Just curious.

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The only good is knowledge; the only evil is ignorance.

 

You know.. a popular swap is to put a Chevy in place of the POS motors in those cars...

And no, I didnt invent the idea:
http://www.jagsthatrun.com/

 

Damn. It would have been cool for me to say I had a V12 in my GTA.

 

The old Jag motors weigh more than a big block, and are ridiculously unreliable. People will pay a surprising amount for a good used one. So what people who like to mod cars do nowadays is buy a Jag with a running motor; take the motor out and sell it to somebody with a blown-up one (which there are always plenty of around); and take the money and put either a big block or a LT-1 in the Jag. Back in the 70s, Jag actually used a Chevrolet-case Turbo 400; the big block was like the easiest transplant there was. You caould buy kits to do it, and even buying that, it still cost less than what you could sell the Jag motor for.

So apart from the gee-whiz factor, there's no sense in downgrading your car like that.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

LOL speakin of 350's in a jag... I happen to have one. Yes the jag motor is WAY hevier because the front of the car sits about 2-3 inches higher then should. It has a 1989 Chevy Impalla motor in it. But I love driving my rs way more even though it is a V-6

[This message has been edited by 92_CamaroRS (edited August 12, 2001).]

 

POS motors? Even today the Jag V-12 is regarded as one of the smoothest engines ever made!



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'86 Iroc ZZ4
Best Run 13.8 @ 100mph
I told you to blow the bloody doors off!
The British Firebird/Camaro Site

 

I didnt say anything about smooth, I was referring to reliable. The prince of darkness electronics doesnt help any.

 

One of the reasons why Jag motors have such a bad rep (especially here in the states) is that people spend the money on the Jag to buy the name, but don't budget enough money to have it serviced properly. This results in many of the "unreliability" problems associated with Jags. If people would understand that spending $40K + on a vehicle doesn't guarantee its reliability without it being serviced properly and according to the manufacturer's schedule, cars like the Jag/BMW wouldn't have the reputations that they do. I'm not saying that there aren't inherent design flaws in the Jag, that's for the engineers to determine. I'm just saying that if more jag owners would take care of their cars, they would be respected more than they are. Although I have heard from many technicians that Jags are some of the most difficult and expensive cars to work on, which could explain while people postpone or fail to have their cars serviced correctly.

 

MadMax is right the electrics were horrible in those cars. I would like to have a nice jag. But the electrics weren't worth anything until in the 90's and then they stopped making the v12. 5.3L wasn't all that much displacement either for the 1000lb motor. Not quite a 1000lb but a lot. I don't care how much maintenance you do that is not going to solve electrical problems. They had a lot of problems with oil pumps too. So when you see a low mileage Jag on ebay its because it was in the shop more than on the road.

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91 Camaro RS 5.0L Black Convertible 700R4
** Added so far **
*GM Wonderbar,Alston SFC's,spohn LCA's and Panhard rod
*Turbo City Inj Spacer
*Dual Snorkel Air Filter
*March Performance Pulleys
*GM 3.42 Gears with OEM Zexel POSI
*Edelbrock headers
*3" High Flow Cat
*3" Dynomax Exhaust
*Walbro 255 lph Fuel Pump
***Future 330hp Vortec Crate with LT4 hotcam and 454 TBI

 

I realize this is getting off the topic, but what was wrong with the electronics in the cars? Just curious. I don't know much about Jags really. Just enough to know that I would never own one. Do you think that Jag could pull off a v-12 today?

 

The problem with Jag electric systems can be summed up in one word: Lucas.

I have personally known 2 people whose MGs (same electrical system) burned to the ground for electrical problems. Those are like the simplest cars in the world, electrically; they have about the same amount of electric stuff as a 57 Chevy under the hood, which is to say, it takes about 12 pieces of wire to hook the whole car up, lights and all. Yet, you open the hood of a MG, and there are these enormous bundles of cute colored wire going everywhere; some of the bundles are at least 1½" in diameter, and they go in odd directions, like they don't always seem to go to places where there's naturally a concentration of wires (like a fusebox or something) . I can't see how this is even possible. Needless to say, they are notoriously unreliable in addition to being a fire hazard.

Jag is, or at least was, the same way. F*rd might have made some kind of a dent in all that (not that their electrics are so great) but I couldn't say.

Everybody I've ever known who had a Jag had to have a second car. The running joke about what owning a Jag says to the rest of the world is something like "I'm so rich I can afford a $60,000 car that spends 250 days a year in the shop". I've never owned one so I don't know if it's true; but it seems to be a pretty common theme.

Still, some of them are really beautiful cars. Now if I could get one that looked like that but ran like a scalded dog all the time, maybe with a LS1 in it or something, that would be kind of cool.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

The Jag V-12 only makes 262 bhp, as was advertised. It was a very low-performance V12 and so IT WAS very "smooth".I know. I owned a 90 convertable, briefly.
It's self defeating to put that motor in a performance-type car.

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1990 Formula
Factory:TPI-305/Dual Cat(230hp),5 Speed,3.42 rear.
Dealer instaled:Aluminum Drive Shaft
Mods:SLP air foil,K&N Filter, Accel:wires,coil cap,rotor.Hypertech Thermomaster chip,Stat,Fan switch,TES headers,MSD6AL,AFPR(50), Harwood fiberglass hood,Original GM "Notchback GTA" hatch.
Flowmaster 3" Cat-back exhaust,TB coolant bypass,B&M Ripper shifter, Centerforce dual friction clutch, Ported Plenum, March Power/Amp Pulleys. (???HP)
DIRECT LINK TO PICS OF MY CAR. NO WEB-PAGE. http://community-2.webtv.net/MZavraz...A90/page9.html

 

Ah yes the glory days of British Leyland Lotus at the time suffered the same problems, resulting in the anogram;

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious

The amount of Loti that caught fire during that era was astounding.

Jag sadly went the same way, thank *** for Ford investing money in them otherwise the prancing cat would be no more.

The Jag XJS was never meant as a performance car, but more of a high speed cruiser or autobahn stormer (these cars could do 155mph don't forget)and that 276 bhp was from 'only' 5.3 litres and on an old engine design, from the E-type. More than a 5.7 tpi.
Properly looked after I think these engines last forever (carefully timed 3000 mile oil changes permited) but like you say neglect that and you slip down the slippery slope of murder to the pool of blood at the bottom.