Oh bugger...... What more can you say???

 

wow I was reading that thread about the broken camshaft. Member plumsauce mentioned this. Thoughts on this intermediate step? I am doing this job very soon.

"A possible contributing factor is the cam orientation.

You did the first cam with the cam oriented so that the base circle was facing the cam buckets. Less spring pressure.

Then you attempted the second one without moving the cam to a similar relaxed position. There is more pressure involved.

For anyone else following along, the missing step is to finish the first side by undoing the zip tie and releasing the retaining pin. Then, bump the starter to get the next cam into working position. WITH THE FUEL PUMP DISABLED."

 

Dave,
I am also planing on replace the 2nd tensioner. Although I have read all I could find on doing this, I have never seen anthing about "cam orientation". I would think that you are always going to have some part of the cam with spring pressure on it. Could you explain this better or show a link so I could read more about it?
Thanks Glenn

 

Ok so I just finished changing out my secondary tensioners

Good news is everything works and no problems thus far. However I would like to share some issues I had along the way.

I followed the instructions on the first posting in this thread. My first issue came along while trying to remove the passenger side cam cover. I had trouble fitting a socket or a standard 10mm wrench on the lower left bolt (nearest the cab). I could not wedge anything between the aluminum heat shield and the bolt. I even got underneath the car and took the supporting nuts off the heat shield to see if I could get some extra play to no avail. Ultimately I ended up welding a 1/4 inch piece of steel to a larger piece of steel at a slightly more than 90 degree angle. With my home made tool I was able to slip on a 10mm socket and use my tool to wrench it.

My next issue and most frustrating problem was following the instructions where it says the torque is "80N" for the cam cover bolts... Should have read on to other posts. 80nm is way too much! I didn't know any better and ended up snapping the bolt in half while inside the block. Not a happy camper at this point. I ended up extracting the remaining piece of the bolt through counter drilling etc. No dealer stocks these $2 bolts. I finally spoke with a lincoln parts guy who told me I would have better luck at my local hardware store. B&B Do It Center to the rescue. They had the matching bolt. I replaced all 10 as some had stretched. Correct torque is 9 - 11 nm.

Driver side went much smoother. I tried to be gentle removing the breather hose from the cam cover but the clip broke. black cable tie fixed that.

All and all I am glad I did it. I could have saved myself hours of time had I not snapped the bolt off in the block.

I ended up replacing my NGK spark plugs with Bosch Platinum 2 no gap plugs. I have noticed a difference in the lower end. Feels like it has a little more power.

 

6 point or 12 point socket?

The 6 point are much better for not rounding.

 

On my 2000 with 63K both of the lower guides (?), long bananna shaped metal/plastic pieces on which the chains ride, were cracked in several spots with pieces missing, presumably falling into the crankcase somewhere. As long as I was into it I changed their tensioners and installed new primary and secondary chains and all the associated rubber work. Very expensive but it should put an end to any worries on that front.

 

[QUOTE=aregg;277997]My 99 XJ8 was not displaying any signs of issue with the 2nd tensioner's. I bought the car with 84K miles on it and have driven it for 3.5K miles. Initially when starting from cold there was a slight rattle lasting les than two seconds and after oil change to Mobil 1 high mileage even that appeared to disappear.

I would however get smell of burning oil and it did appear that it was from valve cover seals. So in order to take care of that I took off the left cover to notice that the car still had the red colored series one tensioner's and that the slider had worn and was totally missing.

I did manage to retrieve couple of pieces that were trapped. The same story with the other side with the exception that three of the spark plug recesses were full of oil, courtesy of very loose center bolts on the cover.

Moral of the story is if you have an older XJ8 or XK8 it is worth checking to see if undated tensioner's have been installed or not and not to rely on any form of sound or rattle alerting you.

YES! I was waiting to hear for a rattle and it never came - it just hopped a tooth one day. I was very lucky. The slider on my tensioner was long gone, etc.

 

It may be that there is no position where everything is relaxed.

So,

1. treat each side as a completely separate job, as if you had 2 4 cylinder engines.

2. when undoing the camshaft cap bolts, undo no more than 1/4 turn at a time.

3. when fastening the camshaft cap bolts, run them all in until finger tight to get an equalised position. then, tighten in the specified pattern/as required 1/4 turn at a time until the caps are just seated. because the cam will be tilted: use your eyes and guts to adjust for uneveness in the pattern as necessary. the key is to always work on the loosest bolt, don't just blindly follow a pattern

4. then torque in 25 percent increments of the final torque value in the specified pattern until you reach the final torque value.

The goal of the above is to do everything gradually so that forces are equalised. It involves a lot of moving from bolt to bolt, but that's just the way it is.

It could be explained in terms of a virgin, but ....

 

Hi everyone, would these parts work for my 1997 XK8, I don't believe there is any difference just want to make sure. I am a bit concerned with a gasket set, could be a different one not sure how to confirm compatibility with Lincoln. Or I could go with this instead:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/JAGUA...Q5fAccessories
Thanks.

 

I used these parts on my 2000 XK8 a few weeks ago from the suppliers mentioned. Worked great.

 

Your '97 has the earlier gaskets, the '01 Felpro Lincoln Gaskets are not correct. The tensioners however should be fine.

 

so is there a lincoln part to match 1997, I not sure how to find that out. Or should I go eBay route? With eBay I am not sure who makes them and what quality...

 

There is no Lincoln equivalent to the 97 (AJ26) engine. Best (in my opinion) to get these gaskets from Jaguar.

 

Thank you for the reply, so my plan is to get gaskets from Jag and stick with Ford 2W9Z6K254 tensioners.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I am sure this will be an interesting adventure once I get the parts in.

 

This is a reply I got from the eBay vendor:
"Yes this kit is for your 1997 xk8. These tensioners are the factory updated and improved style. I buy them in bulk from the manufacturer before jag/ford put them in their parts bag and before they doubble the price.the gaskets are from eurospares who has them made for jaguar. It comes with the spark plug oil seals with the 4 upper valve cover bolt seals. It does not come with the 28 rubber bolt grommets. I can include them if you wish for an additional $ 50.00."


Do I need rubber bolt grommets for extra $50? He is claiming that this is exactly what I would get if I were to order ford tensioners and Jaguar gasket, should I stick with the original plan of getting tensioners from Ford and gasket directly from Jag? Sorry for all the questions, trying to make sure I get the right parts.

 

Who is the ebay vendor name?

 

cr051948, he has a bunch of items listed

 

The ebay deal is a pretty good one for the price if you want to change the secondary chains also, because it includes the chains. Most people do not really need to change the chains at 60-70K mileage if their engine is in good shape, but it certainly cannot hurt. You can get the gaskets without the chains for a few bucks less total at online Jag dealers (assuming you use the ford tensioners). Kind of your call on that one.

The grommets are really just for retention of the bolts assemblies, not sealing, so if yours are in good shape you probably can reuse them...but they are 14 years old. They run for around 2.19 apiece at the online dealers and there are 20-something of them required, so $50 bucks is not out of line.

 

Looking at JTIC, I need to apply EP90 oil to camshaft and bearing surfaces in a couple of places. Our local auto shop has SAE 80w-90 gear oil. Is this ok to use, I am having hard time locating EP90. Thanks.

 

That is really in reference to installing new, dry bearings, camshaft, etc. for break-in lubrication. You are just replacing the old parts, so they should already be covered in oil, or just use a little engine oil if they have been wiped dry.