Sacrilegious Jag and another hack job
Discussion
I used to have a classic BMW but rarely used it with two kids and a barely existing rear seat. Sold that, went looking for a nice 4-door. I had always liked the Jag XJ6 but read about poor reliability everywhere. Took the plunge and bought a beautiful low milage series-3 4.2 with a manual transmission (pretty rare apparently).
Sure enough, on it's first long journey (to Le Mans) blew its headgasket, wonderful! Reading up on the XK motor didn't reveal to many positives on the reliability front so considered an engine swap. Found a lot of Chevy and Ford swaps, but those engines are pretty hard too come by here especially with a manual transmission. I had however something sitting in the garage from an earlier parts car... Made decision:
In case you have not figured it out by now, it's a BMW M60 V8 (4.0) with a 6-speed manual transmission. The result:
- added 100 hp
- better on fuel
- a transmission where you can actually feel which gear you've selected
- flawless for one year now
- Jag purists hate me
Sure enough, on it's first long journey (to Le Mans) blew its headgasket, wonderful! Reading up on the XK motor didn't reveal to many positives on the reliability front so considered an engine swap. Found a lot of Chevy and Ford swaps, but those engines are pretty hard too come by here especially with a manual transmission. I had however something sitting in the garage from an earlier parts car... Made decision:
In case you have not figured it out by now, it's a BMW M60 V8 (4.0) with a 6-speed manual transmission. The result:
- added 100 hp
- better on fuel
- a transmission where you can actually feel which gear you've selected
- flawless for one year now
- Jag purists hate me
Edited by sacrilege on Sunday 25th January 16:30
I used to have a classic BMW but rarely used it with two kids and a barely existing rear seat. Sold that, went looking for a nice 4-door. I had always liked the Jag XJ6 but read about poor reliability everywhere. Took the plunge and bought a beautiful low milage series-3 4.2 with a manual transmission (pretty rare apparently).
Sure enough, on it's first long journey (to Le Mans) blew its headgasket, wonderful! Reading up on the XK motor didn't reveal to many positives on the reliability front so considered an engine swap. Found a lot of Chevy and Ford swaps, but those engines are pretty hard too come by here especially with a manual transmission. I had however something sitting in the garage from an earlier parts car... Made decision:
In case you have not figured it out by now, it's a BMW M60 V8 (4.0) with a 6-speed manual transmission. The result:
- added 100 hp
- better on fuel
- a transmission where you can actually feel which gear you've selected
- flawless for one year now
- Jag purists hate me
Sure enough, on it's first long journey (to Le Mans) blew its headgasket, wonderful! Reading up on the XK motor didn't reveal to many positives on the reliability front so considered an engine swap. Found a lot of Chevy and Ford swaps, but those engines are pretty hard too come by here especially with a manual transmission. I had however something sitting in the garage from an earlier parts car... Made decision:
In case you have not figured it out by now, it's a BMW M60 V8 (4.0) with a 6-speed manual transmission. The result:
- added 100 hp
- better on fuel
- a transmission where you can actually feel which gear you've selected
- flawless for one year now
- Jag purists hate me
Edited by sacrilege on Sunday 25th January 16:30
vx220 said:
Something about the jag engine bay pic sequence makes it look like an easy job!? I'm assuming it wasn't, but you've made it look like it was meant to be there, great job.
How tricky was the 944?
You are right, it was not. How tricky was the 944?
The 944 was not too bad, the link in my earlier post provides details
superb!
I've put it on our Facebook page.
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