Joe's Jaguar

[Goat]

Got this bad boy 4 years ago. It doesnt really fit in with the jaguar/european car clubs cos its a bit ferral. But Oldschool seems accepting of all types of car so i will post it now. It was my first car. I havn't driven it yet .

Bought it red. Took all the paint (and bog) off with 3m disks FTL. It didnt come with an engine either. I found a rusted out 88 shell with a good motor. Had the H.E. V12 (High Efficiency, 8Km/l instead of 5km/l ) put that in. Got a link v3 ECU and wired that up. Got it running to find that the auto was fucked . So its been lying dorment for the last 2 years (Been distracted by frontes). Waiting for a supra manual conversion. I found some 17x10" mags with 275/50s on them. Had to get some adapters made up. All this would need certing so i wanted to wait till i did manual conversion and cert it all at once. I bought a bellhousing a year or so ago. Just need flywheel and stuff now. Which i am in the process of doing.

Should be quite a fun car to drive when its done. 5300cc of v12 coupled to a 5spd manual. Should sound and go mint!!, theyre pretty fast as an auto.

The Donor car:

The car as i bought it. Paint strip under way:

There was no rust . Just very non strait panels

After Alot of work off to get top coat put on:

Back with top coat on. Holden metallic purple. Also got some chrome bumpers for it. The "Pre H.E." cars had lame as rubber ones. Rather expensive tho:

And the mags, meaty slabs of rubber. I'd hate to buy new tyres!!:

Needs way lowering. I had it lowered by jag mechanic but his low wasnt my low (if you know what i mean

Last of all i cleaned up the engine. Was covered with greace and paint. Now its just 400kgs of clean aluminium:

Will update as i complete stages of my manual conversion. Will try and get it finished by the next trackday!

[Goat]

Tried to take the engine out this weekend so i can size up gearboxes/flywheels/clutches. Was all going well. As well as british cars can go. My GOD there are some horrible designs. Bolts with access that only allows 1/32th of a turn at a time. With like 5cm of thread . Wasnt much fun.

Got it all prepped and ready to take engine out:

Started taking the engine out:

Was all going fine till the block and tackle ceized. Was no going up or down. Just spent the last 2 hours trying to get it going again!! But no luck. SO frustrating!!

Will have to rent one tomorrow or something:

Rather annoying. But Oh well...

[Goat]

Got an engine lift today. Was really difficult transfering the load from the broken block and tackle to the engine lift. Did it in the end and got the motor out. So satisfying:

The fuel rail i had chromed. Went for standard high pressure fuel line with hose clips insetad of pushlock stuff. Looks way more mechanical in my opinion:

And for a laugh. Epic compared to a fronte motor & gearbox & exhaust. Mind you, most things are epic compared to fronte motors

Will order an alloy flywheel this week from US of A. Due to the favourable exchange rate. By getting a new flywheel i can choose my own clutch combo etc. Which will be good

That is all..

[Goat]

Flywheel arrived today. Was rather expensive. But its a good one. Way better than adapting my flexiplate to a flywheel or adapting some other flywheel to fit. Or even sourcing an original. 16lb Alloy Flywheel with steel ring gear. I can drill it for whatever clutch i want. Which is good.

Now just gotta get a supra box then ive pretty much got everything i need for manual conversion. Will be wicked..

[Goat]

Due to massive rush for trackday there is a serious lack of pictures of the gearbox/clutch assembly. It is however, all working. Apart from the fucking car. This video was taken saturday before trackday. It was my first drive of it. And as you can see, this made me think it would be all g for trackday. But aparently not... Anyway. It just needs a propper exhaust and a dynotune. And an interior. And suspension sorted..... A fuck load more work really. but it does drive. And it does lush skids too

Anyway. here it is. My first drive of this car ever! And i wasnt even reving it out

[Goat]

This pretty much ground to a hault after the last X T Rheem effort to get it going for the last trackday. Sorted its "lack of running" problem. Twas the dizzy cap. Still have yet to pick up a new one from TGB. But yea, as of recently, i have been motivated to start workin on it again. Cut away the rear guards so it can now sit on bumps without the tyres rubbing. This is it at standard height which is dam high, although the roofline is still extreemly low:

This is the ride hight i'm going for (this is on the other side cut away the same amount)

Dropped about 90mm:

Replicated one of the front flares. Looks pretty good. Made it out of sheet metal. Just have to weld in and put a bit of say 6mm rod around the lip to take away the sharpness etc. This tucks the tyre just under the guard and there is no clearance issues anymore. yay 275/45s!!

it looks horribe in the pic. But it does actually fit quite nicely. Tape doesnt hold metal inplace very well :

Seing the aircon doesnt work. And most of my wiring didnt work either. I decided to rewire the whole car with the bare essentials. Do away with all the ambient temperature sensors, reading lights etc etc. Took out heater fans and assembly. It has a seperate blower for each side, aswell as a giant one in the middle. Removed around 100kgs of shit. Just have to put the dash back in and i'm away laughing (Yes, it is as easy as it sounds. Supprisingly):

And this is what its all about. Manual 5.3 litre v12. Wicked:

Its been the most epic uphill battle from day one. But one day, i'm gonna be driving out the gate and be like "fuck yea, this was worth it" well thats the plan anyway. Whether or not it happens is another story

mean

[Goat]

Did some more over the weekend. Made up heater/demist ducts out of sheet metal. Mounted heater fan etc. Completely de-wired the car. And attached the flare. Looks pretty good. If i continue at this pace trackday seems like it may happen. haha

Welding up the flange to fit the heater matrix to the ducts:

Me being a dick:

The finished heater/demister ducts. A bit haggard but will most definately do the trick:

Removed wiring, and then took apart to reuse all the lushly coloured wires for my rewire! As seen in toolbox

Flare tacked on. Needs a small 8mm steel bead over the lip to make it less cutty, and a nice curve:

Doesnt actually look too bad as far as flares go. I'd roll it. And the tyres dont bottom out anymore. yay.

