XJ8 2003 conversion

[Anderson4wd]

Hi lads, I'm about to start my conversion project and following a friend advice I decided to create a thread here from day -1. I bought the Jag a few months ago but it still at the mechanic who is trying to fix a few air-suspension issues so I can get a fresh NCT to the car before start breaking it apart.

The chosen powertrain is a tesla 440kw that is on its way, the battery pack/BMS and charger haven't been sorted yet so any tips are welcome.

Any tips regarding how to get the tesla motor/gearbox to fit into my jabs rear suspension are also welcome! I have no idea by now how I'm going to do that.

My target is to keep the car as much original internally as possible, my tesla unit is already coming with Damian McGuire control board and a car android unit, not sure at this stage if they hook up together and I will be able to change gear from the touch screen, hope it works.

[DenkiJidousha]

Sounds like the multi-link suspension in this car is more complicated than the previous model's independent rear suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_in ... suspension - better in some ways, but the bit on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XJ_(X350) about an electronic control system for the suspension sounds like a potential headache if you want to modify it?

[MSB]

Looking forward to follow your project as I also have the intent to use the X350 platform for my future project. Following the development by all the skilled persons in this forum I think I'll go for using the gs450h transmission. This to save the rear supension and I don't have the tool to do bodywork in an aluminum to fit a Tesla drive train. Maybe not needed but I think the gs450h is sufficient for me and easier to fit in the gearbox area. For me the most challenging part is to keep all the ECU functionalities in the car. I do not have the software engineering skill. I hope that you can share your experience on how you'll solve these parts in your project.

[4markowen]

looks like it depends on the brakes being either inboard or outboard, the latter delivering more space in the rear subframe that might fit the motor? the former might need the motor mounting outside of the subframe, I'm picture the large tesla drive unit, so where the power comes out, that intrudes into where the diff is? That will therefore intrude into the boot or where the petrol tank is?

EV conversion tetris...

Perhaps the motor will fit in the transmission tunnel and mount to the prop shaft?

[Anderson4wd]

It took me a few months but we managed to remove the air suspension and replace by coil overs... I have a now friend into the US converting the old model and it seems that the new model is more suitable for the tesla large drive unit. I've measured it last week and if it don't bolt to the original chassis will be only by a few mm and one adapter will do the job. So the plan maybe fit the entire tesla subframe replacing the jaguar one. Still investigating. Have you seen any similar project?

Regards,
Anderson

Sounds like the multi-link suspension in this car is more complicated than the previous model's independent rear suspension https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_in ... suspension - better in some ways, but the bit on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XJ_(X350) about an electronic control system for the suspension sounds like a potential headache if you want to modify it?

[Anderson4wd]

It seems the tesla unit will fit quite easily ... lets see. I got the battery pack so now I have almost everything I need, in theory. This is the setup as of today:

eGolf: 38.5kw battery pack, charger and DC/DC converter, charging port and most wiring.
Tesla model S large drive unit performance
Damien control board
Android Car-PC unit (not sure if I will manage to get it working)
Cables, relays (contactors) etc.
Jaguar X358 2003 - NCTD for 14 months (it was a battle apart)

I'm also wondering how am I going to get the car properly converted to electric with the tax man after getting it running.

Regards,
Anderson

Looking forward to follow your project as I also have the intent to use the X350 platform for my future project. Following the development by all the skilled persons in this forum I think I'll go for using the gs450h transmission. This to save the rear supension and I don't have the tool to do bodywork in an aluminum to fit a Tesla drive train. Maybe not needed but I think the gs450h is sufficient for me and easier to fit in the gearbox area. For me the most challenging part is to keep all the ECU functionalities in the car. I do not have the software engineering skill. I hope that you can share your experience on how you'll solve these parts in your project.

[Anderson4wd]

The motor will fit into the hear subframe or I will buy another car that fits , it seems that the car in this case is the less complicated and expensive part... I wonder why I just didn't went out and bought a Leaf!

As you mentioned breaks, I wonder if the tesla breaks would connect to the existing Jaguar break lines without major problems? I know a guy on US got it working for a Mustang.

Regards,
Anderson

looks like it depends on the brakes being either inboard or outboard, the latter delivering more space in the rear subframe that might fit the motor? the former might need the motor mounting outside of the subframe, I'm picture the large tesla drive unit, so where the power comes out, that intrudes into where the diff is? That will therefore intrude into the boot or where the petrol tank is?

EV conversion tetris...

Perhaps the motor will fit in the transmission tunnel and mount to the prop shaft?