Well that was fun.
#1
04-23-2012, 01:44 PM
Well that was fun.
Hi,
I thought I'd post this in case anyone else has a similar problem. Since buying my Jaguar 3.2 V8 yr 2000 last July it has had a slow loss of coolant and every 250 miles or so the warning would pop up on the dashboard. It got to the stage where it only did about 10 miles before the warning, time to investigate. The leak appeared to be towards the rear of the engine as that's where the wet patch was under the car. As it's almost impossible to see anything with the throttle body in place I took it off, the hard part is figuring out how to seperate the electrical connectors. Anyhow, off it came, I could not see anything amiss so put it all back together, as though expecting a sort of miracle I refilled the coolant and started the engine, it was just as bad as before. Time to think again. I next suspected the thermostat tower, this is where the fun started. It is extremely difficult to get to the rear bolts holding the tower to the block without removing the inlet manifold, people have done it by bending spanners etc. but as someone else said that time could have been used taking the manifold off.
The job it's self is straight forward enough, just lots of pipes and connectors to undo, I never did figure out the correct way to remove the connectors for the injectors, most came off with a good tug and a spray with WD40. Despite my best efforts I could not remove the brake vauum pipe, in the end I cut through it and have remade the joint with HD rubber tubing. The manifold bolts are very tight, you will need a 6 flat 10 mm socket 1/2" drive, my old socket had 8 flats and slipped straight away. My best guess for the source of the leak was the O ring at the base of the plastic tower, it then ran along the valley between cylinder blocks and came out at the rear of the engine! I fitted a new alloy tower and thermostat, new heater hoses that run under the manifold and new manifold gaskets, I also use blue gasket maker on any joints in the new tower.
Have done about 30 miles and so far, so good.
I thought I'd post this in case anyone else has a similar problem. Since buying my Jaguar 3.2 V8 yr 2000 last July it has had a slow loss of coolant and every 250 miles or so the warning would pop up on the dashboard. It got to the stage where it only did about 10 miles before the warning, time to investigate. The leak appeared to be towards the rear of the engine as that's where the wet patch was under the car. As it's almost impossible to see anything with the throttle body in place I took it off, the hard part is figuring out how to seperate the electrical connectors. Anyhow, off it came, I could not see anything amiss so put it all back together, as though expecting a sort of miracle I refilled the coolant and started the engine, it was just as bad as before. Time to think again. I next suspected the thermostat tower, this is where the fun started. It is extremely difficult to get to the rear bolts holding the tower to the block without removing the inlet manifold, people have done it by bending spanners etc. but as someone else said that time could have been used taking the manifold off.
The job it's self is straight forward enough, just lots of pipes and connectors to undo, I never did figure out the correct way to remove the connectors for the injectors, most came off with a good tug and a spray with WD40. Despite my best efforts I could not remove the brake vauum pipe, in the end I cut through it and have remade the joint with HD rubber tubing. The manifold bolts are very tight, you will need a 6 flat 10 mm socket 1/2" drive, my old socket had 8 flats and slipped straight away. My best guess for the source of the leak was the O ring at the base of the plastic tower, it then ran along the valley between cylinder blocks and came out at the rear of the engine! I fitted a new alloy tower and thermostat, new heater hoses that run under the manifold and new manifold gaskets, I also use blue gasket maker on any joints in the new tower.
Have done about 30 miles and so far, so good.
Last edited by v8mad; 04-23-2012 at 01:48 PM.
#2
04-23-2012, 02:23 PM
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