nice jag motor
Discussion
Jesus! There were a couple that "escaped" from the factory about 10 years back, one of which was put in an XJ13 replica built for Walter Hill. No way of knowing if this is the correct type of engine since there were two types built - one with gear driven cams (which is in the only XJ13) and AFAIK the others were chain driven cams. Probably the latter but such a rarity and almost probably the only one about. Two years back several parts were sold on Ebay Germany IIRC including cam covers and a crankshaft.
ETA:- Tried to contact a few rich people but not enough time left sadly. How this didn't come to my attention before I'll never know. Sold at 17,750 euros which I consider a snip. OK, possibly missing some parts inside and anyway would need a complete rebuild which would cost a minimum of £50,000 since there is no tooling or spare parts for it. However, even at the price, just as a display exhibit, worth every penny. The only word is mythical.
Further edit:- looking at all the photos (which I have screen captured and filed) it sports two distributors. This is the "cooking" engine which, if things had panned out, was to be the base of a production engine and so with chain-driven cams.
ETA:- Tried to contact a few rich people but not enough time left sadly. How this didn't come to my attention before I'll never know. Sold at 17,750 euros which I consider a snip. OK, possibly missing some parts inside and anyway would need a complete rebuild which would cost a minimum of £50,000 since there is no tooling or spare parts for it. However, even at the price, just as a display exhibit, worth every penny. The only word is mythical.
Further edit:- looking at all the photos (which I have screen captured and filed) it sports two distributors. This is the "cooking" engine which, if things had panned out, was to be the base of a production engine and so with chain-driven cams.
Edited by lowdrag on Thursday 11th March 14:58
This engine had chain driven cams, and a wet sump, it's one of the engines that went in a saloon. There's a well known picture of an engine in identical trim to this sporting six SU carbs. I've seen pictures of the pre-crash XJ13 with two distributors, and early test reports indicate it ran with that set up. This engine's been on ebay for a while and I too put the word out to a few people who may have been interested, I hope it was one of them got it!
Federal Mogul do all the gaskets for it... so obviously some of the tooling is still kicking around.
Regards
Ric
Federal Mogul do all the gaskets for it... so obviously some of the tooling is still kicking around.
Regards
Ric
lowdrag said:
I bow to your superior knowledge Rich, but surely that is a dry sump pump in the seventh of the photos? Looks like it to me anyway.
You can see some of the back of it in the sixth photo. I would say its the filter block... but what attaches to it is anybodies guess. My bet would be an oil cooler. Don't take my word for it; a friend asked the seller a heap of questions and that's what he managed to get out of him (in German!). I think the only people who would know for sure would be the JDHT.
Regards,
Ric
richw_82 said:
lowdrag said:
I bow to your superior knowledge Rich, but surely that is a dry sump pump in the seventh of the photos? Looks like it to me anyway.
You can see some of the back of it in the sixth photo. I would say its the filter block... but what attaches to it is anybodies guess. My bet would be an oil cooler. Don't take my word for it; a friend asked the seller a heap of questions and that's what he managed to get out of him (in German!). I think the only people who would know for sure would be the JDHT.
Regards,
Ric
Another giveaway is the blanking plates over the inlet ports next to the spark plugs.
I'd love to hear it running!
Would have found the money to have bought that and then have it installed in a MK 10 or early series 1 XJ would have been excellent ! There is some lucky guy out there 
Just to add.... one of the gentlemen I pointed it out to managed to purchase this engine, it's coming back to the UK, and can be found here...
www.xj13.eu
Regards,
Ric
www.xj13.eu
Regards,
Ric
fareaster said:
Started my time at Jags as a student apprentice in 1964, occasionally used to get a lift back to the Hollies in a Mk 10 with one of those in it - magic experience, especially for an 18 year old petrol head
I'm lost-what are the Hollies? (holiday's?) and please!!.....more stories 
richw_82 said:
Just to add.... one of the gentlemen I pointed it out to managed to purchase this engine, it's coming back to the UK, and can be found here...
www.xj13.eu
Regards,
Ric
Many thanks for that Ric, That will be very interesting to follow! www.xj13.eu
Regards,
Ric
Hi Ric et al - my first post here so please treat me gently .... 
