AJ16 Plug and play wiring Loom & ECU Packages

I’ve been working on for the boys over at Swallows Racing.

We’ve essentially come up with a package, to run the AJ16 family of engines on a modern ECU. The package can be as comprehensive, or as basic as suits your needs.

So I’m sure the first thing, all the Forum goers, and online experts will say, is, why? The original ECU works perfectly etc etc.

Well, we’ve got a whole load of reasons. Even in it’s youngest form, the engine and management is 24 years old. Think about technology for a moment. Think about the mobile phone you owned in 1994, or your VCR, etc. Technology has moved on massively in that period.

On the subject of age, some of the electrical parts fitted to the engine are getting more and more difficult to get hold of. When they are available, they are expensive.

Modifying these engines can be troublesome too. Well, modifying them isn’t of course, it’s a mechanical thing, that can be upgraded. Lots can be done actually, but the original engine management, is very crude. Getting the best out of the engine, is a long winded process. Even then, it’s never going to be on the same level as a modern engine management system,

The engines, are bulletproof. There are plenty of genuine horsepower numbers in these engines how they are becoming more and more popular in builds fitted in cars other than Jaguars. Alloy blocked, straight 6 with a supercharger, 24valves, and built solid. Standard 4.0 XJR engine produces 320bhp on it’s eaton M90 blower straight out of the box. It’s probably worth pointing out at this point, that we’ve spent many hours tuning these AJ16 engines, cell by cell, painstakingly. As far as we know, we’ve tuned the most powerful supercharged AJ16 on the planet, actual Dyno-Dynamics BHP too! So I’d say, we know a thing or two about these by now.

Tom, from Swallows racing, and myself again sat down before COVID of course, and discussed a plug and play loom and ECU package. A whole engine loom, that would plug into everything on the engine, and a Modern ECU that would just turn key, and run the engine with minimum wiring needed for the end use.

AJ16 MaxxECU aftermarket engine loom
AJ16 MaxxECU aftermarket engine loom

Now one of Toms reasonings, is the JEC racing series. There are some crazy sods in this world, yes Tom included, that throw these massive old Cats around various racing circuits around the UK and provide some amazing races. Having a modern ECU system available for some of these cars would make a massive difference to the general reliability, and tuning capabilities.
So lets fast forward to today. This is one of the looms we’ve built, running a XJR from that very race series. We’ve fitted it to this car, this is a braided loom, about the most sensible cost effective loom, and mated to the MaxxECU Street. This ECU has a mass of features, we’re running this ECU fully sequentially, along with wideband closed loop fuelling. This amazing piece of kit Updates the fuel and ignition calculations 2000 times per second.

So the idea basically, is to be able to supply, the entire engine loom to run any of these engines, it might be in a kit car, a boat, a Jaguar, whatever. Throw this loom on the car, it plugs into all the standard sensors, and coil packs etc. Connect in the basics, ignition live, fuel pump relay and any other bits you have, turn the key, and get going.

aj16 aftermarket ecu MAXXECU wiring loom
aj16 aftermarket ecu MAXXECU wiring loom

The ECU is provided with a base map, we can scale in most injectors etc. This one for arguments sake, is running some Bosch 117 550cc injectors. The ECU is completely, end user friendly, and tuneable. Bigger supercharger, no problems. Bigger injectors, of course, even flex fuel can be added. It allows onboard datalogging for as many channels required, between 10hz and 1000hz. This can aid massively in tuning the vehicle even yourself if you wanted to, This car is a decent example of the differences, this one has a Supercharger from a 5.0 V8 XK, and a 100mm throttle body. This particular car is doing 400bhp.

There is also expansion available on the ECU itself. A few extra inputs, and a couple of outputs. Of course, if you wanted to go mad, we can provide with a loom, and ECU package to cope with Drive By Wire, Closed loop Knock control, and every other conceivable feature!

So yeah, modernise your old cat, make her more powerful, and more economic, or even just make your engine conversion run with minimum fuss, all the hard works been done for you!

All of these kits are available exclusively through Swallows Racing. Get in contact with them directly for any sales enquiries.

Stay safe everyone, keep up with your projects while we’re on lockdown, and I look forward to sharing some more exciting projects we’ve been working on soon.

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