A V12 sized gamble

[LewG]

Here's potentially the most foolish purchase I've ever made but ho hum! For some time I've fancied an XJS but never quite been brave/stupid enough to actually do the deed and buy one. Having looked at a few I happened to be idly looking on Car and Classic last week, and saw this on the eBay links, 33 minutes to run. I may have 'accidentally' put in a bid and won it, unseen, much to my surprise/horror. At 20 I know owning a BL built 1980s V12 Jag is possibly not the wisest decision, but dear god is it nice!
Thankfully when I arrived, she was far better than I ever expected.




I'll keep you all posted with updates, good or bad!
Lew

[LewG]

Thankyou gentleman, as part of the purchase I also went for several of these as well: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINGLE-CHARITY-DONATION-COLLECT...

So far there's only a few niggles, I appear to have a tick from my rear right hand exhaust manifold so that'll be coming off to be repaired, either cracked or I've got a gasket blowing. Ordered 3 new genuine Jag gaskets through a mate who works as a parts advisor at Jaguar, £8!
Thankfully I'm no stranger to a spanner but it has to be said, I am slightly nervous at the prospect of anything big going bang under that bonnet.

[LewG]

As for the transverse roof spar yes I'm afraid that's a headlining support beam! It's on the to do list. The car won't be getting used a great deal in the next few months so I've got a bit of time to get things done.
Believe it or not we drove it back 120 miles from Rotherham at constant outside lane speeds and managed 18mpg. Not bad for what it is, especially compared to all the other gear we've got. The other Jag engine we have consumes petrol at a rate of 2-3mpg so this seems frugal, but you know, it is in a tank..

[LewG]

Here we are, it's a militarised version of the 4.2 XK6 engine, with a carburettor that wouldn't look out of place on a Rolls Royce Merlin.



There's a heatproofed partition plate between the driving position and engine, but yep, it's cosy!

[LewG]

Hello Tuffer, no I don't believe so although thanks for the offer, from what I hear all ex RAF vehicles had 'AT' registrations. Not actually sure of its history, I will have to try getting in touch with Chetwynd to see if we can get its Merlin report, see where it's been and what it's done

[LewG]

I'll keep quiet on how much I paid for it, but I'll put it this way, it was just a shade above shed levels of money. I think once again it's a case of right place, right time. It's an awful lot of car for the money, just with the potential to go wrong spectacularly. Saying that I do think people knock them for more than they're worth, if they're maintained on the dot with full service history you give yourself a pretty good chance of getting a half decent one. The first owner of mine was a doctor, then during the 90s it was obviously owned by someone who had money to burn, as there's a grand spent here, and a grand spent there quite regularly. I was expecting it to be a right old truck to drive being a 30 year old BL car, but I have never driven anything quite so wafty and refined. It really wouldn't suit a manual gearbox in my opinion, stick it in 'D' and let the mighty 12 do the rest!
Just got some Gliptone for the seats so thanks for the recommendation Paracetamol, also looks like I'll be dropping the fuel tank as there's a fairly strong petrol smell in the boot, apparently a common problem

[LewG]

As requested:


Thanks for the headlining link, I'll have a think about buying one when my bank account recovers a bit!

[LewG]

TheBALDpuma said:

OP...

At 20 I'm assuming that either you have a great job and therefore plenty of money, or you still live with the parents

Still at home I'm afraid! I'm serving the second year of my apprenticeship with Liebherr the mobile crane and plant manufacturer at the moment, so it's handy learning about some pretty complex pieces of kit as well!
I don't want to go all philosophical here but sometimes it's worth taking a leap of faith and enjoying things whilst you can. I knew if I didn't do it now, I probably never would be able to own one. After all it's no worse than smoking 20 a day

[LewG]

ReaderScars said:

Perhaps you could do what some of the V12 Aston guys have done - fit Cylinder Deactivation fuel management, so you can run in economy mode on just eight cylinders - maybe even a paltry six - when you're at cruising altitude - then once you see the Hun's on your tail (no doubt it will be German), put the throttle through the gate to invoke the full dozen!

Heard this at work... 'At least his Jag won't be using any fuel because it won't be firing at all!'

A couple of Brownings in the front wings for blowing Audis out of the fast lane could be handy though

[LewG]

Haha that is superb! You are dead right. When my dad bought the personnel carrier it was just about the time my mum was waiting for a new kitchen. She went absolutely bloody orbital... and that was only telling her half the asking price

[LewG]

Thanks for the kind words chaps, that's a nice car, like you say they look quite good with that look! Not so long ago Shed showed a relatively rough F reg V12 for sale, insanely cheap if I remember rightly. Funnily enough it was only a couple of miles up the road from me, I toyed with the idea of buying but even I know that under a grand for a V12 is not likely to be a good move! Either way even covered in crap it looked great.

http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=162&i=258...
Found the link!

I'll update the thread later with a few pictures, I have been working on getting the exhaust manifold off over the last couple of nights

[LewG]

One of the main annoyances with the car so far has been a nasty 'ticking' sound, particularly from cold and under load. I was fairly sure it was an exhaust tick as opposed to a tappet, and was definitely coming from the rear right hand side of the engine.


