Hi all

I have an 05 VDP. My son drove it through a huge puddle and the motor seized. Pulled all the plugs and tried to turn it by hand and she isnt budging. So instead of junking the car I'm going to put a used engine in it. While looking I see some with Vin C and with and with out california emissions. Im trying to understand the difference but having trouble finding info. Can I use either motor?

Also if anyone is in the detroit area and wants to help lol

 

Someone will correct me if I'm mistaken here, but since you're replacing a seized engine, assuming everything else was in working order before the incident, you shouldn't have any issues finding a good, donor 4.2 NA engine and swapping all your current emissions equipment and engine wiring over.

If the engine was specced differently emissions-wise, it's likely just a matter of plugging or removing plugs from your donor engine to match the configuration of your old engine.

The only major sticking point I can think of off the top of my head is whether your XJ has VVT or not. That'll determine if your donor will need it too, else you'll need to swap the cam gears and redo the timing afterwards.

 

I ended up finding a motor on ebay that should work just fine. Came out of an 04 VDP and the vin range matches mine so I should be good./