I HAVE BEEN GETTING BLOWBY IN THE AIR CLEANER BOX FOR A FEW MONTHS NOW ,, HAVE BEEN TOLD BY RANCHER DUDE , A GOOD MECHANIC THAT IT MAY BE NIKASIL PROBLEM,, DOESN'T SMOKE A LICK THOUGH EVEN THOUGH IT USES OIL AND IT HAS ROUGH START UP LATELY ,, IT HAS REALLY BEEN COLD HERE ,, SO I HOPE THAT IS ALL THAT IS ,, LOCAL MECHANIC TOLD ME IT NEEDED A NEW MOTOR ,,, BUT I AM THE ONE THAT TOLD HIM ABOUT THE NIKASIL PROBLEMS SO I AM AFRAID HE IS JUST GOOING ALONG WITH ME ,, HELP ,,,,,,,,,,,, IT IS A 98 JAGXJ8,, NOTHING ELSE IS WRONG WITH IT [:@][:@]
LEXY

 

Rancher Dude is 'motorcarman' on here and other forums...he is honest, generous and knowledgeable. He has probably already advised you to make sure your part load breather orifice and tube are not blocked, as this will cause additional vacuum at the full load breather and suck oil out of your engine.

If "blowby in the air cleaner" means you are seeing oil on the element and in the housing, you know why you have increased oil consumption. Your engine is burning most of it, and puking the rest.

 

Snipped my post off, here's the rest.

This photo is a 1998 Jaguar XJ8 AJ26 non-supercharged engine, identical to yours. The engine isidling normally, with the full load breather tube disconnected. The smoke is the actual blowby being emitted by this engine, as a result of Nikasil deterioration and the resultant loss of ring sealing.

This was a well maintained engine with less than 70K miles of service.

Pull your full load breather off, or your oil cap for that matter, and the blowby is obvious or it isn't.

 

I cant tell you how many engines Ive "saved" for customers doint this by running Engine Restore in them every oil change and switch to a slightly heavier weight oil like 10-40

 

What brand of Engine Restore doyou use brutal if I may ask?

 

engine restore is the name, use the 1 for v8's, larger bottle, I ve used that for years in many different engines suffering from low compression and poor ring seal.

 

Well there you go Lexy, what could be better than that? Sounds like Rancher Dude, your mechanic, and I are all full of smoke. I guess you'd alsohave to include S.C. Clift, U.K.Director of Service Operations, Jaguar Cars. No matter, your engine will likely be "saved" from condemnation by any of us if you simplyfollow BRUTAL'S two step.

 

ITS NOT THAT YOU GUYS ARE FULL OF SMOKE, JUST WOULDNT YOU RATHER TRY CHEAPER EASIER REPAIRS BEFORE JUMPING INTO OBLIVION....THE ONLY EXPENDITURE IS OIL CHANGE AND A $10 BOTTLE OF ENGINE RESTORE EVERY OIL CHANGE

 

haha I'd like to kick ole S.C. Clift, U.K.Director of Service Operations, Jaguar Cars. in the "bollox" for green lighting the design of the AJ-26. Denying there is a big problem with breaking plastic parts in the timing system for years is just not acceptable on a 'luxury $60k vehicle' if you ask me! Definite kick in the bollox! (in reality I do highly praise theSir Clift therefor the line, really justonly wanted to say bollox multiple times hah)

Thanks Brutal, great responses and information, note taken. I will two step it up. I don't have any blowback in the old 98 or oil anywhere outside the engine to be honest, i'm sure this cleaner will help!

(They really are a treat to drive all around once the small quarks are fixed up. I give high praises to anyone that restores these thingsI only bust their bollox for fun, I'm half british myself, and Iactually really enjoy both vehicles!)

 

Clift had nothing to do with design, heonly signed the Service Action that enabled hundreds, if not thousands, of U.K.owners to receive a free rebuilt engine if their original unit failed a very specific blowby test threshold.

Why this is relevant to Lexy's problem, and to BRUTAL'S advice, is that no where in that Service Actionis there any recommendation for using alternate lubricants or additives. In fact, as I read the Warranty, such additives are specifically banned. If there is factory information to the contrary, please direct me to it.

Lexy is not my customer, and I'm notentering oblivion no matter how many steps that maytake. Apparently Jaguar did, when they extended coverage for Nikasil engines in theU.K. to five years, 100,000 miles and routinely tested the engines for blowby accordingly. Too bad they didn't talk to BRUTAL first, he could have saved half the world instead of just this little corner.

