Well i pulled the cam covers off of my V12 to make some kickass garage art and i found that the Drivers side LHD timing chain was stretched beyond belief or if there was a tensioner it is broken.

my XJS had been in storage for many years before the last owner tried to get it running and he never could get it to run right.

well Ive been speculating for a while all the different things that have been the problem and at some point i came to the conclusion that someone MUST have turned the engine backwards with a breaker bar when they tried to awaken it from storage and broken some of the timing components.

and now i have confirmation.

as many of you know ive been swapping an L67 (3.8L supercharged V6) into the car. Im almost finished with the swap and getting super excited.

im making a table out of the block.
I have a whole bunch of V12 engine parts (cams, heads, pistons, rods, pan) that are about to go to the scrap yard. perhaps some beer money could sway me from these items

 

The Jaguar V12 is one of the most sensible V12's ever made although they may be more aggravating than the German V12's but they are worth any frustration one may encounter and I speak from experience having owned 5 of from 2 E-Types to XJ series. Maintenance is a must and in return you will have many miles of carefree driving of utmost enjoyment. I would never consider an engine swap for this mechanical work of art.

 

I doubt turning the engine backward would damage it if it were in good condition, any more than turning a Buick V6 backwards would damage it. The L67 V6 is an interesting choice. I hope it works out well for you.

 

That Buick supercharged motor is quite amazing. What year L67 are you using? Any plans to turn up the boost? I'm a big fan of the Buick V6 especially the 1000HP indy motor that dominated until it was banned. The L67 fully dressed weight in at just under 400Lbs. It's going to make the Jag handle like it should because you'll be shedding hundreds of pounds over the front axel. I thought most of those L67's were FWD what are you using for a transmission? Good times!!!....

 

Thanks ICSamerica the L67 in my jaguar is from a front wheel drive 99 Buick Regal GS. build thread is in my signature.
i had to heavily modify the pan and sump to get it to tuck behind the rack and pinion on the XJS. then i used a 93 camaro 700R4 trans with a 98 Camaro flexplate. extensive mods were made to the alternator brackets and cooling system to get them to fit under the bonnet. so far the exhaust consists of two rear tubular FWD manifolds that have been cut short to just the primaries so i can make some powerlogs which i will be fabbing from some 2.5" J pipes. of course i had to make my own mounts and brackets and such.

i plan on putting a N/IC cam to get the most out of the blower in this car because an intercooler wont let the blower clear the bonnet. from there i will be rocking a double roller timing chain and 130# springs revving to 6500 (and thats keeping things conservative). with something like a 3.1" pulley on a modular system.
if youre curious as to just how much lighter the new engine and trans combo is compared to stock, well the front of the car sits bolt upright at the top of the spring travel. there is almost no compression at all.
so far the engine is stock save for a Bonneville tensioner setup to keep things tidy and lightweight.


i decided to go this route because my current racecar is a 98 Grand Prix GT with an L67 from a 99 GP GTP with a 3.3" modular pulley system, 1.89/1.8 ratio rocker arms, a 69mm ported Throttle Body, a ported and polished lower intake, 2" primary headers into a 3" exhaust, a tune and extensive weight reduction mods. it runs 14psi and makes about 290whp and something in the range of 340wtq

burnouts......burnouts everywhere.