OT : Anyone own a Jag they're planning on converting?

[SnakeyesTx]

I used to have an XJ-6, and when the 6 popped on it which apparently was really common on them, I decided to save the car since the rest of it was too nice and drop in an SBC. Ordered the Sun Coast conversions kit and started shopping for a drive-train. Almost a year passed by and the car developed a mysterious leak which I never was able to find that filled the car with water 2 inches high in the floor board almost every time it rained. So I knocked out all the floor vents and tried my best to keep the car dry (pretty hard with a house with no garage!) After another few months I realized that someone else would be better off working on the car before I had any time to do anything with it and sold it off. The buyer wanted the conversion kit as well but couldn't afford it at the time so he took the car. That was two years ago. I still have this kit sitting in my room collecting dust.

I tried posting it locally on craigslist but never got any hits. Since I purchased this kit, I've noticed that its gone up in price over 100 dollars more than I paid for it. If anyone here is interested in it, I'll gladly sell it to them for what I paid for it (300 plus shipping). This kit will work for any XJS or XJ-6 up to 1988. If you're interested, lemme know and I'll send it out to someone who can actually put this to good use.

[Jay 535i]

A Jag with an American engine? What's the point?

When I was a wee lad my dad had a V12 XJ-S. Man, that thing was awesome. Without that twelve-banger, the car would lose half its appeal, IMHO.

[SnakeyesTx]

That 12 banger is an awesome motor by name, but god aweful for power-to-liter displacement, not to mention mpgs. Brand new in 1990 I had an XJS that couldn't get 12 mpg downhill with a tailwind. Besides... Jag is owned by the blue oval now its already on its death throes financially this year. :D

[BillionPa]

lightweight forged high compression pistons should help out quite a bit for power, as long as you use high octane. $$$$ though

[aston_jag_tech]

XJ-6 Conversion? Never seen or heard that before, that would be insteresting. The older(post 1988) xj's I think are solid, besides little electrical issues. Their suspension setups are fairly good. The suspensions without the self leveling that is :)
Yeah that v-12 is a dog! They are a hassle to work on too. Ive down a little work on them with my team leader and its just a pain.
We have been working on an older 79 XKE v12 with carbs and thats a challenge to balance the 4 carbs and keep it smog legal.

[winfred]

seen a few xjs conversions, the v12 sucks balls to work on you can atleast make the 6 run good and not puke in one form or another. i want a e-type with a 6 banger, **** the 12 i've known a few and when the 6 is tuned right it will hang with the 12 well into tripple digit speeds, i think the 6 runs outta ass around 150

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

loads of performance parts for chevy made it a real fun car.

Too bad it wasn't mine...

[myles]

I just finished helping a mate rebuild the fuel injection on his 88 xj12 series 3. It actually a daimler double six. We still have to give the gm400 trans a fliud, filter and mount change and fix a hole in the exhaust.

The engines in them cook the injector wiring harness, so my job was to create a new harness from high temp teflon insulated wire. The job has been as great success. It runs on all 12 again (was running on 9), and is far more fuel efficient. He got 20mpg on the latest highway drive.

Not as much fun as the BMW to work on, but is a very good car to drive.

[Jon K]

I too have worked at a jag dealer ship and drove a bunch of older XJ6's, they have a surpring amount of torque - I suppose its because its a 4.0L 6!

[Bill R.]

the car.. Goofy ass fuel injectors with short pieces of fuel line connecting each injector to the fuel rail.. when the fuel line pieces get old you develop leaks that spray right down into the valley of the v12... and whats sitting
in the valley? 2 distributors and Coils that have problems with dist caps and rotors anyway.. so you get a little gas spraying down into the valley on top of a dist cap thats arcing anway and suddenly its barbecue time. A cap and rotor off of one that i worked on.http://www.bimmernut.com/%7Ebillr/images/Dist%20cap%20and%20rotor.2.jpg




I just finished helping a mate rebuild the fuel injection on his 88 xj12 series 3. It actually a daimler double six. We still have to give the gm400 trans a fliud, filter and mount change and fix a hole in the exhaust.