Lush, bring on next weekend

[Goat]

Seeing I've had this car for a little over 20 years now!

Some 14 years after the last post in this thread, a thing happened:

She's a big unit thats for sure. Makes a W58 look like a k40!

Some things are happening and have been happening. Wasn't gonna post anything up until i'd got through most of the build. But here is a bit of a sneak peek for the jag foamers on this forum  
Will save up some progress before any more posts.
Never got Jags out of my system. So getting back amongst it after more than 20 years of pining.

 

[Goat]

So,

I kinda ruined the xjs. 19 year old me didn't know what I was doing. Live and learn etc. However, 19 year old me still had some good thoughts. Manual v12! 
So previous me has spent a fair packet on all the spendy stuff and present day me has been left with a good condition v12, a good condition w57 gearbox, a lightweight alloy flywheel and a custom commodore/hilux hybrid clutch setup. Cool.

Now I just need a good (more complete) car to put it in.

Have been keeping my eyes out for a series 1 XJ6 for a couple of years now. But never pulled the trigger as they had always gone for way more than I wanted to pay. Plus my million other projects always were higher priority.

Janurary this year, I spotted a tidy looking 1970 S1 on facebook down in Timaru. Went down to hang out the that vampire Kyteler and we had a look on the way back from the airport. It looked pretty decent, completely rust free, and reg on hold. Had the povo spec 2.8 in it, perfect as I'd be ripping it out anyways.
The dude was really keen to sell it and kept messaging me for the next couple of days, I caved and lowballed him and he said yes. So we enlisted @vivaspeed's help, and did a school night mish up to Timaru to go and get it.

The next couple of days, KY and myself tinkered with it to get it running and driving. Fuck she's a slug with the 2.8. Ah well, its not staying.

We got it to drivable, but it had no park brake (the auto P) and no hand brake. Plus brakes were a bit spongy. Inboard rear makes it a PITA to work on. So it wasn't quite up to a WOF and a drive north. However, we did cut some laps of the block.


It lived in Michael's shed for a few months until I could afford to ship it up north. Got it to Wellington and then drove it to my lockup in Masterton to await its transplant. Drove pretty well, though seriously underpowered.

How cool is the dash on the series ones!

[Goat]

So there are 2 things I need to get this v12 running again.

1 - Ignition. Hmm, after doing a bit of research, it looks like the HE v12 (the one i've got) runs a stand alone ignition system. The distributor has a hall effect sensor, and there is an ignition amplifier that acts as electronic points. This is Ideal. The dizzy has centrifugal advance and vacuum advance built in. No computers required. An added bonus is that the ignition is a standard GM affair (hidden in a lucas box) so they're 6 bux from rock auto! Should be easy and reliable. Excellent. 

I had a spare dizzy and set this up on the bench to switch a LED. Worked a charm and a mini rave ensued.

 

The next thing I need is fuel. All XJSs were fuel injected. I had the fuel injection gear, but not a computer. My initial attempts with the XJS using a LINK LEM 3 were not very successfull, and felt out of character with a 70s car.
I'm dead set on carbs! I don't car about economy, or chasing power, this car just needs to sound cool at WOT.
The e-types and the early xj12s came with quad stromburgs. Although this was a proven setup, they are not renown for sounding wild. So that rules that out.

Looks like its gonna have to be 6 downdraft webers!

You can buy manifolds for them, but a set costing more than the series 1 donor car, I don't think so Tim.

Being very inspired by @Roman rapid cad and fab stuff with his echo build, I wanted to learn fusion 360 and try and cad some up. Coupled with the fact that @DAD had lent me his 3d printer while he was tripping around the south island in his mobile palace, this meant i could do some cad and fab of my own!
Some flange measurements, some frustrations, and plenty of hours in fusion 360 and i had something that bloody well looks like a manifold!

I'll be dipped, It was actually fun AND rewarding! So I printed a "bank" for mockups:

They didn't fit. hah. I'd based my measurements of a flange i'd found online. All the holes lined up perfect, but the head bolts in the middle fouled on the base flanges. So after a few tweaks, i finally had a base flange that sat down properly! oooh yeah.
The engine is in Masterton, an hour and a half drive away, so I can't just do quick checks to avoid fuckups like this. Ah well, its all entertainment at the end of the day.
 

 

[Goat]

The plan is to have a crack at backyard sand casting. I don't have the tools to do any lost foam casting, which is a bummer, as this seems to make the best quality parts.

Sand casting also kinda determines the shape of the manifolds too, as they need to be split-able with no overhangs or inverse surfaces so they can be withdrawn from the sand.

So created some patterns, and some core molds and printed them out (at 1.2% larger as from my research, this seems to be a decent number for aluminium shrinkage).
Need to give them a good sand and some thick coats of paint to get them silky smooth. But they look like they should work?

I have no idea what I'm doing now. Do I get them cast at a foundry? Is this expensive? Will they laugh at me?
Or do I build my own LPG furnace? Or do I buy an electric aliexpress furnace?

Then I have to mill and drill the castings... I don't have a mill. So yeah, maybe I should just buy some manifolds eh?

Wish I could just print them out of something and roll that. Is that at all possible?
 

[Goat]

United at last:

Final test fit of the latest design of manifolds. Looks good, except my womble self got the top flanges around the wrong way. Derp. Actual final print done waiting till i'm with the engine next for final test fit before is start getting ready to cast.

[Goat]

Final test fit is success, fully clear dizzy cap and everything. Ideal. Next step, print the actual patterns to make molds from. Might start this week!