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I think this is a sicknehs... a deep rooted sickness that has little cure.
If you saw my post to introduce myself to the Forums, just last month my Uncle gave me his 2004 XJR as it had been sitting in his garage for the past two years dormant and leaking all of its oil onto the stack of cardboard beneath it. He favored riding his scooter locally in Houston for necessities or his 1965 Mustang GT with the original 289-4v. Since changing the wet cell battery installed by his inept mechanic and doing so with the proper AGM, adding the necessary fluids, it started right up. I then drove it to our house in Sugar Land, Texas to feel the lack of air control in the suspension, warped wheels from potholes and touchy brakes. It was loaded onto the uHaul trailer for its 1100 mile ride from Texas to my home in Darlington, South Carolina.
A little back story here... I own a shop that builds high performance parts for the 6th Gen Camaro ZL1-1LE models and I race one as well, logging over 14,230 miles on various road courses in the Eastern USA like Road Atlanta (my home track) Carolina Motorsports Park (45 minutes away), Virginia International Raceway, Daytona Speedway (heading there this week for the Rolex24) and Barber Motorsports Park are the majority of the tracks I frequent with the car. My specialty is tuning, and custom cooling systems with a 789whp and 830 lb/ft of torque at 2360rpm!!
My 56 years around the sun began with an appreciation for my 1973 Triumph Spitfire daily driver while in High-School turned to a BugEye Sprite which swiftly was swapped with a 13B rotary power and welded rear diff!
I have always love the Jaguar's lines, style and road manners... and this car is little exception. I am blessed with the original paperwork since new... citing the tens of thousands of dollars in maintenance I can see now was done by complete hacks or at least humans who know of no torque value greater than 30-40 ft-pounds. The original Air Shocks were replaced with Arnotts years ago and I was happy to see a complete set of the coilovers boxed in the trunk when I acquired the car.
Since having the car for two weeks now, I have locked myself out with the Valet Mode... not knowing where the trunk key hole was hidden on the XJR... Thanks to this Forum for 12 pages of reading just so I could get on my 56-year old Collegiate Baseball Catcher's knees to find a needle hole in a black haystack! Valet Mode Defeated!!
I most definitely removed the garbage plastic atrocity air intake, sourcing some 3" mandrel bent aluminum polished tube on Amazon for $15 and a 3/8" aluminum weld-on bung for $2.00 with a pair of Diesel Truck Silicon 3.15" hose couplers with the clamps for another $20 Amazon... to make a really sweet looking Air intake!!
Oh but the oil leak!! Thanks again for this Forum to share a $6.00 part I can find at www.Autohauz.com along with the proper Oil Pan Gasket has me leak free!!! I apologize for not making a video about the true trick to getting these parts removed, but I promise you having a flexible head ratcheting wrench is the key!! I only needed to remove the lower panel and take the time to make it all clean before reinstalling.
Lets get to the air ride... UGH!! When I first saw the Coilovers, being a racer and car builder and noting they were built with Eibach springs I'll admit ai was a little excited to put them on the car. This is where I found that all the previous suspension replacement parts dating as recent as 2017 for the front control arms were torqued by a Toddler. The brand new Brembo branded brake pads were placed into calipers that were literally finger tight. So... into the removal of the air suspension I commenced action. The instructions for the removal of the rear seat were a joke... thanks to my being a YouTube Certified Master Technician in both Diesel and Gas vehicles, the rear seat came out with no further issues! The wire taps for the air suspension controller snapped as should and I never saw any failure of the CATS system on the info screen.
WELL... it sucks! Wait.... a sec. Why do we refer to things that SUCK as being something bad...? Why is that? If my vacuum doesn't suck, its broken... right???
