On the pass side valley hose there is a hose that comes off the rear of that hose connection that goes back to the TB or EGR I forget, check that small hose for any bulging and prob replace it also while you are in there. I did this valley hose repair and found that once I had the intake off it would be the time to just do all the hoses. If like my 03 there is a vac line that runs under the intake, replace it also.

 

going to spend more of your money. if you have not and if you dont know if it is orig or not replace the water pump. Is is SUPER EASY to do.

 

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I am going to attempt to document this repair well. Fixes for the 4.2 engines are going to start to be required more often.

 

I replaced the valley hoses on my '98. Some of the hose clamps and fuel lines can be a pain to get off. I included a couple of pictures of what I used.

Also get a couple of feet of fuel line, it's flexible and works well for odd sized vacuum line.

Make sure you have the JTIS on a laptop in the garage. I referred to it many times during the disassembly and reassembly.

 

the thermostat and water pump and fan belt are easy, don't fret about the coolant thermostat housing if it is not leaking. the key here is to order another plastic pipe which has the coolant sensor in it and feeds two hoses into one heater hose...that pipe has gaskets which deform when taken off, just pay the 40.00 bucks for this pipe and you get new gaskets and a new temp sensor. basically you need something like a ratchet to relieve tension on the fan belt to take it off, drain some coolant from the upper hoses, maybe less than 1/2 gallon, then remove the thermostat and replace, remove the coolant pipe and replace and the water pump is right there, replace that as well, note the inside has new gaskets, and a new gasket for meeting up with the block. its a few hours max and all is well. i did not replace the coolant pipe(black plastic with sensor in it) and found the gasket was not reusable and it leaked, so i replaced that...figure for the coolant thermostat tower to go metal instead of plastic means taking off intake manifold and then you just replace those hoses that started all this thread.

 

Thanks everyone for all of the help. I went out this morning and got the tools suggested, octopus hose and manifold gaskets will be here Friday morning. Starting the job and documentation Thursday morning.

Due to the great tool this forum is I also found a new friend who just got a 2005 XKR convertible and he lives only 30 minutes away so he is going to come over and learn with me. Not many of these cars in Canada so it will be great to have a couple conspirator.

 

That's cool. In West Michigan, I don't know any DIY XK or XJers.

While it's a whole different can of worms to get to the valley hoses on the R models, the hose change itself is the same (get crap out of the way of above the hoses, swap hoses, put crap on top back together ). Did it on my XJR during the SC rebuild and glad I did. One of the hoses had a small leak.

 

+1. Cheap and easy. DEFINITELY do it.

 

Get a new intake manifold gasket set and a tb gasket. You will not want to use the old ones.
Enjoy the adventure you are about to undertake.

 

I have ordered all of the parts that everyone suggested. The tool for undoing hose clamps at a a distance was invaluable. Taken apart today, clean up tomorrow and the octopus and throttle body gasket will show up on Friday.

 

Everything apart yesterday, except the octopus, I want the new one in my hand to see what actually has to be unclamped before I start pulling that "Octopus" apart, that is a real dogs breakfast back there. Meanwhile I did get the valley hoses and thermostat tower installed this morning as well as cleaned up all of the mating surfaces. The tape wrap on the engine wiring harnesses is also very brittle so I took this opportunity to rewrap everything with black tape.


Just awaiting intake manifold gaskets to get her back together.

 

Thanks for the pics and info, Daro... can you take a pic of the actual octopus hose (and show where it is at)? Can you see it in the pic that you posted? I have not had the chance to tear my intake and throttle body off so I don't know exactly what is back there...

 

My valley hose, thermostat housing and octopus hose is all finished. It took about 4 hours to get everything apart and 3 hours to put it back together. I tried to take a good photo of the octopus hose to help others with this project but it is such a confusion of wires and hoses it is pointless to try and photograph it. I just layed the new hose out and figured out where all of the connections went before removed the old hose. Don't worry about the old hose and trying to get it out in one piece, you are scrapping it so get out the razor knife and get it out of there. It is hard to make a mistake on all the electrical connectioadians as they are all unique. I did spray all of the connections with contact cleaner just because all of these connectors have been together for 14 years. This job would be impossible without the special tool that was suggested for the spring clamps on the hoses. By the way the octopus hose comes with all new clamps.

The outcome was that we buttoned it up and she fired up on the first try. Even though it is $700.00 canadIan later and I am sure she won't run any better, I know that these parts won't let me down on the next road trip.

Octopus hose laid out to figure out the connections.
The octopius hoses are buried in here, very tough to take a helpful photo.

 

Thanks for pics of the intake (plenum) removed. If/should I have to do the octopus, I know what to look for and how the valley looks.