Hi!

This is my first post on this forum, so I would like to say Hello! to everyone, and a big Thank you! for all the helpful posts and pictures. They make life with a Jag much more easier -- and much more fun. I drive XJ's (series 3) since 2004, my newest acquisition being, however, a Daimler Super V8 from 2000 (XJR/X308).

Right at the moment, I am hunting down a small coolant leak which has kept my attention for some weeks now. I think I have found the culprit, but neither the workshop manual nor the web ressources I could find help me in determining a repair strategy. Here's the problem:

The leak, a very tiny leak, is situated right above the water pump inlet on the block, where the block connects to a small aluminium housing (3 bolts), which is then connected via a short hose ("bypass") to the thermostat housing/outlet duct. This small aluminium housing, sort of an inlet flange, is item #24 on the following picture:

https://images.simplepart.com/images...ze/4725051.png

(As an aside: On non-SC vehicles, this is where the thermostat housing sits directly on the block -- although fastened with 4 bolts!)

Between the small housing (my item #24) and the block is an in-groove seal, and this seal leaks. It is no surprise that the leak is located on the front left hand side of the ensemble, as this is the place where the SC variant lacks the fourth bolt (while, as stated above the thermostat housing on non-SC vehicles has four).

Now, here comes my question to the specialists on the forum:

Does anyone know of a (more or less) easy way to remove this housing and change the seal? The problem are two bolts on the right hand side, as they are located directly under the nose of the SC. If they were hex bolts, I could possibly get there with a wrench, but Jaguar thankfully used torx heads, so I am afraid I will have to remove the whole SC ensemble first in order to get access to these bolts? Which, of course, implies of removing a whole lot of stuff in advance .... But maybe I am wrong (hope so!) and there is a better procedure? Anyone any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Florian