I'm looking to buy a 2004 xj8, it's going to be my first car (I live in california). I've heard that some years have sleeved cylinders and some are coated, and that the coating degrade from California gasoline and the piston welds itself. Is this true? I don't want my first car's engine becoming a boat anchor lol.

 

If ever true the car would be dead by now.

"I've heard" is nearly always "something untrue and not wasting time on".

 

The previous model to the one you're looking at, (assuming you are looking at an X350 series car, made from aluminium 2003-2009), had a 4 litre V8 when introduced in the UK in 1997. This model series was X308 and was the last saloon constructed of steel. This had Nikasil-coated bores that rapidly deteriorated due to the sulphur in petrol at the time. Jaguar (owned by Ford at the time) had to replace a large number of engines under warranty. A rapid conversion of the engine to use steel cylinder liners was undertaken and the problem then ceased. A problem with upper timing chain tensioners stayed around a lot longer, but was sorted out when the 4.2 litre engine came out. This is what is installed in the X350 series of cars. The problems of this engine are completely different and centre around the water pump and thermostat housing, but there are well-established cures for these.

Funnily enough there are still quite a lot of cars still running around with Nikasil bores, because the UK government forced the oil companies to remove sulphur from their petrol for environmental reasons. Once this was done, there was no longer the possibility of severe acid attacks on the Nikasil. BMW a few years earlier had the same problem, and one has to wonder why Jaguar engineers thought their engine would be any different. Its probably due to living in the UK MIdlands where some motor engineers seem to live in a silo and never looked at what was happening in the world.

 

I would probably skip over buying an expensive luxury car as your first. These cars have expensive bones and if you need a car to get to and from school or work, something cheaper and easier to work on or maintain is probably the way to go.

 

Artic_man makes a valid point.
These cars are a steal, price wise, if you realize going in what's involved.
Sorting them out, doing things yourself, can still be a bit pricey.
But your rewarded with the last of a kind, a Jaguar that still looks like one.
Good luck on your choice

 

Maybe that's why nearly all of the X308s I looked at before buying my X350 had one cylinder leaking and smoking.

 

no

 

Nikasil caught other makes too, such as Porsche.

 

A "first car" needs bench seats.

 

Unless a sponsor or trust fund is within your realm, not advisable as a first vehicle. Most everyone on this forum is established and/or grew up when tools and fixin' it yourself was a requirement.