Hi all, this is my first post on here.

I recently became the proud owner of this beast after taking a gamble buying it unseen from a well know auction site as a non runner. Further investigation found that the engine had locked up due to a major mechanical failure. After some deliberation, I decided that the easiest route was to source another engine, which proved to be a little tricky as this particular 4.0 litre supercharged engine seems to have been produced for a couple of years.



Eventually located a second hand engine from a specialist Jaguar breakers. The engine removal turned out to be fairly straight forward. Swapping all the ancillary components did take a little time though!



Stripping the old engine revealed two broken inlet valves. I've not been able to determine the cause of the failure. The cam timing was correct and there is no sign of damaged in any of the other bores.




Replacement engine having complete new timing chain installed. A new water pump was also fitted before reassembly.



Which was a good move as both left and right timing chain guides were found to be cracked.

 

Welcome to the forums Pete,

Your post had been automatically locked for moderation which is why there were no replies. I've done some edits and unlocked it.

Looks like the original dropped a valve. I've had this happen on the old straight six XK engine in the XJ6's but haven't seen one in a V8. Used replacement was definitely the way to go.

Graham

 

Welcome to the forum Pete. Looks like you have your work cut out for you, but you are well on your way. You have found great location for good advice. Keep us all in the loop with your progress and pix. You will have a great vehicle when complete.

 

Pete,

Geez, you’re a brave man to try and save a non-runner.

You obviously know what you’re doing on the engine swap out. Any other problems that you know about?

Are you you going to tackle the gearbox too?

Well worth checking the electrical systems now as well, as there are numerous control modules on a CAN bus network.

 

I just want to get it running at the moment to make sure the replacement engine is ok. Then I can run it to check the rest of the mechanics, brakes etc. Next job is to get it Mot'd to see what other work may need doing to it to get it road worthy. Once it's proved itself, I'll give the transmission a service and give the whole car a decent check over.

I've already gone through the diagnostics when I couldn't get it to start. I had the red and amber warning lights flashing constantly which I thought was one reason why it wouldn't start. Turns out this was down to multiple transmission fault codes due to, as you mentioned, loads of CANBUS faults. Cleared all trans and engine codes and so far nothing has returned. We'll wait and see what happens when I've replaced the seized fuel pump 😁.

 

Needless to say, If you have the time/patience to take pix and keep a log, this will be a great addition to the forum. This will be well watched under any situation. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks, will do. I'm enjoying this little challenge and can't wait to get it up and running! I will definitely keep this post updated.

Next job is to work out how to access the fuel pump (or pumps? Not sure if it might have two) and I've got some sort of crankcase breather pipe find a home for. Onwards...

 

A belated welcome, Pete.
Good news is you have the Merc. transmission, bad is you have 2 fuel pumps (as you've found out), but they're easier to get to on the coupe. There are a few threads on here that will guide you.

Not exactly a little challenge!

Best of luck.

 

Brave soul. Reminds me of when I broke my 911. Moral of that story: Never let an aluminum block overheat; very expensive things happpen.

 

Well, Jolene the Jaguar lives again! After quite a struggle replacing the two seized fuel pumps in the tank, she fired straight up! She's a bit lumpy as I think I might have a bit of an air leak in the intake system somewhere and there is a bit of a rattle from the supercharger (hopefully just down to the rough idle?). She gas good oil pressure and sounds lovely. Very happy bunny! The water pump for the supercharger is very obvious when you first turn the ignition on. Is this normal?

 

Well done Pete.

Another cat saved

 

Pete,

Congrats on saving your XKR. I had a drop in re-conditioned engine on a 1970 Triumph, and it was the best feeling to hear the "new" engine breathe life into the car.
Well done!

Sorry can't help on the anticipated noise from the water pump, as I run a 1999 base XK8. I would suggest you create an audio (.mp4 etc) file and upload it here so other more learned Forum members can hear what it sounds like. Then they will be in a position to maybe answer your question.

 

These failed fuel pump come up a lot. Is it simply that they are gummed up from sitting in gas too long? Would a deep soak into injector cleaner manage to bring those to life? I managed to "fix" a seized pump that had been sitting in gas too long with a basic disassembly of the outer shell, and a deep soak in cleaner (some other car). Obviously, anything rubber was removed as generally very incompatible with these cleaners (rubber swells like mad). Maybe keep them as spares if the fix works.

The intercooler water pump turns on with the ignition key on accessory (engine off) and can normally be heard if you pay attention. It's a Jaguar, so I assume it is not meant to be loud. I suppose an old pump will make more noise, or if there is cavitation or air bubbles. Folks have identified a replacement compatible Bosch pump to use as a new part if in doubt about the old one. Did not seem like a big project, I believe the electrical plug has to be reworked. I have an XK8, so no direct experience...

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

Just some thoughts for you.............. Valley Hoses and Engine Mounts. Id do them whilst they are easily accessible, comparatively speaking.

Good luck with your car. Its good to see another nice car saved from the breakers yard.

 

Supercharger bearings do wear out, if it sounds like a bag of rocks at idle, then might be that new bearings are in order, which is a pain since you have to pull the supercharger and press in new ones I think, should be good info on the forum. (My SC bearings went bad, but that was the excuse for me to go to Avos twin screw...)

 

Thanks for your comments, that's very useful. The water pump seems to be getting quieter the longer I run the car, so I'm wondering if your idea that the pump could be cavitating may well have been the case. I've now run the engine up to temperature to get the cooling fans to cut in and it does seem noticeably quieter now.

Both fuel pumps had electrically failed. There was no circuit through either of them. I find this a bit odd, I'm pretty sure that this must have just been down to lack of use. I can only assume that it must be down to stuck brushes or something, but no amount of tapping the pump bodies could coax them back to life. I decided that even if I could have got the pumps to work again, from a reliability point of view, I was going to fit new ones anyway. It's not a very nice job to get to them and didn't fancy doing the same job twice.

 

Valley hoses were inspected and found to be in good condition and so were reused. I actually broke the right hand engine mount when I was reassembling the engine, so I'm currently waiting for a new one to arrive.

 

We've recently had a 40k miles X150 in the workshop for a noisy supercharger and yes, this one does sound similar. There was a bit of play in the drive pulley to my supercharger, but nothing like as bad as the X150 one we changed, so I decided to refit it. I'm hoping that once I get the running stabilised at idle, the noise will no longer be noticable.

 

I've now found out the cause of the rough idle. It's down to an EVAP air leak. I've disconnected and blocked off the pipe to the throttle body and she runs perfectly. I need to investigate this, but the car is currently in the paint shop having both sills and rear quarter panels repainted.

I will get her back in the ramp next week and strip out the left inner wing liner to try to get to the bottom of the air leak as I believe this is where the EVAP valve and canister are located?. She also needs the bottom ball joint replacing on this side which I will do at the same time.

All being well, I'm hoping to get her Mot'd and on the road for next weekend. I'm planning on clocking up a few miles in her the following week to iron out any niggles and if all goes well, I will be taking the car for a weekend trip away with my wife in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed...

 

MOT time today, and a pass issued after replacement of two knackered wiper blades. Quite happy with that. I've decided to replace both front tyres after it was drawn to my attention that the date stamp on them dates them to 2001!! Can't quite figure out how they've survived so long, they still had loads of tread left on them.