Per my advice, she asked the mechanic who was working on the car to put a borescope in the cylinders. He saw no damage to the pistons. He is not a Jag mechanic. The owner then called a local Jag indy and had the car towed over to his shop since he was experience doing the repair and the other guy hadn't. The original mechanic charged her $900 for the diagnosis which included removing the valve cover and timing cover. Seems very high to me and I don't understand why the timing cover had to be removed to diagnosis it. But the timing cover would have had to have come off anyway to replace the chain, so the second shop won't have to do the work. She'll get an estimate from the Jag indy on the repair and make her decision.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

kerry,

Too bad for your neighbor. How much is the car worth? With such low mileage, it would seem that it would be well worth the repair costs, especially now that she knows the achilles heel of the engine so that she knows what to keep taken care of. It sounds as if after repair proper maintenance, it could give her many trouble free miles.

Best of luck with it.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

She paid $10k for it 10k miles and 3 yrs ago. Looking at Craigslist I see similar models listed between $7-14k. I agree that it is worth doing the repair. She however, is completely gun shy at this point and will probably repair it and trade it in.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

That's too bad, because she might be walking away from many enjoyable and relatively economical miles. That said, it's easy to understand how someone can get gun shy when a car shows a bit of unreliability.

Best of luck with it.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

An 11-year-old British car and a non-mechanically-inclined owner are not a cost-effective combination. Tell her to sell it and place the proceeds towards leasing a new Lexus with a warranty.

Paul,

You make a good point. I think that what overshadow's it all, and makes your point even more valid, is the emotion of someone who does not understand the issue. It would most certainly make her nervous at least for awhile to drive the car.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

Throw a chevy 350 in it.

Not a bad idea. There used to be a guy whose shop was near Fair Park in Dallas who had all sorts of high quality parts for doing really clean conversions for an SBC in a Jag sedan.

That said, I doubt that most ladies would be very interested.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

John's Cars?

Yes, is he still in the business?

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

Jaguar conversions, swaps, parts, service and advice - from John's Cars in Dallas.

Thanks for the link Paul! I glanced at it briefly and it looks as if his conversions are for the earlier models, but I'm no Jagspert, so those might include the one mentioned by the OP.

I went to his place back in the late eighties and was thinking about finding a nice Jag and doing the conversion. My wife wanted one. Then my brother in law talked me out of it saying that if I were to put all the work into the car and then my wife damaged it, the ensuing dialogue wouldn't be pretty. He knew me well and was married to my wife's twin sister. He was probably right.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

I've seen an X300 (six cyl car) converted to SBC power. But in most cases those conversions were for the S1-S3 XJ6 and XJ12s from 1968-1987 (1992 for the V12).

If you're considering this as a cheap repair on a 10 year old car then you may be mistaken. The SBC conversion is going to run $3000 for a basic carb fed 350. If you want an LS or vortec engine, it's going to cost a lot more. Then you need to worry any state inspection or emission requirements which will force you to merge the electronics.

You can probably source a good used engine and have the tensioners replaced with the updated type for less money and have it dropped in.

__________________
With best regards

Al

You make a good point alabbasi, but I think that if she decided to stay with what she's got, pulling the heads and repairing the existing low mileage engine would be a better choice.

__________________
2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution