XJ 3.5v8 engine
XJ 3.5v8 engine
Author
Discussion

sly fox

Original Poster:

2,407 posts

245 months

Tuesday 4th October 2011
quotequote all
Hello all,

looking to get back in the Jaguar fold - really miss my S Type-R, but am mindful of the 18mpg average i had over a year. That car goaded me into having a leaden right foot redface)

Just been casually browsing Autotrader/Jaguar approved sites, and have seen that the 3.5v8 sport XJ's are criminally cheap- £9-10 k for a sub 50,000 example, and i bet you can haggle from that price too.

What is this engine like? Enough torque for the car? Good on fuel on a long run? Reliability?

AmitG

3,501 posts

186 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
sly fox said:
Hello all,

looking to get back in the Jaguar fold - really miss my S Type-R, but am mindful of the 18mpg average i had over a year. That car goaded me into having a leaden right foot redface)

Just been casually browsing Autotrader/Jaguar approved sites, and have seen that the 3.5v8 sport XJ's are criminally cheap- £9-10 k for a sub 50,000 example, and i bet you can haggle from that price too.

What is this engine like? Enough torque for the car? Good on fuel on a long run? Reliability?
A friend of mine had one and I just asked him about it.

Reliability wise he had no engine problems at all. The 3.5 V8 is the same engine as the 4.2 V8, just a smaller stroke. This engine has to my knowledge proven to be extremely robust, with all the issues from the earlier V8s ironed out.

Fuel wise - he said it was good on fuel, but then he used to run a V12 hehe A quick Google suggests that official consumption on the combined cycle is 21mpg which I would say is good for a petrol car in this segment.

Performance wise he said it was "perfectly adequate" but obviously that could mean anything. I have driven the 3.0 V6 version and I would describe that as absolutely fine for everyday use up to 90mph, including overtaking on country roads where you really need the torque. The 3.5 V8 is more powerful than that. The XJ is a very light car compared to its peers so less power is needed to produce good performance.


cml

727 posts

288 months

Friday 7th October 2011
quotequote all
My dad has one (an early X350) - I've driven it a fair bit. He paid £14,000 a couple of years ago for a very low millage example. It has been said that it has the performance of the V6 for the fuel consumption of the 4.2. I am not sure about that. Father manages 26+ mpg average on mainly short journeys which not bad. On long runs it tops 30 easily if you waft. Overall it is better on fuel than my 3.2 X300. You can certainly beat the 21mpg official figure.

It pulls very nicely, although I've not driven the 4.2, which has another 38 bhp IIRC. Feels a lot more responsive than the 3.2 IL6. You get a hint of V8 soundtrack too.

It does have a point of corrosion so far- steel rivets in alluminium body. Plus some of the interior is not up to previous standards (a bit too much plastic about). But my word is it smooth...



Edited by cml on Friday 7th October 19:53