Was '92 a 5.3, or 6 liter? I'd love to get a hold of nice 6 liter kit for my personal stash.
As far as being bashed, I am not about that. My restoration is also far from original condition, plus the 5 speed conversion will make it even further away from stock.

 

still waiting on your 5 speed thread Mish.

also 92 was a 5.3

 

Well, my ***** are in The Driven Man's court. These 4-5 weeks already turned into 10...

 

I thought about the 5 or 6 speed while I had it all apart, but at some point I had to say enough was enough, I am putting a Gearstar stage 2 700r4 in it. I would also enjoy following your 5 speed thread though!

 

Bill,
You might actually consider leaving that pump in place in case you ever reconsider EFI in the future. Just disconnect it. The mech pump will still pull fuel thru it and it does no harm to have it inline unless you are building a monster that needs tremendous fuel flow.

 

Thank you for the input, since the car sat 2 years, I will be disassembling the tank to check inside for dirt & get the last of the crappy gas out. I will then see how much restriction it will be. The engine will wind pretty high & consume a fair bit of fuel when stepping on the "loud" pedal, plus I plan on a gear change to 3.73 or 3.55. There is some disagreement on whether or not the case will accept the 3.73, I won't know for sure until it is apart.

 

I think its a mistake to put too wild of a motor in cars like this as well. It's all too easy to get caught up in "more-is-better" and put in too much cam, too much carb, too loud exhaust. Personally, I like engines swaps that operate in stealth mode - smooth idle, decent mileage, lots of torque.

An XJS can become a much sportier car, but resist the temptation to grow a mullet and turn the car into a Camaro.

 

"An XJS can become a much sportier car, but resist the temptation to grow a mullet and turn the car into a Camaro."

Excellent point. I always use a comparison to the Corvette, but I couldn't have made my point any better.

 

[QUOTE=MustangSix;650738]I think its a mistake to put too wild of a motor in cars like this as well. It's all too easy to get caught up in "more-is-better" and put in too much cam, too much carb, too loud exhaust. Personally, I like engines swaps that operate in stealth mode - smooth idle, decent mileage, lots of torque.

An XJS can become a much sportier car, but resist the temptation to grow a mullet and turn the car into a Camaro.[/QUote


I understand what you are saying, I already a 9 second car, so this will be a sunny day cruiser, but I have built dozens of small block chevys mild to wild & a few big blocks, so I know how to squeeze the power out with the right combinations.
As for the mullet, I have always had longer hair but no mullet LOL..

 

I understand very well that 350SB is one hell of a better motor than our 5.3V12, no matter how you slice it. This is if one drops all the purist and snooty attitude about the concept of engine swap.
In my case, keeping that original 5.3 is more of a statement, that I can get this thing to run well and keep it running, so my wife can no longer call this damn clunker "a garage furniture".
Also, it will be years, until these 115K of XJS units made will be a rarity, so until then any talk about XJS being classic car is nothing more of a fart down the wind.

 

The car is simply not a jaguar anymore without the v12...period.

 

It's your car! Do with it as you wish!

As far as all the talk about keeping the "Jaguar" a "Jaguar".... I figure I maybe got 'bout 30 years left in me before I kick off and am no more. After that, who gives a rats **** about whether or not my car was kept in stock condition. Right at this moment, the world is littered with XJS's in various conditions. Maybe in 200 years there'll only be one totally stock XJS left in the world, hold-up in some climate controlled vault in a musium somewhere but it won't be mine. Mine will long since been crushed, melted down and extruded through a paperclip-making machine by then and I and everybody who knew me will be dead. I say enjoy what short time you are here on this planet and do with your car what makes you happy!

howlinowl

 

Right on bro', bugger the purists!

 

Well said, made me wanna go kiss everyone goodbye and kill myself.

 

I looked into the same for my '85 and found that a lot of work had to be done in order to make the retrofit work. Now that's out of the way, I would like to congratulate you on the nice toys you have to work on your car. That lift must really come in handy. Not to mention that wheeled rack too...I see those at the auto body shops near me. Great stuff. Just out of curiosity, did you have to rebuild your power steering rack and pump? It seems like everything leaks on mine ( probably due to the fact that the previous owner "PO" let it sit most of the time) I'm currently removing my engine and plan to drop the front and rear wheel assembly's as well.

 

I often wonder why the purists who claim the XJS is not an XJS any more without a V12 think of the AJ6 powered vehicles. You know, the ones that have much smaller, more efficient engines that run within a half second to 100 km/h of the V12's times and get much, much better economy, plus handle better?
In that vein, surely the fact that 80% of an XJS is XJ sedan parts, and the sedan was developed first, means the XJS is just a sedan?
I believe the AJ6 powered cars prove that Jaguar knew the V12 was on it's last legs/ had issues when fitted to the tight XJS body, hence offering the six in the sports models.
Let me say this: I have tremendous respect for the rugged engineering and design of the V12, but a severe lack of development of both the fuel and ignition systems until too late in the model run and a total lack of R & D of the V12's ancilliaries and cooling system in the XJS is totally unforgivable in what was a very expensive car when new.
I totally get the notion of putting a V8 into an XJS, I am doing it myself. It affords me several advantages. Ease of obtaining parts, healthy torque, ease and cheapness of engine improvement and modification, a stock 4 speed auto or the option to go to a totally factory (for the engine) 5 speed manual transmission.
Let's not even get into the advantages of shaving 100kg (220lbs) off the nose of a front heavy car or the fuel economy advantages of a modern injected V8.
I'll always have a lot of respect for a well maintained, original XJS, or even someone who modifies the V12 in any way. But to say an engine swap is not an XJS any more is wrong.
So, a bit of tolerance is always a good thing and you might just pick up a few tricks that will apply to your XJS from those of us who choose to restore and modify XJS's.

 

Yes, my rack leaked as well, my engine swap kit came from John's Cars in Dallas. He offers a rack with the good bushings, so I will go that way.
Thank you for the kind works about the shop. I do restorations & custom paint for customers, but in the last few years my transporting business has taken over. Now the shop is used more for maintenance for the 2 trucks & trailer. I labored in a rented shop for 23 years doing body work & paint, so when I got the chance to buid my own shop on my own property, I jumped at the chance & built it the way I wanted.
Thanks To Typhoon for the common sense way of looking at engine swapping in the Jag

 

I don't think I'd put an American V8 in my car, because I like straight-sixes. But if in the future we get to the point where we're not allowed to burn gasoline anymore, I'll take a good hard look at electrifying the XJS. Would somebody please invent a decent battery?

On another note, an acquaintance of mine (who manages a busy 8-bay garage) has done a very nice job of putting a stock Cobra 4.6 and o/d auto into an XJ40. So now it has 305bhp. And it is for sale.

 

Yes,
Some others on this forum should consider the fact that the transmission, the HEI not to mention the A/C etc etc is already GM....and that "Lump job" was done by the factory. Also, not to mention all the changes Ford made after they bought Jaguar that were done. This also goes for the more recent Jags as well. I personally like the TH400 transmission as the drag racers do as well for it's durability.

 

TH400 GM automatic trans is probably the strongest automatic in the world!

race guys run 1000-1500hp thru them all the time, and they take the abuse.

on lighter weight cars they use the design of the GM 2 speed powerglide, at 750-1000hp,

lets not forget GM built the 1st hydraulic automatic trans. that most of the world use today, the basic engineering of hydraulic auto is the same as 75yrs ago.