Parts and parts sources
 

Recently purchased a 97 xk8 convertible. Have a lot of maintenance/deferred maintenance/repairs. As far as parts go, I'm looking for a good resource for the valve cover gaskets and coolant hoses.

Google is your friend for a lot of parts. Basic engine parts, like valve cover gaskets, thermostats, etc., are shared with the 2002 and up Lincoln LS. My VC gaskets are from Fel-Pro, but they're listed for those Lincolns, and not for the Jag. They were substantially cheaper, too.

Hoses are a mixed bag. Unfortunately, lots of the aftermarket hoses are made by Uro. Uro doesn't have a particularly good rep. I replaced all of my hoses and the ones from Uro tended to be just a fraction of an inch narrower than those from Britpart or Eurospare.

I found and downloaded the Jag parts catalog for these cars but lots of the part numbers are out of date. It's a lot of work to Google a part number and then fiddle around finding what part number superseded it. If you're going to be doing a lot of work, I strongly recommend a subscription to Partslink24.com. You can get daily, monthly, or annual subscriptions. I found this resource invaluable for getting the current part numbers for a lot of parts.

FWIW. britpart doesn't have a particularly good reputation in the Land Rover community. It's sad that it's so tough to find OE quality parts. With German cars it's quite simple. Wish the Brits were better at this. My 97 valve cover it different than later models around the spark plugs. Not sure when the change occurred. The mid 2000s T-bird 3.9 also shares some parts.

I use Jaguar's Heritage site frequently:
https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.com

If you punch in the part # from JEPC it will show you any supersessions.

@Markwemple - the gaskets are different for our early cars. The parts you need are:

Spark plug boss seal: NCA2578BB (x4)

Cam cover gaskets were NCE2515AB and NCE2516AB (one is grey, the other orange). Now AJ88400 and AJ88285 respectively (according to Heritage, but double-check).

Forum sponsor SNG Barratt is a good source for spares (but do check dealer as they can very occasionally be cheaper)

+1 on Y2KJag's warning about aftermarket hoses. These engines do NOT take kindly to overheating.

List of all the hoses here:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...9/#post2466950