Hello fellow Jag enthusiasts,

I am the proud owner of a 2000 XK8 convertible; and I did quite a bit of work on the car. First all suspension bushes, balljoints and damper mounts, both front and rear. That gave such a performance boost to the car. After that, I replaced the heater matrix hoses and the heater pump. Now I am working on the engine cooling system, I pulled the intake plenum, fitted all new gaskets and seals on the injectors. Also put in new valley hoses and such, and I now I am actually struggling to replace the radiator. I bought an aftermarket Nissens 66701 and happily placed it in the car along with a new airco condensor, only to find that my - rather pricy - foam seal strips did not stick to the Nissens heater exchange core. So I returned it to SNG-Barratt and went on eBay. I found a Hella radiator that looked very, very much like the original Jaguar part (which is unfortunately no longer obtainable). It is really a snug fit, all seals go in beautifully just as intended. But the bad news is that the lower transmission oil cooler port is in the lowest possible position (apparently the plastic mold has two possible positions), and this makes the the gearbox oil pipe collide with an engine mount. I added some photos below and I hope it makes sense to you all. Now, my question is this: should I just amend the existing pipe by cutting the hose off and route a new 8AN pipe? Or should I just leave the original pipe alone and make some sort of adapter to route the return pipe up two inches or so? Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated.


This is the Nissens radiator, type 66701 I believe...


And here is the Hella one with nice brackets to hold the foam seals


Red circle is around the lowest oil port

My car is imported from US and I am in Netherlands.

Regards, Arjan.

 

Is the Hella actually listed as designed for your car? Most people use the Nissens and just stick some adhesive foam on it.

 

I've not see the Hella listed as a replacement for my 2000 XK8. In my case, somebody had replaced the radiator, but no documentation as to when, so I replaced it when I overhauled the cooling system. My foam inserts were either missing or rotted away. I just left them off and haven't seen any particular cooling issues.

 

Well, it was listed by Moss in UK as XK8 compatible part and they were not actually wrong. It fits perfectly and the whole heat exchanger is exactly the same as the original one (which may very well been made by Hella).
Here is the ID-plate:

 

The car is a hobby project and not my daily driver... I just want it to be as original as I can, but redoing the oil piping is not exactly bringing it back to stock either. Thanks for the advice, I might as well return the Hella and get the Nissens that is working just as well.