Jaguar XK engine rebuilders...VSE are closing - retirement!

[david.h]

This is MOST inconvenient !!! Good people should not retire (not until they have done MY stuff!
VSE have not been taking on new work for some months as the owner is retiring (after some 10,000 engines!)
Where do I go now for a good (non-competition) rebuild for an XK engine ?

[lowdrag]

You could try Just Historics down south. Mine was done by VSE four years ago and works just fine, but his children aren't interested so they are closing. All things must pass, I guess. Anyway, Just Historics was founded and is staffed by people who worked for Lynx, then founded CKL, and then went their own way two years back. No one, but no one will I guess match the VSE price, but in a conversation when I was there their price was substantially cheaper than elsewhere. And they are Jaguar people for over 30 years so they know their stuff. No, the usual disclaimer, I have not had work done by them but had a load done when they were part of CKL. And I have no reason to expect the quality to have dropped. You can do no worse than to talk to Melvin on 01424 234555. I'd be interested to hear your opinion, but I know that someday I'll need work done on the XKSS (engine built by CKL when they were there) and it is to them that I will turn.

[david.h]

Thanks for that information. I will give them a call.

[Lotobear]

why not find a good machinist and build yourself - it's a hugely satisfying pursuit

[V8 FOU]

Thereby hangs the problem.
All the "old school" engineers are retiring / falling of the twig etc. Me included. Next year for me.

There doesn't appear to be anyone who has done the traditional engineering learning process coming up through the ranks any more. Big shame. Metalwork isn't taught in schools any more and kids don't like getting their hands dirty.
Real shame.

Yup, I'll be sort of retiring after 45 years in business!!!

Probably still do the odd silly conversion though.......

[spaximus]

V8 FOU said:

Thereby hangs the problem.
All the "old school" engineers are retiring / falling of the twig etc. Me included. Next year for me.

There doesn't appear to be anyone who has done the traditional engineering learning process coming up through the ranks any more. Big shame. Metalwork isn't taught in schools any more and kids don't like getting their hands dirty.
Real shame.

Yup, I'll be sort of retiring after 45 years in business!!!

Probably still do the odd silly conversion though.......

It is everything in the motor trade to be honest. Good quality staff for motorfactors are getting harder as every young person is wanting to be reality star or something or just use the computer and say no to other cars if it is not there. Ask them to mic up a piston or a master cylinder bore and even when shown seem to forget the next day.

This week we had one who rang us to see if we had some pads for a specific car they hadn't got, when we said we didn't he asked if we had any universal pads instead. WTF?

[iSore]

spaximus said:

It is everything in the motor trade to be honest. Good quality staff for motorfactors are getting harder as every young person is wanting to be reality star or something or just use the computer and say no to other cars if it is not there. Ask them to mic up a piston or a master cylinder bore and even when shown seem to forget the next day.

This week we had one who rang us to see if we had some pads for a specific car they hadn't got, when we said we didn't he asked if we had any universal pads instead. WTF?

Mechanics - in my view - are not paid anywhere near enough for what they do. If you work for a main dealer and you're doing a wiring loom swap, replacing an engine etc, it's serious skilled work and not many appreciate just how skilled it is. The stuff you have to learn, long hours of fiddly/backbreaking work - I wouldn't do it for 30 grand a year. That's the problem - kids know they can just toss it off in some recruitment/whatever job for not much less when they're 23.

[_Sorted_]

iSore said:

Mechanics - in my view - are not paid anywhere near enough for what they do. If you work for a main dealer and you're doing a wiring loom swap, replacing an engine etc, it's serious skilled work and not many appreciate just how skilled it is. The stuff you have to learn, long hours of fiddly/backbreaking work - I wouldn't do it for 30 grand a year. That's the problem.....(edit).

This ^^^ +1

[CharlieAlphaMike]

david.h said:

This is MOST inconvenient !!! Good people should not retire (not until they have done MY stuff!
VSE have not been taking on new work for some months as the owner is retiring (after some 10,000 engines!)
Where do I go now for a good (non-competition) rebuild for an XK engine ?

I would highly recommend Jagutek of Ely (Cambridgeshire) but I'm not sure if they rebuild engines. They 'looked after' my X308 XJR. Worth talking to them (if they can't offer a rebuild, they might know someone who can). Ask for Kevin:

http://www.jagutek.co.uk/

Or there's Roach Classics in Sudbury (Suffolk). More likely to be able to help with a 'classic' Jaguar but again, I don't know if their service extends to engine rebuilds:

https://www.roachclassics.co.uk/

[a8hex]

CharlieAlphaMike said:

Or there's Roach Classics in Sudbury (Suffolk). More likely to be able to help with a 'classic' Jaguar but again, I don't know if their service extends to engine rebuilds:

https://www.roachclassics.co.uk/

Paul Roach used to be pretty active here as rw774, his setup looks very good.

