Understood. The R versions are definitely tougher to work on....

 

You should take it to the next level and drop an LS in there with a manual... MUCH more reliable and easy to work on and modify etc etc etc !! Think about it...

 

Honestly I have zero interest in putting a non jag motor in my xk regardless of the reliability.

 

Agreed. The 4.2 V8 is a reliable enough engine. Sure, extracting power out of it requires more $, specially due to the limited aftermarket, but it has a character very distinctive character from the GM LS engines that I think fits these cars to a T.

 

I agree. Even the normal 4.0L in my '97 gives me enough speed for the mountain roads in Northern B.C. Police officers please turn away.

 

Aw Bull! Drawbridge.....What a Whopper!

Billy Clyde @ Cinco Ranch

 

wtf!! Just a lazy Sunday afternoon in the xk8 haha

 

With ported head's and uprated camshafts you'd be at r levels of power without the hassle of the blower.

perfect package in my opinion

 

Is the blower this much hassle to people?

I had to rebuild the blower on my XJR when I had it and thought it was a minor inconvenience compared to a non-original engine swap in a modern car. I guess the supercharger does add some complexity and makes access for certain jobs a bit harder (like injectors or the valley hoses), but not to the point i'd consider lumping a labor or money saver. I can have it off and back on in 3 hours now; and can do a rebuild on it in an afternoon with $75 worth of kit from ebay (other than say the front rotor pack bearings). I have a spare off a 50k mile car I got for $200 from a junkyard that I rebuilt to have as a hot spare as my car has 110k and will need work eventually despite good SC oil maintenance.

 

To some people its a pain, NA and a manual transmission is a preference, nothing wrong with personal preference. You may prefer to remove your supercharger to get to one bad injector plug...

Hats off to you, I don't have the patience for that.

That's the beauty of the mine, YOU can do whatever YOU desire.

 

Having done non original powertrain swaps, even in old cars, it's a lot of fabrication, reverse engineering and it never was as easy as just fixing whatever the car came with. I definitely know it's cheap, easy and well documented how to get crazy power out of GM LS engines though. A manual is nice too!

Just the comment about getting R levels of power after all that work seeks like a lot of effort to me.

 

It’s all relative to what one prefers the high reving pitch of a n/a engine or the outright low down pull of a supercharged v8 both have their pros & cons , personally I think the high reving option makes the driver feel more engaged with the vehicle

In regards to the amount of work the OP will need to do to his his donor n/a engine whilst it’s out and simply just sitting there it makes sense to address the heads & camshafts then drop it in .

It is added work when your already at 400hp or so however with the elimination of a supercharger or turbocharger it can be one less worry of a component failing which adds some piece of mine to the individual.

I’m definitely not having a go at forced induction however to get these engines up near 400hp in n/a form shouldn’t be too difficult if your after anything above that 450hp region then its a no brainer forced induction it is

 

So I met up with my "mentor" the other day (I call him my mentor because seeing his car after my engine blew is what made me want to go the LS Swap route)... his is a 1997 with an LS3 (his vanity plate says LS6 but that was his first engine he put in the jag - then he moved to an LS3). I am 100% satisfied with the swap (except may not the cost of the swap)... it's not for everyone... but these cars are finicky enough, so it was worth it to me to keep this BEAUTIFUL car and make it better (IMHO).

 

Here is my 2003 xkr.

It took me a while to find one I considered was worth buying, I eventually came across this one with 53k miles, good service history and, crucially for me, almost zero rust. The previous owner told me the body kit was by Arden, I wasn't sure it was until recently when it was all taken off to see what lurked behind and the panels had the original Arden stickers on the inside. I am steadily working my way through the mainly small things which needed sorting out, including the worrying rattle which turned out to be ball bearing inside a tyre!, today I fitted the mina gallery air tube.

I love it!

 

Love the spoiler on the red car, was it specially made or is it a universal fitting only available in the USA?

 

Outside the Colosseum in an almost deserted Rome.

 

I recently swapped an LS6 T56 six speed into my Nissan 300ZX; and it's not as easy as most people think. Sure it takes a couple of hours to pull the old hunk out and fit new motor mounts and drop the new block in.... But that's about 10% of the work involved. There are lots of issues getting two different electrical and engine management systems to speak to each other. Exhaust configurations, shifter location, driveshaft, engine and trans mounts, accessory drive set ups, belts lengths, power steering and AC drives, AC controls, and on and on... Simple things like throttle body controls, use the drive by wire or the cable? I needed a whole new cooling system, everything except the heater core.

The Jag chassis has a number of OEM options to increase horsepower, the most obvious moving up to the supercharged version of whatever engine is installed. I guarantee that an upgrade to SC, with an new motor, etc. would be ten times easier than an LS swap. Furthermore, it would provide the same level of performance most people would ever want or need. There are a number of owners in the X100 crowd who are getting 500 hp w/ a twin screw Wipple; and the X150 already has 500+ plus HP from the factory.

Sure LS is a great motor, and swaps are being done with nearly everything, but considering the options for the newer model Jags, I'd say it isn't worth the trouble. Now earlier models from the seventies, they might offer a different calculus and make better candidates for an LS swap.

ADMINS: delete this if it's too far off topic from Owners Pics. Just wanted to reply to the never-ending "It's a good candidate for an LS swap" gordo

 

My 2006 Victory Edition in Seafoam

 

I've said it before and been poorly received. People who suggest lumping a modern car with an LS and having the rest of the car work like it did with ancillary systems, they often have never done it. There's a lot of troubleshooting, fabricating, and engineering in doing so. On old cars where it's not got computer interfaces, it's a good bit easier though, I'll concede that.

It's a lot of work! It's not that it can't be a good idea but it's not likely easier than getting the Jaguar motor reliable and outputting more power ala twin screw. I heard someone talking about the effort of removing the supercharger to do various tasks, if you think that's hard, a non original motor swap is a no go. I'll also say in 10 years of owning my XKR, I've pulled my supercharger one time; and did valley hoses, cleaned injectors and replaced a bad one (reason it was off) and rebuilt the supercharger. The remove and replace is like 5 hours total if you haven't done it before.

 

Oh and beautiful engine bay on the Z! Got a link to more pictures?