The engines in them cook the injector wiring harness, so my job was to create a new harness from high temp teflon insulated wire. The job has been as great success. It runs on all 12 again (was running on 9), and is far more fuel efficient. He got 20mpg on the latest highway drive.

Not as much fun as the BMW to work on, but is a very good car to drive.

[myles]

We tackled that problem too. There was one very small leak from an old fuel injector fuel line. We replaced all flexible fuel lines in the engine bay. The old ones just snapped off. It also got the injectors fully cleaned, tested and serviced, injector o-rings, rotor, cap, plugs and leads. And there is nothing like having to take the bonnet off to do the job.

It was a day and halfs work all up.

[Jon K]

Is there anyway to make a solid fuel rail with conventional bosch flanges?

[gale]

I've never owned a jag but I must confess I've lusted after them on numerous occasions & help a friend with his 89 XJS once in awhile. Somewhere around 88 or 89, the V-12 got somewhat sorted out (with noted exceptions). An outfit in Knoxville puts together a kit to put either a 5 or 6 speed Tremec trans in them and they have a demo XJS that's a blast! -- An XJS with a stick, now that's fun:

http://www.keislerauto.com/

Here's another resource by Kirby Palm that is a must-read for any Jag DIY owner, download his .doc file "Experience in a Book":

http://www.nettally.com/palmk/jaguar.html

If you climb the learning curve like we all have with our bimmers, and tend to regular maintenance and inspections, there's no reason why a newer one can't be reliable. Yes, the XJS is hard to work on, but so are 750's or e31's.

The 95-97 straight XJ6's are pretty decent for reliability I'm told & switched to the Motronic DME & Bosch injectors. They have the typical cold solder joint problems for windows & cruise control, but we never have LKM or Sword or Mustard relay problems with our BMW's now do we? The Jag in-line 6 long block has always been solid & a strong performer, it's all the niggling bolt-on accessories that makes them a nightmare, not to mention the dreaded Lucas prince of darkness. (don't get me started).

In 98 they went to the V-8, somehow Jag did Nikasil right, never hear about problems with their cylinder walls (nor Porsche either). I think it was around 96 that Ford started interjecting their influence. I don't care at all for the new X-type (cough--Ford Taurus look-alike with a funny nose).

I rarely hear about driveshaft or rotted muffler problems, but on the other hand, I wouldn't want to deal with inboard brakes on a regular basis.

Can't see myself in an XJ until I'm old enough to wear a sweater & a beret & smoke a pipe, but I must admit the ride is nice. I'm double-nickel now, will I ever be old enough? Let's hope not.

An older model with a SBC could be lots of fun but they tend to have cooling problems. E-types have to be one of THE prettiest classics of all time when it comes to styling, but everyone who has ever owned one still curses it to this day. Pick your poison. I may take up another marque one day but can't envision I'll ever be without my trusty bimmer.

Again, ignore my ramblings -- I must be bored tonite.

[winfred]

it's easyer to replace the injectors (old as **** and probably need it anyway) or cut the hoses off and replace with screw clamps and fuel injection line


Is there anyway to make a solid fuel rail with conventional bosch flanges?

[Bill R.]

both xjs's and 750 v12's, there's no comparison. The 750 is much nicer to work on and is far less likely to need work. My brother in law, Kevin did a
xjs 6 speed conversion using a jaguar factory racing 6 speed box. It was still a pig after it was done, then they put an ls7 crate motor in it. It was then not bad. The owner kept it only about 6 months after that and got rid of it.

As far as the Nikasil blocks go, Jaguar had as many problems if not more than bmw and they are still having problems with them... the amazing thing is that they knew of bmw's history of trouble with it before they ever produced it. Do a search on the internet for Jaguar nikasil problems and you'll come up with a ton of them.





