Cheers Graham,

Engine is ordered, paid for and should be being shipped in the next day or two.
I'll let you know how it goes, I'm hoping that it could be dropped in next week although that could just be me and my optimism getting the better of me again...

 

I was wondering where you'd managed to find a spare XK8 engine on the IoM.

Good luck.

Graham

 

That's a good question and the answer is that I couldn't find one. Faced with a situation of either taking the car over to England or getting an engine shipped over to the island, I settled for the Mohammed coming to the mountain option. I've spent a few weeks searching, locally at first and then went national. I've had a few disappointments where the perfect engine was available at the right price and being an exchange engine with steel liners etc only to find out that it wasn't in fact anywhere near the perfect engine and wasn't an exchange engine and yes, you guessed it, one of the Nikasil lined ones.

So with quite a few weeks out of the way, I believe that I have the right deal and hope that everything goes to plan. Total cost for the replacement engine as a Genuine Jaguar Exchange product was £1,250 plus £200 for the shipment making it a total of £1,450.00 and that's before having it fitted. I'm sure that being based in the UK most people could probably get a better deal although it's not so easy on an island and I do have a specific shopping list and I really want to make sure that the right engine is obtained.

Will keep you informed and errr sorry for going off topic there. The Isle of Man is definately one of the best places to drive and ride for that matter.

 

Now driving in France in general is an absolute pleasure due to high quality roads and low traffic, but the "Route de Napoleon" in the SE is a cracker, the Gorges du Verdun and all the mountain roads in the Alps such as the Stelvio pass - 48 hairpin bends between France and Italy: