Have an oil leak towards the front of the engine. Basically covers the entire bottom end. Seems to be coming from a bit higher up. Most of it towards the driver's side. Here's a few pictures I snapped of it. At first I thought it was the oil cooler lines, but the oil seems to be coming from somewhere higher up and dripping on the the oil cooler lines, the oil pan, the left side lower front control arm bush. You can even see some oil under what I assume is either the power steering pump, or the a/c compressor.

However, despite what looks like a huge oil leak, the level hasn't really dropped much. The dipstick reads slightly below full. I did change my oil in late July. Yes, it was already leaking from way before then. I've had this leak for about two years and have just been giving other items priority.

 

On my XJ8, the front main seal was leaking as well as the timing cover gasket. Looks like the timing cover behind the drive pulley is black from years of minor seepage. Mine looked like that by about 15 years old and 110,000 miles. I think it kind of slings the oil out and it just goes everywhere. I kind of lived with it too until the the leak from the back of the engine got really bad. That was the oil galley plug had come loose, not even finger tight and one day started leaving puddles instead of drips. Also had some seepage from the valve cover gaskets and around the vvt solenoids even tho the valve cover gaskets had been replaced with the tensioners and were much newer. But I don't think the valve cover gaskets were dripping on the ground. I would have to pull either the transmission or the motor to get at the oil galley plug, but since the front was leaking too and it was time for hoses and lots of other maintenance, I pulled the motor and went through it, replacing ALL the gaskets, seals and hoses at once. It can be a bear to get that front main pulley off. It can be done without special tools, but just go ahead and order the special tools and don't waste time and frustration. And besides the main seal between the pulley and the timing cover, there was also a thin but critical o-ring between the crankshaft snout and the pulley. And as long as you have access, go ahead and check the state of the chain guides. You have the newer tensioners, but your chain guides are still plastic. I found mine had some hairline cracks and so I replaced them as well.

 

I don't have leaks from the rear of the engine, so that's a good sign. The possibility of a leak from the timing cover gasket and front pulley is daunting because so much has to come out just to swap those. As you said, might as well take care of the primary chain guides, but I don't have the time for that right now. I do, however, have a leak from the driver's side valve cover gasket that seems to come from around the dipstick area. I have a hunch that that specific leak is caused by the stud and bolt grommets because for some reason, the gasket kit I bought from Rockauto was missing 4 of the grommets and I had to reuse those. However, I don't think that's the only leak. Oil seems to be coming out of other places as well.

 

Checked from above to see if my leak was limited to the bottom end. Right side doesn't have this leak, it's limited to the driver's side. Can't be the damper pulley, because oil is present much higher than it. I'm thinking it's either the valve cover gasket, timing gasket on that side (less certain about this), or maybe the head gasket is leaking oil outwards (highly doubt this). I'm leaning towards the valve cover gasket unless there's something else that could leak from so high up in the engine, such as a sensor or plug on the left front side? As I said before, I don't think this is my only leak, but it seems to be the most prominent.

 

Are those last two pictures indicative of a valve cover gasket leak towards the front? I don't want to throw parts at this that won't solve the problem.

 

Hard to say from the photos. Keep in mind the belt and pulleys will sling oil if any gets on them. I would thoroughly clean it and then see where it reappears first.

The valve covers have a soft rubber o-ring style gasket with permatex in the corners. If they are punt on correctly I would think they would not be likely to leak. If they are leaking the lower side should be moist where the leak is coming from.

 

What’s odd to me is that the oil is not being slung around elsewhere that high up the engine. The other side is dry. I keep suspecting it’s the valve cover grommets. I recall that the Mahle gasket kit I installed in the summer was short about 4 or 5 stud grommets. I had to reuse those grommets and made sure that those were towards the front of the engine because of easier access. I’m just wondering if the leak I’m seeing now is a consequence of that or completely unrelated.