I've never owned a jag but I must confess I've lusted after them on numerous occasions & help a friend with his 89 XJS once in awhile. Somewhere around 88 or 89, the V-12 got somewhat sorted out (with noted exceptions). An outfit in Knoxville puts together a kit to put either a 5 or 6 speed Tremec trans in them and they have a demo XJS that's a blast! -- An XJS with a stick, now that's fun:

http://www.keislerauto.com/

Here's another resource by Kirby Palm that is a must-read for any Jag DIY owner, download his .doc file "Experience in a Book":

http://www.nettally.com/palmk/jaguar.html

If you climb the learning curve like we all have with our bimmers, and tend to regular maintenance and inspections, there's no reason why a newer one can't be reliable. Yes, the XJS is hard to work on, but so are 750's or e31's.

The 95-97 straight XJ6's are pretty decent for reliability I'm told & switched to the Motronic DME & Bosch injectors. They have the typical cold solder joint problems for windows & cruise control, but we never have LKM or Sword or Mustard relay problems with our BMW's now do we? The Jag in-line 6 long block has always been solid & a strong performer, it's all the niggling bolt-on accessories that makes them a nightmare, not to mention the dreaded Lucas prince of darkness. (don't get me started).

In 98 they went to the V-8, somehow Jag did Nikasil right, never hear about problems with their cylinder walls (nor Porsche either). I think it was around 96 that Ford started interjecting their influence. I don't care at all for the new X-type (cough--Ford Taurus look-alike with a funny nose).

I rarely hear about driveshaft or rotted muffler problems, but on the other hand, I wouldn't want to deal with inboard brakes on a regular basis.

Can't see myself in an XJ until I'm old enough to wear a sweater & a beret & smoke a pipe, but I must admit the ride is nice. I'm double-nickel now, will I ever be old enough? Let's hope not.

An older model with a SBC could be lots of fun but they tend to have cooling problems. E-types have to be one of THE prettiest classics of all time when it comes to styling, but everyone who has ever owned one still curses it to this day. Pick your poison. I may take up another marque one day but can't envision I'll ever be without my trusty bimmer.

Again, ignore my ramblings -- I must be bored tonite.

[winfred]

hey bill did ford **** up jag as badly as volvo? the newer volvos ssssssssssssssssssuck 40s 80s and the later 70s blow chunks, the 850s and 960s are crap compared to 240/740/940s but are less of a pain then the later cars

[Bill R.]

reliability and general maintenance.. They are a better product but they lost something in the mix.. Whereas i have to agree with you on Volvo.. They just got worse.





hey bill did ford **** up jag as badly as volvo? the newer volvos ssssssssssssssssssuck 40s 80s and the later 70s blow chunks, the 850s and 960s are crap compared to 240/740/940s but are less of a pain then the later cars

[aston_jag_tech]

Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover(the PAG) is up for grabs for Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, toyota...I wonder whos going to buy the group.

Ive seen alot of problems with the Nikasil engines. I really like the 03 and up jags, handling improved, engines, transmissions(ZF) and some other stuff.

The X-Type, jesus, thats embarrassing. The driveline is the same as a ford escape, minor changes but very very similar.

[Jon K]

My friend raves about his moms X-type 2.5L but having driven them I could tell INSTANTLY it was a ford awd drivetrain... its so incredibly harsh. People are so naive they confuse "sporty" with "harsh". It's almost unfair to them - the dealer tells them its a jaguar chassis/drivetrain with AWD for comfort etc etc

[Bill R.]

x type is based on.





Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover(the PAG) is up for grabs for Nissan, Renault, Hyundai, toyota...I wonder whos going to buy the group.

Ive seen alot of problems with the Nikasil engines. I really like the 03 and up jags, handling improved, engines, transmissions(ZF) and some other stuff.

The X-Type, jesus, thats embarrassing. The driveline is the same as a ford escape, minor changes but very very similar.

[aston_jag_tech]

x type is based on.

Really!? I could of sworn it was escape because of the setup of awd?

[Bill R.]

europe , the mondeo.



Really!? I could of sworn it was escape because of the setup of awd?