Right, not trying to sound like a cliche' by using "Stage".... I was just grasping for some quick categorizing terminology to illustrate the possible options that break at significant cost/benefit thresholds.

I'm personally not that interested in wringing a lot more HP out of the 97 XJR I have, especially if reliability and economy drops dramatically (and cost gets astronomical), but it would be interesting to hear about all the tried and true methods employed with the AJ16 normally aspirated and supercharged and where the significant cost/benefit thresholds show up.

As I mentioned, it seems that along with a good state of baseline tune, the "andybracket" and freer flowing intake filter are probably the best bang for the least buck as a first low cost and easy to implement update.

Saw a dyno graph before/after of the bracket install posted on Jaglovers which was very positive, but can't seem to find it now. Will have to see if I can find it again.

.

 

FOR X300's/XJR's I would imagine the jag motors have had all kinds of mods done to them over the years by competent race mechanics. I know I am curious to hear of any "bolt-on" or moderate level modifications that seemed to be effective at increasing the enjoyment of driving the car. And, are parallel to the intention of the cars design. I would assume all manufacturers building cars they intend to make a profit on have to draw the line somewhere at the expense they spend providing "tuning" for end users. Which leaves us some room to "tinker" with our hobby cars.

I have paid for and am awaiting my bracket. Should ship late June. I intend to try the oversized lower blower pulley next. Their techs explained it is to be a bolt to bolt swap on the xjr6 motor. Not needing the modifications to the harmonic that the v8 lower pulley would. The upper pulley requires grinding to the blower shaft neck. while this car will surely never show at pebble beach, I would like to keep my tinkering mostly reversible...

I am interested in intake and exhaust. I did work to classic rangerovers that made the aluminum BOP motor sound great. But I have heard more horror stories about changes to back pressure ruining the performance of a car and / or they sound aweful. So I am reluctant to fiddle in this area.

Al you looked up xjr rotors and that they weigh as much as 27lbs. Thats a lot of rotational mass. I dont think carbon ceramic systems are unobtainable. But my shallow searches havent turned up an answer yet.

Also Al, I forgot about the Riviera. I remember years ago pulling a customers around from behind the shop and giving it a quick squeeze. That was a cool fun car. Hows all that crazy bent dash wood hold up?

 

Agree with all you have said, especially with regard to modifying the car in the spirit of its original design goals. For example, I'm not looking to make the car the quickest, fastest or best handling on the road. There are other cars designed to meet those goals (...for a moment in time by the way. There is always something 'better' on the horizon after all).

But for a resonable amount of investment (which varies by person/budget certainly), it would be nice to squeeze a little more out of the car and not sacrifice utility, economy, comfort and reliability much.

So what lower pulley are you looking into? Vendor? Cost?

Regarding the Riviera, succinctly... another car (1995-1999)I absolutely love. A 1998 with 19k miles is for sale right now, and that is very tempting. I have a 1995 with 70k miles on it now.

It really is similar to the Jaguar in many respects given its target audience. The Riviera was a mid/high $30k car in the mid to late 1990s and was meant as a luxury performance coupe at the near top of the GM range.

This 8th generation Riviera has a small by loyal following, and a great online support community at Riviera Performance

Like the XJR, the Riviera from this generation is relatively rare, only having made about 10,000 per year, and around 1500 (if I recall) in 1999. GM even had a limited last run of the last 200 1999 "Silver Arrow" Rivieras much like the XJR100. Although in the case of the "Silver Arrow" Rivieras, it was all badge engineering and trim, but no performance changes.

But this series of Riviera has the GM 3800 Eaton supercharged 225HP Series I(1995) and 240HP Series II (1996-1999) engines, which can easily be tweaked to achieve 260-280HP, or more if one really wants to tear into things.

The 8th gen Riviera actually didn't come OEM with the wood trim on the dash and doors. In 1996 GM added REAL wood trim to the console shift surround and a narrow "halo" around the HVAC controls and radio. 1997+ has the same trim, but the "wood" became plasti-wood. However, as you saw, there were (and are) several aftermarket real wood veneer kits available to install wood trim across the entire dash and doors. Many of the top tier kits are very nice and hold up fine for years.

....OK, well apologies for getting off topic.

Back to our X300 HP discussion!


.

 

I wrote service in another life. And was the drivability specialist. We had several franchises. Buick was one of them. The Riviera I remember (we had a few in) was a 97 "signature" I think. It had that wrap around style interior trim. It was all a blonde maple I think. That was the one that made me say I'd like to buy one some day. It is kind of xjr sort of car.

The lower pulley is from PowerHouse in sheffield. They have an ebay store where the prices seem lower. powerhouse-uk I believe is the seller name. Their Ebay price was just under $300 usd. A lot for a pulley. But limited market use I suppose.

My soft goal is to be able to say my motor can generate 400hp on paper. Its what 320 stock? So If the bracket and the pulley add up to 50 thats 370. I have heard the opening from the supercharger to the motor is similar to a restrictor plate and their are larger ones. But I have not looked into that any farther. And I am not sure how I see that working from glancing at the design under the hood. So I am on the hunt for another 30 horses. But Ive got time. I havent even rcvd the advance bracket yet.

 

You might look into Magnum Powers.

Magnum Powers Home

They apparently specialize in porting the Eaton M90 and are popular with the SC Thunderbird crowd. Their pricing isn't toooo expensive, but it's all relative to one's budget

Magnum Powers Services

They claim 20-60HP gains post porting based on their actual development and testing, but I have no personal experience and have no other data than their website marketing and other make/model forum reports.

.

 

Here's an interesting thread or two on the topic:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...0-true-101120/

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...charger-34153/


.

 

Magnum powers is interesting. I was just thinking my blower makes more noise than I think it should at idle. At some point it will need rebuilding. Possibly taking advantage of this kind of rebuild would get me those extra horses.

 

As the original question was regarding the X308, i'm moving this to the correct section.

 

The original question was about the X308, but it seems it's been steered towards X300 mods...
The OP has started another thread in the X308 section, so it might be worth moving it back? Just my 2c

 

I can do that

 

And now I guess put my 2c in about how to get more power from the AJ16S...

Take a leaf out of Avos' book, ditch the M90 and put a more efficient twin-screw in it's place....

It's not just about "more boost for more power" the M-series consume a lot of power too...

 

is there anything that fits in without too much modification? I know Eaton upgraded to the TVS blowers, but I thought the inlets and outlets were quite different?

 

Now that sounds like the real solution, a more efficient blower, especially if a bolt-on affair. Any such animal?


.

 

From what I recall, the AJ16 god, Andy, installed a different supercharger in his XJR, I believe there was just a slight modification...

 

Anything is possible as long as you have deep pockets and are prepared to take lots of setbacks and it's going to cost like my father used to say nothing is impossible it's just going to cost a helluva lot lol