New member post so please bear with me,

1998 XJ8 car has 115,000 miles but this engine only has 47,000 miles, the motor was replaced 2 years ago due to a Nikasil failure on the original motor. A few weeks ago i made the fatal mistake of moving the car across the driveway to make room for other vehicles, didnt run it for more than 30 seconds, monday morning she tried to start but then nothing. engines spins very easily as though there is no compression (this is exactly what happened with the original motor) JagTechOhio has helped me out with a couple of suggestions on the fuel side but i do have fuel at the rail, not sure of the exact pressure as i dont have a gauge but manually pressing the schrader valve releases fuel. I have seen a few posts about this type of issue that reccomends removing the plugs and performing a "squirt" start by putting oil into the cylinders to create some compression. Anyway after 3 weeks of travel and then digging the car out of the Pittsburgh snow i finally got to try the "squirt"start tonight, pulled the plugs from the left bank (viewed from the drivers seat) plugs fairly clean but smelling of gas, the plugs from the right bank were heavily coated in oil. cleaned everything up and squirted about 7 or 8 pumps of oil into each cylinder, buttoned everything up but still she will not start, still spins very freely. Any thoughts? is the oil on the plugs normal, I have never seen this amount of oil before on a single plug let alone 4 of them.

 

Sounds gas flooded to me. Since the plugs are out, replace them with new and give it another try..

 

I had this exact problem a while back. replace the ignition coil boots for the oil coated plugs ( you can use ford parts and cut them to length as jag apparently doesn't make just the boots) also replace the individual gaskets for each plug and while you are at it replace all the plugs. Then your cylinders are probably gas washed, so you will have to deal with that too.

 

This post helped me get my XJ8 Sovereign started while stranded 260 miles from home:

"Large engines are prone to flooding if you stop them during their cold start cycle. If, the last time you used it, you started and stopped the engine from cold within about a minute then this is probably what happened. When over loaded with fuel the oil is washed off the cylinder bores, you lose compression and the starter spins the engine without any resistance sounding much like it's not connected to anything.

Cure is to hold the throttle to the floor while cranking. This stops more fuel being added and, after a minute or two, you should feel compression returning."

It worked for me, had to turn over for several minutes and there was a lot of smoke when it did start but has been fine since then. Hope it may help you as well.

Jim

 

Thanks for the tip, i will get christmas out of the way and then give this a try. Where are you in the West Midlands?

 

Here. try this.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=30792

 

OK, hope it goes well. I'm in Stourbridge.

Jim

 

I can't see why it wouldn't work although on starting you have a slightly greater drag with the s/c. I had to crank on and off for 5 minutes or more, flattened the battery but got a boost and then it burst into life. Been fine ever since. The amount of cranking needed is related to the amount of flooding I am sure, I had tried lots of times without foot to floor (which apparently causes the EMU to cut the fuel feed) so I'm sure I was well flooded.

Jim

 

Here is an update, finally got her started yesterday after a couple of days of trying. Started strong and ran for an hour with no problem, started today after a couple of cranks of the starter, so fingers crossed this was just an issue with flooding and nothing else. A few tips for others with this same problem.

1. Tried the gas pedal to the floor and cranking on the starter for 60 seconds, this did not work for me even after trying it four times. I was very worried about the starter as well as getting smoke from burnt oil back through the air cleaner.
2. Removed the plugs again and squirted oil into each bank, replaced every thing and tried again, still no luck
3. left it a day and then pulled everything again and left the plugs out and the cylinders open for 2 days, my theory was to let nature take its course and allow excess fuel to evaporate
4. Squirted more oil in but made sure this time to get a long enough tube so oil got to the back of the cylinder and ran down around the pistons rather than on top. Figured more oil was better than not enough.
5. Cleaned all the plugs and coils etc and put it all back
6. Pulled the fuel pump fuse (20amp No 7 in the trunk fuse box) turned the engine on the starter for 15 seconds to distribute the oil around the pistons
7. Replaced the fuse and then with the gas pedal to the floor turned the key, started straight away. Most important tip here is to have your garage door open or the car outside, the smoke was pretty intense.

Not sure whether it was the oil or leaving the plugs out for a couple of days that finally fixed it. My advice is if the cranking method does not work the first time and you can turn a wrench then take the time to pul the plugs and squirt some oil in, I used about 10 pulls on a small oil can for each cylinder and do both banks.

So now i have a working car again and a lesson learned about starting it and then shutting it down without letting it warm up.

Thanks to all for the advice

 

Cool, I am orginally from West Bromwich...Happy New year

 

Hey do you mind if I add this to my "car won't start: READ THIS FIRST" thread?

 

Feel free, hope it helps others

 

When you get time you may want to read a little information on 2 TSB Related to cylinder washing http://www.gusglikas.com/AutoRepairNoStart.htm and http://www.gusglikas.com/AutoRepairNikasilSulfur.htm Glad to hear you got it started.