Hello everyone,

I’m new to the forum here and have just bought my first Jaguar, a 1999 XJR. I’ve read every last thread I could find on overheating and still have a few questions since my engine has definitely been cooked past the point most folks here have got to. The previous owner restored it perfectly, his wife was driving it on the freeway uphill for about 20 miles when the water pump belt broke, she kept on going til it quit on its own or because one of the little water lines melted and popped off the manifold and blew steam everywhere.

Now it wont start. Previous owner said it didn’t have any compression. I figured before I started messing with too much stuff I’d see if it would make any noise, would be happy with a pop or sputter, maybe even a puff of smoke.

I pulled the spark plugs, nice and clean. Dipstick is nice clean oil with no water. No leaks out the bottom, although I haven’t put any water back in the radiator. I poured a bit of oil in the cylinders and it cranks over just fine, compression is definitely not there. Pulled one plug and coil pack and cranked over to check spark and it is sparking the plug. Sprayed some starting fluid in the throttle body and cranked, nothing at all.

Think there is more wrong other than the mechanical parts of the engine are junk?
I can buy another engine off eBay and swap it out but don’t want to get into too many annoying electrical or computer issues. Would the later model block and heads with iron cylinder liners be a direct swap over? I read that they switched a few model years later.