The best British indie shop in the Triangle is Flying Circus English Cars in Durham (take the Briggs Avenue exit off the Durham Freeway, turn left on Pettigrew Street, and they are right there on the corner). They stay quite busy so it can be tough to get an appointment. Toby Briggs is the owner. His sister Sarah is also quite helpful....

 

I am so glad that you bought this car. It had to be someone who understands and appreciates these temperamental automobiles. When I wrote that post I had no idea that you would pick up on it and respond. I tried to call you back after you left that message on my shop phone. I wanted to thank you for it, it made my day.

 

Here's the backstory on this vehicle that Lanny is referring to, which I wrote about in the 2nd "Finding our XKR" post at the top of this thread where Lanny is the very talented, high integrity, gentleman who brought this XKR back to life and sold it to us, not the neglectful PO who abandoned it to nature.

There's an old saying that "A good compromise occurs when both parties are equally dissatisfied"
But in this case both parties are quite pleased with this deal.

 

The task today was to track down my coolant leak while the weather was still warm.
I'd been losing a little bit of coolant each drive and getting that familiar faint maple syrup smell lately.
I was hoping it wasn't the hoses under the supercharger as I already have 2 other projects going and would rather not get that deep into the engine.

I put the bonnet in service position (disconnect the two struts and use two bolts through the hinge holes to secure it in the the far open state).
I hooked up my HF coolant pressurization tool, pumped it up to 1.2bar and was quickly greeted by a drips of water coming down the front case of the engine.
This was heartening as it meant I could easily reproduce and track down the leak on a cool engine, as opposed to it being from something that only leaked when hot.

With several vintage cars in the fleet, I find myself using this pressure test tool often, either for this or for pressure bleeding brakes and clutches.
See: https://www.harborfreight.com/radiat...kit-63862.html.

It was impossible to determine the source, so I removed the aux & SC belts, the radiator fans, one of the idler pulleys, and got out the bright lights and mirrors.
I find I work better when I have adequate light, so I like to hang a bright 4-foot LED shop light off the bonnet to shine directly into the engine bay.

I quickly discovered an easy one, a hose on top of the engine with the spring clamp in the wrong place (red arrow)..
Strange, I don't recall ever touching that clamp, but it's hard to believe it's been that way for 2 years.


X100 2001 XKR pressure testing coolant system

I was still getting coolant drips after I fixed the clamp and re-pressurized the system.
I removed the water pump pulley to see better and the second source showed itself to be coming from the underside of the water pump.
This shot is looking up at the underneath of the pump.
It looks like a simple fix. A replacement pump has been ordered and should arrive this week.


X100 2001 XKR pressure testing coolant system -> water pump leak

 

That HF kit looks great, except that it's all Chinese plastic like everything else that they sell. But us shadetree mechanics really don't need a $950 snap-on professional kit for something we use once every 3 years. I'll definitely get one of those (with my 20% coupon, natch) when I need to do a similar diagnosis (hopefully not for a long, long time).

Looks like you've got it under control, good work! Curious: how much is the Jag water pump? And you should probably order that "R" that fell off the valve cover. LOL

 

So glad you bought this XKR from me. It needed to go to an owner like you. I really enjoy reading about your adventures. I am still working on my XK8, off and on.

 

Enjoyed this thread. I bought an 2006 XK8 this past weekend that needs a little work (mostly cosmetic I hope). I feel the need for some inspiration to look forward to future fun adventures with the new ride.

 

My guiding philosophy with buying hand tools is a mix of the old ”The bitter taste of poor quality remains long after the sweet taste of low price is forgotten.”, i.e when buying high quality tools you only cry once, combined with the realization that inexpensive tools can be high quality and that over-buying tools can be as bad as under-buying.

So I tend to initially acquire the highest quality inexpensive tool for a job and if the tool wears out from overuse, I replace it with a much higher quality model. Somewhere in there is an additional rough mental calculation of "Will this tool pay for itself over the number of anticipated uses?"

Most of my wrenching these days is "want to" rather than "have to", so I left most of my high-end Snap-On wrenches, ratchets, and sockets from the old Jag vintage racing days with my machinist son back in Colorado and now happily work with mid-level Craftsman Pro level hand tools.

However, I always love a bargain on high-end tools and have no qualms about buying used when it makes sense, such as this 5-foot 100-600 ft-lb 3/4" Snap-on torque wrench, which is simply the right tool for the high-torque VAG crank, CV and rear-hub bolts, or this 25 ton Snappy press that I just used to renew all the ball-joints and bushings in the suspension one of my older vehicles. Both were acquired pre-loved for a small fraction of their original cost, with the firm knowledge that they weren't stolen. The nice thing about going this route is knowing that I can easily sell these tools for 2-3 times what I paid for them, even after they've already paid for themselves many times over.

