May Be getting an xjs

[jaguarking11]

Well Someone offered me a 1989 jaguar xjs for about 2000usd. The car is in imaculate condition as far as body and interior is concerned. It is a bright red and the crome is not bad, it has very small rust spots but nothing a good polishing wont take away. Now for the bad news. The car has 40,000 original miles witch makes is a very nice car but the guy who owns it now was a total idiot. He has owned it for 1month and one day his radiator hose sprung a leak and he kept driving it through the day and overheated the crap out of it. The engine needs allot of work. It has a warped heads and fried rings in 9 out of the 12cylinders. I figure the easiest way to fix this thing would be to replace the motor insted of rebuilding it. I am in tough spot as this thing has a rather expensive motor and it will probly cost me 2k or more for a used decent condition motor. If this was a chevy v8 or ford v8 it would be as easy as ordering a crate engine from ford or chevy perfomrance parts for about 800bux for a stock and 1200 for a superstock unit that pouts out 400hp+.

Now my dilema, should I buy and spend a huge amount of money to repair it?
Or should I move on?
Or maybe atempt to convert it to a chevy v8?

Problem with the last part is that I rather like the v12. It is not everyday you have a v12jag runing about.

Any of you gearheads has any opinions or sugestions or posibly advice?

[dutchcedar]

I love those cars... but if I were in your shoes, I'd pass... unless you're serious about using a small block Chevy.

Fixin' that V12 will probably turn into a money pit.

[fivecheebs]

Poor thing.

I would probably tend to agree with Dutch. But its too easy to listen to your heart rather than your mind.

Im sure people here in the UK would ship stuff over for you if any parts were hard to find.

[scopEDog]

Ohh interesting. I say if your doing the swap yourself then its worth it i think. But if a shop is doing the swap then look elsewhere.

Btw ever done a engine swap before? I helped a friend once with a honda engine swap and it can be some scary shiz. Took us a good 2 weeks to do it lol...but the sense of DIY was worth it.

Let me know when your ready to hit the drags.. I've got 20 bucks on my little rotary, and francis lewis blvd is calling ^_^

[walkitiki]

This car has a history in my family. Brings back some funny memories of my uncle Len. He had a car just like that, then his bitch of an ex-wife stole it from him as part of the alimony. Ever since he's been looking for the perfect XJS to own. But since he's gotten his 911..so I don't think he's too still feelin' too bad.

I'd recommend that you'd move on. You shouldn't be afraid to walk away from a car that you're not completely sure you want to buy, no matter how good of a deal it is.

[jaguarking11]

Ohh interesting. I say if your doing the swap yourself then its worth it i think. But if a shop is doing the swap then look elsewhere.

Btw ever done a engine swap before? I helped a friend once with a honda engine swap and it can be some scary shiz. Took us a good 2 weeks to do it lol...but the sense of DIY was worth it.

Let me know when your ready to hit the drags.. I've got 20 bucks on my little rotary, and francis lewis blvd is calling ^_^

Your "little rotary" would blow the pants of the xjs. Rotray motors are better suited for racing than cylinder motors. Every 1L of rotary is equal to about 2.5L in cylinder configuration. In the 80's they outlawed rally cars with rotorys because they were demolishing eveything including groub B.

Did some reaserch and it seems that I will pass on this beautifull car. Shame I dont have the capital to bring it to full shine. I love jags and this thing would be the closest thing to my dream of actualy owning a 1960's d-type v12.

And no I have never done an engine swap, and it seems that I have to get a a custom made transmission plate for the swap to be done efectively.

Ill take duch's advice and ill pass on this. I told my friend I would let him know by today if I would take it. Too bad though.....:-(

As far as geting parts shiped from the UK, I am shure I could get that done but it would be a hassle and probly nothing short of actualy replacing the motor will bring her back to her full glory....


Back to searching for mildly priced caddys. Northstar v8 here I come.:-)

Thanks for setting me strait guys.

[BigBen2k]

Oh that's too bad, but you're making the right decision.

I redid the head gasket on my car (93 Grand Am) last year, but from your description, if the head is warped, you probably don't even have a chance of having it re-planed (one rarely does).

There might also be some cylinder damage, depending on how bad it overheated. Since 9 rings are fried, that's basically an engine rebuild, with a complete tear down.

I wouldn't even dream of swapping an engine on it; the hood is probably very low, leaving you with very little room to work with.

The Northstar is going to serve you much better.

[Knipex]

As for as I know there are a number of specialist Jag part suppliers in the US but to be honest those engines are not as tough as your V8's even here I would be carefull.

[jaguarking11]

Yeh its comfirmed. Not taking it. And knip I realised the v12 wasent that tough when I read a series of complains on them online. It seems these engines have head gasket problems, witch is not a big deal. But I talked further with the mechanic who tore down the block a cupple of days ago to estimate damage, and he said both heads are warped and need to be replaced. 9cylinders have fried rings on them and cylinder 2 and 4 have severe groves in them and the whole block would need to be remachined to be streetable again.

I looked around a found a 97caddy deville with 70k miles on the clock for about 4600bux. I may consider this car but it dosent convicne me either seems like a shady car. I will wait a foew months b4 I start looking because driving season is over then and more cars are available and cost less.

its extremly hard to buy a good used car these days as im quickly finding out and honestly I dont want to drive just any lump. But if possible I would like a front engine rear drive car but most of the cars I see are front weel drive.

[BigBen2k]

...

its extremly hard to buy a good used car these days as im quickly finding out and honestly I dont want to drive just any lump. But if possible I would like a front engine rear drive car but most of the cars I see are front weel drive.
I hear you there.

The choices are very limites (and I actually looked!). Nissan used to make a rear wheel drive, the 200, but they discontinued it long ago. There's another model that they terminated 6 or 7 years ago.

Beyond that, the car would have a tag price (new) starting at $35K (USD). I can't remember the exact models though.

[jaguarking11]

I hear you there.

The choices are very limites (and I actually looked!). Nissan used to make a rear wheel drive, the 200, but they discontinued it long ago. There's another model that they terminated 6 or 7 years ago.

Beyond that, the car would have a tag price (new) starting at $35K (USD). I can't remember the exact models though.

Well for rwd cars I was looking at the chevy astro, shevy s10, taho and other su's and vans. Cadillac makes newer model rwd cars but out of my price tag. So I am going to get an older fwd caddy and have my tourque steer.