 

use the Fel-Pro Lincoln LS valve cover gasket set if you have an R. seals perfectly and comes with all the grommets

 

I agree with the suggestion of a thorough clean followed by frequent checks after driving to pinpoint the source. Even though the oil is localised, the subsequent build-up can often be some distance from the actual source of a leak.

It's a small quantity so just a nuisance rather than posing a risk. Time spent in investigation could save you a lot of time in dismantling and refitting thre wrong parts.

Graham

 

Does the Fel-Pro gasket fit the 4.2 XKR? I looked for it the first time around and couldn’t find it.

Graham, I’ll go ahead and cleanup next week. I have a big test this Sunday and next Monday (NBDE II).

 

I agree with all of these suggestions by PD, as the source. if you pull the timing chain cover off there is a bitty little ring that seals the void behind the timing cover and the block and head faces, sleeeeeving the crank shaft end where quite bit of oil flows along the chains.... its literally a push fit onto the timing chain cover and then slides over the snout end of the crank coming to position between the TC cover and the two small lower sprockets. there is a resin coated material style seal in the ring that snuggly slides over the crank snout on reassembly of the TCcover. it wears and will allow (in what is actually a simple and cleaver style seal) oil to seap. the oil there isnt under pressure. it seaps drips onto the spinning balancer and flies mostly in the direction of the SPIN of the balancer

id say -
bonnet in service position
rad shroud out
serpintine belt off
cam covers off, looosened.
balancer off
17 or 20 bolts of the TCCover
pop in a new seal...
REVERSE...
sucks, but hey,,,,

 

Don’t the accessories also have to come out (power steering pump, a/c compressor, water pump)?


What does it take to remove the harmonic dampener pulley?

 

Out of curiosity, I ran my hand under the valve cover and felt film of oil from the front part of the cover, which is near where the leak can be seen in the above pictures. I think I will go ahead a change the grommets for the entire cover and see how that works out.

 

Other accessories don't need to be removed. Just the belt tensioner and please, be very careful when torquing it back down, the old steel on aluminum and stripped bolt problem. In fact be a bit careful with all the bolts that go into the aluminum castings. But no, from what I remember, not much more need be removed.

Its very possible to find oil seaping at the valve cover seals and the press in seal on the face of the TCCover, both.

I don't envy ya the need to pull the balancer, it's really the only kinda PITA part of the job. But it's doable. Be careful not to thread the two removal bolts into the balance wheel so deeply that they contact the TCCover - they'll go right thru it and resist the temptation to try to pry at the balance wheel using the TCCover as a leverage point. Yup,,, as me how I know, lol... Removing all of that to replace a cylinder head for a dropped valve seal was the first job I did on my XK8 and I made a ton of mistakes... No funnn that ah way.

 

First clean the engine as oil travels easily, even against gravity. On the clean dry engine stick masking tape or post-its in all suspect locations. Let it sit overnight and look for oil stains on the tape or post-its that will reveal a static leak. If all tape remains clean run the engine for a few minutes but don't drive it then look for a dynamic leak. If that fails then drive it until warm to find a hot inertial leak. If the tape remains clean then suspect and test un-taped areas. If these steps do not reveal the leak, give up, go drink six beers and take a leak.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean about the steel bolts on aluminum I already had my fun trying to remove a stripped idler pulley bolt stripped and breaking the bracket. I had to remove the alternator and take the bracket to a machine shop to get that fixed. I always use a torque wrench when working on the engine's aluminum surfaces. I am actually looking to buy a bicycle ¼" drive torque wrench that is good for small torque values from 2 - 20 Nm. I am not looking forward to remove the balancer. I'm glad to know that I don't have to remove any of the accessories. That makes me less likely to put off this job.

That dropped valve seal must have given you nightmares.

This is a good idea. I will try this first.

 

Not so much, believe it or not. It's a long story how I got here with now 3 jags and a Porsche, and a bike, lol. Projects... OMG. All in the last 4yrs or so. Still can't believe it.

