Hey everyone,

As my car gets older I have considered selling it but would rather keep it with me. I love the look and it's not something you see every day, even in LA. The power additions for the 4.2 are minimal by today's standards and I found myself thinking it would be fun to make the car a 1/2 race car. This is pure fantasy at this point but swapping in an LS motor with a blower would get me some good power and make the car pretty unique. I realize could just buy a corvette and save myself some money but where is the fun in that.

Anyway, I know the XK100 has a swap kit but I wanted to see if anyone knew of someone who's done an LS swap in the XK150?

 

Not feasible unless you want to go Full Race and remove the interior. Nothing on the inside or outside would work electronically. No kits and not stand-alone anything available to facilitate anything. You would need the rolling XK chassis and a stand-alone LS kit. And new electronics for absolutely everything. Gauges, seat position controls, heated and cooled seats, mirror positions, all the defrosts on all glass, sound, vehicle settings, steering, blinkers, mirror controls, locks, interior and exterior lights, fuel door control, oh ballz, a thousand different things, actually.

 

Saw a guy on YouTube swap a Toyota V8 into a Ford Fairlane....and then put a turbo on it. With time, money, effort, skill and/or a lot of determination, you can put anything into anything.

Wondered myself about potential engine swaps in an X150. Not that there's anything wrong with mine. Just daydreaming more than anything. Like say a V12 from a Vanquish or maybe a V10 and a 6 speed from a Viper? I've seen builders do some crazy stuff with Haltech ECUs, why wouldn't it possible? However it's all just fanciful dreaming of course.

The thing would be to buy a wrecked or totaled XK, strip out all the stuff you're not gonna need or want, then fit the drivetrain you want. LS engines for sure are much more plentiful and way cheaper.

 

You can squeeze 550 hp out of the 4.2 supercharged version with little effort and a couple grand. Even more if you have the money.

 

How much power are you trying to make? You CAN swap over the entire powertrain from a Corvette, engine, clutch, torque tube and transaxel, and use Motec or the like for the PCM but as others have said, you'll lose ALL of the electrics in the car without serious modification there.

 

Why not swap over a 5.0L XKR engine. With a relatively inexpensive pulley and tune, you should be able to squeeze over 600hp out of it, and there shouldn't be much of an issue with the electronics since much was carried forward from the 4.2 to the 5.0L cars.

 

Or just trade for a 2010+, easier and cheaper.

 

The 4.2 is limited on handling and braking. I would address those first.

 

they’ve ls swapped the lincoln ls before so obviously it’ll fit but why waste your time

 

Marrying up all the software would be a issue I looked at all the different options when I spun a bearing on my 4.2 includong LS2 / LS7 and for me the most viable option at the time was slotting a 4.4 in there from a range rover aj series (I'm n/a)

I'm not saying a ls can't be done however it will pricey and your car will be off the road for many many months .No one has done the conversion on a x150 which equates big dollars

Why not simply get a tune, upper pulley and x pipe easy enough for low 12s passes if that's not fast enough upgrade to a 5l xkr good for low to mid 11s .
​Whilst the LS is great its definitely not the holy grail, there's plenty of power left on the table with our engines and there's really no point going to a Ls when you can get easily over 500hp from the 4.2 and 600+ from a 5.0
safely.

 

Having done multiple transplants in various Jaguars from XKE to XJS along with a few sedans I had once given this a thought. As all have mentioned the possible roadblock would be the SW. But reading this thread made me take a relook. If I were to undertake something like this I would first look at adapting an LS to the Jag transmission . Should not be a major issue machining an adapter to fit the engine to the transmission. Next look at all of the engine sensors used in the Jag and see if they can be installed in the LS. The unknown here is the sensor values and whether they would allow the engine to run. I would suspect most would be the same but don't know how you would find this out. would be fun to try but pretty costly. Just my 2 cents here. Enjoy the ride.

 

To the OP, you might ask Andrew @ Jaguar Specialties. I don't think he has a kit for anything newer than the 02 X100. That tells me it's not cost effective, but if you want specifics, I'm willing to bet he's researched it.

 

I say go for it

 

Jagtoes transplanting engines into the older jaguars a lot simpler the old xj run a turbo hydromatic so bolting up a chev engine is relatively straight forward . In contrast these days its the software that would be the biggest road block in all of this, what i dont get is why would you want to ruin your xkr with a common engine like a LS , be unquie use a v12 or w12 that already bolts up to zfhp6 and be prepared to have your car off the road for any were up to a year whilst attempting to get all the wiring / marrying up of the software ..

If your hell bent on chasing horsepower and for some reason do not want the easy way out (xkr 5.0) remove the Eaton blower , run a n/a manifold and turbo it with e85 you can really get on the boost and get your 600hp .. Regardless which option you go your going to be all in for atleast 20k

Also in regards to the earlier xk100 LS swaps its a completely different software set up primitive to say the least .

 

I'd just buy an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and be done with it.

 

I assumed the OP was looking at an engine replacement to a car with a bad engine. Also due to the various tunes available for the LS series of engines you would be able to attain greater HP then that of the 5.0l XKR or XKR-S engine. That coupled with readily available cheap engine parts would also be the goal. Leaving the Jag transmission keeps the SW associated with it . Having an adapter made to bolt up the engine to the stock transmission and using the Jag sensors and ECU may make the engine transparent . Don't know if it would work as someone smarter then me would have to assess it. My days of this activity are way over so I was just thinking out of the box on doing this. As folks know I'm old and just bought a C8 and all of my time is now dedicated to driving to various golf courses and enjoying it. As for the HP wars I just saw a youtube on a Modified C* which has 1350 HP at the RW's and turned a 9 sec. 1/4 at 153mph. Pretty good for a 6.2 L but then again I'm good with 500HP . Enjoy the ride.

 

That would probably be cheaper.

 

I spoke with him a while back and the short answer is hell no due to CANBUS. He wasn't interested in even researching it when we spoke.

To the OP,

I think an LS swap with a Corvette transaxle would be a killer setup for these cars... IF... you were going for a gutted out bare bones, look-the-other-way-at-the-inspection-station-because-it's-not-really-street-legal track car, and that you either have deep, deep pockets or you have a fab shop at your disposal. You're talking a max-effort build down to the bare shell here so your uncle with his 115V MIG welder won't cut it. If that's still something you're interested in, engine management is stand alone, and you can use relay logic for the windows, lights, and wipers, and HVAC, but you can forget about integrating an LS with the factory electrical system. Keeping federally mandated stuff like ABS and ESC (if 2013 or newer), airbags, and TPMS will be incredibly tough because they're integrated with the driveline control system which is all on that CANBUS network. Then there's the active suspension... I'd just ditch it in favor of dumb coilovers because you'll probably be wanting to change spring rates and have adjustable dampening at that point. The cool part is you'll have transducers on the suspension so you can datalog travel to dial in the suspension if you want. On the federal emissions end of things, you'll need to use an engine from the same year or newer than the chassis you're swapping in to.

In a nutshell, it would be an electrical **** show but if you still want to try it, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. Just keep me in mind when you give up and are ready to sell the roller at scrap value. I'll take if off your hands right quick fast and in a hurry.

 

Corvette transaxel's been done which is why I suggested it.

 

Please oh please, what is the recipe for 550hp for 2~3K?
The only reliable figures I've ever seen was @ 495 which cost several thousand.

wj