Hello everyone. I haven't been on here in a while as I have been super busy and also frustrated with the old Jag. I'm almost completely certain that I've blown a head gasket, but I want a bit of confirmation and some advice going forward. This all happened last November, and its sat since then until I had the time and the energy (and the desire to drive it again). The last few weeks that I drove the car (and I was driving it pretty consistently every day at that that point), if I shut the car off and then restarted it when it was warm, the car would run a bit rough and usually throw a code for a cylinder 6 misfire. At the time, I didn't think too much about it, figured it was likely a coil pack, ordered one, and planned to change it when I stored the car for winter. Fast forward a few weeks and I was driving the car on a cool (35ish degrees, if I recall) late fall day and the low coolant light came on. My car, even after replacing the reservoir, is very sensitive, and I assumed that I was only down a bit. However, as I drove on, I realized I wasn't getting any heat coming in the car (uh oh!). I thought perhaps I was down more than I realized (which is odd, I've replaced just about every hose, plus the plastic water outlet pipe, aluminum thermostat tower, and new thermostat), and as I was meeting my parents to split up a half of beef from the locker, we meet halfway between our small towns, in the middle of nowhere at an electrical substation. As I loaded all of the frozen beefy goodness, I let the car idle, and heard the secondary cooling fan kick in. That was a bit alarming as it was a cool day (as I mentioned) and I had not driven the car hard. I hopped inside to see the needle climbing steadily. I quickly shut off the car and rode with my parents to let the car cool and pick up some coolant to top off the car. I figured it was about time to store the car anyway and I would diagnose where the coolant could have gone over the winter. After topping the coolant off and the engine cool, I drove the 12 miles or so home. As I was blocks away from home, the car started to overheat again, and I managed to coast all the way to the front of my house before I had to push it around the corner and into the garage. It was very low/empty on coolant again. A look at the oil shows no coolant has gotten into that, so I am guessing that it is leaking into the combustion chamber. Sure seems blown to me, right?

Now, on to the repair. My car is alleged to have the timing chain tensioners done, but since I am in there, I'm preparing as though it hasn't. I'd really only like to do the secondary tensioners at this time, but is that foolish? Should I do the entire secondary chain too? What about the primary chain and tensioner blade? Am I foolish to let that go? Of course, I'll check it out when I'm in there and maybe that will be the deciding factor. I have no idea the condition of my water pump or if it is one with the plastic impeller, so I'm planning to change that also, while I'm in there. Finally, I'm looking to replace the knock sensor(s) since the car goes into restricted performance each year for the first tank of fuel and is a bit finicky on fuel and things, ever since I replaced the valley hoses and they got doused with coolant or possibly when I did the thermostat housing, one of the two.

Here is my proposed part list for this. Anything I am missing?Cylinder Head Gasket Set - JLM20750 - $268.11
Water Pump Assembly - AJ88912 - $85.52
Secondary Chain Tensioner RH - C2A1511 - $66.55
Secondary Chain Tensioner LH - C2A1512 - $66.55
Flange Headed Bolt (since I'm going from plastic to metal tensioners) - $1.70 x 4 = $6.80
Timing Cover Seal - NCA2127AC - $19.57
Engine Knock Sensor - LNE1692AA - $80.25 x2 = $160.50

Total (excluding shipping) = $673.60 [from SNG Barratt]

This is going to be the farthest into the engine I've ever been, and I'm a little intimidated. I did the power steering pump and fuel pump last year, so I'm at least somewhat competent.

 

If it were me I would do a compression and a cooling system test first to try to locate exactly where your problem is. If you go that far to where you are taking the heads off I would do the primary tensioners and guides.
Y ou will need cam cover gaskets. You can get a set for an 03 Lincoln LS 3.9l, they are on sale for about $14 a set at Rockauto. You can also get the complete timing kit for the Lincoln to save money. The timing kit like most have the wrong guides but you can get the correct ones from SnG. Also replace the VVT seals in the cam cover.
You will need a timing kit that you can find on ebay. For the removal of the damper I have the tool recommended by Jaguar. I paid about $150 for mine several years ago. It comes with the puller and makes it so much simplier to get it off. You can do a search on damper removal as many members have different ways to get it off and reinstalled.

Good Luck

 

K.Westra,

It’s bad news that you have a coolant leak. It’s good news that you have a bad coolant leak! Weird to say that but, from what you said, it’s unlikely to be a sudden blown head gasket dumping that much coolant into the block, unless you were really “gunning” the engine.

You mentioned a loss of heat in the cabin, so I would look there at the heater hoses and the octopus hose. If you can do the pressure test that BobRoy suggests, it’s a good place to start.

 

.......you will also need the crank dampener bolt as its one time use only.

At the risk of being hung the ONLY Jag part I used doing every thing from the head gaskets up is aforementioned bolt, Everything else is aftermarket including the timing kit which is around $40 on Amazon. I think the whole job set me in around your head gasket price for parts.

l admire the loyalty of oem buyers, it just happens to be lost on me due to all the issues are caused by oem parts..........that and my inherent European cheapness

also, without getting your heads checked for true you will most Likely be doing it again.

 

You definitely need to do some diagnostics here before pulling the heads off. Compression test, leakdown test if you can, etc.

If the oil isn't milky, and it isn't coming out the tailpipe as steam, do you have a head gasket failure or a hose failure?

Fact, your car will over heat when low on coolant.

The misfire, could be coils, plugs anything. I've seen new "platinum" spark plugs fail with 15k on them.

My point is, diagnose first before throwing parts and tons of time at it if it were me.

When is the last time you cleaned the MAF Sensor?

My '01 Craigslist Cat threw all kinds of codes, ran like it needed a full set of plugs and coils, and after changing the ORIGINAL fuel filter (which I could barely blow through it was so plugged) and cleaning the MAF sensor, it runs like a scalded gazelle.