I mostly used Winspeed near Guildford, Chris Window (and Peter Hugo) used to be at Racing Green before setting out on there own.

[Mike Biddle]

I would recommend Ken Jenkins jaguar, recently sussed out some problems with my engine very quickly and efficiently, including diagnosing that the exhaust cam was incorrectly timed just by listening to it running.

If you really want an old fashioned engineer then Ken is your man.

[ExVantagemech..]

Rob Beere in Coventry, supplies lots of bits to the Jag specialists. Re-sleeved a 4.2 for me years ago, unsure of what the cost might be but worth a call.

If youre down south...

CKL have an in house builder doing their engines, used to build them for Eagle.
Another is a mate of mine that did Aston V8V race engines for me (ex Ricardo, AML) has done a few Jag engines along with classic Astons.
PM me if you want his details...

[lowdrag]

Some of you seem to being a bit off track here. Rob Beere builds race engines, and they are very dear. Crosthwaite and Gardner are the summum but you might pay £100,000 for one of theirs. Here we are talking of, I believe, a standard rebuild. Correct me if I am wrong OP. In that case we must look for what is and not what might be. Paul Roach I know, I wrote an article on his business, but he now lives in Scotland. VSE took apart my engine, found the head cracked in six places and made a new head, stitched the block, put in top hat liners, and charged me the grand total of £6,300. Their like will never be seen again. Today I would guess around £12,000 for a standard rebuild, ignoring the extras on my engine. OP, I think that as well as Melvin at Just Classics you might also try Lee Ridley, he who rebuilt my car four years back and who sent my engine to VSE. I have no idea who he uses today but you can talk to him (near Newbury) on 07738863969. Poor reception, but leave a message, mention Tony referred you, and he'll get back to you. I have no axe to grind here, just trying to correct misleading referrals to people who will charge a fortune. People like VSE were an anachronism, doing everything in house, but today most will quote you around £20,000 and not get their hands dirty, subbing everything out and making a fat profit. No individual references made here, but you know what I mean. When I had one of my Lynx cars, Tim Card built the engine. His attention to detail was extraordinary, and here you can see just to what lengths he went to get an engine right. It ran like a Swiss watch, that engine.



There are surely other people all over the country with similar tales to tell of being ripped off and also of having immaculate service at reasonable prices, but in my 30 years of Jaguar life I can only talk of those I actually know about. So I hope that thisis at least informative, even if in the end you find someone nearby who does an equally honest job.

[ExVantagemech..]

Just offering the OP some options,

The days of a £3k XK build are long gone, but they are not a massively complicated engine.
£100k for a race engine, yeah, sure, if you want one off the shelf. To say Rob Beere only does race engines is a bit of a disservice.
I know Tim, nice bloke, he came to my old workshop several times as he worked next door.
Another good place to look at is GJG engineering in Brede where I live. Now there is a guy that knows Jag engines and wont cost a kidney...

[lowdrag]

I've just looked up the rebuild cost of the engine in the XKSS when it was done by CKL in 2004. We built a road/race engine producing over 300 bhp and the cost was £10,000 even back then. Even the dyno tests were £1,200!

[a8hex]

I think that's the point. VSE were able to rebuild engines more cheaply than most in the industry, presumably due to the volume of rebuild they were doing.

[mph]

VSE have had their own problems.

They took on additional staff some time ago and the quality fell dramatically. I understand they've since returned to their core staff and things have somewhat improved.

I've yet to run the last engine they built for me so I'm hoping it's ok ! The cost was just over £7k but that included some additional supply items.

I fished around for rebuilders a year or two back and I think around £8-£9k was the ball park figure.

Several of them advertise in the JDC and JEC magazines so that could be somewhere to look.

[lowdrag]

But they have still taken the decision to close. I know of people who have now had their engines returned untouched after a delay of six months saying that they were closing down. The children do not want to take it on, and the owners have other interests outside VSE anyway. I can't blame them because there comes a time when one seeks a less stressful and easier life. Good luck to them, even if it is bad news for the Jaguar community.

[Little Pete]

Hi OP. Give John a call at Headshop (UK) Ltd in Warrington. They are engine reconditioning and race prep specialists and have a full machine shop and in-house dyno. They do everything from a standard rebuild to full race and are very competitive on price. I have no affiliation with them other than using them for all my machining work.

[kurt535]

_Sorted_ said:

iSore said:

Mechanics - in my view - are not paid anywhere near enough for what they do. If you work for a main dealer and you're doing a wiring loom swap, replacing an engine etc, it's serious skilled work and not many appreciate just how skilled it is. The stuff you have to learn, long hours of fiddly/backbreaking work - I wouldn't do it for 30 grand a year. That's the problem.....(edit).

This ^^^ +1

Royal Navy are paying 31k for apprentice engineers....