Nobody is dreaming here. I'm just trying to make conversation. Trying to chat about a car I like with people I think also like the same car. At no moment I said this is to be a project car. It's just musing around. At least for now. I thought it could be fun. Or the forums are only for topics complaining and asking for help to fix broken things?

And you are getting the wrong idea if you think I'm worried about speed per say. This is not the reason for it. Like I said it's about simplicity.
And things like electric mirrors go wrong all the time, regardless of how much you LOL.

It has happened to me several times. Just an unnecessary annoyance.

 

Oh yes. Beautiful car!

Me too. I kind of like it better than the F-type we got now.

 

I also have the model. It's the XK180. I don't think anybody made a F-type concept model.

But the XK180 was available in 1/24 and 1/18. I have the later.

Both concepts look almost identical at first sight though. Both look very nice.

 

Hey, nice entry! Sorry for the multi quoting. But you bring up too many good points not to address them one by one.


Didn't know it had that. Yes, absolutely. I can do without them too.

Again we are 100% on the same page here!

Yes, CATS is an absolute must go. Don't see much point in it.

You really grasp the concept. I didn't even know about all that behavior. Ditch for sure in my book.

Wow, what a write up. Thanks. Can't disagree with anything based on what you wrote.

Agreed. electronic fuel injection is welcome.

Yes but can it realistically be made less electronic? I personally prefer manual, even with all the weaknesses that there may be. But I understand you wanting to keep the auto.

Worth way more than what I paid. What can I say? You totally grasp the concept. Nice suggestions and quite a few things I didn't know about the car. Thanks for contributing!

 

Glad you liked my rambling Jaegar. There's more that could be done on that topic since there are so many bells and whistles on these cars. Like the coolant fill bottle and the hidden overflow in the fender area. One larger bottle out of better material would be a vast improvement on the existing one that seems to rupture every two or three years. Or make a replacement out of aluminium or steel. I really didn't get in to the side mirrors (I like the powered ones), climate control and I'm sure many other items that could be simplified.

My dad always believed that having less "stuff" on a car meant having less things go wrong and lower repair bills. He even went so far as to special order a car back in 1997 to get the manual roll up windows because he didn't want the power windows and that's all the dealer had in stock!

I do think the ZF6 could be made more reliable with less electronics or perhaps just better programing so that it behaved more conventionally. But I'm certainly no authority there. I've had at least 3 American made automatics that all went over 250,000 miles with almost zero problems or odd behavior. The repair on the Dodge was probably at about 150K and only to fix a leak. Others cars, mostly but not all American, that had less miles on them, have required only basic servicing. I'm amazed at how reliable a good automatic tranny can be!

I'm sure others can come up with ways to add utility, reliability or simplify the existing platform without de-clawing our beautiful cats or altering their essential nature.

 

Well do tell. This is why I started the thread.

Interesting suggestion about the bottle. I don't need climate control. AC is fine. Especially in old 90's cars, climate controls tend not to work too well anyway. Not sure how it is with the X100.

Very wise man your father. I totally agree with him.

Yes I hear auto transmissions can be reliable. The X100 just got bad luck I guess. But I have a preference for manuals.

This is exactly the point. Although at this point we are probably alone here for coming up with ways. But let's carry on anyway.

How do you feel about brake upgrades? Is there anything out there for the X100 or perhaps something that can be retrofitted from the newer cars? And how would that play with the ABS? ABS is something I would like to keep.

What about a stand alone management system ? I get the feeling many problems are caused by the X100 management system, triggering false responses and sensors. Could a stand alone unit leave out all the stuff which gives grief frequently?

 

Jeagar, I don't know that a lot can be done with the brakes. The upgrades I've read about here are mostly just different rotors (drilled and/or slotted) different pads or different calipers (ala Brembo). I understand they can improve braking and stopping distance but I haven't done any mods myself yet and I don't really think those mods would simplify, or de-clutter the XK8. And if you want to keep ABS you're going to have to keep something similar to what it has anyway. If a better method to monitor the wheel speed could be devised that might help cut down sensor errors but short of redesigning the sensor or reluctor ring to have or allow more "slop", I don't see a lot to gain, or rather lose here. Not to mention additional "slop" could make your ABS less responsive than you would want.

I think there are probably improvements to be made to the existing management system. Heck, if it would just be more tolerant of low battery voltage situations/issues that would cut out a plethora of bogus sensor errors alone! And a different hierarchy of error codes (especially the ones that can trigger the "restricted performance" mode) would probably help too. But a stand alone system is more in the tuners realm and that's not in my wheelhouse. But with the lack of tuner apps and goodies available, I don't think there is much margin of improvements there.

A lesser use of plastic throughout the car would help with breakage issues of various nick-nacks but would probably add weight.

And I'm not sure how to address this but for some reason the Jags seem to have lots of poor electrical connection issues! My airbag light came on again last night when I pulled in. I know exactly what the problem is because it happens every few months. I can reach under my seat, open and close the connector a few times, restart the car and POOF, airbag error is gone. Using contact cleaner can help, as can dielectric grease but the error will inevitably return in weeks or months. No big deal but an annoying niggle nonetheless. This same type of issue seems to occur many times where there are electrical connections, including the fuse box. Hence the re-seating of fuses that can sometimes make the issue go away, for a while. It seems like it's the metal used, or maybe it's that the size of the contact area isn't optimal for maintaining good electrical connections without having some sort of contact issues come up from VERY minor dirt or corrosion. And that by itself can lead to erroneous codes and all the fun chasing those can lead too. But short of completely re-wiring the car (cost and labor prohibitive) I don't know how you can really solve that situation. Just have to deal with those issues as they arise. And they certainly will!