I am trying to piece together a detailed account of the early V12 engines.
There has been some discussion about the prototype V12 - distributors, sump etc. Although I plan to publish a detailed blow-by-blow account as I carry out a detailed examination on my blog at www.xj13.eu, I thought I would clarify a couple of points.
The prototype engine I have has a wet sump
The story goes that Lyons caught his shin one day on one of the collection of prototype engines while walking round the factory and instructed someone to scrap them. Luckily, not all were.
The original XJ13 ran with twin distributors originally although Jaguar later changed to a single distributor because they had problems synchronising sparks from the two separate distributors. I don't know whether the XJ13 ever ran with a single distributor - I suspect that the JDHT may have substituted the single distributor when they rebuilt the car with their spare engine (which possibly came from the Mk10 road test car). I suspect that heads/blocks etc were freely interchanged during development.
I have an early picture of the engine - see http://www.xj13.eu/XJ13/themes/XJ13/Images/prototy... - it clearly shows what the dry sump looked like as well as the two distributors. By the way - if you thought it was hard to get at spark plugs in the current V12, check out where they are hidden in this picture - looks to be a nightmare!
I would love to examine the two blanking plates on the fronts of the heads - I have a theory that, although the XJ13 originally ran with gear-driven cams, it was later changed to all-chain drive. It looks to me as if the two blanking plates could be later additions judging by the suggestion of "smoothing" and filing around them. If they are, they would give access to the chain tensioners in the same way as is the case with the 6-cyl XK engine. The absence of these blanking plates may point to gear drive - I will know for certain when I have the chance to attack my engine with a spanner ...
If any of you have any info, memories, anecdotes etc about the XJ13 it will be very gratefully received as I am trying to piece together a factual account of these engines.
I don't know the story of how Bryan Wingfield/Walter Hill got hold of their prototype engine - anyone on this forum know the full story?
I look forward to participating in this forum
I am trying to piece together a detailed account of the early V12 engines.
There has been some discussion about the prototype V12 - distributors, sump etc. Although I plan to publish a detailed blow-by-blow account as I carry out a detailed examination on my blog at www.xj13.eu, I thought I would clarify a couple of points.
The prototype engine I have has a wet sump
The story goes that Lyons caught his shin one day on one of the collection of prototype engines while walking round the factory and instructed someone to scrap them. Luckily, not all were.
The original XJ13 ran with twin distributors originally although Jaguar later changed to a single distributor because they had problems synchronising sparks from the two separate distributors. I don't know whether the XJ13 ever ran with a single distributor - I suspect that the JDHT may have substituted the single distributor when they rebuilt the car with their spare engine (which possibly came from the Mk10 road test car). I suspect that heads/blocks etc were freely interchanged during development.
I have an early picture of the engine - see http://www.xj13.eu/XJ13/themes/XJ13/Images/prototy... - it clearly shows what the dry sump looked like as well as the two distributors. By the way - if you thought it was hard to get at spark plugs in the current V12, check out where they are hidden in this picture - looks to be a nightmare!
I would love to examine the two blanking plates on the fronts of the heads - I have a theory that, although the XJ13 originally ran with gear-driven cams, it was later changed to all-chain drive. It looks to me as if the two blanking plates could be later additions judging by the suggestion of "smoothing" and filing around them. If they are, they would give access to the chain tensioners in the same way as is the case with the 6-cyl XK engine. The absence of these blanking plates may point to gear drive - I will know for certain when I have the chance to attack my engine with a spanner ...
If any of you have any info, memories, anecdotes etc about the XJ13 it will be very gratefully received as I am trying to piece together a factual account of these engines.
I don't know the story of how Bryan Wingfield/Walter Hill got hold of their prototype engine - anyone on this forum know the full story?
I look forward to participating in this forum
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