My XJR motor recently let go. It started with oil in my air intake and quickly went down hill fast resulting in the rear main seal letting go on the highway at speed. BTW got some good advice from a couple Jag Techs, thanks again!

My brother in law owns a machine shop that rebuilds motors, drag and circle track. He is really good. My Jag is getting towed to CT sometime Tuesday afternoon. I own an 03 STR Jag, however this summer I scooped up this 98 XJR for 2k! It needed alot of work. New Transmission, REbuilt SC and polished and ported it, Cat back Borla exhaust. Really like the 98-03 Jags, very Retro looking etc.

I wanted to get some insights from those that know about rebuilding these motors. The motor is going to be stripped down to the block and whilst doing so I wanted some recommendations. Such as shaving down the head? Use the stock pistons or not? Keep the Cam Shafts or not ? What to look out for? and what to most definitly do. I wanted to use some differnt manifolds, which brand? How does the Jag computer responding to changes? Will the Computer adapt or need to be reprogrammed? And obviously anything else You may think of. Should I go thru the Jag dealer for my gaskets? Or can someone recommend a less expensive online store that is good to deal with?

I would be very thankful for responses and feedback.

thanks

Rlover

 

Greetings Rlover,

You cannot build a good stock engine without starting from a sound foundation, let alone build a high output one. In the case of a 1998 Jaguar V8 engine block that has suffered increased oil consumption and decreased ring sealing, that means you will have to install steel cylinder liners in your engine block. This is not an option, it is not cheap, and it is not a particularly easy job for any machine shop to handle.

If your brother in law is experienced in sleeving aluminum cyliner blocks, and he's working for you on the cheap, the most important step can be accomplished without a lot of pain. You will still need to spend maybe $1800. for all of the additional overhaul parts required.

I do not believe you have a choice on available camshaft grinds or piston configurations. I do not have experience with internal engine performance mods, so the answers to your other questions are best left to others. Significant mods will cost you a lot of money, and must be carefully researched to insure that you are getting the most bang for your buck.

 

Rl,Andy's right on the sleeving. but let me ask you a question. What do you want to do with the engine a decent stock rebuild, up performance a little or alot? Whats your budget. Ide contact the driven man as they do alot of performance work, And Eurotek, and others that have built performance Jaguar engines.
http://www.thedrivenman.com/

 

thank you for the response brutal. I am not paying for labor just the parts. I do not have a dollar amount in mind. Less than 4,500 I guess. I would like to rely on my brother in laws mechanical ability to tweak, shave etc etc. Shaving the head down a few thousands is a good way to creat horsepower. what do you have in mind??

thx

Rlover

 

porting the heads and a REAL good valve job does wonders. 1mm larger valves, new springs titanium retainers. Up the boost with smaller blower, or larger crank pulley. methanol injection. shorty headers, or extrude hone the factory manifolds. remove the metal screen plates between the cats and manifolds(if not already done). other than that I dont know or better cams, but an Ecu tune is a big increase in performance while maintaing driveabilty

 

Hey brute,

Can you point me to a good resource with information about ECM tuning? I'm doing some homework to learn what hardware/ software is required, I know nothing about the subject.

As for the increased valve diameter, do you know anyone that does this work? I'm presuming that the replacement of the valve seats and then then the porting job would be required. That sounds like a $4,000 pair of heads to me.

Andy

 

yes about $100 per valve for professional port work..
http://enginelogics.com/index.html
Chris does fantastic work....like a 150hp for a 3 cylinder normally aspirated Geo metro engine put into a plane. And lots of other custom and hipo work, normally aspirated, turbo and super charged. He did the valve work on the heads for my V6 as Im building it for 425hp super charged for the Frontier. He got all my custom parts made, like the forged rods, and forged pistons. I did the head work and will assemble as soon as Nissan gets in the new chains, and tensioners that are back ordered(and people think Jags are exclusive for tensioner chain issues lol)

 

A couple of years ago, the Toyota race engines in the Le Mans series were blowing left and right from tensioner failures too. I'll check out both your links though, thanks!

 

Ecu upgrades 25bhp, $1400
blower pulley 20bhp $600
proport and valve work would probobly double brake hp above and cost too
but that would put you in the 500 hp range pretty easily and totally reliable and streetable

 

potsie ... I'll save you the specific reasons, as other could explain them better. Bottom line is, I think your best option is buy a 98 xjr engine that has already been rebuilt with steel liners and tensioners. There are a few places doing this - I don't remember who exactly, but some google work can get you there. It should cost around 5-6 K for the engine. Unfortunately, a 2003 xjr - 98 swap is not as straightforward as you might hope.

 

thanks Brutal.

I have poured money into this Jag to restore it mechanically. I had the transmission rebuilt with all of the Benz updates done, stall converter tweak, drive shaft.
I had the super charger rebuilt at PSE, they polished and tweaked it, in addition upgraded pulley, along with my air intake, and cat back borla exhaust. what does it mean to "extrude" the factory manifolds? can give me an idea how that is accomplished and what the results would be? The metal screen plates between cats/manifolds are still in place for the time being!lol question, where can I buy software to tune the ECU? is the plug for the ECU in trunk area? or under dash? can i download what i need to a laptop and plug and play?Your love of the Yoda's motors are certainly warranted. I had a 84 celica, and that 22re was awesome, i took out the cat and messed around with airflow meter, used to rev that motor out to 8grand all day long!lol. paid 2,800 for it and sold it for 3,500 and got an 82 RX-7 out of the deal!

Happy easter

Rlover

 

go to the driven man website and click on your car for info
the ecu is in the engine compartment on the passenger side under the tool tray cover. That panel in the back corner, remove the single phillips screw then the ecu cool box is below it. Remove the 4 torx bolts to access the ecu and tcm is in there too. The ecu lays flat and is large, the tcm(trans module) in smaller and on it side.
I know Eurotek does ecu upgrades too...GOOGLE=YOUR FRIEND

 

driven man is a good site. I will look on google as well. Looking to plug into the ECU and remap it myself with my laptop and tune. Ever heard of software like that for an XJR?

 

nope, not for jaguar