 

I only brought up the brakes topic because we were already talking about modifications in general. But I have actually not heard any complains about the stock brakes. I mean, it is a heavy car, and I'm sure the XKR brakes are better than the XK8. But in general are there complains about the brakes in the X100? The ones I drove I never really drove them hard or fast enough to be able to test the brakes at that level. Because I was test driving them and they were not my cars. It felt alright at city cruising speeds and normal freeway driving. I'm also thinking the XKR brakes are easy to swap in to XK8s? Although most likely not easy to find? But maybe there are aftermarket options.

So the brakes might be better of left alone perhaps.

It seems to me a stand alone unit could maybe solve some of that. But this is the curious part for me. I have not been hanging here for long, but for the time being I gather that electric and electronic problems are way more common with X100s than engine problems. Which is why I don't get the LS1 swap crowd justification for the swap being reliability. It seems to me the jaguar V8 is bullet proof. The problems come from the materials accessories are made of and from electrics and electronics. Swapping in a LS1 will not really take care of the electric and electronic problems. Although since they would have to use a different management system, maybe a byproduct of the swap is that you get less electronic glitches, less bogus sensor errors etc, because the management system has been modified or changed. So perhaps a stand alone unit for the Jaguar V8 could do the same.

Unless you would make them out of carbon fiber. But then instead of adding weight you would be adding considerable cost.


Indeed electrics and electronics still seem to be the Achilles heel in these Jaguars. Not as bad as old Lucas but compared to engine problems it seems electrics and electronics are more usual.Re-wiring the whole car sure sounds like a good way to put a definite stop to it. But as you say not really feasible. Maybe re-wiring things as they go wrong only? You might not need to re-wire the whole car in the end.

By the way, something totally out of the blue happened today. I was not looking for a project car at all. My intention was finding the best X100 I could find for a fair price. But I got to know about a car today which might turn out to be an interesting buy. It's a non running XK8, which according to my contact is in good shape. He doesn't know why it's not running but he knows where the car is and can get to the owner. I'm tempted to pursue this. If the car is not a mess, with trees growing through it or something, it might be a fun project to do some of the things we spoke about in this thread. I know it has been seating for a while. Not sure how long. Let's see how it develops. It will all depend on condition and especially price. But even if I get it, since I will only buy it if really cheap, I would still keep looking for a well sorted X100. I might just end up with 2 then.

 

Reading what you all would like to change/modify on your XK's makes me think back to the good old days. I miss my 59 948 cc frogeye Sprite. No Power anything, no electronics to break, just a fun car to drive. And, it could be fixed with a couple of screwdrivers, a few wrenches, a roll of duct tape and a hammer.

 

By the way, did the position of the engine change when they changed to 4.2?



Or are these blueprints wrong?

 

Sorry, but how is this relevant to your original question that started this thread? A new thread perhaps...

 

Didn't want to start a new thread only for this, figured people who have posted in this one would know, and it's not totally off topic as we did talk about engines and transmissions swaps in the thread.

 

I don't think there is a huge difference between the engines, the coupe looks like it could be right, the convertible doesn't.

 

Yeah, I don't think the convertible in those 'prints is representative of the real thing. I've had both a 4.0 and a 4.2, and the engine sits at or just behind the axle, but never in front of it.

 

Jeagar,
Thought of something else you could lose in your quest for a less complex XK8. The headlight washer/spray nozzles. I've used them once, by accident when I forgot they were there and hit the window washer/sprayer!
Thought about your idea when I saw an older white (pre-2000) XK8 at a local garage today. It had some front end damage on the left headlight area and had obviously been left outside far to long. In rough but probably restorable shape. But supposedly it was now running after having the fuel pumps repaired. A good candidate as probably a lot of stuff isn't working anyway! But the fellow that owns it doesn't want to sell and is planning to try and do a restoration. He's going to have his hands full!

 

The blueprint of the convertible appears to have a more diminutive powertrain aft of the front axle. Could it be a simpler SOHC XK4 convertible!

 

APRIL FOOLS Photochop!

 

OK. I thought it would be strange if they had moved the engine when they changed to 4.2. They are probably the same size externally. The Coupe blueprint says 1999 and the Convertible's says 2003. So probably just an inaccurate blueprint.

Looking at the blueprint, if they had put the engine just a little bit more backwards, the car would be mid engined. Would probably make quite a bit of difference in the handling in a positive way. But it's not bad the way it is. At least it sits on the front axle instead of in front of it as some cars. Actually the X100's engine position seems to be biased towards the rear bit,which is good.

 

Yes, the headlight washer could definitely go! Don't plan driving the car on snow or mud.


That car sounds like a good candidate indeed.The one I spoke about before, with the engine not running, the seller wants 3 grand for it. I think this is too much. It would have to be cheaper than that for me to be interested.

 

It would be great but makes the car rather long. My 1960 XK-150 had the long inline six engine mounted completely behind the front axle centerline, which resulted in the very long bonnet and a perfect 50/50 weight distribution, with attendant superb neutral handling.

Granville