Icsa,

That's a fair call. As I said, money is no barrier on this project, so what needs to happen, will happen...

If you guys have actual experience and recommendations, please let me know in detail so I can look into it accordingly.

One area I would like more knowledge in is the possibility of chassis strengthening and I have limited knowledge in this area. If you have any build plans for such, that would be good...

Can you suggest a method for this?

Cheers

 

Two things:

1. memory came in. One the recipient cars I wrote of was the 41 Graham "Hollywood".

2. Rob Wade, a Canadian, posted as to traction control for his XJS. A master of exhaust systems as well

3. Were I looking to so that swap and "put the ponies to the ground". I would open the rockers and add stiffeners.. Plus better "traction bars" aka radius bars. Forward attachment at the "stiffener


Check early NASCAR practice. Adopted log traction bars from GGM pickup trucks of the era.

Carl

 

I have seen the point of contact where the rear trailing arms meet the body as a point of failure. I have seen a few different threads on the forums over the years about solid mounting the rear end into the cars, and even someone creating their own bushed cradle mount that, if i remember correctly, did way with the bushed trailing arms altogether.


I believe some of the later cars came with rear sway bars installed, whereas earlier cars came with partial implementations of the sway bar mounts and no sway bar installed.


Speaking of sway bars, when I reconditioned my front suspension bushings I found that the shoulders of my sway bar links where the sway bar rests were wearing through. Good idea to check those and make sure that yours are also not weak to the point of imminent failure.


The V mounts on the rear cage and front subframe have always struck me as a point of failure for these cars, I haven't heard of anyone damaging these yet, but they have always left me with an uneasy feeling.


Any and all wear components will be worn or completely rotted by this time of the cars life, if they have not been addressed before then it is time to do so. Bushings, bearings, races, u joints, cv joints, anything rubber.


When I did my conversion I ended up cutting the entire wiring harness out of the engine bay, interior, and trunk. When I was removing the carpet from the interior of the car I had found so many scorch marks where a wire had shorted and tried to start a fire, I lost count. This made me uneasy to leave it the way it was and I ended up just gutting the existing wiring and making my own harnesses.


Any time that you make a car faster, probably a good idea to also make it stop faster. If money is truly no limit, upgrade the entire brake system with modern parts with no wear. My biggest fear with my car is that I am going to end up rear ending someone who cut me off in traffic and then slammed on their brakes, a modern car is going to be able to stop much faster than our old incredibly heavy cars.

 

Chasis:
Tube the sills, 3.5" EMT. Welded end the ends and at select points along the way, reinforce the trailing arm mounts, triangulate the front frame rails cross and X brace the trans tunnel
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...2015-a-136475/

Reinforce the Center core, as in this thread, brace the roof, install front and rear X brakes from a late XJS convertible.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...2017-a-184891/


Brakes:
Not a lot of good options for the front.... I'd 100% upgrade the rears to outboards from an late XJS/XJ40, see this thread for some ideas. These Front brakes were good for the street and a few stops from 130.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e-works-84536/


Suspension
With that HP your're going to need stiffer springs and shocks... Bilstein Yellows up front, KYB out back at the minimum. Xcessive manufacturing makes some suspension stuff but I have no direct experience.
I used a complete suspension from a DB7 GT which had respectable time at the Nuremburg Ring. Id strongly suggest doing the same, even just late V12 DB7 parts would be a great improvment. There are a lot of small improvements on the DB7, they all add up.

Safety.
Install series 3 seats belt, series 2 often dont work.
Consider a roll cage, I'm working on a 750 HP XJC with a Turbo LQ4 and it's getting an integrated roll cage.

 

Thanks Icsa,

Good work. Appreciate it

 

So far so good...

Succesfull mating of the engine to the sub-frame with a slight adjustment needed on the oil pan and the oil cooler assembly.

Engine mounts look good and should clear bonnet by a fraction.

Oil cooler requires new threaded fitting at 90 degrees to factory in order to clear the steering rack.

The challenge now is to see how obtrusive the 6L90E will be in the trans tunnel. It going to be a tight fit in there!

Will post more pictures in next couple of weeks.

 

Great pics- thanks for posting. Actually, I expected the top of the plenum there to be taller than it appears in the pics. You just might squeak by under the hood,.

There isn't a prayer this would fit under an early XJS hood- facelift model maybe..... Hmm......

As a side note and not meant to hijack this thread, I just posted an update on an XK8 project we've worked on for a while using a Gen4 LS and 6L80E transmission (basically the same as the 6L90E). If you're interested to see that, here's the link:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...1/#post2135697

Andrew
Jaguar Specialties

 

Corvette manifolds to clear steering shaft...

Modified oil cooler port, to clear steering rack, (lower port orientated 90 degrees to original).

Modified oil pan.

Final bolting to subframe today.

 

Well now it's getting interesting......

 

A bit more progress...

The worn out and tired V12 engine has now been extracted from the coupe and she will be getting dressed up and put on display at a classic car museum.

Next is the 3.54 PL IRS to be installed in the rear. (new discs, bearings, pads and bushes)

lots of small jobs in between which suck up the hours!

 

I have to complement you on your cherry picker there. That certainly had no problems lifting the V12......

The LS will seem like a feather compared to it...

 

it came out easier than we thought actually.
(after dropping the steering rack)

 

Spent a few hours cleaning, scraping and sanding the engine bay area and I sprayed her black for a tidy up.

I have had the original V12 radiator stripped apart and rodded/tested and deleted the oil cooler loop and also the top right radiator input from the RH bank.

The radiator specialist commented the core was in fantastic condition and was far bigger than I needed for a V8 so all good to go!

Still a few more jobs with IRS rebuild and engine components, but progressing well.

 

Man that paint looks great.

 

Craig,
That car would look Real good if only it was RED!
(';')

 

Yeah the paintwork was done around 12 years ago and is really top notch. Will look Amazing all polished up at the end.

 

Bit of an update... albiet a little boring!

Diff has been stripped apart and will be re-built with new bearings all throughout this weekend and new Koni shocks.

Electronic throttle plate has been developed for interior firewall mounting.

 

Installing new carrier & pinion bearings on the rear end...

Glad we stripped her down. The outer side bearings were black and burnt and most of the races were pitted.

It had a slight 'whurr' when riding along so made the decision for a full rebuild.

 

Cleaning up the diff housing ready for installation later this week. (Waiting on pinion seal)

 

What Fun!
(';')