Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Infiniti Deep Clean

[Schaefft]

After 12 years I can finally claim I have arrived in Britain by becoming a Jaaag owner. That or @horriblemercedes 1995 X300 XJ6 was just too good to pass up with the combination of seemingly very solid bones, BRG on tan paintwork and (here's the real reason): the factory fitted 5-speed manual gearbox! Collection caper can be found here.

This is not the first time I tried to acquire an XJ. I always thought the all aluminium X350 would have been a great winter beater (and the X351 an attainable dream car), and with @HMC previously offering his last of the line X308 V8 3.2 Sport for very little money (which then proceeded to break very badly) I was getting pretty close already. I always liked the XK8 as well, and with prices being at the very bottom of their depreciation curve it might just be a question of time until I own an XKR (hopefully not a completely rotten one).

Some may be surprised but this is actually my first British made car as well. Manual X300s are rare, with most of them having ended up on the oval or as XJR gearbox donors (apparently identical, making a swap very straight forward) I felt like the opportunity won't come along very often again. Since Shedfest wasn't too far out of the way and the tickets booked all the way in February I thought why not pick up the XJ on the way.

Well, as it turned out the event was a traffic nightmare (the event itself was good!). Who would have thought leading thousands of cars down a country lane through a single entry was a good idea. I probably burnt more fuel just waiting in traffic than it took to get there. It did give me plenty of time to look at the goodies that have been with the car for many years though:

Also owned by Paul Guinness of Classic Jaguar in which the car had a brief feature:

In general the car came with a ton of paperwork, in fact I pretty much got a full service history with it. Unusual considering I'm the 11th (!) owner. Generally cars are one wheel in the crusher when that number reaches somewhere around 5, the impression I get from this car is exactly the opposite.

Like many others I just parked the car and walked the rest of the way. That meant there were plenty of interesting cars scattered around everywhere though, like this C4 S4 which is an incredibly rare sight in the UK (any C4 100 for that matter).

Or this XJ friend coming all the way from Spain:

Look closely and you'll see car queueing up as far as the eye can see. And thats already quite a bit outside of town.

Once there I really enjoyed my time though, with many cars I own myself being on display. I had a chance to have a quick chat with Freddy (Tavarish) and Tom Lenthall and colleagues. They were quite happy to hear that I just picked up a manual X300, curious about where I found the car and how much I paid. I used the chance to ask what would be needed to do an XJR6 swap, not much at all apparently...

XJ next to my mate's Beat. Both RWD, 5-speed manual, they both have wheels. Thats where the similarities end...

Mandatory pez shot. Hard to tell what MPGs I'm achieving yet, should be in the mid-20s hopefully. First strange quirk: the fuel cap is magnetic and attaches exactly where the nozzle needs to go...

Quick group photo before I left with @horriblemercedes Maserati, hopefully it's clutch will get sorted soon. 10/10, will call dibs on should it come up for sale some day.

I got back around 10pm-ish, I had to collect my GF from the pub however (colleague leaving-do, who absolutely loved the Jag and knew a surprising amount of things about it, her dad apparently restored Defenders). That meant I was in bed around 1am, over 22 hours after the alarm rang on that day. However, the car did look just right parked outside:

Already had a quick look around the car today and did my first "fix", more about that later.

[HMC]

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

[horriblemercedes]

10 minutes ago, HMC said:

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

It still has the dealer sticker in the rear window! Stratstone of Mayfair. Also the key ring 

[Schaefft]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

Lovely! Do you know its early history? -YK is central london IIRC so would be interesting to find out. I had a black cab with a similar reg (M977MYK) a while ago….

The first owner was Morgan Grenfell & Co. who bought it in May 1995, 2 months before they got incorporated. As you can see they were pretty much in the center of London until they shut down in 2013:

Stratstone at Berkeley Street were indeed the dealer supplying the car to them (long gone by the looks of it), not sure who the 2nd and 3rd owners were but I got most of the details of ownership from 1999 onwards.

A few more interesting production stats from the day it was built:

As you can tell, the manual to automatic ratio was something like 1 in 20.

I've had a little time today to have a look around the car and give it a quick vacuum. Gotta love a front-opening bonnet. As you can tell, it was hit with the lowering stick while it was owned by a Retrorides member.

It actually received quite a bit of attention at the time (backbox delete, polybushes all around, lowered) but the thread ended with the intent to revert everything back to stock as it somewhat ruined the experience (what a surprise). I'm not sure how much of that reversal work was carried out but the lowering springs are definitely still present. Will see if I can find a stock set of springs to raise it up a bit.

The interior has held up well compared to most other XJs I've seen. Aside from apparently common pixel/backlight issues with the various displays and a cracked piece of wood veneer on the driver's door things are looking good. The gearshift is currently the biggest issue the car has though (aside from a lack of key fob and the resulting alarm spiel). The linkage bushes appear to be practically gone, making it quite hard to be sure that you are now in 2nd, not in 4th, or even worse, shifting into 4th instead of reverse (which is located where 6th would be, no "lift knob to shift" lockout or anything preventing you from making a very bad mistake there. Every gear feels like neutral basically.

