I think that's going to be a nearly impossible find. The X300's are very durable mechanically, while the interiors are more fragile. After 25 years the leather will have worn, faded and the stitching rotted, but the powertrain soldiers on. If you do find a car with an excellent interior, you're more than likely also going to find it in excellent mechanical shape as it's a cherished and/or concours car. Perhaps try looking at the JCNA classifieds for a suitable car?

The prices are so low now, that buying a good car is probably going to be cheaper than fixing up a bad car. Different story if you want to modify just for the sake of doing it.

I'm not sure that the X308 interior swap is completely doable as the cars are very different electrically. Specifically, I doubt things like memory seats would work if transplanted. If you look at jagrepair.com you can find all the electrical guides as pdf's.

Out of curiosity, why put a Mercedes diesel into the car, other than you have it? The Jaguar AJ16 engine was actually designed to have a future diesel variant (which never happened) so the bottom end is very strong.

There were manual LHD versions sold in continental Europe, but very few. Even including RHD production, the build rate of manual cars was less than 5%

 

Some have used these new seat skins

The product shown has the colored beads on the inseam that only the VDP model uses

These are tnew skins that are next to the original foam on the seat frame . They are not covers over the original seat skins

https://www.lseat.com/products/1995-...ers-front.html

 

Thanks for the advice. I'd certainly look at good examples, but rebuilding the suspension is for the sake of having a fresh suspension, and the powertrain swap for the sake of having this powertrain. If a candidate had recent major suspension work up to my quality standards, that's worth something to me. But the value of the Jaguar's powertrain, to me, is only what I can get for selling it.

I'm good with electricals, have fabricated whole vehicle harnesses from scratch, and have few qualms about doing it again. I've wired BMWs to have memory seats, but don't want them anyway. My ideal of luxury is looks, seats, ride, and silence, not gadgets. Manual seats, manual climate controls, no sunroof, manual transmission, don't mind a driver's crank window, and I have a list of dealbreakers that excludes more and more new cars every year - a big screen in the dash, phone-home capability, electric parking brake, brake-by-wire or steer-by-wire, and all these #$@*% Driver Incompetence Compensators.

Petroleum independence, no electronics (mechanical injection pump), torque, sound, fuel economy (worthy in its own right, even if the savings never pay for the installation cost), personal preference. I don't just happen to have this engine; acquisition was a very deliberate and intentional adventure. Manual trans is mandatory for me, a hard requirement.

Excellent, thanks. Just knowing they're out there means it's worth looking. Rarity is a complication, sure, but not a deterrent. My first BMW was an E34 535i manual, which in US spec were about 5% of production. I've also owned three of the 481 E34 530i wagons imported to the US, and now own the only black sunroofless E34 wagon I've seen on this side of the pond. I spent about a decade looking for exactly that, and had to go to Canada to get it. I have a history of successful perseverance.

 

Unfortunately the value of the AJ16 engine is next to nothing. Part of the reason is they simply don't wear out, so there is very little demand for used ones.

The electrical issue is complex. The X300 was the last of a series of things that were stand alone and wired. The X308 is the first of everything being networked and operating on data, not voltages. I know that one very well respected Jag modifier had a customer who wanted the supercharged V8 in a 1960's Mark 10 and they had to transplant absolutely everything into the mark 10 bodyshell, down to the power locks and side mirrors in order to have any of the electronics work. Everything on the network has to be present or nothing works. So it's far more involved than just making up new harnesses.

Don't automatically discount the original powertrain for fuel economy, I have been able to achieve 35 mpg on highway cruise from a 4.0. That was a great run, but 30 mpg was easily attainable on cruise.

Manual cars were never sold in North America, I think the only place you'll find a few of them is Continental Europe. A RHD pedal box won't be of much use, so no point in looking in the UK. A few parts are still available from Jaguar, but most are NLA now. You might want to look at Aston Martin DB7's, as that is the same engine block as the XJ6, and the DB7 is based on a shortened XJS. There are a lot of Jaguar parts in the early DB7.

 

Manual can bolt onto the AJ16 by getting the Jag bellhousing for the Getrag 265.

the 606 is going to be a major jimmy rattler, mainly because it sounds like coins in a washing machine.

 

Looking for the Getrag 265 application vehicles in the US with your suggestion

Getrag was manufactured in the US as New Venture brand or NV model numbers

From my understanding the gearbox itself was a Getrag 290 or something different then a 265

Dream of someday having a left hand steering manual transmission model

 

Getrag 265 was used in some 80's BMW and possibly Mercedes. It's a decent gearbox, but won't handle the torque of a turned-up OM606.

X308 has CANBUS, eh? Then I guess it's getting gutted down to the shell and replaced with X300 parts. I'd build an X300 as well, they're just harder to find in LWB black, and I gather the NVH tuning of the later chassis is better.

 

Canbus is a digital data bus or multiplex system

I have the X308 Canbus Jaguar training guide somewhere as the interior lights I think were still discrete circuits as you go through it

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/Training%20Guides/684_SG.pdf

 

...without selling any internal organs on the black market?