Greetings, i recently aquired a 3.0 automatic 2002 x-type. got it dirt cheap because it was broken, it now runs, and i found a cheap part car. 2002 2.5 manual sport.

Before anyone says it might be too much for me, i'm a professional mechanic, so i do know my **** about cars, and i'm especially good at electricity/electronics. its true that i'll most likely do this at home and it might make it hard by the lack of tools, but i know what i'm getting into.

I'm considering a manual swap, swapping the sport package too, stability control, that i am missing (if its on the part car, not sure yet) and even looking to find an LSD rear differential, if i can find any to fit...

I must admit i do have issue finding informations about our cars... i used to be into mustangs and crown victoria mods, the information for those vehicle is ridiculously abundant! i cant say the same for the x-type. so right now i'm left with a few questions.

2.5 manual trans on a 3.0, does it fit?
I've read the 3.0 and 2.5 are ridiculously similar, so i guess there are good chances its the same bolt pattern right? and then, no reasons not to fit? i saw someone saying the 2.5 and 3.0 trans fit, but have different gear ratio, but i cannot find anything to confirm what he said.

Beside the bolt pattern, trans swap doesnt scare me much though, considering i'll have a whole car, at worse i'll have to buy a 3.0 manual ECU, since the manual car is a 2.5. (i heard i could put the 2.5 ECU though, and the engine would just lose power, might be a decent temporary option)

Now, sport package. what does it include??

I can hardly find this info, i know it does include different seat, chrome delete, stability control (even though i also heard weather package include it, and my weather package car doesnt have it) different wood color and suspension stuff... but what exactly is the suspension upgrade?? springs are obivious, but beside that, anyone know exactly? shock absorber and stabiliser bar would be logic, but i wonder if they realy are different or if its just a coil spring swap that i'm looking for. if anyone got info on it i would apreciate. google doesnt tell me much yet.


And the rear differential, anyone know if there are parts i could swap into it? i know that for my fords, if i have a 8.8 differential, there's a TON of possiblity, but for that jagg, i have no clue and cant find any. is our rear differential shared on another char model that include an LSD? or aftermarket LSD differentials?

At worse i'll take the part car's differential and weld it... but i'd love something less.... stupid


Also any other technical doccumentation would be apreciated, i'm realy trying to do my homework on that car but its not easy. i know that performance wise, people say the transfer case is the weak point, i heard of some non-confirmed fix for it, and i heard that even though there's alot to do engine wise, tuning the ECU is nearly impossible?

Oh and... anyone know of a decent software for pulling codes for more than the PCM? elm327 compatible, once again i had something great for fords, and i'm at the begining once again... i found that suposedly good scan tool software on ebay, 80$ or something with cable, but i heard bad comments about it... so i dont know if i should try it...

 

Pierrick, first off, welcome to the Forums. I think we can give you the info that you are after. Granted, may not be what you want to hear at times. But, we call things as we see them and don't try to sugar coat anything.

Lets start with the easier stuff and then go from there. The Sports package. In short, most of the Sports package was decorative stuff. Upgraded seats, trim, etc. As for performance in the way of suspension, only 2 things where "upgraded". You have factory springs that where 1.4" lower (and slightly more stiff) and the factory (Bilstien) shocks were upgraded to a slightly stiffer shock. Now, speaking of the shocks. You can get the Sport shocks from a local auto parts place made by Bilstien should you need them. You actually have 3 options. You have the Comforts (on the non-Sport models), the Sports and then you have the Heavy Duty. As the name implies, the heavy duty have stiffer valving than even the Sports. But, they will fit on the sport car.

As for a limited slip setup for the rear. I wish you luck. The rear end is a Jag specific thing. So, your options are pretty much near zero for what you are after.

I am reading between the lines here, but it is sounding like you are wanting a good sports car. This is not the X-Type unless you do some serious modifications (which is somewhat sounds like you are willing to do). Like you mention, the transfer case is the weak link. From what we have been able to figure out, the bearings in the transfer case were built from the factory with too much pre-load on them. So, when you start applying lots of power to them, they will fail in fairly short order. So, I would say that as a beginning point, you will probably want to drop the transfer case and rebuild that with a more proper pre-load on the bearings to see if that will help you get what you are after. I don't want to call you a guinea pig, but this is the territory that you are going into. I know there are a lot of people that would be interested in hearing how that works, especially on a car that has had the power improved.