I bought the car (was kinda given) on a whim and drove it (was driving badly) and when got home I heard this interesting tinging and pinging (almost musical) coming from under the hood. I knew NOTHING of these cars. I opened the hood, it was night, and I noticed the most lovely orange GLOW coming from the drivers side cat... Nearly **** my pants. I came to the forum and told folks what I was seeing, experiencing and sure enough - dropped seat. Spotted the bad seat thru the inlet after removing the intake plenum...

From there it was about replacing the head... In that I removed and re-removed the TCCover and all involved several times trying to get the VVT correct, which I was never able, I THINK, due to mismatched sensor lobes on the very rear of the LH intake cam... PITA. I live with a p1396 code. But still, the car has been a pure joy and (folks here are gunna yawn) SOON I expect to finally get around to an engine swap for a motor with just 35k miles on it. Anyways,,,

I think you will find that removal of the balancer is not that bad IF you have the crank lock tool (I never have). I think folks say not to loosen or retorque the front bolt (I hope someone will correct me) with the locking tool,,, but what I used on removal and torquing it down was one of those large pipe wrenches with the thick canvass strap, getting it on there tight, and then pinning the handle on something to keep it from moving. Stringing a old bit of serpentine belt between the pully and the canvas strap helps LOTS to keep the canvas from slipping/sliding over the grooves on the pully. By the end of a bunch of bum attempts at the VVT and later the tensioners,,, I could get it done pretty quickly...

There are lots of choices for pully removal tool. The Y shaped 3-4 branch style and the straight bar across the face of the pully with slots for the bolts that turn into the threaded holes on the recess spaces on either side of the pully center bolt is my choice. You just need to make sure to get a good BITE on those threaded holes and to be patient. Like MCMan says, turn the pully to drag on the damper a few turns, wait, tap with hammer, another turn, tap, tap turn and soon you'll see the thing budge,,, then youre home free.

Although your problem/leak might be from a combination of things,,, where my suggestion of the ring in the TCCover may be completely wrong,,, doing it all at once still might not be the worst move. The valve covers need to come off to replace the gaskets and ring seals anyways,,, in that, going further to remove the pully, the 3 hand fulls of 8 or 10mm TCCover bolts ain't that that much further. This way, you can know it's not a leak under the pully, or the two oil cooler feed hoses at the bottom of ALLLLL of this either. It's a bit of a pita no matter,,, but hours on a cool sunny day need to be spent doing sumpthin, lol...

About torque specs,,, I've become weary of them ONLY because those were the specs 20 or so years ago, when everything was new. The aluminum has been exposed to the steel, water, corrosion and 100000 hot and cold cycles since new,,, but that's just me. I am SICK of stripped and sheared bolts. It's the worst kind of show stopper...

​​​​​​Ooooppps,,, did I rant.
Man,,, good luck! You'll get it!

 

I always torque bolts on engines to the manufacturer specs and I'll usually lubricate the threads so that they'll come out easily later. It's worked well for me.
Torque needs to be the result of distortion/stretching of the threads, not dirt or corrosion on the threads, so clean threads give a more accurate torque.
I often use oil but I never install spark plugs (or lug nuts or exhaust components) without antiseize compound, It really helps things come apart later.
Felpro C5-A has been in my garage for decades.
Never had a problem when using it. I swear by it.

 

I was looking through my spare parts in my garage and found a front crankshaft seal still in its unopened vacuum sealed package which I bought at least five or six years ago for the XK8 convertible I sold. Part number AJ83698. I checked the SNG parts catalogue and sure enough, it is a match for my XKR.

If I go ahead and decide to change the timing cover gasket and front crankshaft seal, is it safe to use the seal I already have on hand?

 

Many suppliers will have had seals sat on the shelf for longer than that. Not exactly a regular fail.

Although they will deteriorate over time, wear (and failure) is mainly due to the repeated heating/cooling cycles in service.

Graham