You can see the green in the highlights - she looks quite lovely!

And your end of the year nice weather looks quite a bit more lovely than ours even if we end up doing the same thing with our cars.

 

Thanks Ken! I grew up with a LOT more snow and cold weather than we get here, so winters tend to be disappointing for me here, but having a clean Jag in with winter is a nice consolation prize.

 

the ford is a purloator the jaguar is a purflux. not in the same ballpark

that being said my last filter cost like $2 lol

 

Would it be identical to the Ford/Lincoln vs Jag - all the Jag oe filters I've bought are white with the green writing.

Happy New Year Fellow Jaguar individualists!

 

Some of the aftermarket filters are a bit shorter than the Jag filter. The Ford one is same size. Remember, these are Ford engines with a few mods.

 

Today, I finally changed my Supercharger oil.

 

I’m not an expert - or a mechanic - but as far as I can determine the AJ V8 was the fourth new engine type in Jaguar’s history and was an in house design with work beginning before Ford's purchase of the company. In 1997 it replaced both designs previously available on Jaguar cars, the in-line 6 and the V12. Ford didn’t purchase Jaguar until 1999.

While Ford did subsequently use the engine in a number of their vehicles - and manufactured it in the US - it’s probably much more accurate to say they were Jaguar engines with a few modifications than the other way around.

 

@ Ken: I actually came to this thread to write something else, but I just had to correct that thread above:
It is incorrect that Ford purchased Jaguar not before 1999.
I worked for Jaguar in Coventry in 1998, and at that time, Jaguar belonged to Ford since a long time.
Also: The new S-Type was build since 1999. Clearly, that S-Type was designed by Ford/Jaguar.
Obviously, when it was build in 1999, this means that planning and design had started many years earlier.
In 1998 I saw the full size clay model of the S-Type in the S-Type design meeting room.
I can see, where you have your information from: I also saw a few internet sites, that state incorrectly that Ford purchased Jaguar in 1999. That is a typical case of: "Do not believe everything you read on the internet!" Google instead "Jaguar WIkipedia", and you find the correct information: 1990!

But what I actually wanted to write - regarding: "What did you do to your X308 Today?":

Today I removed a very ugly non OE accessory from my X308:


A rat!

The X308 is fully registered, but it tells a story about how "often" I drove it so far: Seldom enough obviously so that a rat can die and dry hanging out under the car...

 

@Peter, you are absolutely correct in pointing out my error in relying on Wikipedia for the date of Ford’s purchase which was indeed 1990 and not 1999. I have a shelf of Jaguar books as well as my own memory that should have proved a better source.

Let me also say thank you for the gentle manner in which you corrected me. I envy your experience at Jaguar - it sounds like your experience was more than just a job which is all we can hope for our careers.

I am however going to stick with my statement that the AJ26 is at heart a Jaguar engine and not a Ford design:

“Chief developer Dave Szczupak and his team had put in the Jaguar development center in Whitley a lot of development work in the V8 engine to build an engine that was also perceived by potential customers as a Jaguar engine, because the V12 and the Reihensechser AJ6 ( AJ26) were considered very cultivated and smooth. Jaguar was then independent and financially unable to invest large sums of money in development. Ford bought Jaguar in 1990, which brought drastic changes in development and manufacturing.For the further development history of the AJ-V8 two different versions are rumored.

“Version 1.Ford looked at the previous development data of the AJ-V8, was so impressed and gave Jaguar the funds needed to make the development to production maturity, only with the requirement to be limited to the V8.

“Version 2.Ford wanted to persuade the Jaguar management to stop all attempts to develop its own engines. One should make use of engines from the group in the future. Jaguar, however, was given a budget to develop variable camshaft timing (VVT) for the newly-developed Ford V8 to cultivate the engine. Jaguar probably took the money, but continued to work on the AJ-V8 and then sent the engine, much to the displeasure of the Ford Group, the development center in Dearborn , where it was tested against the Ford V8. The Jaguar engine performed much better in power, smoothness and torque than the group brother. Jaguar was then commissioned to develop a slimmed-down version for the Lincoln LS. Ford's own V8 was now installed in commercial vehicles.”

source: https://motor-car.net/innovation/eng...r-aj-v8-engine

And from the home library:




PS While we don’t have rats here we do have mice aplenty and I’m sure rats can be equally destructive given the opportunity. I’m glad yours did no damage and apparently simply chose a glorious car in which to die.

 

Quote form 1984:
“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the
lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future
who controls the present controls the past.'”

 

Yes, Randy, 1984 was school-reading material in my English-class in Germany. I remember this quote.
Also, very real in a certain country presently: "You just don't know, what is going to happen yesterday..."

