I blew up my 2003 XKR Coupe
 

Yes it seams I did, on a race track... witnesses gave conflicting reports - white smoke got the most, out of the right front wheel well - my thought at the time was a blown tire. When she cooled down, she was reporting low coolant, I filled and I turned her over briefly, sounded like a John Deere tractor that had been drinking heavily - appears to be toast! Have not taken her to a shop for a thorough look because it seems it would be money wasted. Did see evidence of oil along the bottom of the engine but no holes in block seen - clearly she lost oil and coolant in "the event."

So, has anyone else gone through this and if so what did you do?
Where can an engine be purchased for good value and service in USA?
What needs to be considered?
Can a 5.0 L 550 hp be put in a 2003? If so what else needs to be considered?
A lot to consider I know and money needs to be saved if indeed I'm going through with an engine replacement.

What questions do you have for me?

Thanks for any help thinking this one through and helping me reach desicions and guiding me to the right vendors.

Frank

CzechFrank,
If you decide to go the 5.0L supercharged route, I've got a spare! But, why don't you find out what happened first.

As I suspect that you know, white smoke probably indicates coolant got into the engine somehow. My guess would be through a blown gasket somewhere. If you managed to shut it down right away, before the internals got damaged, you might get away with replacing the gasket. Of course, it could be something far worse, such as a cracked block or something, in which case you would surely need to replace the engine.

I had this happen to a car of mine several years ago, and I shut it down before the internals were damaged and all I needed was to have the head gaskets replaced.

Good luck, I hope that is repairable.

Having raced and blown engines before, this scenario sounds like: thrown rod through block at water jacket and cylinder, water in cylinder and oil on pavement. here is no doubt that the engine needs to be replaced with teh decription you gave. Oil doesn't get out of the engine at the same time white smoke happens without hole in block.

If you just warped the heads, blew the gaskets, and dropped some valve seats that could explain the symptoms. Worth a look.

peanut butter on the dipstick
 

When this happened to my 2000, I ended up with brown peanut butter in the oil pan - emulsified oil & water...pretty good indicator of a water incursion.

Or, you could get with the "Deminshed Value" guy and file a claim and blame it on the race track. ;-))

:icon_teeth: STOP IT! I'm glad some one is not allowing the insurance company to skate.

That's what I think, but will have a closer examination when I get a chance.

tberg,
nice garage! thanks, I would like to have more of a conversation with you about your spare engine - condition/mileage, what comes with it, how you came to have spare and of course price. I can be reached directly at frankalbert@att.net

So Frank, what happened to your engine?

At a minimum, I would say the electronic hook ups are going to be totally different, as are things like the BCM and other electronic doo-dads. You might be able to get the installation to work, but you would also either miss some functions and features or have to put up with funny codes and messages from the computer. Even when Jaguar themselves put a 6 speed manual transmission into an XKR they had problems with this (experimental model only; maybe three were built like that).

Good luck.

There is no way you will get a 5.0 liter engine to work in an early car. It would require the engine management system from a 5.0 for starters. The engines really have nothing in common.

One option for making the 5.0l work with would be to have a custom ecm and tcm made.
Other than that the biggest problem in my opinion would be installation.

Given the cost of a used 5.0l engine and transmission plus the cost of installation, modification and engine/ tranny controllers I doubt it will be cheaper than an engine rebuild.

The internals of these cars are not very complex, it would be no harder to rebuild than any other over head cam engine.

The only catch would be price of pistons and connecting rods.
Hoping the crankshaft is in repairable condition, I cant imagine it would be cheap or easy to find a replacement.

Personally I would tear the engine apart and get to wrenching.

Good luck!

LS1 Swap
 

If you have to toss the engine either direct swap in another from the same series or you can do an LS1 engine swap. That is actually pretty cheap and you can push an LS1 far father than you can our motor. I think the folks at Jaguar Specialties have the manual sorted now. One of the other folks in the forum just did this and it ended up both cheap and very nice. If interested contact the folks at Jaguar Specialties (link below). They are located near me and great folks.


(I just looked at the year of your car, I'm not sure they have a kit that will take something newer than a 2000 but worth a call anyway).


Jaguar Specialties

Although, I do, indeed, have a spare 5.0L engine with the supercharger, I was suggesting it "tongue in cheek," simply responding to the original post's query. But it would be a helluva swap, sort of a short cut to the power provided by the twin screw supercharger. I'll make it no secret that I prefer the body and comfortable ride of my 2002 XKR to my 2010 XKR, and if I could transplant the engine and suspension of the new to the old, I'd do it in a mnute.

But since I can't, I'll keep both to make me happy.

Threw rod...

so sorry, sir ..... ouch

If you want more HP than a stock supercharged 4.2L why not consider a used/rebuilt 4.2L and do a AVOS upgrade kit with the KB supercharger. This would be very similar to what Jeff in Tucson did to his XKR.

+1

But if you do it, get the Abaco MAF that you can program yourself and larger than stock fuel injectors.