Firstly I removed the air cleaner and then the heat shield, the rear bolt required a lot of soaking in GT85, 3/4 bar and piece of scaffold tube to get it undone! Amazingly it didn't shear off. It's in a real arse of a place, right below the throttle linkage for the right hand bank.

I then removed the lower heat shield for the power steering rack, and off with the downpipe. This has perforated where it joins the intermediate pipe so if anyone has ideas where I might get a new one at a reasonable price that would be appreciated.
Having left the manifold nuts soaking overnight surprisingly all of them came undone a piece of cake. Thankfully it turned out to be a loose rear-most nut, allowing the gasket to blow. For now I have cleaned all the stuck on gasket off the manifold, rubbed it down and gave it a coat of heat proof black. One of the faces isn't great but it will be fine to go back on again.



My gaskets have been sent in the post today, so I am waiting on that and a few other bits. Hopefully this time next week we should be up and running again.

[LewG]

Excellent thanks Rich! Sounds like a relatively easy fix.
Not a lot has been happening with the beast recently, the downpipe was allegedly sent by 24 hour courier on Saturday. Every day this week I've come home from work expecting to hear the V12 purr again, but nope, it's still not here. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

[LewG]

Where2Guv said:

Good work!!

My S3 XJ12 is just nearing the end of a full rebuild, excluding engine - No point cracking open a healthy one!!

They have some odd quirks... Happy to share experiences over an e-cuppa

Thankyou sir! Any pictures of your machine? I can't say I blame you really! Started with a fairly good one rather than a wreck I take it? From what I hear once you actually strip all the gubbins off the engine they're not that difficult to rebuild, but it's getting there in the first place! I imagine I'd end up doing a notebook and picture collection bigger than the Bible if I ever had to attempt such a thing...
I've checked all the basics so far, the oil is dead on the mark and absolutely golden, coolant remains at the level and of about the correct strength, the air filters are new. When warm there's virtually no mechanical noise at all so that can't be all bad. The previous owner was a genuine Jaguar enthusiast and it seems no stone was left unturned, even the rear diff oil was changed.
One thing I have noticed is that after a good run 1st gear can be a little noisy, I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has had experience of this with the GM 3 speed transmission on these. The oil level is where it should be.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400613868073
Very tempted to buy this as I suspect it could be worth its weight in gold, I bought one for my Series III Landy and that's been a godsend so far.

[LewG]

kamilb1998 said:

Only just spotted this thread, a fantastic read. Top marks! I love these.

Thanks Kamil, do you still have your fine gentleman's carriage? If you manage to get that on the road at 17 you'll make my efforts look a bit pansy in comparison!

[LewG]

Flanders. said:

Do you live in Sandy, Bedfordshire, by any chance?

We do indeed Flanders, are you local to us?

Good and bad news on the exhaust front. The downpipe arrived in the post yesterday, at last. Upon inspecting it despite the fact it's labelled as a right hand, it's actually left hand. The pipe tapered horribly where the two join, so I decided I wasn't using it anyway. I spent most of yesterday evening doing a small patch on the original, it looks okay and keeps me going for the time being. Face is stinging a bit today as I only have welding goggles, not a mask!
Managed to get her all back together by 11pm, new throttle bushes in too, fired it up and it's wonderfully quiet. The nasty tick has completely gone, and thankfully it's sounding more like a Jag should rather than a banger.

No more work on it this evening, I'm off for a pint.

[LewG]

Nicely done Kamil! Those Hondas are wonderful machines too, I used to have a couple of PA50 Caminos and they were great fun for messing about on, if a bit girly in the blue, white and pink colour scheme

Got the new throttle bushes fitted today as the originals had all but crumbled away. I don't think she'll see the road any more this month as it's just not worth it with the salt and water about. The yard looks a bit like the Somme at the moment so even getting to the main road is an issue!

With a bit of luck I might get a half decent video camera from Santa so you might all see a few clips of the beast shortly

[LewG]

Bit of a thread update. Nothing too special and not too many tales of woe just yet! Both front wheel bearings have been greased up and tightened, an exhaust leak further down has been sorted out, and generally we've been wafting around beautifully. I was stuck in traffic a couple of days ago and it was evident the idle was too high, as even in gear it was at around 900rpm and just wanted to go. I've turned that down a bit, and now there's no more 'clonk' as you put it into drive.
A few shameless posing pictures, two of Britain's great Jags



The car is due a good wash and polish, and I've been considering getting a crusty rear arch sorted out. The plan is get some recommendations first, then see what quotes they can come up with. I've used a local bodyshop round the corner from us on my old daily to repair a front wing and their work was dire. The paint match was terrible and you could see the filler through the paint, of which they'd used plenty. So any recommendations for a good bodyshop in the three counties area, much appreciated!

[LewG]

Chris, that is a shame as it looks to be a pretty straight example, and you don't get much rarer than an Insignia from what I hear. Do you have any idea what's actually wrong with it?

Mark, thanks for the lead, that looks like the sort of place I need to be after. I will try a bit closer to home first but will certainly bear them in mind

[LewG]

dbdb said:

They are sought after now and worth more than the standard XJS.

Sounds like your dad better look into polishing her up, getting that battery charged and shifting it on Chris