I was looking forward to a more firm, controlled ride and unfortunately for my taste of canyon-carving locked on slot-car rails kinda driving, these shocks are NOT IT!! I can see myself finding a set of double adjustable coilovers and building something entirely better than this. Being that Arnott is based nearby the Kennedy Space Center and a Marina I frequent, I plan to make a stop there this next week while I am in their area to drop off their "Lifetime Warranty" Air Shocks and see if they will honor such. I may just put them back on if they do.
So what is in the future? OH... I am definitely going to step up the supercharger's pulley speed, and separate the Supercharged cooling bricks from the engine's cooling system with my own triple bypass heat exchanger to reduce the air charge temps. The exhaust system is a joke... so I have ordered some 2.5" stainless and various bends... gotta have some sound. A new set of BRISK Silver Spark Plugs are on the way too!! I found a set of 19x9" & 19x10" wheels and they are at the powder coater getting their gloss black refinish job this week.
So Stay Tuned!! Share your questions and comments... Fuel my distraction as this is a welcome one for me over the race cars and I have not even touched our new 56' Catamaran Yacht that will soon crush all records exceeding 75mph!! Enjoy the pics and check out my YouTube Channel!
First Day with the 2004 X350 XJR Here is my cheapo Amazon intake Just my smiling Mug and new intake tube! OEM seal was toast!! Should have known to replace these seals... but luckily they did not leak. All Done #BeLikeBiff NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHTS!! Nothing like racing in the rain!! Feeling at home at over 150mph!
congrats and keep the thread alive
There is not many doing mods on this car and based on what you write here Im sure you will have some good ideas.
The heat exchanger is something that needs upgrade for sure, but I havent had any luck finding someting.
speeding up the supercharger helps, but I think you need a tune as well unless the excess air will just bleed off.
I havent had any luck finding a local tuner so Im just running smaller pulley with orginal tune. Helps a little on the torque on low rpm
congrats and keep the thread alive
There is not many doing mods on this car and based on what you write here Im sure you will have some good ideas.
The heat exchanger is something that needs upgrade for sure, but I havent had any luck finding someting.
speeding up the supercharger helps, but I think you need a tune as well unless the excess air will just bleed off.
I havent had any luck finding a local tuner so Im just running smaller pulley with orginal tune. Helps a little on the torque on low rpm
Right now I am just going to focus on fixing what is not working like my Adaptive Cruise control, sorting out the suspension as these "comfort" shocks are like driving a waterbed on the road... so, I'm probably going with a fully adjustable coilover setup and selling these as well as the air systems. I bet Airlift Performance could build a better system as I have their Wireless-One system on my truck! Their system has wireless/auto leveling and ride control with a coilover offering 3" of adjustment.
Of course being my business is focused on LT4 performance, it would not be too much of a stretch to drop in an LT4 and an A10 transmission since I discovered there is already a shop that makes motor mounts for the LS engine platform.
Now if I can just figure out how to get my fat fingers into the headlamp's high beam to change out the halogen bulbs with LEDs!!
Love those engines! I’m a Vette guy but the table is empty right now. Hope to find the right one soon. In the mean time, I stumbled in to winning an auction and now own a 04 XJ8. Looks exactly like yours, such nice styling. I’ve spent a lot of time shaping things up although the car was in excellent shape when received. Only complaint at the moment is my long legs causing my knee to hit the ignition key fob and shutting the car off. Wish the car could give me 1 to 2 inches further back on seat adjustment. Congratulations on yours and BTW love you race car as well as your sponsor!
I stumbled in to winning an auction and now own a 2004 XJ8, such nice styling. I’ve spent a lot of time shaping things up although the car was in excellent shape when received. Only complaint at the moment is my long legs causing my knee to hit the ignition key fob and shutting the car off. Wish the car could give me 1 to 2 inches further back on seat adjustment.
Glad to have you on board. You might look into BC Racing BR series coilovers. Adjustable dampers and they make these for the XJR. I have looking a these coilovers because I like the adjustable dampers.
New2Me 2004 XJR X350 is Such a Distraction!!
