I want to start this, may be too long, thread with couple of disclaimers I am a game developer and though I am a petrol head from the moment I got my hands on a driving license, most tinkerings with my cars were very small jobs and mostly techy stuff. Also I don't think I'll be able to nail all technical terms correctly, so I'm sorry about it

I am creating this thread to share some of my recent experience with my 97' Jaguar XK8, particularly in the engine swapping department

I got the car from a friend of mine, who had it for over 5 years and it barely had 35k km during that period. It was mostly being repaired little by little. Recently I finally managed to snag it from him, for a very fair price, given the condition it was in. Faking mileage in my country is a thing, so nobody really knows what is the current mileage of the car . Whenever my friend drove the car, he drove it as 85 yo British jag club member on his way to the gold course. Well... I didn't drive it like that. Not even 1000km after I got it, this happened:

Jaguar XK8 AJ26 to AJ28 engine swap?

Long story short - a new engine was needed as I didn't want to waste any money and time at the moment to try and repair its own engine... for now. Why is this? My other "nice" car is in the shop for a tranny rebuild, torque converter refurbish, turbo refurbish, timing chains, timing belts and pulleys, and some other stuff. It is now taking close to 3 months, because of various reasons from mechanics taking summer vacations to parts not arriving, because of other people taking summer vacations and so on and so on. My Polo GTI is awesome, but for the city, and I really wanted at least the Jag or the Audi to be up and running. So the Jag got prioritized.

Finding a working engine was not an easy task. To sum it up I could basically source one only from the UK, which totaled at around 2000 euro. Coincidentally I noticed an XK8 sitting in a car morgue (scrap yard). It was a LHD, running and was being sold whole as is. I got it for 2500 euro. Sadly most of the interior and exterior stuff that a broken in mine, were not so good there too (rear mirror, side mirrors, etc.). But it was running well and was the same year and engine. Supper lucky . Buying a cheaper engine was an option, but I would have surely needed to do the timing chains and open the heads for servicing, which would blow up the price even more. And considering what I am doing to the Audi, I was trying to keep my spending to an acceptable level



Then the next hard thing came... Nobody wanted to do the swap. Summer... everybody wants fast jobs and some sea time. I get it. The ones that agreed both wanted too much money (400 to 800 euro) and too much time for the swap (to start in at least two weeks with at least couple of weeks in the shop - which means at least a month). One of the shops I used agreed to do it for 175 euro! I knew that he would do it for that price, but he will keep the car for at least 2 months. Still I had hope

Now everything could begin. The two are ready for transplant (left - donor, right - patient)



On the day we agreed for them to start work, I asked to come and help. Took a day off and went to the shop. I actually did want to help work on the car, as mechanics around me, familiar with jaguars are practically non-existent, so I wanted to familiarize myself with the car as much as possible. So I did help, while trying to disassemble whatever more I could to pack and move to my barn for rainy days



The mechanic decided to drop the engine with the sub-frame and wheels. In a day's work the engine was finally down. The only hurdle was with one bolt on the sub-frame, but after an hour fighting with it we found a way around it



Then I left the to continue as I couldn't take any more days of in the next couple of weeks. When I went back 2 weeks later the car was still standing on the lift with the engine under it. The guys were working on other cars and didn't have any time for mine. Also they were trying to figure out how to get the car out of there. To give some perspective... you might notice the floor of the shop - it was practically impossible to use an engine crane there . The idea was to get the car on a flat bed and take it out. Good but nobody could answer me how they plan to swap the engines after that

This was the moment I got a bit too frustrated and I stated that from the next day I am coming to help until the car is done . 2 hours in it turned out nobody is free enough to work on the car so I started by myself, with occasional help, where some more muscle was needed

The first task was to get the crane to the dropped engine and remove it from the frame. It wasn't as easy at it should have been in a normal shop, but apparently it could have been done



Then the sub-frame was bolted back on the car and we pushed it out of the shop.

Then I started to prepare the other one for the same thing. On the donor car this was done by the mechanic before I got to the shop the first time, so I really had no idea where to start at I did get the JTIS manual, and the three releases of the Workshop manual, and had some idea of the process, but at the end of the day, they weren't very detailed (contrary to what I am used with the Audi's workshop manual).



I won't go into too much detail, but the major steps were:

1. Disconnect the water cooling hoses from the radiator and thermostat, and from the reservoir
2. Removing the throttle body
3. Removing the intake manifold

I do know that both are actually not needed to be removed. But the intake manifold was already partially removed as the engine was with already removed camshaft and taming chain lids, and disconnecting everything behind the throttle body without removing it seems impossible, but that is how the workshop manual says it is done...