As for Lexy's engine, as I said, a lucky redemption is at her feetnow that she has been instructed to dothe two step. Lexy, please let us know how the big dance goes. Any intimation that I sell unnecessary service or repairs to owners, or cause them to incur superfluous maintenance costs, is perfectly false. That's the reason I left a Jaguar dealership 19 years ago to open an independant shop, as Dealership rates and customer pay repairsdeemedimperative by guys in other bays made theprice of Jaguar ownership intolerable to many.

If the Engine Restoremight be effective in postponing the inevitable, I will continue tosuggest it to owners and make my own judgement.Using heavier viscosity oil in my local ambient temperatures is more likely to result in more frequentno-start conditions, they don't like waking up to 0 F even with the specified 5W30 to stir up.

 

i've got time to burn hope you guys don't mind haha

i'm sure that threshold was pretty high, nothing is free besides advicein automechanics it appears.Someone on that Jaguar admin should havesignedrecalling that timing system instead? He should have signed that yeah?Would have made sense huh!A lil research shows that they lost a TON of their fanbase over denying that widespread problem.

Is it notpure fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of people all over the worldgot jacked by the timing system a mere 50K-60k in, as well as the nikasil bore problem, recieving no help and told its not jaguars fault design? I think so! We can read forum page after page of peoples timing system or transmission going out a year or so after they get them, fighting the dealership. These are people that bought them NEW btw...To have to cross your fingers in the winter time is just pure humor, isnt it bloody cold in the UK anyways?! You'd think they'd make a car designed for a colder climate?? What gives...Engine rattles, chains flopping, metal clapping,wasn't this a 60K luxury car?? hah!

Whats the point of banning additives? Is this done on all vehicles?

Dealerships are overpriced I agree, and most of the 'techs' don't know what they should, but can sure as heck BS you like they do!You guys are older than I, and i've experienced the dealership blues before. I can only imagine what you guys have had to go through over the years! I tip my hat.

I don't know many times i've asked you kind folks here a question only to call the dealer right after andhave them tell me (with chuckle)"oh no! thats not right, never heard of that before, where did you hear that?". I know you guys are right and they are wrong, heck the tech here didn't even know what a VVT O-ring was, he was like HUH??? hah I Swear! Had to manually find part number myself and then "OHHH, that's what you meant!" hah Yeah.. I meant VVT O-RING genuis!

What would have been the point of using plastic over metal on the timing tensioners? THAT much cost or weight or what? I mean thereare only4 per engine, 2 of which never get damaged. Obviously they didn't do much testing prior to mass production?

JagtechOhio, what year are your XJs? did you have to replace the timing system, and if so, do your chains still rattle at cold-start even after replacement?

 

DAMN I MISSED THAT WHOLE JAGTECH POST, OPINION ARE LIKE , WELL YOU KNOW WHAT. AND THE WHOLE NIKASIL ISSUE, ALIGNMENT SPECS, PLASTIC TENSIONERS, CONTROL ARM BUSHINGS ETC ALL LOOK FINE ON PAPER TO ENGINEERS AND SHOULD WORK, BUT WHEN SUBJECTED TO THE MANY VARIABLE AROUND THE WORLD WITH ENVIRONMENT AND OWNERS RESULTS IN AMORE THAN ATTICIPATED REPAIRNUMBER...SO THEN FIXES, PATCHES ETC HAVE TO COME OUT AND THIS IS WHY THERES A WARRANTY. ANDWHO EATS THAT? MOSTLY NOT JAGUAR BUT THE PART SUPPLIER WHEN THE PARTS DEFECTIVE, IF THE DESIGN IS DEFFECTIVE OR LESS THAN SATIFACTORY THEN IM SURE JAGUAR EATS THE COSTS. REPLACE THE ENGINE THIS IS "THE PERMANENT FIX"AT A MUCH COSTLIER ROAD. NOW MOST OF THE REASON PEOPLE COME ON FORUMS IS FOR ADVISE, AND THERE ARE MANY HERE, SOME WRONG, SOME BETTER AND SOME BEST....THATS ALL IT IS AND THE BEST IS DIFFERENT FOR DIFFERENT PEOPLE....JT IM SORRY YOU FEEL OFFENDED..AT LEAST THATS MY READ FROMYOUR POST, I WASNT REFFERING TO THE TSB OR OTHER INFO ON MY RECOMMENDATION. ONLY WHAT I HAVE DONE FOR SOME AND ITS WORKED. SO FAULT ME FOR IT I DONT MIND...ITS NOT A IM RIGHT YOURE WRONG ISSUE OR VISA VERSA. IVE COMEUP WITH MANY FIXESFOR JAGUAR OVER THE YEARS AS IM SURE YOU HAVE TOO, AND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU IN OHIO IS DIFFERENT THAN HERE. AND LIKE MANY OTHERINDUSTRIES, THERE ARE THINGS SAID BY PEOPLE IN JAGUAR TO DOTHAT WILL NEVER BE PUT IN WRITING..

