Hi guys. Most of you have seen me on the forum for a while. I've been trying to learn as much as possible before I do a buildup of my car. Anyhow, now that I have the car, (2004 STR, 38,000 miles) it's time to get to work.

The car currently has magnaflow mufflers with the stock resonators intact. It also has a cone filter attached to the mass air meter. I'm going to try to change back to a stock box type setup(with a high flow stock replacement fileter) once I track one down.

The first mod I started working on is the addition of H&R springs. I have the fronts installed already, the rears will be installed as soon as the car is returned from the shop. I bought the springs from tire rack on clearance for $269 shipped which to me is a good deal.

My hose under the supercharger started leaking so it was time to get the blower ported. I sent the blower to Stiegemier to have one of their Snakebite jobs done. This is a combination of blower porting and changing the eatons step up ratio internally. The step up ratio means that I can speed up the rotors without hassling with the pullies. The cost on this job is $1295. Off of his calculations, he said that I should be seeing around 12 psi stock and after this I'll be seeing about 16 psi. While the unit is down, he's also going to check the condition of everything. Apparently the couplers on the jag m112's start to show wear even at low mileage(a $45 part).

My last mod I'm going to do once the car is back is install an alcohol injection kit. I'm doing this for two reasons. In CA we have 91 octane gas and hot weather, so I'm using this for the octane effects to suppress any detonation that I could run into. Also, I'm using a kit for the cooling effects. With the stock tune, I'm not expecting any hp, but rather more consistent performance and more reliability and safety. In addition, down the road if I get a tune, this will be even more key.

The big question with this kit is if it'll be able to cool things down enough to offset the additional heat from the blower being spun faster. If it can, than I can "make" back some of the power that would otherwise be lost by timing being pulled by the cpu.

Anyhow, here's my build plan. I'd like to get the car from the approx 330 rwhp to right around 400 rwhp. I'll try to post some pics once I figure out how.

thanks for looking!

 

Take pics a lot!

 

Hope to hear good things about the "Snake Bite" kit!! I plan on doing this too. So I admire your pioneering spirit!!
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Dang it, all of my pics are 600X800 and the gallery max is 600X600.....

Tbird6... yeah, I'm taking one for the team, lol! People really had to twist my arm on this one...

 

I hope the noise issue is minor. That's really all that I am worrying about. I listened to a few videos but all the cars that had the mod also had pretty loud exhaust too. I normally like some bark and growl in a cars sound but the Jag is different.
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Way to go qwiketz, I'll be standing by to see how ya doing. Did you happen to use a low temp thermostat?

 

Should I? From the graph I saw, it did look like it worked and dropped coolant temps, but only about 15*. How much does the low temp thermostat run? If it's not too much, I'll probably run it.

edit....

I just checked the eurotoys website. The part is $38.95 which is reasonable. The shipping on a 2 pound box is marked up a bit. I'm not sure if it's a handling fee or what. The shipping via ground is approx $21. Shipping via 3 day is $29. On the ups calculator, they're $9.90 and $18.15. So, the shipping on this thing is almost as much as the part.

second edit...

Just ordered the piece but still pissed that shipping cost $29 and the part only costs $39.

 

I totally understand your pain of the "shipping fee equal to part value". This is another way for the supplier to have you order the entire kit and kabootle as a means for them top sell you more while you save on shipping fees for individual parts.

 

sounds like a cool project, I wish the x type or xk8 had a supercharger!

 

Greetings:

I hear a rattling under the center of the car every time I slow down. I am pretty sure it is the catalytic converter. I'm thinking about a new, higher performance exhaust with a more aggressive sound. Recommendations? Where should I go to have this installed? Thank you

 

tarheeljag, There are very expensive exhaust systems to install on the STR. Or you can go a much less expensive but equally effective route many here have performed. Install a 2 1/2" Magnaflow x-pipe after the cats followed by 2 1/2" pipe dumping into two individual 12" resonators (ditch the stock resonator), continue with 2 1/2" pipe that dumps into a set of Magnaflow mufflers (center-in, offset-out). Use 2 1/2" inlets and outlets on all exhaust components to remain uniform. This system is affordable, produces h.p. and torque, and sounds awesome but not too loud (due to utilizing resonators).

 

Got the car back from the shop with the new Snakebite installed. At idle, you can't hear any difference. At part throttle it's definately louder but not too loud. I now hear the blower over the exhaust (mine's pretty quiet). At full throttle it screams pretty good.

I don't know about the power difference as I didn't have enough seat time before the mod to tell. I'll get it on the dyno in the near future.

I also installed the rear H&R coils. I'm hearing more suspension noise now so I'll probably double check all the nuts and bolts after work today and make sure they're to factory specs. The car looks a ton better now with the H&R's installed.

All I have to do now is install my alcohol injection system and I'm almost done. I'm going to replace the stock subs since they suck but that will be easy.

 

qwiketz, you've got yo let us know how she moves with the Snake Bite port/polish/pulley.

 

will do. There's definately more midrange and low end power. I totally don't doubt that i'm getting 50 more hp on the low end. We'll have to see on the dyno how the top end looks. I just have to add my alky injection kit and then I should be good to go.

I want to do 1 run on the dyno with no alky injection and then 2 with it on.

 

Congratulations!
I think yours is the first Snakebite kit installed on a Jaguar? Can you look at your receipt and see what gaskets they charged you for? I was hoping some of them are reusable and not sure if the intercooler bellows had to be disassembled or can the 4 bolts be removed and just leave the intercoolers attached to the intake casting?
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If finances pan out I'm going for the Snake Bite at end of August or September.

 

Actually I didn't get a copy of the receipt from the shop so I'm not sure what ones they replaced. The cost to replace the heater hose below the supercharger plus labor and gaskets was $1150. The snakebite came to $1360 after shipping.

 

Yeah!!!! Snakebite! Lets hear some good news or see it! Hopefully this is a big step in the right direction for our roots.

 

Videos!!!!!!!!!!!!!