I've got a XJ with the V8 SC engine (currently on 70k miles). Full Jaguar service history (serviced every 14k miles on average). How long can I expect an AJ133 V8 engine to last? I've previously had Saab 4-cylinder turbo engines (old generation) and they are good for well over 200k. Any high mileage V8 owners out there?

 

Keep on top of oil changes (at least twice as often as the moronic factory schedule) and the **** poor plastic coolant pipes and hoses (consider the metal replacements) and you should get 200k miles plus.
14k mile oil changes is better than the factory schedule but not much better (14k vs 16k) and still not good enough, much better to go with 10k max and even as often as 5k or 6k. Oil and filters are cheap (plenty of alternatives to the Castrol Unobtainium) and it's a piece of cake to DIY with a vacuum/extraction pump.

 

cbarr, as long as you are not heavy footed, you should be able to get 300K miles out of the motor. You like to keep in the gas, then obviously the extra power is going to put more wear on the engine. So, in that case, you may only get say 200K miles out. Obviously, if you are modding the engine to get more than factory power, the distance may drop even more. BUt, that is where the smiles make up for the miles.

 

Yes the problem I see is your 14K oil change interval? If I found a car with that kind of oil change interval I would not buy it. All these massive drain intervals are NOT good for a long term owner! They are about advertising low or no maintenance. Now this is just fine if you follow what Jaguar and all the car makers want. That is to drive the car until the warranty is up then dump it and (Wait for it!) buy another new one!

How long have you been doing those long oil changes?

As posted above I would dump all the factory intervals and give it fresh oil and filter every 6K-8K miles. Please don't forget all the other fluids too? Transmission (Your at 70K miles a perfect time for a service). Then the rear diff and brake fluid plus get some new coolant in there. It's just plain old Dex-Cool so cheap and found anywhere.
Also use the correct rated oil.

Fluid changes are the cheapest AND most effective way to extend the life of any car. Start there first.

To answer your question directly we recently had a poster with 310K miles on his original drive train! Don't know if that's a record or not? But it's pretty good!
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What I've seen is that a car's life is really more affected by age than mileage. You can rack up hundreds of thousands of trouble-free miles in a few years if you drive long distances and keep up with the maintenance. However, as the car ages, all of the organic components, seals, gaskets, insulation, etc., start to break down and no amount of maintenance can stop time. Some degradation is accelerated by heat-cycling, i.e. how many times you start the car, warm it up and let it cool down and its well known that starting a cold engine causes more metal-on-metal wear than starting a warm engine. So if you make lots of short drives to the store as opposed to a handful of very long vacation trips then the motor is going to wear quicker. So typically I've seen that twenty year old cars with low mileage are often in worse shape mechanically than five year old cars with high mileage.

But OZ brings up a good point. We're convinced that Jaguar's maintenance intervals were specified by the Marketing Department to make Jaguar appear to be as low maintenance as a Honda. The Engineering Department confirmed that minimal maintenance would get a Jaguar past the first leaseholder and the subsequent certified pre-owned buyer and beyond that they didn't care what happened to it because the next time it gets traded in, they're just going to auction it off to a note lot on the downwind side of town. Also, all Jaguars have some kind of design flaw (remember they didn't design it to last beyond the warranty) that we here on this forum discuss and share solutions (such as superior aftermarket parts) so as to prevent catastrophic failures from getting the next guy. If you really want it to last, you should be proactive, continue to read everything posted here about your model and follow the forum's recommendations regarding not just fluid service intervals, but also preventative parts replacements and modifications.

 

Thanks everyone. The longer service intervals (14k) were before I bought it (but it was the right spec, and colour, and looked very well looked after), and had been serviced every year on the dot (but at the kind of mileage shown). Will take the best care of it that I can from now. Got it booked in for gearbox fluid change and diff fluid change, and a precautionary change of the the coolant pipes since it has a slight coolant smell when hot. My plan is oil and filter change every 5k max. Probably more often, and extend its life as long as I can.