4. Disconnecting the main engine wiring from the body, but all the engine wiring that could, stayed on the engine. Additionally the two lambda sensors to the catalysts were disconnected too.
5. The air conditioning was drained and disconnected.
6. Steering pump... - the pipe to the steering rack had a busted nut, and couldn't be unbolted. Furthermore there was a difference between the two pumps. The LHD one was feeding the steering rack from the top, where the RHD one was doing it from the bottom. So I was left with the only choice to unbolt it from the engine, while it was still in the bay, and put it back in when I get the new engine in. This really wasn't a fun thing to do

LHD



RHD



7. I've removed only the fans and the radiator stayed
8. Because of the floor I didn't even think of trying to take the engine out the side, so the hood was removed. I decided to take the second engine the proper way
9. As I was keeping the old gearbox, I removed it before taking out the engine. This required:
- the mid exhaust and the catalyst needed to come off
- the torque converter needed to be unbolted - 3 screws which are a b*tch to remove by yourself, more so when the radiator is on its place and I didn't have good access to the crank shaft to turn and lock it
- the drive shaft needed to come off - the back end is also a b*tch to unbolt
10. Unbolted the engine mounts and the engine was out



Both engine mounts on the patient car were totally busted, which wasn't really apparent while driving it... Luckily enough the donor car had almost brand new ones installed

I removed the steering pump on the "new" engine and cleaned it up a bit. Then we put it in, holding it in place so that the gearbox can be fitted:



I got my brother to help me with getting the gearbox up in the car. The trickiest part was actually putting the catalysts back in. Almost all bolts broke in half during the disassembly and I managed to gather 7 from both cars. The last one was cut high enough so that it went through and could have a nut put on. This is where I kinda screwed myself a bit That bolt was in the hardest to reach of places. However I tried I couldn't put the nut on it and finally I gave up. I was already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and hoped that 3 bolts are enough. Well they weren't Now the car is "purring" a bit and tomorrow I'll take it to an exhaust shop for them to "fight" with that bolt

So I started connecting everything back. Bolted the intake back on and the throttle body. Put all water pipes back in. The air conditioning too, but didn't fill it up as the machine was broken. bolted the steering pump back on and installed the pulleys' belt. I didn't even bother with the fans yet. The car was ready for THE test


I honestly was surprised

It took me maybe a day more to put everything completely back together. Then I realized a big "mistake" I did, but honestly I just didn't know better I didn't check if the gear lever cable was correctly aligned after reattaching it to the gearbox. Why was that important? It is practically inaccessible to adjust once the exhaust is put back in Still with a lot of cursing we aligned it. Before that the car gave "Gearbox fault" and the lever was not moving well, not being able to stay on "D" and so on. An interesting (to me) case was that if the cable was tightened up well to the selector arm (lever) it will not work well. The nut had to be released a bit and then the gear lever worked fine. Moments later the car was ready. I drove it a bit without the hood on, until any fluid got evaporated. Then I changed the oil and the oil filter. 5 liters went in (5w40) and a day later 1 more liter. In a 1000km or so I am gonna change it again.

A lonely capacitor looking thing got me puzzled for a while, but it has been figured out - Generator suppression module... can I go without it

I was "scared" about fitting back the hood, from previously reading around that it was very hard to align. I didn't do any markings or anything. We just bolted it back on, without tightening the bolts, tried to close it, then align it, lifted it up carefully and tightened the bolts.

The car was ready



Or so I thought Not 48 hours later I was driving on some pavement and - Gearbox Fault - restricted mode I quickly decided the gear shift cable was acting up not being tightened and all. 30 minutes staying turned off. The error cleared itself and the car was working. No code was written in the TCM?! Several hours later in the basement of a Mall it happened again. This time it didn't go away even after 30 minutes with the battery detached Don't ask me how the car got through a twisting ramp in restricted mode with little to none space to get to any speed

I got it to a shop and they found out that the TCM could not be accessed. It turned out the fuse box next to the front right damper had a split PCB and power was cut to the transmission module It is now fixed and if it stays this way I am going to replace the fuse box with the one from the donor.



The car was then filled up with AC Freon and now is running well



All this took me around 6 days to do. I did stay idle for some of the time when I needed help with something, but had to wait. At the end I didn't pay anything but the oil and filter and got the feel of accomplishment, at a level I haven't felt in a while

As tools I didn't use anything special. Mostly the case you saw on one of the pictures, some wrenches from the shop and the only "special" too for just couple of pipes was a Hose Clamp Pliers. For most places normal pliers will suffice, but some are close to impossible without these



I hope this experience might be useful to somebody. It sure was for me I'll be happy to answer any more specific questions if anybody has some. Not that I would have remembered everything from a one time thing, but still

The only major thing left is to figure this issue out now - Jaguar XK8 turns and won't start - no spark - Solved... kinda

I've linked the images in case the hosting dies and some manuals I have

Engine Swap Pics - OneDrive
First Edition Workshop Manual 1997 - OneDrive
Second Edition Workshop Manual 1999 - OneDrive
Thrid Edition Workshop Manual 2003 - OneDrive

 

WoW! that wasn't a job but an adventure. Bravo for your efforts and not letting it beat you. Enjoy your well earned new creation.

Cheers!

Andrew

 

Great job kainy, and well done.

What are you going to do with the leftovers from the donor? I recommend that you hang on to the electronics modules - particularly the 97 ECM as they are getting hard to find and were unique to both the X100 and that year. They also do give problems (your intermittent no-start, possibly).

 

 

Well done, Kainy. You are indeed intrepid in this adventure and your sense of accomplishment is well and truly earned. I tip my hat to you!

Granville