We're 6 months down the road now with this one. I've been pleased with the car. About a month ago I was returning home and noticed the sound of the ticking under the hood had changed greatly. I've never heard "the death rattle" before but I take no chances. The engine light had been coming on at times the the previous 2 days. I had it out of the garage for a wash, went to crank it to put it up and it didn't want to crank. Finally did but was idling rough. This was cause for concern.So I finally decided to jump in and check out the condition of the tensioners. Pulled off the cover on the passenger side and here is what I find, It appears to be in great shape to me. I have not removed the driver side yet pending your thoughts and comments.....So what are your thoughts based on experience?..Thanks

 

Advanced the motor round till the cam flats were visible, here are a couple of shots of that. Does the variable timing allow for this much variance or has this motor jumped timing?

 

That is about how I remember my right hand flats looking after the clamp tool was removed. The valve springs pushing on the cam lobes causes them to move out of alignment. The left side was not as pronounced.

 

I am far from a Jag Tech, but the cam flats look close to one tooth apart to me. If you are getting valve noise and rough idle, those are definite symptoms. I found the right side chains did slack off when the lock down bars were removed as mentioned by test point when I changed mine, but don't recall it being that much. Sorry I do not have a picture to compare with yours... and it has been a while. That aside, the tensioners in your photo do appear to be intact, so you may want to check the other side.

They also look to be plastic, so you would want to change them out for sure if they are. If the car is making a lot of noise and running very rough at idle, I would definitely check the other side, since this side does not look like it has failed (yet). It may also be possible that the chains have stretched to point of making noise. I got a stethoscope and listened to each side on mine, and could definitely hear the offending bank with that. Mine skipped a tooth, so I put in new secondary tensioners. I still ended up with noise on one side and had to change the chains, as one had stretched and would not be quiet. I was told the new metal tensioners do not extend out as far as the original ones, so that may have been a contributing factor.

Just as an observation, there seems to be a lot of debris or crud on the engine in your photos. Maybe a flush would be something to put on the list of future chores. I attach a shot of my 98 XJR chains for reference. The secondary tensioner is in the upper right corner. You may notice the difference in engine debris too.

Let us know what you find as you make your determination. Hope this helps.

 

I second the one tooth apart!!!
That explains the rough idling and the amber light coming on.

 

Thanks for all of your replies. I felt that it looked way off to me also but this is really my 1st foray into the "outer internals" of this engine. And yes, the motor looks quite dirty. I don't know much of the history of the car. I bought it as it had been sitting-up for several months and according to the owner at that time...a new engine was needed. I've always had my reservations about using a motor flush on a high mile (168k in this case) engine for fear of starting leaks. currently this engine has NO leaks,....guess all of the grime has prevented that! So, all of that said, I guess I will move onto the other side and replace all chains, guides and tensioners...Thanks again guys!

 

Hi tesla4all, I just did the tensioners on my 99 xjr. I'm not a Jag tech but I would suspect that, even with the vcc timing, that at rest the flats should be aligned. It would make sense that this would be the default positioning otherwise the tools in the kit would have something to lock out the vcc. I might be using the wrong abbreviation here. I did not use one of the tool sets for mine but when examining them I did not see such a tool included. When I aligned all the flats on my car I did notice that they were skewed just a little bit. This I believe is from the chain stretch and was not consistent on both sides. This is why the 'official' way is to remove the gears so all can again be lined up perfectly in the end. If your flats are that far off I would definitely suspect a tooth jump. Upon first inspection my tensioners 'looked' OK with the exception of one of the pads being slightly cocked. After removal though both were cracked from top to bottom. My car only has 91k, I'm surprised yours made it that far. I would definitely change them out! Good luck with it

 

Hi Tesla4all,

You could start with just the secondary tensioners, which would not take long, unless you feel like tackling the whole array of chains and primary tensioners. In the long run, you would have much more piece of mind with the complete replacement. However, buy starting with the secondaries, it would get you on the road and perhaps give you a sense of whether this is really your problem. ( it probably is). The primaries were not as prone to failure, but you will probably find the guides are cracked when you dig that deep. For sure, get rid of those plastic secondary tensioners before putting any miles on the car.

