[xj40] I'm back to timing

XJ40
1

Hello all,

I’ve been trying to figure out why my '88 3.6 has been giving me a “free
vibrating seat option” not offered in the owner’s manual…vibrating the
whole car as a matter of fact. It seems as though a cylinder isn’t
firing, but when you are cruising, you’d never know. Allow me to
delve…

I first checked my timing. A bit off. The triangle was one and a half
teeth away from the alignment point (crankshaft wheel teeth, that is).
To me, too many degrees from normal.

I checked my sparkplugs. All but cylinder 4 looked good. 4 had a
little oil. After 14 years, I suppose the rings should be allowed some
leakage, right? I was running NGKs, but bought some Champion Double
Platinum for kicks. See if one works better, I’ll give a head’s up down
the road. No pun intended. After changing the plugs–exact same
vibration, even at start up. By the way, after problem occurred, start
up was a little rough: cranks 2 more seconds than normal. Also, fuel
consumption is horrid: 23/19 before ~ 12/15 after.

I checked my wires at night. Looking for spark, looking for any light,
looking for cracks. Nothing, not even an unpleasant shock to my
fingers. Connections didn’t have any corrosion or deposits. Didn’t see
anything out of the norm. Question to follow…

I looked at the distributor cap and rotor. A little worn…some
corrosion, but nothing to cause such a major malfunction. For my own
enjoyment, I changed both out for new. Two less Lucas parts in my car.
Exact same vibration as before.

sigh

For no reason at all, I changed out the fuel and air filter…they were
mispriced in the store, and I figured that I would take advantage of
this. No difference in vibration. The fuel pressure seems to be
normal.

So, I’m left with a few questions: 1)What is the resistance for each of
the sparkplug wires supposed to be? I don’t have specifications on
this. 2)Aside from removing my engine to check the timing chain and
having no clue whether things are working correctly or not, does anyone
have any more suggestions for me? 3)If I take it Jaguar, could…stress
on could…the problem be as simple to fix as “checking the ECU and
‘resetting’ the comp to default,” or am I going to need to chop off an
arm before I pick up the cat? I really need both arms connected to
function properly.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt
'88 XJ40 3.6
Still using Leatherique at 170K mi. What’s that? “Beautiful,” you say?
I thought so.

2

I would suggest you do a compression check…----- Original Message -----
From: “Matt Curless” jaguar_ltd@hotmail.com
To: xj40@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:52 PM
Subject: [xj40] I’m back to timing…

Hello all,

I’ve been trying to figure out why my '88 3.6 has been giving me a “free
vibrating seat option” not offered in the owner’s manual…vibrating the
whole car as a matter of fact. It seems as though a cylinder isn’t
firing, but when you are cruising, you’d never know. Allow me to
delve…

I first checked my timing. A bit off. The triangle was one and a half
teeth away from the alignment point (crankshaft wheel teeth, that is).
To me, too many degrees from normal.

I checked my sparkplugs. All but cylinder 4 looked good. 4 had a
little oil. After 14 years, I suppose the rings should be allowed some
leakage, right? I was running NGKs, but bought some Champion Double
Platinum for kicks. See if one works better, I’ll give a head’s up down
the road. No pun intended. After changing the plugs–exact same
vibration, even at start up. By the way, after problem occurred, start
up was a little rough: cranks 2 more seconds than normal. Also, fuel
consumption is horrid: 23/19 before ~ 12/15 after.

I checked my wires at night. Looking for spark, looking for any light,
looking for cracks. Nothing, not even an unpleasant shock to my
fingers. Connections didn’t have any corrosion or deposits. Didn’t see
anything out of the norm. Question to follow…

I looked at the distributor cap and rotor. A little worn…some
corrosion, but nothing to cause such a major malfunction. For my own
enjoyment, I changed both out for new. Two less Lucas parts in my car.
Exact same vibration as before.

sigh

For no reason at all, I changed out the fuel and air filter…they were
mispriced in the store, and I figured that I would take advantage of
this. No difference in vibration. The fuel pressure seems to be
normal.

So, I’m left with a few questions: 1)What is the resistance for each of
the sparkplug wires supposed to be? I don’t have specifications on
this. 2)Aside from removing my engine to check the timing chain and
having no clue whether things are working correctly or not, does anyone
have any more suggestions for me? 3)If I take it Jaguar, could…stress
on could…the problem be as simple to fix as “checking the ECU and
‘resetting’ the comp to default,” or am I going to need to chop off an
arm before I pick up the cat? I really need both arms connected to
function properly.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt
'88 XJ40 3.6
Still using Leatherique at 170K mi. What’s that? “Beautiful,” you say?
I thought so.

