How do you know if the engine is the original engine and matches the VIN. My VIN is SAJNV4846KC157055, Engine markings 29NO84, 8S33950SA Is this a HE for sure? What type of Ignition is mine Lucas or Marelli? A Lot of the responses below talk about pre-HE as 8S18 and HE and HE numbers are 8S5. My number starts with 8S3. What is the difference between 8S5 and 8S3? Sorry for all of the questions. I need to confirm this is an HE to provide the correct part numbers for purchase, curiosity and want to make sure that the engine is the original one and it matches the VIN number. Look for my next post "Missing Parts" and I am sue you guys can provide great insight as to why some of the parts have been removed, modified from the original drawings, fallen out or not installed.

Thanks for all of the information.Thumbs up

 

Patrick

The HE engine started at engine number 8S18001.

So if the engine number is below 18001, it's a pre-HE. If it's above 18001, it's an HE. Your engine is 33950 so years after the intro of the HE, which was 1981.

As regards Lucas & Marelli, there are lots of ways to identify it, the simplest way is to look at the distributor cap. If it's Marelli, It has a twin-ended rotor arm and the cap has two rows of 6 contacts around it, rather than a single row of 12 contacts.

Marelli ignition came in at VIN 157115 +/- 2 or cars. Your VIN is before this so it has Lucas ignition.

As regards, whether you have the original engine, the easiest way is to apply for a Jaguar Heritage certificate for the car (always a good thing to have) which will give you all the relevant build numbers of engine, gearbox, keys, build date, despatch date etc.

Hope that helps

Paul

 

According to Paul's post number 18 above, this is true.

 

Thank you all for the great information it is a big help to me to purchase the correct parts and get a certificate that the engine is the original one that came with the car. Where do I go to request the certification?

 

Patrick,

Traditionally, you could walk into your local Jaguar dealer and they would facilitate it. You could still try that, but I have heard that US dealers are sometimes not very helpful when dealing with these types of requests.. Alternatively, you could apply directly here:

Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust (jaguarheritage.com)

Cheers

Paul

 

Thank you for time spent providing great information for me and others reading this thread. I enjoyed learning about my car, history on the manufacturing of the different years of the XJS and what the different numbers represent.

 

All JaguarV12engines were batch built. That means the date of the casting has little to do with the cars date of manufactuering.

 

Here is a little more information regarding the strange engine block numbers and other numbers that don't quite agree with some of the information listed below. There are a lot of things on this car that I am told by "experts" that the Jaguars were not wired the way mine was. The engine block is a 33950 with a VIN 157055. The parts book I have says that the Marelli ignition did not start to be installed until VIN #157116 my car received the Marelli 61 cars earlier. The car does have a Marelli ignition with two vapor hoses from under the distributor. One hose from under the distributor on the right side goes to the left intake manifold casting. The other vapor hose from under the distributor from the left side of the cap goes to a tube down the left side of the engine to a filter approximately 2' long down from the firewall. Should this tube with the filter be longer to get away from the engine and maybe outside the engine compartment due to the fact that I have a strong fuel odor under the hood? I am still ordering parts and some of the information needed for the correct part is if the car a type I, II or III. Is my car a type III?

 

Hi Patrick,

Just to confirm you have a full Marelli ignitron with the double-ended rotor arm in the distributor and the dual set of contacts in the distributor cap etc? If so, I'd like to update my own records, as this implies Marelli was fitted before VIN 157115, contrary to what is indicated by all the Jaguar correspondence. Of course, it's possible that was a development, rather than standard production vehicle. Do you have a Jaguar Heritage certificate for your car, which might help to answer this?

Tks

Paul

 

If you study the 1989 wiring schematics there are some variations that not everyone would be familiar with....especially since there were relatively few changes for several years prior.

Or....perhaps they were talking about repirs/modifications done by a previous owner or repair shop? Common on oldie Jags.


I heard similar a couple times over the decades. Plus I've seen Jaguar literature (a TSB perhaps?) indicating the not all the cars went to Marelli at the same instant. UK cars, USA cars, and ROW....or something like that.... had different starting points.


To clarify, the distributor vent system is not a Marelli identifier. Cars with Lucas ignition used it as well



https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.../brand/jaguar/


The filter stays in the engine bay; nothing to do with fuel odor



Never heard those designations for an XJS. However the Jag sedans are known as Series I,II, III

Cheers
DD

 

Jaguar's 1989 Update (Publication S60 1988) primarily discusses the change to Marelli but some other changes as well. For the USA cars it appears there were different Marelli change points for coupe versus convertible




Cheers
DD

 

Doug,

That's very interesting! I've found that publication and looked through it now.

(Jaguar called it 1989 MY for the Rest of the World, but US call it "Mid-Year changes", (This was because the US called previous changes at VIN 148782 "1989 MY, whilst Jaguar called it "1988.5 MY" for the Rest of the World)

So, those MY changes at the end of November 1988 were at VIN:

156989 - XJ-S 5.3 Convertible
157116 - XJ-S 3.6
157118 - XJ-S 5.3 Coupe

So that seems why Patrick's Convertible car is Marelli. The problem seems to be that Jaguar's parts system has now somehow lost that subtle difference of introduction of Marelli between Coupes and Convertibles,

Cheers

Paul

 

Not the least bit surprising.

Over the decades I've seen many examples.....certainly not just Jaguar....where the people who produce parts, service, and sales publications are not on the same page, literally or figuratively. That's not a criticism. Each branch has a lot of moving parts, so to speak.

Cheers
DD