Definitely going to be one thing or another that you'll not expect or overlook. using the parts diagrams on classic jaguar is super helpful. And with a combination of ebay, autohausaz, fcpeuro, rockauto, partsgeek, Harper Jaguar, etc, I can usually get parts delivered quickly.

I did put a 6% pulley on it and I'm a big proponent. Now knowing that I had to put the good headgaskets on anyway, I likely would have gone for the larger lower pulley for a bit more grunt. With early factory headgaskets, I'm not sure I'd pursue more boost unless you are ok with potentially having to do head gaskets.

sorry, its not an XJR100 wheel, but rather an X100 (xk) wheel. They look the same but its a bit thicker to me and it was in almost new condition, so it just feels nicer.

Checked coolant this morning and still full. Threw on a new OEM expansion cap as well for the hell of it.

 

Thanks, good point on the early head gaskets. Maybe I'll just leave the blower alone for now and if I need to to gaskets down the road I'll switch to MIL gaskets and then put a pulley on.

Is the XK100 wheel the all leather wheel? Definitely a nice wheel, but I really like the stock wood steering wheels. Was yours in bad shape?

I'll bet you'll be checking coolant regularly for a bit I'm the same way. When I did the tensioners a month or so ago and 'repaired' my stock cam cover cracks I was under there with a flashlight after the first few drives seeing if there was any oil seeping down on the manifolds. So far so good.

 

The xk wheel i got has wood as well, which i don't mind. My stock wheel leather was in decent shape but the wood had some funky deterioration of the wood lacquer. It wasn't bad, but it irked me a bit and the wheel on ebay was pretty cheap. Will snap a pic at some point.

Whats funny about the paranoia is that the x308 dumps more a/c condensation than any other car I own and after having some coolant drip on the floor during the work, I ended up with a puddle behind the car. Turns out it was just some semi dried coolant residue from the floor mixing with the a/c water as it trickled down the slope of my garage.

 

One of the things that makes The Duchess so great is her air conditioning. I just love that it can be
100 degrees and 2 minutes into the car and it is as cool as I want it. I suspect the condensation is
really a good sign that it is working well.

 

howdy all. Have put about 200 miles on the car since the job and all seems well. My wife purchased a set of Bilstein sport rear shocks for my birthday, so I figured I'd attempt to put them in today.

Maybe the car gods smiled on me or something because of all the prior pain, but this was a super easy job. I used the alternate method of prying down on the center plate under the diff and adding spacers, and then removing the entire caliper carriers. Both springs and shock assemblies out and disassembled in 1 hour 15. Honestly it felt easier to me than doing the fronts for some reason. We'll see about re-installation, but I don't anticipate any real difficulties.

 

Shocks done. Really good price for the bilstein units at rockauto for anyone interested. Install went smoothly...not nearly the bear of the job I expected when reading about it. Car drives nice!

 

Good to hear. Non-CATS units I assume? I replaced the CATS shocks on my old 03 with Bilsteins from RockAuto, but they were not cheap at all. I think they were $3-400 each. Not a bad job at all though.

 

they are in fact non cats units. Roughly $100 each

 

Can't beat that for a Bilstein, great price.

 

Update...ive put 600 miles on the car and it runs great. No issues with drivetrain since headgasket work.

I purchased a burl shift knob from saul at british autowood and its really nice. Recommend him if youre looking.

I have 3 minor issues maybe someone is familiar with.

1. Sunroof arms pop out of the sliders. I need to bend the axle to get them to say put but i was hoping for a better solution. Havent found one.

2. On tight low speed turns i get a singing noise under slight throttle. Picture driving around parking lot. Increases in pitch the longer the turn lasts. Bit of a headscratcher but also doesnt sound serious.

3. Heat takes a bit to get warm, especially at idle. Auxillary pump kaput?

Despite these little niggles car has been great.

 

Saul lives about 20 minutes from me, I have one of his shift knobs as well, he does wonderful work.

 

I had one of those knobs in my old XJR, beautiful piece. Glad to hear the car has been running great since all of the repairs, hope it holds up perfect for you.

 

Some pics

 

 

Damn Quadcammer, that shift knob is a perfect match for your interior.

 

Just and FYI, I bought mine off an eBay auction before I knew Saul was only 20 minutes from me. So I didn't have mine made to match. He can do that, I went and saw him a number of years ago about redoing my crached panel cover trim.

 

I kind of like this one on the Duchess.

 

So, I have a friend looking for a 308...he has found a few, but they are stupidly priced. Example, a 100 in Daytona, this guy keeps raising the price and is now at $50k...NUTS!
Anyways, he wants to go look at this one for $17k...immediately I tell him there is no way your paying that. We get there and I as soon as I step out of the car, I turn to him and shake my head....
There's this blatant spray patch behind the passenger rear door,
the front tires have abnormal wear,
the antenna doesn't work,
the heated seats don't heat,
the center caps are siliconed in,
the shift knob is cracked and peeling, not even original,
the boot nitro cylinders are the wrong ones and don't allow it to lift completely,
under the hood, a couple of the Norma connectors have been hacked off and rubber hosed with crimp clamps
both the SC and drive belts were in need of replacement
and the coude de gras...his CATS shocks weren't even secured on top and when you pushed down on the fender they rose through the tower, for which the bushing was deteriorating and was a replacement.
The guy admits there's a clunk in rear, ...hmmm, yeah, you know it, dampers...and with all this, that isn't the whole story and this guy wants $17k.

As we drove away I told my friend, at max that car is $5k, but we hadn't even drove it or checked the under pinning. SO!, ...3 days later the guy calls and says he'll take $8, I again tell my buddy, ...stop being desperate, you have $9-10k in work with a new paint job...$3k'ish,without the paint. But this guy is desperate for cash, he says he's in a business deal he needs to get money for before the end of the month. I told my friend, we'll get that car for $3-4k at the end of the month or not at all.

Thought y'all may enjoy a good disaster story, ...oh, and the guy has a '96 Cadillac Fleetwood if any of you are interested...what's that?...you've heard enough on this guy... ...guess then, I won't tell you about the '89 Rolls Royce he has garaged.

 

@Highhorse That sounds like fun. You're right, tell your freind to wait for a better car. You can still get a very nice lower mileage x308 XJR for under $10k. Definitely wouldn't pay 8k for a car that needs a respray. These cars are still fairly undersireable by the masses and tend to sit around for sale with high asking prices for a long time. I bought my 98 in June and there are still cars for sale in my area that were for sale when I bought mine, and that was 5-6 months ago.

If your friend can wait these cars (and most used cars) will be even cheaper next year. The used car market is going to take a massive hit in 2023, its already starting. I sold a few cars I didn't need in the past month since its easy to see where the market is going, didn't want to be stuck with anything.

 

Its interesting because i look around on ebay cargurus, ebay etc for xjrs just to see whats out there and from what ive seen, the pickings are slim and cars under 100k miles are quite a bit over $10k