I started the Valley hose job. I must hold some kind of record here: it’s taken me 14 hours just to take the supercharger off. I hope that by tomorrow evening I can have the Jag back on the road but that is looking less and less likely.

Tomorrow I finish the clean up of the valley, remove the octopus and the rest of the rats nest, then I have to reassemble everything.

 

Threads like this make me feel better and better about my choice to not get an XKR.

Hang in there Daniel. We've all had a job from hell at some point.

 

You're missing out on all the fun, and the not so fun.

 

GD,

Bet there's some blood, sweat and tears. Skinned knuckles, sore wrists, and loud swearing/cursing?

All part of the fun. @rothwell - My job from hell was the unsuccessful alternator swap out.

@GD - have you had to run to the stores to get some thingy/tool/bit yet, that you know you had, but just can't find …. right in the middle of the job?

 

Yes I have.

 

It seems at some point I always feel like giving up, but a nights sleep does wonders. Just try not to drop anything in the "great abyss" - which ever one happens to apply.

 

I didn’t take the nights rest. Yesterday I started at 9 am and finished at 12 midnight. Got it all done and buttoned up.

Today in the afternoon I will fill it up with coolant and burp the system. I hope that fixes my leak. I changed every hose that carries coolant in the system. The only one I can think of that I didn’t change is the hose that carries coolant to the recovery tank in the passenger wheel well.

The old valley hoses were goners. They were fluffy and bloated. And I did find some coolant in the valley. The octopus hose and the heater core hoses looked pretty good. The upper rad hose was looking a bit iffy. The pump supercharger hoses looked pretty good but I still changed them.

I also replaced my passenger O2 sensor which was giving me the code P1646. I had replaced the driver’s side O2 sensor for P1647 last year. In hindsight, I should’ve done both that day.


I wanted to do the supercharger fluid, but when I went to the local ACDelco to buy it, they had already closed. That happened twice so I binned it for a later date. Will have to do it in-situ.

 

Undoing the thermostat a couple weeks ago took me like 5 hours for the two bolts in the back. After I figured out I needed to (and could) move the two plugs on either side, it took me like 30 min. But good god, did I feel stupid.

Any of the manual or alldata labor estimates can probably be doubled or tripled for me.

Just remember, whenever something is taking you forever, there's someone who'd take longer. And whenever you feel dumb for not figuring something out, there's always someone dumber. In both cases, I'm probably that other someone.

 

There is a rule for that: gross up to the next unit and then divide by 2. For example, a 2 hour job turns into a full day job (hour grosses up to day, then divide by 2, so 1 day). Shadetree mechanic rule...

 

It would seem the leak is gone, but now I’ve got a P0300 code with a restricted performance light. No misfire that can be felt.

Could it have something to do with having cleaned the valley with degreaser, or with my EGR leak?

As for the EGR leak, it’s leaking at the pipe connection that sits just before the passenger side O2 sensor. I think I failed to properly tighten the inner bolt as the pipe itself was in the way. I was using a long socket with an extension because a short socket would be stopped by the stud.

Maybe a medium length socket would work?


Edit. Upon further inspection, the EGR pipe itself is split. A replacement is uber expensive. I’m going to use Quick Steel putty (similar to JB Weld) to fix it.

 

The Jb Weld fix worked, but now I have: P0333. I hope it’s just that the knock sensor is disconnected. I’d hate to have to take the supercharger out again.

 

Update, JB-weld did not work. It separated from the pipe after a stab at the throttle. I tried it once more with more thorough prep-work. I cleaned, I sanded, I roughned, and cleaned once more before applying the JB-weld. I'm going to allow a 24 hour cure.

If that doesn't solve it, I'm thinking I can use a dremel to cut the pipe at the break and at the end of its accordion section and slip a hose of a appropriate diameter with hose clamps.

In the meanwhile I'm going to be searching junkers and used parts websites to see if I can find a used one. A new one is too expensive for what it is.

 

Have you looked into fixing this crack with some form of brazing/soldering instead? To my knowledge, this technique is used a lot in air conditioning installations. Maybe an A/C tech could patch that up in no time. The trick is that the EGR valve is solid to the throttle body/engine, but the intake is solid to an expanding/contracting exhaust manifold, so the accordion is sort of required. I would be reluctant of patching this EGR tube with anything that can get loose and possibly sucked in the intake and further into the engine.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

That was my initial idea, but I couldn't get the EGR pipe disconnected from the throttle body. Those small bolts are on super tight and I was afraid of stripping the head. I did blast the thing with Liquid Wrench penetrating oil for hours and I had no luck.

I might try it again with a bolt extractor kit on standby just in case.

 

The pipe is bolted to the valve, and the valve to the throttle body. Maybe the valve itself would come out easier. I realize there are coolant lines involved in this whole mess. Also, a good opportunity to put some carb cleaner in there for a good cleanup. To my knowledge, the EGR valve is monitored by the ECU and codes are thrown when it fails. A bit of preventative maintenance could help down the line. Best of luck.

 

Coolant lines which I already replaced. I would rather not touch those if it can be avoided. Access to the bolts of the valve itself is considerably more restricted than the ones for the pipe.

 

Worst case you could probably delete the EGR but obviously not for the purists and likely only if you are at your wits end on finding a replacement tube for sensible money. I did it on my AJ27, not because I wanted to, but because fitting it with the twin screw intake elbow is not exactly an easy job and I got fed up trying to get it to work. I'm guessing that the AJ34 is similar, but would be good to check if someone has done it if you end up throwing up your hands and going this way. You to need to blank off the exhaust end and the EGR valve end, and then run a bypass hose from the air intake pre-throttle body to the EGR valve to stop the ECU throwing codes - on AJ27 it checks for an intake pressure change on EGR valve opening to ensure it is working. Anyway, I hope you don't have to go this route, but providing the suggestion just in case...

 

Seems counter-intuitive. The EGR is meant to inject inert/O2-less gas in case the engine is running lean, so with too much O2 already. Running lean is not a good proposition as it (confusingly) lead to high combustion temperature, generation of bad pollutants and possibly detonation/pre-ignition. I realize that the EGR is about injecting dirty exhaust gas in an otherwise clean intake and not that appealing. Anyone that opened up the throttle body has seen the EGR "vomit" residue from that process, but EGR is still a net positive if Jaguar put it there in my view. To my knowledge, Jaguar accomplished the same end without an EGR valve on some XK8s with the VVT somehow, which I thought was pretty neat. Best of luck on the repair.

 

FYI I don't know if this will help.

 

I called Jagbits, they were able to locate a used pipe for a little over $100 + shipping.

Now I just gotta figure out how I’m going to remove the two aforementioned bolts.

Maybe a combo of liquid wrench and a breaker bar.