Thinking of Buying a 1998 XJ8 3.2 92K Nikasil

[F129RLU]

I know its an old issue and its been discussed a few times before but after trawling through all the posts regarding it i'm still a little uninformed.

If this car has got to 92k miles on its origional engine with a full service history, is it a good buy. We're on low sulpher fuel in this country now so if the nikasil liners are ok, can they still develop 'new' damage?

Any help truely appreciated

Ian

[Jaguar steve]

A 1998 car will have been exposed to the higher Sulphur content fuel which under certain circumstances caused errosion of the Nikasil coating on the bores for up to two years.

Whether or not this particurlar car has developed a problem will depend on the pattern of use and the mileage covered during this time.

It may already have had a replacement enginge. Check the service history with a Jaguar dealer.

You can have a blow by check done at a Jaguar workshop to see if any excess bore wear has occured but first of all have a look inside the air intake trunking and the bore of the throttle body. If there's any evidence of oil mist or deposits here then it's worth further investigation before you buy.

Find Broardbeans post on here about the XJ8 and read other posts about secondary timing chain tensioners too.

[F129RLU]

Thank you for the response. Although most of that information i have already come across during my searches.

The question i really was unsure about was.

If the car has now been on Low sulpher petrol for 8 years and thousands of miles trouble free, can a new problem still develop from nikasil damage caused between 1998 - 2000??

What would suddenly cause a problem like this to raise its head after so many trouble free years? Surely i'm thinking that of all the cars with this problem when they were built, for one to have got to this stage in its life and this amount of mileage without either breaking or being replaced /repaired, would be pretty far fetched?

Or have i missed the point here?

Cheers everyone, i just think we need a new look into the nikasil issue. I've had a lot of experiance of the BMW's V8 with the same problem, and the general opinion there is that our fears about nikasil are out of context and out of date. Whats your opinions??

Ian

[Jaguar steve]

F129RLU said:

Thank you for the response. Although most of that information i have already come across during my searches.

The question i really was unsure about was.

If the car has now been on Low sulpher petrol for 8 years and thousands of miles trouble free, can a new problem still develop from nikasil damage caused between 1998 - 2000??

What would suddenly cause a problem like this to raise its head after so many trouble free years? Surely i'm thinking that of all the cars with this problem when they were built, for one to have got to this stage in its life and this amount of mileage without either breaking or being replaced /repaired, would be pretty far fetched?

Or have i missed the point here?

Cheers everyone, i just think we need a new look into the nikasil issue. I've had a lot of experiance of the BMW's V8 with the same problem, and the general opinion there is that our fears about nikasil are out of context and out of date. Whats your opinions??

Ian

No you havn't missed the point IMO, and if you've got experience of the same issue with BMWs then you're probrably in a better position than most to decide.

You could have a situation where a engine has suffered some bore errosion - not enough to cause the usual failure to start and lumpy running symptoms - but still have the problem lurking just below the surface. Perhaps it's a gently driven car in regular use with just enough compression not to cause any problems. Change the pattern of use, drive it much harder, use an oil with a more aggressive detergent, have an overheating incident in heavy trafic or just do a few thousand more miles with an engine that's borderline and you could unearth the problem.

Or perhaps the owner has squirted oil in the bores and got it started and warmed up just before you arrive to look at it.... Who knows?

To be fair 'tho there is a consensus that a Nikasil engine in good condition is actually better than the steel liner replacement.

Oil deposits in the air intake trunking and around the throttle body is a clue somthing's amiss but the only way to properly check the condition of the engine is to have a blow-by test done. IIRC 40l/m or above is a fail, 25l/m or less is good. Whether you want to pay for this bsfore you buy the car and get the peace of mind a good result will bring is somthing only you can decide.

HTH

Edited by Jaguar steve on Monday 8th September 17:28