Shandangles '84 XJS V12 manual discussion

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

@Shandangles I couldn't find a discussion thread for your fine automobile...

Was your engine fire caused by the rubber hoses between the fuel rail and the injectors, and is that why the distributor blew up? 

Congrats on being the first person on oldschool to have an XJ-S which is also V12 and manual and which ran for a reasonable length of time. I hope you're not pressured to sell it due to minor details like young kids and engine fires.

[Shandangles]

Ha, thankyou!!

I haven't looked at it yet, just flat towed it home, threw the hose over it and took the bonnet off. I have next week off by pure coincidence so at least I'll have a few hours spare.

Evidently Dizzy's blowing up is somewhat common, and yea the leaky fuel hoses are generally the culprit. I've even got a rebuild kit "in stock" ready to go.  Do hopefully it's just a dizzy cap and injectors rebuilt.

I've had it for like 8 months, this is the first issue do not too bad really 😂

 

[Thousand Dollar Supercar]

On 06/08/2025 at 20:24, Shandangles said:

As cool as V12s are, doing 12 sparkplugs and 12 injectors is a huge pain and seems very unnecessary while actually doing it!

From 1:07, these trustworthy chaps explain that the reason they went with 12 cylinders is basically because Spinal Tap. The interviewer then has to clarify that 12 cylinders isn't just 'ballyhoo'. 

"American engines only go up to eight, but this goes to twelve!"
"Why don't you just make eight the top number, and make eight more powerful?"
"........... .... ....this goes to twelve!"
 

[kws]

That silver box is definitely the power resistor for the injectors. Being a v12 IIRC they have two, one for each bank, which is probably how it still runs with that one disconnected. Those old injectors still need it.

[Shandangles]

6 hours ago, kws said:

That silver box is definitely the power resistor for the injectors. Being a v12 IIRC they have two, one for each bank, which is probably how it still runs with that one disconnected. Those old injectors still need it.

My thought was that the motec can deal with the impedance of the injectors, the wiring for the injectors definitely goes directly to the ecu now.

[Shandangles]

12 hours ago, Thousand Dollar Supercar said:

From 1:07, these trustworthy chaps explain that the reason they went with 12 cylinders is basically because Spinal Tap. The interviewer then has to clarify that 12 cylinders isn't just 'ballyhoo'. 

"American engines only go up to eight, but this goes to twelve!"
"Why don't you just make eight the top number, and make eight more powerful?"
"........... .... ....this goes to twelve!"
 

That was a really good watch!!!! Thankyou 

[anglia4]

Ah man that is such an "oh fuck" moment.

I had it happen once with my 04 Mach 1 Mustang, the window buttons had broken from their mount and were very slightly sunk into the door, so it would occasionally self press a button if you leant on it wrong. I hopped out with it idling in the driveway and as the door swung shut I heard the locks "clunk" from the button self pressing.

I managed to feed a wire in around through the pillarless window and press down on the "unlock" button. 

Where there is a will there is a way!