XK8 / XKR ( X100 ) 1996 - 2006

Insulating octopus hose

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Old Mar 14, 2026 | 10:27 PM
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Default Insulating octopus hose

A while ago I had a leaking valley hose and replaced every hose. Never liked how close octopus hose was to the cat. I had some leftover wrap from the exhaust down pipes on my LS swap.

 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 10:02 AM
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It looks like you lost a heat shield. It's supposed to have a heat shield at the cat-downpipe flange that, in theory, should keep heat away from the octopus hose. Your car does not have it. It seems that rather frequently, the heat shields are either binned by mechanics or they disintegrate with age.
 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by giandanielxk8
It looks like you lost a heat shield. It's supposed to have a heat shield at the cat-downpipe flange that, in theory, should keep heat away from the octopus hose. Your car does not have it. It seems that rather frequently, the heat shields are either binned by mechanics or they disintegrate with age.
That makes sense. I remember replacing an O2 sensor on a past XJ8 and having to remove the shield. Getting back on was a huge pain. On the XK8 no heat shield either side. On my XJR just driver’s side (US).
 
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Old Mar 15, 2026 | 12:32 PM
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Default Update

Looked through all the parts from my swap project and parts car. Two full sets of shields.
 
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Old Mar 16, 2026 | 08:34 AM
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@giandanielxk8 thanks again for the catch. Passenger side easy. For driver had to remove coolant reservoir. Also disconnecting fuel lines gave room to maneuver the shield in.
 
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Old Mar 19, 2026 | 08:22 AM
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You’re welcome!

By the way, even with the heat shield, I still worry that the heat in that area cooks and eventually damages the octopus hose, and I bet the same happens to the valley hoses beneath the supercharger.

I bought silicon valley hoses and octopus hose from Swallows-Racing and plan on replacing them in spring break. Mine are not leaking at the moment, but they are like 7 years old now. Since one of my knock sensors died and a new one is currently remotely installed (I know, risky), I’ll take that opportunity to replace the hoses, the sensors, upgrade to the Bosch 010 pump, and a smaller diameter snout pulley.

The silicone hoses seem to be of good quality. I think I counted 6 or 7 plies. I’ll report back when I have them installed.

They should tolerate higher temperatures better than the OE EPDM hoses.
 
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Old Apr 3, 2026 | 05:57 AM
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Originally Posted by giandanielxk8
I bought silicon valley hoses and octopus hose from Swallows-Racing and plan on replacing them in spring break.
Those Swallow-Racing silicon coolant hoses look beautiful, nice find!

Can you post your full parts order list for this job? Prices would be helpful too. Did you have to wait long for delivery?

This is very timely, I need to replace a knock sensor and I plan to renew all the coolant hoses while I have the SC off.

 
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Old Apr 3, 2026 | 08:04 PM
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Originally Posted by sanchius
Those Swallow-Racing silicon coolant hoses look beautiful, nice find!

Can you post your full parts order list for this job? Prices would be helpful too. Did you have to wait long for delivery?

This is very timely, I need to replace a knock sensor and I plan to renew all the coolant hoses while I have the SC off.
Seeing that you have the, I assume 2001 4.0 XKR, you have a few more hoses available from Swallows than they currently have for my 4.2. I did not have to wait long at all. Overseas shipping from the UK to Puerto Rico took about a week. Seeing that you said you want to renew all the cooling hoses, I'm including everything that you're probably going to either need or possibly replace while you're in there:So, if you plan on renewing absolutely everything with Genuine or upgraded parts, it will be expensive, but worth it. Those are the parts that I recommend you buy if you want to be thorough. For the parts from SNG Barratt, I listed the price for the Genuine part, but there are aftermarket parts available that you could choose to save some money. For the Radiator hoses, Swallows does sell them as a kit as well for your car at £197.20: https://swallows-jag.co.uk/product/s...9af-mjb4505be/

For mine, I'm also taking this opportunity to upgrade to a smaller upper pulley and I'm upgrading the Auxilary Coolant Pump to the Bosch 010 pump from a Mercedes.
 
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Old Apr 8, 2026 | 05:07 AM
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Awesome, this is just what I was looking for.

Thanks for taking the time to post all of this info!
 
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