3

Matt,

And 

Since #4 Cylinder is suspect.  Was it oil are just dark/black?

Maybe Carbon? Check the fuel injector and the connector to it.
Sometimes the pins push out the back and make bad contact.

O2 sensor could be suspect for overall rich operation and poor

gas mileage . Check that also. O2 sensor should set a code on the VCM,
if the VCM works unless it is just intermittent. Back probe leads should
be very low volts (.1V) cold and increasing to around 1V when hot. It
typically moves around but should stay closer to 1V.

Spark plug wire I believe are to be less than 1K/foot of length.

I know new ones are typically less than 1K for all 6 wires including the
longest one.

It may be worth while to check the spark on #4 also for quality

and whether it may be intermittent which would bring you back to the
wires since you have changed the cap and rotor.

Regards,
Dana
88 XJ6 VDP
95 XJ6 SOV
NOLA-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xj40@jag-lovers.org [mailto:owner-xj40@jag-lovers.org] On
Behalf Of David Boarder
Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2002 12:26 AM
To: xj40@jag-lovers.org; Matt Curless
Subject: Re: [xj40] I’m back to timing…

I would suggest you do a compression check…

----- Original Message -----
From: “Matt Curless” jaguar_ltd@hotmail.com
To: xj40@jag-lovers.org
Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 10:52 PM
Subject: [xj40] I’m back to timing…

Hello all,

I checked my sparkplugs. All but cylinder 4 looked good. 4 had a
little oil. After 14 years, I suppose the rings should be allowed
some
leakage, right?

So, I’m left with a few questions: 1)What is the resistance for each
of
the sparkplug wires supposed to be?

Matt
'88 XJ40 3.6
Still using Leatherique at 170K mi. What’s that? “Beautiful,” you
say?
I thought so.

4

Matt,
Sounds like one of three possible problems.

Compression problem in #4 cylinder (head gasket/valve/hole in piston),

Bad injector or connection to it,

Bad spark in that cylinder (cap/rotor/wire)

My first guess would be a compression problem.

Brett
1990 XJ6>

Hello all,

I’ve been trying to figure out why my '88 3.6 has been giving
me a “free
vibrating seat option” not offered in the owner’s
manual…vibrating the
whole car as a matter of fact. It seems as though a cylinder isn’t
firing, but when you are cruising, you’d never know. Allow me to
delve…

I first checked my timing. A bit off. The triangle was one
and a half
teeth away from the alignment point (crankshaft wheel teeth,
that is).
To me, too many degrees from normal.

I checked my sparkplugs. All but cylinder 4 looked good. 4 had a
little oil. After 14 years, I suppose the rings should be
allowed some
leakage, right? I was running NGKs, but bought some Champion Double
Platinum for kicks. See if one works better, I’ll give a
head’s up down
the road. No pun intended. After changing the plugs–exact same
vibration, even at start up. By the way, after problem
occurred, start
up was a little rough: cranks 2 more seconds than normal. Also, fuel
consumption is horrid: 23/19 before ~ 12/15 after.

I checked my wires at night. Looking for spark, looking for
any light,
looking for cracks. Nothing, not even an unpleasant shock to my
fingers. Connections didn’t have any corrosion or deposits.
Didn’t see
anything out of the norm. Question to follow…

I looked at the distributor cap and rotor. A little worn…some
corrosion, but nothing to cause such a major malfunction. For my own
enjoyment, I changed both out for new. Two less Lucas parts
in my car.
Exact same vibration as before.

sigh

For no reason at all, I changed out the fuel and air
filter…they were
mispriced in the store, and I figured that I would take advantage of
this. No difference in vibration. The fuel pressure seems to be
normal.

So, I’m left with a few questions: 1)What is the resistance
for each of
the sparkplug wires supposed to be? I don’t have specifications on
this. 2)Aside from removing my engine to check the timing chain and
having no clue whether things are working correctly or not,
does anyone
have any more suggestions for me? 3)If I take it Jaguar,
could…stress
on could…the problem be as simple to fix as “checking the ECU and
‘resetting’ the comp to default,” or am I going to need to
chop off an
arm before I pick up the cat? I really need both arms connected to
function properly.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt
'88 XJ40 3.6
Still using Leatherique at 170K mi. What’s that?
“Beautiful,” you say?
I thought so.