2001 Placings of XJ Series Cars

Pascal,
I thought the Nikasil liners went away in 2000???? I thought they were only in 97-99 cars?

Thanks
Jeff
'00 S-Type 4.0
'97 XK8
'01 XJR

Pascal, thanks for the comments. You're absolutely right: soft rubber means better traction.. everything else being equal. But for some reason the specs on the Pilot AS Sport showed them actually stickier than the P-Zeros, and they seemed to at least match or exceed the Pirellis in other categories.. proof is in the pudding, so we'll see. I do like them so far, and if I can get twice the mileage without losing performance, it's worth a try. I guess 35,000 on the original tires isn't all that bad, though!
Dick Krueger
S-Type 4.2 Sport
63 E-Type OTS

35k ? impressive... My wife doesn't get more than 15k out of them and she drives very conservatively... but that's on the XJR.

personally I evaluate treadware the other way around... the lower the better as that means softer and "grippier" compound. No miracle here, you want grip, you need soft rubber. Hard rubber will not grip as well in an emmergency lane change or braking.

I have P zeros on my 3 cars and love them, I'm wiling to put up with the occasional out of round tire.

Pascal Gademer
72 E-type 2+2
00 XKRCoupe
99 XJR

I've just gone through the tire thing with 2000 S-Type Sport Package. P-Zeros were great once I got them round and balanced, but they needed replacing at 35,000 miles of my wife driving the car VERY conservatively. Tire Rack has a great research website..... I ended up with leaving an original new P-Zero in the trunk and putting on Michelin Pilot A/S Sport.. slightly more expensive than P-zeros, but the treadware rating is 400 vs. 140 for the Pirellis. They balanced beautifully, are quieter than the Pirellis and stick like crazy wet or dry. Be sure to buy 235/50-17.. any other size will louse up trip computer and nav, if you have it.

Hi George,

I had my stainless steel headers heat coated which has a chrome-like appearance. The headers originally were not coated a produced so much heat that the speedo cable melted. After these headers were coated most of the heat is kept inside the exhaust system. When the car is fully warmed up I can place my hand within 4 inches of teh pipes and barely feel the heat. This is a picture of one of the exhaust manifold's chrome-like finish. The coating applied by a firm in Orlando.

Brad Cline
67 XKE OTS (S1)
South Florida

I had my manifolds coated in stainless steel ceramic a few years back, and it's held up fairly well. When they first arrived, they were as shiney as polished steel, but over time they have mellowed to a sort of silver grey. They are still shiney, but not knock-your-socks off shiney. I had the work done by Baxter (http://www.bc-engr.com), who are the only ones as far as I know with this particular coating.

After having tried various ceramics a couple of cars with various vendors,I'd say that there's no shiney coating that really holds up the way you'd like. The claims of temperature reduction are total nonsense, I've tried before and after tests and can't find any thermal benefits.

Mike Frank

No experience on this coating, George. My experience with other high temp coatings is that the gloss will fade into matt very quickly in actual use. Whether or not these guys have found the magic recipe is open to debate. Even some of the top restoration shops in the country have resorted to using JetHot flat black coatings for their top dollar driver restorations. It is flat, but it lasts forever.

Daniel

Has anyone had any experience with Performance Coatings (Auburn WA) black gloss exhaust manifold coating? I would prefer a gloss finish to matt Jet-Hot and don't want to use porcelain.

George Knuckey

KnuckeyGJuno.com