I am looking at buying an 01 Vanden Plas with 140k miles. My question is so do I tell by the VIN or otherwise if the motor is the Nikosil plated one or the later steel lined engine? And if it is Nikosil how can I tell if all is well. Thanks

 

From what I hear you are mostly in the clear. Not only has your vehicle gone 140,000 miles so far, the previous owner might have already taken care of it.

More importantly, sulphur levels are lower than when nikasil was a problem, and gas standards have gone up.

 

In addition to 3870xs advice, you migh look in this forum's FAQs. (whodda thunk it might be a FAQ?), specifically: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...049#post170049 for more info.
And good luck. These cars are a blast!

 

Had this info on my web page Nikasil - Cut-off date/number
The first steel-lined AJ-V8 came off the production line In the year 2000 on August 18th at 10.43am hence the engine number will read:
00 08 18 1043 or more precisely:
0008181043

Hope it helps.

 

So, AJ16er, check your ENGINE number and if it is larger than 0008181043 you are good to go, else you have Nickasil. Keep in mind, by Aug 18 of 2000, quite a few 2001 models had been fabricated using Nickasil - so checking VIN won't help; only checking engine number will tell.

Edit - as said below and many places elsewhere in this forum - If you have a currently working Nikasil engine with good compression, you shoud be in good shape for the future. The possible cause of damage to the Nikasil (high sulpher content gasoline) does not exist anymore, so if the Nikasil has made it this far, you are probably in better shape for the long run than you would be with steel liners.

 

You could check your car manufacture date. If it is summer 2000 or into the fall, I would be suspicious of having a Nikasil engine. On the other hand, if it is into the late winter or spring of 2001, you are probably safe. Checking engine S/N is best, but from what I have seen on other threads here, it may be a bit of work to find it.

 

But- when it's all said and done, by this point, if the Nikasil has not failed, it is probably desireable on an engine with 150,000 miles. Reason is that Nikasil is supposed to have superior wear characteristics over steel. I own two Nikasil XJRs, one with 150,000 bmles and my beater with 235,000 miles. Neither burns more than a qt of oil between 6,000 mile oil changes (Mobil 1, 10W-40) and I run the pi## out of both of them. Then again, my wife's X2002 XJ8 with steel liners (165,000 miles) burns no oil either.
Onje advantage of steel liners is that theoretically you could rebuild them easier. However, in my investigation of cost, it seems these engines are prohibitively expensive to do a major overhaul, and junk engines or crate engines seem to make better economic sense. Just my $.02

 

If you do not have a problem with your Nikasil then you are in much better shape than many others and you have the engine that Jaguar wanted you to have. It is a great engine just keep maintaining it. I am providing a link to information I put together on Nikasil http://www.gusglikas.com/AutoRepairNikasilSulfur.htm I hope it helps.

 

There was nothing in there about nikasil but rather throttle bodies.

 

Sorry:
I keep grabbing th wrong link. In this link:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=43772
they link to:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/t...22245&hm=50031 which has a bunch of info on Nikasil as well as other stuff.But Gus gave you a link for good info with more specific engine codes.
I assume you know how to check for excessive blowby, which would be a good indication the engine was already suffering from Nikasil failure. IIf not, again, I say go for it.

 

High sulfur gasoline doesn't exist now, but it did in the U.S. until 2006. My concern with a Nikasil engine is that there is wear on the engine from pre-2006 driving, even if it isn't evident from a blowby test.

 

cstu:
Man, you are doing some great deep research! The only other thing I can tell you about Nikasil is that I have two XJRs with combined mileage of 450,000 miles, with most of the mileage before 2006. Neithe ruses more than a qt between 10 k oil changes, no Restore, no snalke oil, no exhaust smoke. Nikasil is a crap shoot. Pre non - Nikasil cars are generally a good but cheaper. A junker non Nikasil engine is $3000. or less.