I'm aware there is no temperature gauge or even an idiot light. What I don't have a definitive answer to is what if anything should I be expecting on my dash to light up to give me any indication or warning that my car is running hot or worse has overheated? I have no problem at this time but would like to be proactive as what to expect especially when I know how vulnerable our water pumps are on the 5.0 engines.

 

The car will give you an over-temperature warning.

If you really want to know the temperature of your engine though, hook up an inexpensive OBDII monitor such as the ELM327. This will directly read coolant temperature, and if you use it with a smartphone, you can monitor it while you drive and see the normal fluctuations.

 

From the manual:

 

Wouldn't 247 degrees F be enough to already damage the engine?

 

Probably not for a very brief period, but it certainly will stress it. The problem with these type of threshold indicators is simply that...it is a threshold...if there is a cooling system fault causing overheating, often there is nothing stopping the temperature from continuing to rise over 247 until you (hopefully quickly) intervene and shut down the engine.

The value of an actual gauge is you might see your car beginning to run hotter than normal before it actually overheats.

 

There lies the Conundrum.... No gauge. This is a first for me with my career with cars. I hope Jaguar XKs don't have any history of overheating as there's not much I can do. My car doesn't have enough mileage to even change the thermostat for a fresh one after only 6,000 miles. I guess, checking coolant levels periodically couldn't hurt either.

 

Regardless of mileage, replacing the (long-life) coolant and thermostat every 5-6 years or so is probably worthwhile preventative maintenance.

 

It will also cut power to the engine until it cools off. I've driven the XKR/XFR/XJR-S (not mine) with that light on around a track for hours and never damaged the engine. Unless you have a real over heating problem such being out of coolant or a blockage you'll be fine.

 

Whoa, MaximA - You are a brave guy driving on the track with the temp warning light ON!!! Have you checked into the cost of a new engine? I have not but, imagine it to be at least $25K, given the known prices for much lesser Jag parts.

Many or most street cars are really not designed for sustained, high RPM track driving, particularly in hot whether. If used such way adding an extra oil cooler is always a great insurance.

 

It wasn't my car, I'm not that crazy LOL, it was during the Jag R Academy.

The instructors told us not to worry about it as the engineers said there was a bit of headroom left before permanent damage would occur. This was actually one of the conversation I had with Davy Jones as he asked the engineers to up the limit by 5-10 degrees as that would have stopped the constant warnings.

This is also why I brought up extra cooling as my next step, I don't need a blown engine due to over heating at 6500 RPM.

 

WOW again! For the Jaguar Academy to actually suggest to owners that it is OK to keep-on track driving with the warning light ON? With no actual temp gauges to indicate, how did they know how high the actual temps were? How did they know that the "headroom" was not being exceeded? If, indeed the temps at Academy events repeatedly triggered the overtemp light it indicates that the SC Jags are not up for heavy track duty without additional cooling. I assume that no one is allowed to push the car to anywhere close to its real sustained limits at those events.

One more STRONG reason to avoid purchasing an ex-Academy Jags. For all I know some or many of those engines may well be partially warped due to the excessive heat. Aluminum engine blocks are very unforgiving to being overheated. I will always remember my first Jaguar with its straight six engine was prone to overheating during hot CA summer days. I never allowed the heat to go extreme, still, at 50K it blew a head gasket. When I tried to replace it I found that the aluminum head was warped so bad that I could not remove it from the block. All due to those slightly overheated conditions for which it was known for.

Good idea for you to consider the extra cooling. I installed that extra oil cooler in all my cars that I drove hard on the track or, even on the street. My present (street only) RX-7 has only a single oil cooler and when I do a red-line, steep uphill canyon run (about 3 miles) the temps rise alarmingly. If I tracked the car or pushed it further I would have to add that second oil cooler. My previous twin turbo RX-7 that I track raced had dual coolers with no heat issues during even long races.

 

I was a bit surprised myself but I have no details of the conversation with the engineers either. The cars are driven very hard at the advanced event, I was lapping 2.5 seconds off of Davy's time(yes I'm proud of that LOL) in the same car. I had to turn off the A/C so it wouldn't trigger the warning.

Albert-This is what really got me going on the cooling as it REALLY concerned me. We have oil, air and engine cooling on these cars but just looking over the car airflow through these coolers isn't sufficient. You can ram air in but you also have to let it escape which is where I see the major deficiency.

To sum it up I would not by one of the cars they have been beat hard, very hard.

 

Let me clarify what I said before as it is misleading. If you are driving the car hard in hot weather and see the warning slow down and the temps will drop quickly if it does not have an issue.

Otherwise you should not see the light unless there is a problem.

 

I am still in disbelief about Jaguar people telling participants to ignore the warning lights on the track. I keep seeing the following scenario:

XKR being towed to dealer with blown engine... dealer hooks up diagnostics and finds history records for excessive heat, triggered warning light for sustained high RPM periods... they immediately deny warranty coverage for the engine damage... customer argues; "But, But,... the Jaguar engineers told me it was OK to drive with the temp lights on at the track..." unbelievable

 

I agree with you 100% I was surprised as well. The first time I saw the light I brought it to their attention right away. They said keep driving so I shrugged my shoulders told myself it wasn't my car, and went back out on to the track and drove it like I stole it.