Boosting an X-Type is not the best idea because the engine is what is termed a "high compression" engine. It, the air is squeezed pretty tight as it is (about 10.5:1). This is detrimental when trying to make any power with either a turbo or a supercharger without rebuilding the motor and dropping the compression ratio down to say around 9.0:1. Keeping it up high leads to spontaneous combustion due to the pressures in the cylinders rising too fast (essentially what occurs in a diesel engine, but it isn't a problem there as the fuel is not admitted to the cylinder until the pressure has been built up).

So, unless you are planning a lot of engine work in your future, boosting the X-Type is not the best motor to be doing it with.

Even if you do all the engine work and get it to be reliable, the transfer case is still your weak link. When you subject the transfer case to large torque, it will have a much shorter lifespan. The transmission multiplies the torque that the engine makes based on the gear that it is in. An easier way to think about it, 4th gear in our cars is 1:1, so, the tranny takes the engines torque, multiplies it by 1 and then sends it out to the axles. Also, the RPMs of the engine are the same as that of the axles. Where in 1st gear, let say that the ratio is 3:1, the tranny is going to output 3 times the torque of the engine, but the axles are going to spin 3 times as slow too. Now you start figuring in the torque addition based on the torque converter and you can get a lot of torque on the output of the tranny. You boost an engine and the torque starts climbing, that means the tranny output torque is really going to climb. So, until a solution is found for the transfer case, major power upgrades are done with serious risk.

 

You are right about the compression Thermo, of course, however you could still get away will low boost (under 10psi probably) as far as the engine goes. Although the 2.5 I think has a lower compression ratio so it would be a better choice unless you were going to rebuilt a 3.0 with lower compression pistons. I think the companies that went with superchargers did so because they are a "cleaner" looking install, and have less components than turbocharging. But boost is boost regardless how its delivered, the engine would still have problems if you run too high of compression and too much boost, turbo or supercharged. Also, I think since higher performance Jags are known for being supercharged it makes more sense from a marketing point of view to try to market supercharger kits for Jags.


The transfer case is still the unknown variable and most likely the weak link, however, no one has really ever pushed the X type past 300hp and reported back to us, other than Jag saying that's why they didn't make an R, and the other few companies that have done some high dolor supercharger builds. I have never read anything about those cars failing though. Also the nice thing about turbo is they aren't spooled up right away like a supercharger so actually the natural lag in a turboed car would help keep the transfer case alive. For how long though? who knows. It would also depend on how you drive too. Personally, and some of you may cringe at this, I beat the hell out of my car haha. Once I'm done with my suspension build and some other things I an going to start looking into building a stronger transfer case, and I really want to try to make a VC transfer case stronger since I don't have traction control in my car. I'd love to have a LSD front and rear diff too while I'm at it, that might be more money than I want to spend though, just the front diff from quaife for the MTX75 its like 700 bucks. They do have gear sets too, but I haven't verified for sure yet that you can use them, or the diff, in the x types MTX75 (the 5 speed) but they do have it for the ford cars that use it.

 

Ah bummer. I guess the money would be better spent on exterior and interior mods and just cruise it. I think if I want more of a Jaguar sports car down the line I may try to find a supercharged one. As for now I am happy with my x-type. It seems to be funner to drive now that I figured out the J-gate. Haven't been having the problem of no power around 50mph anymore. You should look into rebuilding the transer case to make it stronger. I think that would be helpful to a lot of people on here.

 

All the talk on this thread (and other like it through the years) got me thinking. Are the transfer cases really that fragile like we think? Reason I ask is there were issues in the very early cars when they first came out, no question. But now that the car had a 7-8 year run and common issues that show themselves (vacuum leaks, prop shaft bearing whine, etc.) every day on here we have a pretty good idea of what the fix is when someone posts a problem or a code. I do not work on my car, but after being on this forum almost every day for over five years, I bet most of the time when someone posts an issue on here I have pretty good idea what the cause and fix is just from past posts. I can't say that in all that time we really have had a lot of posts where the member reports their transfer case exploded or went bad. Could they really not be as fragile as we think? I can't believe everyone on here is that gentle in the way they drive and changes the fluid regularly. When we the last time there was a post where someone's transfer case was toast? I can't even remember. I don't abuse my car, but if I want to nail the throttle I nail it. I make sure I get my fluids changed regularly. Not saying the AWD system in our cars is the most robust out there, just that maybe it isn't quite as fragile as legend has it either. Justin seems to be proof of that. Just a thought.

 

That's been my thought Alfadude. The reason I want to get a VC transfer case and look into making it stronger is because they are better for actually getting power to all 4 wheels without traction control, and if one day I did upgrade the diffs with lsd the car would have a monstrous amount of grip. If the drivetrain could handle it the engine can make 400hp fairly easily with a turbo. Look into turbo 3L contours. 400hp and a proper awd in the X-type would be pretty fast, and these cars handle really well as most of us know. I've also been looking into big brake upgrades too, that's also a lot of money though.

 

Alphadude/Justin, there is a potential fix out there. In short you have to rebuild the transfer case and then install the main bearings with a different pre-load (had too much from the factory, therefore they were under pretty considerable strain right out of the factory). The problem is no one (to my knowledge) has rebuilt the transfer case then went wild with the power to see how it handled it. I know a few members have rebuilt theirs, but no "abuse" studies have been reported back.

If you want to find out if it will work, then give it a try. That is how I have come up with some of the things that people look at me for knowing. Sometimes it takes a little bit of learning to be the first with the thing that others want.

 

 

Isn't that the new CX-17?

I don't really see how it's related to anything in this thread though.

 

Oh my gosh... Jaguar monster truck? Anyway, supposing you could fit a Ford Contour turbo kit on an x-type, wouldn't you still need some kind of custom ecu mapping, and possibly bigger fuel injectors? With Hondas and Nissans, there are plenty of aftermarket ecu options out there because they are such popular tuner cars, but nothing like that exists for the x-type, so I'm wondering how you would go about fiddling with the fuel ratio's and stuff like that, or maybe somehow it's possible given that a few x-types have been turbo/supercharged.

 

bigger fuel injectors can be had from a variety of fords out there depending on the size needed. I've been looking for places in the US that can tune the X type's ecu and I may have found a place or two in Miami that I might look into later this year. You could also theoretically use some kind of stand alone ecu to tune the car as well but that would be a lot more money and work.

 

My pappy has always said, "anything is possible with a lot of money, and imagination... I just want pictures." Dang right, I want pictures!

 

I am going to drill a few holes in muffler and buy V8 badge!