As for bumping up the power of the motor. You are not going to find a lot specifically called out for the Jag. But, keep in mind that most of the block is based off of a Ford Duratec 3.0L motor. So, you find upgrades for that, you will most likely be able to bolt them right on or have to do minimal modification to make them work.

As for the trans. That should be a direct swap over. The bolt patterns should be the same. The 3.0L and 2.5L used the same manual trans. Then all you have to do is get the correct ECU.

As for a code reader, as long as you have an android phone, get yourself an ELM 327 unit. That is what I am using with the Torque App. It will do most of what you want. Granted, you may want to use the code reader that you have at work (the $2000 unit) as you may need to get further into the coding than what the ELM unit will allow you to. Granted, if you do some looking around here, there are some that have gotten the Mongoose setup which gives you dealership level access which may be a blessing and a curse all in the same statement. It sounds like it would be more of a blessing for you since you have a deeper understanding of vehicles than what most people here do. That may even allow you to simply flash a new program into the ECU in the car and "convert" it from an auto ECU to a manual ECU.

As far as tuning the ECU, we have not researched that area too much as the "ECU tuners" that are out there have netted very little results for us (regardless of what the manufacturer claims) and also we know that getting too crazy on the power will just lead to other problems. It is sounding like your best bet is going to be to make some performance additions (exhaust, intake, port/polish heads, etc) and then take it to a place with a 4 wheel dyno and have them tune the car to maximize things. That is about your only option as I understand things.

If you need electrical diagrams and whatnot, you can either send me a PM or if you look at the top of this section, you can download the JTIS (Jaguar Technical Information Section Manual). that will have all the info that you need for how to get things apart, electrical diagrams, etc.

 

Thanks thermo, i apreciate your effort in answering me.

first, its not that i'm THAT much looking for a 10 seccond quarter miles and a drift car in the same package, i know the x-type is a pretty bad choice for a heavy project. i may not ever increase its power, but i definitely want to know all i can about its limit, and consider it later on, my current interest in the X-Type is a good daily driver, and a winter drift car. so i plan to make it as fun as possible, without beign too crazy. as a winter drift car, LSD would be ideal for sure... but its not like its a track exclusive car, definitely not. at best i would love to put my friend's audi a4 quatro 2002 to shame, considering its arleady a nearly identical car. shouldnt be hard hehe

I did read those preload things on the transfer case, Btw, i do have mitchel and alldata, so i might be able to figure it out by myself, but its not installed currently.. i'd have to set em up again, would you know if both of the transfer case i will have, from my 2.5 manual and 3.0 automatic are the same? and are they separate unit bolted on the transmission? so i can rebuild one, and swap once i break one?

I also did read a bit about what people here proposed for engine mod, if i'd go crazy a 4.0 block swap is pretty much the way to go huh? hehe... from my 30sec google about such swap, those sales website estimate about 150/150 hp and torque gain by going from 3.0 to 4.0, thats crazy gain considering we dint talk about different cams, and other stuff yet. but such power would be pretty hard on the t-case, considering keeping the automatic for this reason, or maybe i'll swap back once i start having issue and see if its better.

I definitely did figure out arleady that depending how serious i go, i'll be the guinea pig, hehe... And, even though i'm not sure if it'll go serious power or not yet. i will start to doccument everything that happened about this car soon, financial cost, story, pictures. everything! it will be a pretty interesting project write up,

Glad to hear specific stuff about the sport package! i did found some spring even lower than the sport pack, but dint know there was shocks better than the sport pack, thats awesome!! not sure i'll want my daily driver to be THAT stiff, but if i'd ever make it more than a winter drift car, it might be interesting.

I also saw the download link for the jag info... i'll try that out sometime soon, thats great! and that mongoose thing, i'll definitely look into it, i do have torque right now, but its limited to the ECU reading, currently i have an airbag light that i'd need to check, and i'm currently unemployed, so i do not currently have access to a genisys or similar generic scantool (even though i might, from a friend... i could look into it) so i guess my best bet is to look into mongoose. thanks! will be easier with its actual name, hehe

I guess i should also call the speed shops around, see what they have to say about our ECU.