 

Wasn't this engineintroduced in 1996? Sure it wasupdated to VVTin 1998, but didn't they still use the same plastic tensioners? Is it not close to the same 96 engine just with VVT? If not, that's a whole year ofreal-world testing?I was just stating I didn't understand why it took 3 years of complaints to change to metal? They only made2 base cars at the time right that even uses the same baseengine! XJ/XK?

Below Taken from Wikipedia, I know its' wikipedia. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_AJ-V8_engine)

The 4.0L (3996cc) AJ26 engine was introduced in 1996 It has a square 86mm bore and stroke. It was updated in 1998 as the AJ27 with continuously variable valve timing. The AJ-V8 was updated again in 2000 as the AJ28. The naturally-aspirated version produces 290hp (216 kW) in the 2004 XK8.
Vehicles using this engine: [ul][*]Daimler V8[*]AJ26 [ul][*]1997-1998 Jaguar XJ8[*]1997-1998 Jaguar XK8 [/ul][*]AJ27 [ul][*]1999-2004 Jaguar XJ8[*]1999-2004 Jaguar XK8 [/ul][*]AJ28 [ul][*]2000-2002 Jaguar S-Type (281hp, 287ft·lbf[/ul][/ul]
PART SUPPLIERS SHOULD eat the cost if they make defective parts, why should the consumer or automaker have to pay for their mistakes? The pages of peoples problems were not opinions, they were factual problems many people were experiencing with this engine and Jaguar turning their backs.

 

NOW NOW BOYS,,, I APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL HELP ,, THIS IS MY SECOND JAG ,, I AM A LOVER BIG TIME ,, I BOUGHT THIS 98 XJ8 ON EBAY,, SHOULDA KNOWN BETTER,, I USED TO HAVE A 96 VANDEN PLAS WITH AN INLINE 6 AND WE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT TIL SOMEONE BOUT RAN OVER ME AT AN INTERSECTION IN A BIG FAT YUKON,, AND TOTALED IT ,, MY DREAM CAR DIED ,, AND MY DREAM OF OWNING ONE EVIDENTLY ,, WHEN I GOT THIS ONE ,, IT IS ANTHRICITE, JUST LIKE JAG TECH SAID ,, HAS 87,000 MILES ON IT ,, AND FIRST IT WAS THE THROTTLE BODY NEEDED CLEANING OR SOMETHING THAT WAS SOMETHING RANCHEDUDE TOLD ME THEN TOO,, AND HE HAS BEEN RIGHT , I MAY JUST BE GRASPING AT STRAWS AND EVERYONE AROUND HERE ( I LIVE IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS) SO THEY ARE LIKE ,, ewwww EWWW,, WON'T TOUCH THAT ,, YOU NEED TO TAKE IT TO MEMPHIS TO THE DEALERSHIP,, AND I CANN'T AFFORD THE 1500.00 THEY WANT TO PUT IT ON A MACHINE TO TELL ME THE MOTOR NEEDS CHANGING SO FOR NOW YOU GUYS ARE ALL I GOT ,, SO I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS ,, AND WE WILL TRY THE RESTORE THING AND USE A LITTLE THICKER OIL ,, SINCE I LIVE IN NORTHEAST ARKANSAS ,, DO YOU THINK THE OIL TIP WILL MAKE IT HARDER STARTING IN THE MORNING ,, WE HAVE NOT ANY PROBLEMS IN THAT AREA YET , LIKE I SAID ANYTHING TO FORSTALL THE EVIDENT WILL HELP , WE HAVE TRIED TO GET THE THINGY CLEANED OUT THAT A COUPLE OF YOU GUYS TALKED ABOUT ALREADY AND THEY SAID IT SHOULD BE DONE EVERY 10,000.00 AFTER THE INITIAL ONE ,, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE U.S. MAKES THEM WARANTY THE MOTORS NOT PASSING THE BLOWBY TEST??

 

Greetings Karen,

10W 40 oil is thicker than normal for your car, it will help the oil consumption problem a little. Itwill not make your car hard to start unless the temperature outside is consistantly 40 degrees F or below, roughly speaking. You should be fine.

