Hi guys well the very worst has happened. My beautiful xj8 with not a sound, a tick or anything from the engine decided to shed its load of oil on the motorway @ 110...
my first indication anything was wrong was the oil warning light. I got it over to the hard shoulder when the second indication kicked in

......... siezed solid .......

she now lays in a garage somewhere awaiting a new lump..

Which brings me to the purpose of my post Will an XJR lump drop straight in? ..I can get a realy low milage unit (2 years younger than mine) supplied and fitted at an excellent price. ....but is it a "straight shoot"?

 

Dang, I hope everything works out. If that ever happens to me, I will remember to shut off the engine as soon as possible after pulling over!

Did you hit some debris on the road that punctured your oil pan? If this is the case, maybe you can file an insurance claim to cover the repairs.

 

I found no evidence of damage (so far)

My tip would be turn the ignition off WAY before stopping..try to coast to a rest.....

The real wierd thing is I am not as strung out about this as I thought I would be?..

I think maybe it is such a superb car ( I have owned 9 jags and this is BY FAR the cutest) so its worth a couple of grand (he says like he HAS a couple of grand ) to keep hold ..and hell a supercharger would be nice !

Ah and as for insurance we paid for a warrenty but its really not worth the paper its written on.

 

An XJR engine will not just drop into an XJ8. The wiring and ECU's are different. Best to just replace the engine with an identical one for now and trade it in on an XJR at a later date.

 

Well the oil had to go somewhere! I highly doubt the engine would seize mere moments after the low oil light warning came on unless all the oil suddenly vanished somewhere, probably through a hole in the oil pan. (Heck, just try pouring oil in the oil pan and see if it comes out.)

YouTube - The Red Green Show - Changing your Oil

 

Well there was oil in it on friday afternnon and none on the hard shoulder...maybe front oils seal *shrug* either way where it went is academic LOL I can't go get it and unseaze the lump

 

Thanks for that yeah was just an idea ! prob I have now is finding an engine as least as young as mine to avoid all "issues" with the older ones

Ho hum

 

Hey ,looking forward to hearing good news from you

 

well its not all SO bad.
Well if there is any good from a totalled engine!

I have located a low milage (60k) lump 2.5 years younger than mime and the guy is going to do chain tensioners and drop it in and he only uses genuine Jag parts (not sure if thats good or not) Whole lot including collection and all fluids/filters £1560.

I did consider having mine rebuilt but it was just short of £2400 without any tensioners etc.

Look like I'll be stroking kitty by Monday. Just have to run it past head office and see if she agrees (she will bless her)

 

Ah not too bad, just pretend you had a crazy time in Vegas.

 

Why do you need to change the timing chain tensioners? I am not aware of any problems with the 4.2 V8....

 

That's about $2600. Not too bad if the "lump" is in good order.

 

Head office she says "yeah"!!!!!!!

Sorry have I said it wrong somewhere? Its a 3.2!.

I'll report back the condition of it all when I get it back!...fingers crossed

 

ARGH sorry guy this is in the wrong section should be in XJ8 XJR up to 2003. Can it be moved?
Damn wasted all that money on reading lessons

 

Hey in2 sorry to hear about your woes, still could have been worse. £1500, not so bad, but can you get any sort of confirmation or guarantee of condition before parting with your hard earned.

Be interesting afterwards, if you can find out what went wrong.

Strip the block down, clean it up and make yourself a 'wine rack'

 

good idea re the wine rack LOL. Doubt Head Office would appreciate it though. That would just be inviting a "memo"

 

OK we have a reason for oil loss.

The O ring between the oil filter and the casting had "pushed out".
I have only ever seen this once before on a full race ford engine with way too high an oil pressure.

My Jag guy has never seen it before and blamed whoever did the last service!

I find it hard to buy that one ...why? ...cos it was ME.
But that was 6000 miles ago so if I hadn't tightened it properly I would have thought it would have let go or dripped some oil way sooner?
In the absence of other evidence I am feeling a tiny bit sheepish

 

There were some posts from some time back about a run of defective oil filters that blew out the seal. Someone else may be able to recall the details.

You might even have legal recourse to the manufacturer of the filter.

What brand of filter was this?

 

I have known and used this guy for over 10 years .
He's giving me a standard 3 months on the used engine and 1 year on the chain stuff.
A full recon would have been 1 year ( 5 years if I had it serviced by them every 10k) but thats only on the bare bottom end!
I think/hope/pray (delete as required) I have made the right choice.

 

It should be ok - 60k is no mileage to worry about. The cost of the job is fair. How much for the unit if you don't mind me asking?

To do an engine swap is roughly a day, a long day. Maybe the following morning to buckle it up. How far is the timing job going, secondaries only or all parts (upper/lower tensioners, guides and chains) It's new coolant and oil/filter of course.....

This is the second 3.2 that's died on this board recently and both were being, if you don't mind me saying, pressed. I'd have gone 4.0 - you can stick a supercharged unit in, but would need ancillaries, i.e. intercooler and pump, s/c MAF plus bits and bobs. But you'd also need the transmission......