experienced the same failure rate as the Euro units? I can't seem to find much info on average gasoline sulfur content for various countries prior to the year 2000.

 

I think the "common knowledge" is that the European fuels "always" had lower sulfur content and were fine for Nikasil. US fuels at the time had a lot more sulfur and caused Nikasil failures in some circumstances. At some later point, the sulfur content of US fuels was reduced and stopped being a problem for Nikasil engines. So, my superficial understanding is that European cars had low, if any, Nicasil failures. Nicasil was sometimes problematic in the US, which prompted Jaguar to offer engine replacement on occasion. It also assumed that if a Nikasil-lined engine made it past the early years, it is probably fine by now with the better fuels around. Some even like these engines better for their durability and tighter tolerances.

Check this: top-automotive-engineering-failures-jaguar-nikasil-v8

 

 

If a Nikasil engine hasn't failed by now, it's highly unlikely to be a problem in the future.

I'm not surprised you're having difficulty finding information on failures. Jaguar aren't noted for releasing statistics and will certainly want to bury all reminders of this debacle.

Graham