Supercharging the climate with a XJR V8 - MOT Passed

[Hooli]

It's about time I got this thread here I guess...

A quick recap, I got this XJR in jan with 76k on it. It's now on nearly 80k at an average of 18.6mpg according to the dash. Seems reasonable to me for a 1.7ton luxuary beast with a 4ltr supercharged V8 auto that makes me smile every time I drive it & shifts like such a big car has no right doing.

Work done so far to get it up to scratch includes -

Secondary timing tensioners replaced with the all metal Mk3s (see below)
Engine, diff, supercharger and gearbox oil changed including a gearbox service
Fuel pumps replaced as one had died (tank out job)
New rear shocks (electric so expensive)
New airflow meter
Track rod end (not expensive)
Front drop-links (not expensive)
Dodgy pollution valve found to be the cause of the fuel tank pressurising (replacement sourced but not yet fitted, the system is disconnected currently)

Still to do -
Fix the damn wobble the driver's seat has developed since I got the car
Replace the missing bumper mount on the OSR wing

Pics (I really should get it properly clean & take my own, most of these are from the advert)









Timing tensioners write up...

Now then, I guess it's time for a write up of today's entertainment & ghetto techTM.

Firstly the secondary timing chain tensioners. Rather than spend £250 or so on locking tools I used ghetto techTM as will be seen later. First things first, get the cam covers off both sides & set the engine to TDC. As there are no timing marks I just made sure the cam's were at TDC by aligning the timing flats on top of them. I didn't need to do this, but it gave me a handy visual reference that it'd all gone back together about right. I then attached the ghetto techTM timing devices, they are the white objects that looks very similar* to cable-ties.

This is the RH side, you can see the timing flats up near the sprockets.



The next step is to remove the cam journals on the exhaust cam. Once the cam is free to lift out (except for the sprocket) you can get the tensioner out by lifting the cam an inch or so. Leaving you with this.



Then it's just a case of putting the new tensioner in, tightening the cam down again. Pulling the locking pin out of the tensioner to release it & you're left with this.



The other side is of course just a repeat of the above, with the exception of noting the tensioner is sprung upwards on the LH side not downwards like the RH side. This is due to the direction the cams turn as the tensioning spring always runs on the return not the drive side of the chain.



I then removed the cable-tie resembling ghetto techTM locking tools and confirmed the cams were still timed correctly together with the ghetto techTM timing checking tool. I did both sides, but I'm sure you can imagine what the other cams looked like when checked.



I turned the engine over two complete revs with a spanner on the crank bolt & rechecked the cam timing was still ok. It all looked good, so I put the covers etc back on, turned the key & it fired up smooth & happy. I'd call that a result.

The old tensioners looked like this, you can just see cracks appearing near the centre where oil is stuck in them so they show up as black. They've have lasted ages before failing, but it's one thing I don't need to be concerned about now.

[Junkman]

Scary stuff.

[Hooli]

Oddly enough I worry more about about taking the seat apart when I get around to it. Stripping an engine like that is simple enough if you follow a plan & so forth. I've never taken a seat apart so it'll be strange new territory for me.

[Uncle Albert]

Lovely car this. AN PROPER JAG.

[Hooli]

Thanks it is indeed, I always thought they weren't as a V8 isn't proper. But it hides it well & behaves like a proper engine with a lovely grumble underneath the blower screaming when asked to move.

[Hooli]

Bloody pigeons! One decided to kill itself by headbutting a headlight last week & after using the car in the dark for the first time since I noticed the LH headlight was pointing at the floor.

It turns out the bloody feathered idiot headbutted the car hard enough to pop the casing apart on the headlight leveler motor so the lamp had dropped it's aim. I think it's back together ok, but there was a little bit of damage on an thread inside it. I think I've allowed for that & can adjust it to not use that bit of thread, I can't tell till the glue holding the casing is dry & I power the thing up though, fingers crossed...

This is what I found when I opened the bonnet, you can see the broken casing behind the motor unit.

20190428_132647.jpg (49.92 KiB) Viewed 8679 times

The white toothed bit on the left with the green adjuster inside is the bit with the broken teeth. So I've had to push it further in to use remaining good teeth. Hopefully there is enough adjustment to lower the headlight to the correct place.

[Hooli]

This week's tale of legendary unreliability involves me saying 'I need to pump the tyres up a bit'.

It doesn't make for an exciting thread but these cars are excellent as cars.

[Mong Spazzley]

This week's tale of legendary unreliability involves me saying 'I need to pump the tyres up a bit'.

It doesn't make for an exciting thread but these cars are excellent as cars.

Scrap it to be on the safe side.

[Hooli]

I've not updated this for a while as nothing has happened. It's just a damn nice car.

However today I've discovered that on soaking wet roads it's pretty easy to defeat the traction and stability control.

I turned into a 30mph bend at about 40mph, as I normally do and as I started to add power on the apex it stepped out sideways and did about 100yrds with half a turn of oppo. Seems like that if you don't add enough power to get any wheels pin the car doesn't notice. On the brightside it's lovely and stable like it with no tendency to fishtail on recovery.

I'm not planning to make a habit of this though.

[CLINT]

I can't help myself in a RWD car. I used to love drifting round icy or snowy roundabouts in my Shogun.