Hi all , I’m going to be doing my head gasket on the '88 , as soon as i can find somewhere to carry it out , i have nowhere to do it where i live . My question is , is it absolutely necessary to remove the distributor . Thanks .
From memory no but its about 12 years since I did mine, why the concern?
Robin, Not overly confident of getting it back in in the right place , that’s all . I’m assuming that it is taken out to also take out the chain tensioner , i have no rattles from the chain , so no need to replace the tensioner , just losening it would , i think be enough to slacken the chains to remove the cam sprockets. I may be wrong there . I’m sure others will have an opinion . Thanks
Dissy only sends the spark on its way, the timing is done by th ECU, it’s important to get it back in roughly the same place but there is tolerance in the setup.
Standard procedure for the cam drive, just don’t drop the sprockets 
Robin is correct. Its not like the old cars where twisting it will affect the timing.
Its pretty easy to take out and reinstall. I’d do it just to have it out of the way.
OK , Thanks for the replies , will see how it goes with it in , if need be will remove it . Thanks Mark
Have been doing a lot of reading regards head gasket replacing , in some it says it pays to use a gasket sealant around the area adjacent to the distributor , to prevent future oil leaks , is this the area in the pic ?
thanks mark
It’s more to the top right of the area you have marked, I believe the latest gaskets have been improved in that area.
thanks Robin , i wasn’t sure of exactly where .
Mark,
The original problem with the head gasket leak was the seal (or lack of it) at the interface between the head and block for the oil feed to the camshafts. The gasket design was changed pretty quickly to insert a proper sealing ring around that hole so, providing you buy a genuine Jaguar replacement head gasket you do NOT need to use any sealant in any area of the head gasket.