Could someone point me in the direction of a vendor who sells iron liners for the aj-v8? my machine shop only deals with domestic car vendors

 

If you're going to reline it, you should probably go nikasil...

You might want to ask the guy in this thread: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...st-pics-87047/

 

I just want to bore it out and have iron sleeves installed. To have it relined with nikasli would take too long and be too expensive for me

 

Well, I gave you the link to probably the only person who has re-sleeved an XK motor. That's all I got.

 

Thank you, I think I am going to replace the engine with a 2003 4.0l. thoughts??

 

The problem with iron liners is you will have heat issues without the vally oil sprayers. The second thing is I have not found iron liners any where. They would have to be custom built. Steel liners are available. But again even with steel there were issues which is why Jags installed oil sprayers in the 4.2 liter.

 

2003 is a 4.2 which is a different engine You'll have to change, harnesses, ECM and it bolts to the ZF 6 speed transmission I don't think it's a easy swap check some previous postings.

 

there is another issue to consider as well.. you will not be able to get more then maybe a MM or two out of of the block when boring in conjunction with a steel liner. There is not a lot of room in there between the water jackets and the bore. If you are already looking at buying custom build pistons, the only way to go is a nikasil reline do to the fact of how small the liner is you would be able to bore the block out to possibly even 90+mm from 86mm.

BUT... if you going to go supper high boost... a steel liner is the way to go as you can have much stronger rings made. There is limitations on the strength of rings when using nikasil due to the fact some metals that are commonly used in in piston rings will react to the nikasil and damage it. But the level of boost required is probably more then our Eaton's could produce. A twin screw might be able to do it...

Now a Turbo... :-)

 

I had (2) 1999 AJ27 engines with cylinder wall failure so I disassembled one and took it to Accurate Engine in Fort Worth TX. I have known Rick for almost 30 years and I asked if he could install steel liners. He installed them for about $48.00 each hole. I brought all the pistons to be matched to the bores and then got a set of rings from BPI (Motorcars LTD. is the retail part of the supplier) for the steel liners.

I'm sure he used 'off-the-shelf' liners available to any machine shop.

I assembled the engine a few years ago but I have not installed it into a car yet.

The crank and rod bearings were checked with 'plasti-gauge' and were within tolerance so I just reused them in the same location that they were removed from.

I'm sure that a good machine shop can install steel sleeves in the block.

The rings are different if you use steel liners. (don't use the original nikasil rings)

This was several years ago so I don't know if BPI (Motorcars LTD.) still sells the rings.

bob gauff

 

In addition to the above, Jaguar had the failed nikasil engines all relined (with steel sleeves) and used them as re-placement engines without the oil jets, so it is certainly possible to do this.

@Rcsign
You can just use the 4.2 block without the electronics

 

A few years ago, a Tech based reader on Jag Lovers Forum rebuilt a Nikasil engine with liners using good machine shops. He documented the process on video. The engine ran for a few months and then blew the headgasket, the liner installation failed as the liner shifted. This is not an easy or sure thing, be careful. Jag did this too and theirs worked well, but they had much better equipment for the job than the local machine shop.

 

Thanks Avos I remember reading about the different electrics, Then the blocks must mate up with Merc. transmission.

 

Couldn't agree more to approach this with care, but that goes without saying. It wasn't Jaguar themselves that did the re-sleeving, have seen the name of the company once, but it’s too long ago for me to remember, otherwise I would have mentioned them here.

I also knew one on the jaglovers forum from a couple of years back that documented all the steps from his XJ8 (and had a head gasket failure), can't remember seeing a video, he made a very extensive document with pictures he sold for a few bucks (which I bought back then). Do you have a link to the one with the video, as it may well be the same person, would be interesting to know.

The last I remembered was that he made a silly mistake with the head gaskets, in that he test fitted with the gaskets, and reused them later again, which he thought could have been the cause of the head gasket failure he experienced not long after the rebuild.

Attached was what he had to say about the sleeves:

 

Did some more digging, and we speak about the same person (not sure where I got the test fit from though). Here is the post where he explained what went wrong with the liners with some good info (not so good machine shop afterall...): JagFORUM Logon

Here is the text for those who don't have an account there:

If there are readers out there who recall, I suffered an
overheating/blown head gasket on my 1998 XJ8L. I had rebuilt the
engine, and put 15,000 miles on the rebuild when this problem
surfaced. The original symptoms were losing coolant from the
overflow reservoir, boiling off. Running temperature of 212
degrees F (as read by OBDII scanner). I pulled the spark plugs,
cranked the engine over and water came from the 3rd cylinder on the
right bank. Here is the latest:

I have removed the head, and the steel sleeves I had installed have
moved down, into the block. These sleeves are flanged, there is a
lip on the top and the machine shop was to cut a recess in the
block for the lip to sit in and make firm contact with the base
aluminum. For the cylinder leaking water, the sleeve moved down
0.014'' (0.3556 mm). The other 3 sleeved also moved down, but only
about 0.005'' (0.127 mm).

I called the shop to discuss. The described their method of
installing the sleeves, and it was not what I would have done. To
me, the right way to install a sleeve like this would be to chill
the sleeve in liquid nitrogen. Then insert it in the bore and put
a weight on it to keep it in place while it warmed up. This is
what we would do in a nuclear power plant when installing a part
with an interference fit. What they did was to heat the block,
cool the sleeve and tap it in with a mallet. It probably did not
seat on the lip, or possibly drifted back out as it warmed and the
block cooled. Once all was equalized, they decked the block (which
is what I would have done after my method).

As for the interference fit, I would have followed the rule of
thumb: 0.001'' interference fit per 1'' of bore. For our 86mm bores,
this would have been 0.003 - 0.004'' interference fit. The shop
used about 0.002'' interference fit.

I do not find them at fault, this was the first jaguar engine they
did and they were plowing new ground, as was I. They offered to
deck the block again for me to flatten the surface for a new head
gasket and refit of the head. This is the only choice I have if I
want to return the car to the running.

It was a tough lesson for me, but I have learned. Many people are
rebuilding their engines following the instructions I assembled,
and they are going to be fine if their shop fits the liners
correctly. As for the discussion of using never-seize on the head
bolts, each of the 10 bolts removed were equally tight. They came
out without removing threads. I would recommend this method over
dry threads every time. Yes, torque is affected with lubricated
threads, but these bolts are not torqued, they are stretched and
that is a much different tightening method than torqueing.

John

 

Very informative read.

 

wow, I am a little bit smarter for reading that (or dummer, depending on how you look at it)