HI,
after just 60K miles on my 2001 XK8 a cylinder has frozen in my engine, no warning lights no oil light just drove home one day and the engine sounded terrible so i took it in. I am being quoted $6500 to do a second hand swap. $13k for a new engine, no quote on rebuild yet. Any advice on what to do. This car has been a dream until this happened. I leave near pasadena in the los angeles region would love to get more quotes perhaps directly from engine re-builders.
any advice is appreciated.
thanks
fil

 

Jeez. How would THAT happen?

Were you regular with oil changes? Best of luck to you.

 

There are a number of independent Jaguar shops west of you in the San Fernando Valley (Steves Jaguar in Canoga Park, Sherman Oaks Exclusive and Just Jaguar in Sherman Oaks, European Auto Service in Reseda, and probably many others).

Good luck!

Doug

 

Yep it was serviced regularly ran like a dream until just before Xmas never ten out of fluids or oil. Bizarre. Thanks for the heads up on the valley jag guys will check them out

 

There may be lots of AJV8s out there, but from what I have read the matchup by year...and even date of that year...is very important to each car. $6500 seems steep for a used engine (especially with no real history), but maybe not in SoCal. A couple or few thousand dollars more and you can get another XK8 in that yeargroup. It depends on the rest of your car and how much you have in it.

"Frozen cylinder"? Hmmmmmm... That would take a busted ring or some other hard metal breakage. Unless you lost a CCT, the chain jumped, and your dropped a valve into the cylinder. That would make a helluva racket.

 

Thanks for the heads up in price, cylinder isn't frozen yet just sounds like its about to. Mechanic said tensioners were gone he started there, pulled the top off no problems had a stethoscope on the bottom and says it a long rebuild that he thinks is easier to drop a second hand engine in. I generally trust him he only works on jaguars and has been doing it since the 70's his car is exactly the same as this one a silver 01 coupe.

 

But if he's the one quoting you $6,500 for an engine swap, how much can he really be trusted.

You can see good low mileage used engines on Car-Part.com all day long for $2,500. And, there are a bunch of Jaguars salvaged in the Somewhat Great State of Califlower.

$4K profit for a day's work would be great.

Best of luck to you.

 

You need to diagnose the problem aswell, there is otherwise a risk the cause is still there when you swap the engine.

 

Again thanks again for the sound advice on the engine swap I will shop around a lot more before I decide what to do. I really love this car and astounded that it's first real failure is of this magnitude. Have an xj8 with 120k on it and it runs great. Same basic engine I think.

 

So an update on this.
It appears that the cam shaft has broken.
I have talked to 2 other mechanics who have reported this happening on 01 XK8's before at lower than expected mileage. While i never let the oil run dry it its strongly recommended to never let this particular model go below add on the dipstick. After to talking to 3 shops out here it looks like the best deal i can get is $6000 remove and replace with new tensioners and a 2nd hand engine from an '02 with 35K on it. I am moving forward as my car is in great condition and its hard to find coupe's out here now.

 

Such repairs are painful, but many of these cars are just too nice to junk out.

Fortunately, swapping engines are relatively not that difficult. XK8's are really pretty conventional in most ways.

We have a local cardiologist with a fleet of Ferarri's, and it takes a week's labor to pull a Testarossa engine just to adjust the valves. They're not conventional in any manner.

Good luck to you in your swapover.

 

The usual cause of a broken cam is bearing seizure due to lack of lubrication. Since these cars don't have separate cam bearings, when the cam seizes, the head is usually shot. You say the tensioners are okay, this is the usual cause of failure in this model.
If you get the used engine, verify that the tenioners are the latest type, if not, replace them.

 

What a coincidence!

My mechanic also quoted me about the same to remove the heads, grind the valves, and put it back together.

He estimated the engine to be about $2,000-$3,000 for a used engine + other parts, not a rebuilt engine. Labor was 30 hrs.

The risk of replacing with a used engine is that the engine needs to be checked out before installing, because if there is a problem, there is labor cost to remove it and replace it all over again

 

thanks for the heads up,
yes he is ready to replace with the new tensioners. He was going to put into the old engine until he found out it was the camshaft not just the tensioners.

 

That sux.... I have never known a cam to break? Not a Jag V8 but $6500 for an engine swap seems steep, if I was doing it about £2500 all in with new tensioners (thats about $3750)

I really do need to move countries

 

XKRacer,

I for one agree you need to come across the pond---Charlotte,NC is close to Asheville and is a big enough market???? Oh yeh, I almost forgot---Charlotte has some good old boys that like to race---ever heard of a Jag. in NASCAR???

 

yeah i drive a little hard so maybe thats why.
the mechanic in the valley here has exactly the same car and he did the same thing. He's waiting for a used cam to rebuild his.

wow the pound isn't what it used to be huh?

 

I have a friend who works on my XKR and is capable of doing an engine swap for much less than you have been quoted. His name is Rod and his phone number is (818) 299-7662. Give him a call, maybe he can save you some money.

 

I just talked to Rod, and he knows of an XK8 motor with 32K miles that installed would cost around $4200. if you're still interested, he's in the Sherman Oaks/Valley Glen area, not too far from Pasadena

 

30 Hours labor sounds a little high. Jaguar warranty time is less than 13 hours (includes transfer of ancillary parts)

I think a real wold time is 13 X 1.5 = 19.5 + a few hours for timing tensioner update.

I usually charge around 20 hours but I have done several more than most people.

bob gauff