Try the BG, it won't "save" your engine but it might help reduce the blowby a little, and it won't hurt anything.

The factory says to clean your thingy every 10,000 miles. That means you have to have a mechanic remove the small black plastic hose that plugs into the top of your driver's side cam cover, towards the front of the engine. That is called the part load breather hose, and the hole inside the cam cover, underneath it, gets plugged. You stick a 3/32" drill bit in it and make sure the hole is not plugged. Havethe mechanicmake sure the hose is not plugged too, I don't think alot of people check for this but it happens.

Jaguar is not going to do a thing for you, other than to try to sell you a new car and offer you a couple thousand for yours, if they will even take it.

I have done business with Don Ryburn at Ryburn Company in Mena, Arkansas. Most of his businessis devoted torepairing and selling wrecked cars. They know more than a little about Jaguars, and I worked with one of their techs for an afternoon who I thought was pretty sharp. If that's reasonably close to your town, maybe they could help you out with service. I know for sure they can do an engine swap when the day comes, if you still have the car and run out of BG magic.

If you end up shopping for an engine, please keep me on your list for a quote. If Rancher Dude has something to offer you, I would trust him too.

 

THANKS FOR THE INFO ,, BUT DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE CAM COVER OFF TO GET TO THE HOSE OR WILL IT COME OFF WHEN YOU DISCONNECT THE HOSE FROM THE TOP OF THE ENGINE ,, I CAN SEE IT WITH OUT HAVING TO TAKE THE COVER OFF,, I AM SORRY I AM ILLITERATE WHEN IT COMES TO THIS ,, BUT MY HUSBAND KNOWS A GUY THAT DOESN'T CARE TO DO THE WORK IF HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS TRYING TO DO.. THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVISE ,, I WILL CALLING YOU GUYS FOR PRICES AS SOON AS I GET UP THE MONEY ,, IS IT WORHT IT TO REPLACE THE MOTOR ON A 98 ? I HAVE ALREADY SOMONE TELL ME IT WILL COST US ABOUT 4500.00 TO 5,000.00 TO GET ONE AND PUT IT IN ,, I JUST THINK IT SUCKS WHEN SOMETHING YOU LOVE THIS MUCH CAUSES SO MANY ISSUES,, JUST TO BE ABLE TO HAVE ONE THANKS , LEXY

 

The hose has a funky clip on the end where it attaches to the cover, the cam cover does not have to come off. You have to squeeze the clip on opposite sides from the two tabs, and gently work the pipe out of the hole it plugs into. If you use a pair of needle nose pliers under the clip to help lever it off, that will help.

$4500 in my shop gets you a tested and guaranteed used engine, updated with all new timing components, water pump, thermostat, new radiator hoses, all fluids, installation, road tested and verified,out the door. Less if it's a good high mileage enginethatyou don't plan on keeping for more than a couple of years.

Labor is cheap in your area, if you can find an experienced Jag guy and a good deal on a guaranteed engine you should be able to match that price. Just make sure to have him test the engine, and update the timing chain tensioners at a minimum, before he plugs it in your car.

It's a tough call whether it's worth it or not, a really nice '98 with 87K miles and a good engine is worth maybe $6K. Yes, some people will pay more, yes, some people will say I'm full of ****. That's a rough figure, so if you fix it and get two good years of reliable use out of it, you got your money's worth in my book.

Selling it with a bad motor, still running OK as you described, might get you $3K on eBay. Blown up they are down to $2K and below.

I couldn't agree with you more, the engine problems suck, especially when we have both had XJ6's that never let us down.

 

u have no idea how much all this has helped ,, i will be in touch with you and rancherdude in the near future as soon as we can see what is going on,, and if i hit the jackpot with money or with luck i will let you guys know,, thanks for all the help so far ,, i am sure i will hollering at cha later,, thanks again

 

Glad to help, and you could return the favor with your results about the BG.

Get the part load breather orifice checked, put in a new air filter, and try the BG. I'm interested to see if you think it makes a difference, although changing the oil to a heavier weight will blurr the results.

And try taking the oil cap off and watching the blowby vapor now, before you do anything (fully warm engine, idle speed is fine). Then look at it again after your service work and a few hundred miles to see if there is a noticable difference. Thanks!

 

we will do just that and will let eveyone know what happens next,,, many thanks ,, you are very quick with a good respnose ,, and no bs.. thanks so much!!![sm=bounceybounce.gif]