Hello all,

Some of you may be familiar with my 1984 lumped S3.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...j6-0-a-255864/

I understand that this type of conversion may not be for everyone; but I like it, and have found it to compliment the chassis quite well. Rather than argue the merits of XK I6 vs GM V8, I would rather focus on celebrating and enjoying the S3 chassis Out of respect for the purists I will do my best to focus on repairs and projects not related to the engine (unless one insists!).

The engine swapping portion of the project was completed in late 2022 and I have found myself more recently fixing "Jag" things than "swap" things. I figured this might be a good place to pick up this portion of the project as it's easier to solicit specific advice as well as share my lessons learned with everyone.





Anyhow, a short introduction - I bought the car in non-running condition in late 2021 and have spent the last few years getting it back on the road. I do not drive the car in the wintertime, so from November until March every I usually take on some type of project with the car. This past winter, I dropped the IRS and rebuilt everything. 3.54 gears, Auburn LSD, new bearings and bushings in everything, reinforced hub carriers, new exhaust under the cage.









I recently convinced the stock tachometer and speedometer to read correctly. A few months of trial and error, and I went from this:



To this:



The game plan is to continue to refine the driving experience (read: tinkering) while still using the car as a fair weather daily driver and attending locals shows with my kids, who adore the car. Although they're still too young to truly get their hands dirty, I do my best to involve them (and my long-suffering wife) in the care and feeding of this cat



Some shots from the last few summers:











I do still have the original wheels (with Pirelli tires!) and am storing them.





Having recently finished the IRS rebuild, I plan to turn my attention to the front end, which exhibits an annoying wobble at some highway speeds. The steering rack is leaking, the subframe bushings are probably original, and the control arm bushings have seen better days...

 

Great looking car and it’s great that your family is involved. No worries about the V8, a bunch of the folks that post regularly have V8 powered cars. I would suggest that you start a separate thread for each individual topic. The reason is years from now when someone is looking for help on their project they don’t have to scroll through dozens of posts to find what they are looking for. For example, if they are looking for information about replacing a gas tank and their search turns up a thread with gas tank in the title they can quickly find what they are looking for.

 

I am not much of a car show person as I prefer to be around cars when they're in motion, but my family enjoys these events so I decided to compromise:


Unfortunately the steering rack leak is not getting any better on its own, so I'll be killing two birds with one stone and dropping the front subframe to replace the control arm bushings and subframe mounts while I'm at it. Wish me luck on the steering rack rebuild...

 

That's where I've been almost from the first moment I got this car!
WAY more trouble with Jag stuff.
But to be fair, the Jag stuff is also WAY older!

I see that Pink Jeep still has its place of Honor, right next to Dad's Jag!
This is only Too Precious.

By the Way, be Sure you put on ONLY Metalastik fulcrum bushings! Otherwise, you'll be doing it all again in about 3 years.
I can tell you how I know that....
(';')