Yes, Ken, I also think that the AJ26 (and the AJ27?) are Real Jaguar engines. You probably know more about it's background than I do.
But I dare to say that it would probably never could have originated in Jaguar designer's brains to make cam covers out of plastic (V8 as in X308 and S-Type) or actually worse: Magnesium (as in at least X204 S-Type V6): The magnesium idea comes from a really uneducated brain (it self destructs due to galvanic corrosion in the presence of aluminium and steel). The plastic idea can only be Ford's cost saving strategy, which seriously backfired for Ford and made them loose that much money on Jaguar that they had to give it away (Ford sold it to Tata at a huge loss). But Ford also did a lot of good things for Jaguar - it did big improvements on quality in production (that is 2 different pairs of shoes: Cost-saving on one hand and improved quality, which however in essence is cost saving again, because recalls are very expensive. But due to certain cost saving measures (even though Ford's general influence on Jaguar was a good one) the customers lost it's faith in Jaguars, sales plummeted, and this was it. I, however, accept Ford-Jaguars as Jaguars - Ford really tried to let Jaguar be Jaguars and also kept the main Jaguar-style designer (Design director) Geoff Lawson working for Jaguar as designer from 1989 till 1999 (RIP). So I would definitely have met him. It is also quite possible that it was him I talked to convincing him to make the X400 light switch symmetrical in design to reduce the huge amount of variations by having at least light-switches, which can be used for LHD and RHD. (I did the interior electrical design of the X400 light switches, investigating c/o options from existing Ford switches, and I had to scrap that idea - there is no Ford design in the X400 light switch).

But looking at the Tata-Jaguars...: Those are not for me. All I can see are off-the-shelf utterly boring looking vehicles, no relation whatsoever to Jaguars and yet they just smack a Jaguar batch on it and charge a Jaguar-price for a Japanese-looking car. Not a single design line on a Tata-Jaguar bears resemblance to a Jaguar line. Also, a Jaguar has to have quad headlights - and while I do not know what happened there in the past with the XJS design, when they mounted fish-tanks to the front of it: I bought aftermarket quad-headlights for my 1990 XJS... So that design mistake was fixable - but there is no hope in fixing Tata-Jaguars... Actually, I would probably not be able to tell a Tata-Jaguar from a Nissan, were it not for the badge... So cost saving advise: If you want a new Jaguar, buy a Nissan and stick a Jaguar batch on - no one will notice...

 

?????

composite valve covers were industry leading and hands down better than any other option.

there’s a reason everybody uses them

 

I just fixed everything on my X308 engine. This included a very unsophisticated method of fixing the plastic cam covers, which had small cracks at many places:


Lots of cracks in the plastic cover. Obviously, as plastic and heat do not mix...

The part in the background is already the fixed result: The nails are in there already and filed off. The predrilled holes for the nails and they are held in position additionally with high temp silicone.

I like to put it that way: I used a more noble material to fix the damage than the plastic the covers are made out of...: by using old rusty nails!

I do not doubt, that many vehicle manufacturers use plastic cam covers. I do not doubt that being profit-hungry is limited to Ford. But that still makes it wrong and it makes the cars "disposable items", manufactured with the declared and obvious design-intend to let all system fail after the warranty period is over. Just like everything else produced for the mass market. But I just expected better from Jaguar...

And looking at the prices you have to pay to replace your broken cam cover, which has now self-destructed as per design-intent: Bid money for such a seriously cheap plastic cam-cover... I say it again: Profit-hungry industry!

 

Indeed, it would not have broken the bank to use stainless steel inserts in the bolt holes.
And... it would have provided a more uniform fit without the stress.

 

Big cat kills rat, seems appropriate.

 

Plastic stuff on engines? Better not to buy any of the new car's. How about when thermostat(electric) and sametime engine one and only water hose housing, waterpump housing, cam cover with integrated crank case breathing valve that brakes easily, timing chain cover and intake manifod -made from plastic ? And all of this practically in one engine. Almost forgot : Plastic oil pan(sump).

 

Indeed, I do not intend to buy "Back to the Future"-cars, and by that I mean a Trabbi, that is a Trabant, the OLD EAST German car, which was made out of Plastic and Cardboard (google it). And by that I mean that the OLD idea of making cheap plastic cars has now manifested in "new" cars. The newest car in my fleet of ten is 17 years old - apparently not old enough... And correct: The are more parts on cars, which DEFINIETLY should not have been made out of plastic, like the parts you mentioned above. There is even an aftermarket version of the transmission oil pan & filter made out of Aluminium for the 6hp26. Plastics ARE ageing over time, especially when subjected to heat. No problem inside the warranty period. Thus, no problem for the automotive industry, but a big problem for the cash-cows, also called "customers". Brittle old plastic breaks.

>>> cam cover with integrated crank
I'd call it instead: cam cover with integrated crack (see my picture above!)

You see on that picture, how I fixed the cam cover. Initially I planned to fix it differently, thinking that it is aluminum - only after I drilled into the cam cover (as you see above), and I saw the white powder, I had to accept the fact, that even the X308 has plastic cam covers, not just the V8 S-Type... Painful! Painful!

However, I can see how plastic has it's place in electric cars, where there isn't the heat problem...

 

Yep. Plastic is good but not in every place.

 

Plastics are a very important part of modern auto engineering. It is when the "bean counters"
get involved that overall design suffers due to longevity expectations (planned obsolescence)
and expectations that exceed the life cycle of certain plastic design.

 

Checked the oil level of the transmission today and added 250ml.