 

Lanny, so great to hear from you.

Your automotive knowledge and the extreme high quality of the craftsmanship that you've put into your collection of restored vehicles continues to be an inspiration to me. Good luck with your XK8.

If you are looking for another Jag XK project, this one looks interesting: https://reno.craigslist.org/cto/d/re...205974318.html Unfortunately my Audi Cabriolet isn't quite ready to sell, otherwise I would have moved it on to make room to pick up this XK8 for Mrs. Sanchius.

 

There are a lot of low priced early XK8s out there. Most will not have any service history and probably haven't had the cam chain tensioners replaced. Many still look very presentable and with some TLC will really look good. The thought of working on these cars scares many hobbyists. With an investment of a reasonable amount of money and commitment you can end up with a desirable car. Consider that a late 60's early 70's Mustang or Camaro will set you back at least twenty grand more, and believe me, they aren't half the car of an XK8.

 

Enjoy driving these beautiful cars. I was very fortunate in that mine was given to me by a relative that took really good care of the car. I've had it for two months now and have really enjoyed and had no problems so far.

 

(This is my reply to a different water pump thread copied here for my records)

I just replaced my 2001 XKR water pump and took a set of pictures with some measurements.
Not knowing the full history, I don't know if this is the original WP and WP bolts.

Old water pump - thinner old style 2-piece (30.5mm deep with gasket)
New water pump - fatter new style 1-piece (31.75mm deep w/o gasket)
New pump: ACDelco 252-800 Professional Water Pump Kit ( $57.78, Oct 2020, Link: )

Replacing the WP was dead simple since my WP bolts came out easily:

• Remove serpentine belts and WP pulley to improve view, I also removed the outer idler pully,
• Pressurize coolant system to determine the water leak source (see the pressure test picture above))
• Order replacement Water Pump
• Drain upper coolant (I detached the fat upper DS hose and bent it down, catching the coolant in the orange funnel with almost no spillage)
• Remove electric fans (perhaps not necessary, but so easy to do and greatly improves access)
• Remove old water pump and clean engine WP surface
• Insert new WP, incrementally torque bolts (with anti-seize) to 8nm + 90 degrees in a chris-cross pattern
• Repressurize system to test for leaks (I used 1.2bar for 1 hour)
• Replace pullies, belts, fans and coolant
• Enjoy your leak-less XK!

Here are the various measurements:

2001 XKR Water Pump bolt as extracted & wire brushed. Was used with thinner old-style 2-piece WP and reused with new 1-piece WP



2001 XKR thinner old-style 2-piece Water Pump (with gasket)



2001 XKR thicker new-style 1-piece Water Pump (w/o gasket)



2001 XKR depth of Water Pump bolt hole



2001 XKR new style 1-piece WP (w/o gasket): WP bolt visible threads vs ~24mm depth of bolt hole



2001 XKR top of Water Pump bolt

 

Folks, i think i read in one of the forums that besides the different transmission in the XKR they also in 2001 came standard with the metal tensioner, can anyone confirm this for me, i am considering picking up a 2001 with 67,000 miles on it. Thank you for your help.

 

Folks, i think i read in one of the forums that besides the different transmission in the XKR they also in 2001 came standard with the metal tensioner, can anyone confirm this for me, i am considering picking up a 2001 with 67,000 miles on it. Thank you for your help.

 

The late build 4.0L engines did have metal tensioners but it goes by engine code not model year. The car being a 2001 is no guarantee.

 

Thank you for your reply is there an engine code that I should look for and how can I identify this

 

The decoding is in the first post of the DIY sticky thread:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ts-data-29800/

 

My 2002 XKR ( A24583 ) had chain tensioner failure with the prior owner at 115,000 miles.

Visual examination is the only sure way to know what is going on .....


Z

 

I'm working on our van, so I've been using the R and it's 2-golfbag boot as the delivery vehicle for our weekly volunteer effort of making and distributing 120 hot lunches and hygiene dignity pacs to our local homeless encampments and low-income families. Yesterday I was in charge of making the bread donation run to Reno's lowest of the low skid-row hotels, domestic-abuse centers, and anti-human-trafficing shelters. It was at once both sad and heart warming to hear residents getting so excited about the arrival of the big green bread bags (five more were in the boot). I was a little concerned about the optics of using a luxury convertible for this, but the Jag received so much positive attention at each of the sites that I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

 

Sanchius,

Thumbs up to you for your weekly volunteer efforts. You're a good man to do it.
Our X100s are real head turners and always seem to bring a smile to people's faces.

At the local Bahrain hardware store, my green XK8 with the top down always has people looking at it in the car park. Even had a Bahraini woman ask to sit in it and she asked her husband to buy her one as she said it was so beautifully crafted. I still believe they "Don't make them as they used to!"