As far as the engine flush goes, you could put half a can of Sea Foam into the oil for a few days prior to changing and then perhaps start using Mobil 1 or some other synthetic. If you repeat that cycle, the engine may clean up some over a few changes.

Let us know what you find under the the other cam cover

Regards

 

Well,....I decided to get on with it....pulled the cover off the left side and here is what I found...................I'm thinking something is outta sorts here!

 

A day late . . . and all that rot. At 168K miles you sure got your money's worth out of that bit of plastic.

Sorry 'bout that. Maybe if it is running but only rough you escaped bending a valve.

Remember the savings with Ford tensioners.

 

My first reaction to these pictures was..."Holy ****."

I think you may have been very lucky, unless the cam flats on the left side are out of sync to a larger degree than the right side. As I understand it, one tooth and you survive collisions, two and you are in trouble.

Check that the sprockets on the left side did not sustain damage, as the secondary chain had to have been slopping around considerably. Hopefully not long enough to be a problem

If I were you I would unbolt the oil pan. It is just a shallow pan with about two dozen bolts. Once off, you can unbolt the oil pick-up and clean out the screen. I would bet you will find some debris lying in the pan and some tucked up inside the lip of the oil pick-up. You may be able to do so without needing a new seal. Based on your photos, I envision some sludge hanging around the drain plug area of the pan as well. There is a torque sequence pattern in the JTIS manual.

Once again.. Good Luck.

 

I can't believe it - That engine is still running?
WHOW...

I guess you know now what to do...

Good luck!


David

Cheapest source for tensioners, bolts and gaskets in Europe are www.britishparts.co.uk.
They ship worldwide!

 

You can also contact DUCKWORTH PARTS (UK) being a vendor they should help you as well

 

Thanks for all of your responses...here is a quick look at the cam position LHS

 

That couldn't be more than one tooth! It lives!

 

Plans are to replace all chains, guides and tensioners, water pump, thermostat housing and hoses. I'll clean up what I can with all covers off, re-fill with same oil I drained earlier, let it heat up and circulate, then drain, drop pan, clean along with pump screen, refill with synthetic. Next move will be to replace drum in trans. to fore-go that headache! Shocks and tires all around and I think we will be on the top shelf for awhile!...Thanks again for visiting my post...Oh my....taken down by the big cat....day was going well after wrenching last evening, then around noon it "hit"...so now I'm in the easy chair with the heating pad and a very large margarita to my right.....

 

I'd suggest hire/buy the crank pulley removal tool, saves a lot of hassle!

 

I second Sean B - get the tools, you'll be glad when you start putting the new parts back on. Getting the balancer off mine was a bear, then getting the crank and cams locked in place and properly tightening the chains makes all the difference, as that is how the timing gets right.

JWT is also giving good advice - putting your old oil through the engine again sounds risky to me considering the disintegration that appears to have happened. I can't really tell from your pics, but make sure every chunk is accounted for or try to find it! I flushed diesel through my oil chases and dropped and cleaned the pan and screen before refilling with clean oil for that first startup. With so much work involved, it seemed a minor expense.

 

jaginblack.............the diesel flush sounds like a winner to me...The engine bay had NOT been cleaned prior to being garaged and opened up. I did my best to remove what dirt that I could but still a few rogue grains of sand found their way onto exposed surfaces. As you can see from the pics there is quite a bit of embarrassing grime build-up in the motor. I picked the car up with 132k dead where it sat. Obviously the prev. owners were not so punctual with the oil changes....The diesel will clean up what I can get to quite well! However....the ole girl has taken me down for the moment. Being the subject of 4 back surgeries, the upper body extension over the engine bay has put me out of commission for a few days.....again I would like to thank all that have posted replies....your suggestions and comments are appreciated!

 

Kitty's got me down...but I'm not out! Hopefully my back will be on the upswing shortly and I can continue with this adventure. Going stir-crazy so I walked into the garage to look down and see what I could of the primary chain guides and I firmly believe I have identified the source of the agitating "ticking sound" referred to by so many here on these forums. That being specific to the one coming from the top front of the engine. Take a look at the huge crack in this RHS guide....precisely the point that annoying ticking appeared to be emanating from on this motor....