With a solid rust free car in hand there are a few upgrades/maintenance items to take care of. These items need to be taken care of sooner rather than later and in a few cases catastrophic failures can and do occur.

The single most important upgrade is to replace the secondary timing chain tensioners. Early engines came equipped with tensioners that have plastic bodies which will crack and fail allowing the timing chain to skip one or more teeth. Skip 2 teeth and you will end up with bent valves. It is not a question of if but rather of when the failure will occur. There were 3 variations of tensioners with only the 3rd with metal bodies. Changing the secondary tensioners using the zip tie method is relatively easy and can be done over a day or two. Changing the primary chain tensioner is also required but is more involved and requires a higher level of experience and tools.

In our case we opted to do the secondary right away and deferred the primary till later. Generally speaking a failure in the primary is not catastrophic. If you are not up to doing the secondary then having a shop do the primary and secondary at the same time makes sense.

The ZF 5 speed transmission can wear in the valve body and induce pressure spikes that have been known to destroy the A clutch. This failure results in the need to rebuild the transmission. Transgo makes a replacement valve kit that eliminates the pressure spikes. The valve replacement is also not very difficult and can be done with the transmission in the car. This upgrade is not as critical as the secondary cam chain tensioners but a failure is not good. Best to do sooner than later. Also, the transmission fluid is listed as never needing a replacement but in reality it should be replaced every 50,000 to 75,000 miles.

Next on our list are the upper front shock tower bushings. These are plastic rings about 6″ in diameter which disintegrate over time. When they deteriorate the front ride height drops and steering geometry goes to hell. The tires will rub and steering can be unpredictable. Replacement bushings can be sourced from the various vendors and Jaguar dealers but, and this is a bug but, these replacements rarely last over 5000 miles. And reports of failure in under 2000 miles are known.

There is a solution to this problem offered by members of the Jaguar community. At least 2 Jaguar Forum members offer polyurethane replacement bushings that take care of this problem. As long as the shock tower is removed you might as well either rebuild the shock bushings or replace the shocks. This restores correct steering geometry and with a fresh alignment you car is much better off.

Those are what I consider the big three “fixes” needed with a new to you XK8. Get those done first.

Our car had a set of Pirelli P Zero tires with lots of tread remaining. However those tires were made in 2010 making them 15 years old. Tires deteriorate and rubber becomes hard and cracks and really are not very safe at any speed let alone on a freeway. We opted to replace the tires with an ultra high performance all season tire. In our case we selected a Kumho tire rather than the top of the line Michelin all season for half the cost. The Kumho have been great but sometimes I think I should have gone for the more expensive tire.

Next summer we will take a look at the convertible top hydraulic pump. The top goes up and down by hydraulics and as the unit wears over time they have been known to develop over pressure failures that typically burst the pipes in the latch. This squirts green hydraulic fluid all over the place. Something to take care of in the future.

Our car is 25 years old so we are sorting our a few to a small bunch of smaller items. Nothing major and parts and or solutions are available along with a support community.