Considering the XJ was thought to be fairly small compared to the E38, and certainly the W140, the backseat still feels sufficiently spacious. The LWB XJ would be the solution for anyone expecting a little more.

And check this out, have you ever seen an XJ without a sagging headliner? Now you have!

The famous AJ16 straight six. It probably would benefit from a tune-up, it seems a little hestitant to rev on the go and stumbles a little at first if you give it some decent throttle at standstill, I didn't see any obvious air or vacuum leaks but it might benefit from a bit of TLC. Comparing it to the M52 2.8 in my E39 this is a lot less responsive despite similar curb weights, you'd expect it to really pull hard in 1st gear. Official 0-62 times are a second apart, I'll have to check if it still manages to stick to them although the shift linkage will need sorting for that first.

I'm also not sure why but a critter has collected gravel inside the engine bay. All cleaned up now. The only leak I've found was from whatever this is:

First fix of the day, tighten up the throttle cable a little. As you can tell there's no adjustment left at this point and I'm sure I wasn't the first one to do so either, the cable might need replacing eventually. Still opens the throttle all the way but the less play the better.

I think all XJs come with toolkits from the factory, or at the very least a place in the engine bay to store them. This one came with an interesting assortment of stuff:

The boot is looking pretty good, too. New battery, however its clear the old one had leaked before, I cleaned up all the acidic residue here already. No harm done this time around but left alone this would have caused much more damage (my SL has a decent sized hole under the battery because of this). Will have to clean up the rust and reseal it all.

Someone had some pretty bad luck with the spare though. Also check out the Corrado line art on the period correct warning triangle.

All four jacking points look great, I removed the rubber covers to blast them with the pressure washer when I'll give it a clean soon.

Another rust trap right under the wiper cowl trim, you can see why:

Both sides look perfect after a quick wipedown though, and that is exactly why this car is worth every penny.

The XJ6 came with a full chrome grille. The Retroride member did wrap the vertical slats in dark grey though, a modification I approve.

I believe this style 16 inch alloy was standard on the Sport? One of my favorite wheel designs for the XJ so they arent going anywhere. Nankangs are from 2019 and have very good tread so no issues there either.

Any interesting loot then? Aside from the tools just a bunch of junk, a lighter and 30p.

I've had a quick look into the brochure that came with the car. I think the first line says it all.😂

[hairnet]

Not just screw loose

But diy

Screw loose all time #1

Cant see pics as boat wifi will look tomorrow 

Are you far enough away that eddy might not come round in the night with a windy gun

[Schaefft]

Finally had a couple of hours to clean the Jag today, it needed it:

3 hours later:

That's more like it. As usual a clean helps figuring out what condition things are generally in. The paint needs a polish and one of the wheelarches did receive some attention at some point, whoever blended in the clearcoat didn't have a clue about what they were doing. Aside from that things are looking perfectly in line with what an almost 30 years old car ideally looks like. Worst bits are the scuffed rear bumper really.

The engine received a clean as well, that stainless exhaust manifold shield should polish up nicely with some steelwool. Might even get some green paint to touch up that lettering. The AJ16 is a pretty engine and access around it is amazing, probably exactly the opposite to the V12 you could still get in these...

Something that needed to get sorted asap:

Might have to get a new badge as well.

Result. The car thanked me by making the boot release button magically work again!

I've ordered replacement shift linkage bushes from Simply Performance to sort the floppy knob, fingers crossed it can all be done from the top. I'm also trying to find a remote that's not rediculous money. People found out that Saab 900/9000 2-button key fobs with the same frequency are identical to the X300 ones and just sync to the car, early Omega B/Vectra B remotes apparently work as well so GM must have used the same supplier. But with all of these fairly rare in the UK now its actually surprisingly tricky to get any of them. And I'm not gonna pay 65 quid minimum for a tatty old fob...

In other news: I'm ordering parts for the 523i Touring to pass its TUV inspection in Germany sometime next week hopefully. It hurts paying a load of money for simple things that would take 30mins and a few quid to sort but what can you do. Also took the E65 out for a drive yesterday, still a lovely car to drive.

[TrabbieRonnie]

The Jag's a very pretty car and has come up lovely, great to see.

Well done Shaefft, nice work as always 👍

[Zelandeth]

If that stainless heat shield on the manifold isn't buzzing, for the love of puppies do not touch any of the fixings for it!

That looks like a really decent example to me, imagine sorting the shift bushes and getting the right springs back on will transform it.  

From memory (a friend has had four of these/the preceding model which I've helped with tinkering on) these are really sensitive to vacuum leaks and O2 sensor performance.  So that's where I'd start.

At least the heater water pump (it's electric rather than just fed from the coolant loop) is easy enough to get to on the straight six...it's all but integral to the left hand exhaust manifold on the V8.

[Schaefft]

10 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

If that stainless heat shield on the manifold isn't buzzing, for the love of puppies do not touch any of the fixings for it!

That looks like a really decent example to me, imagine sorting the shift bushes and getting the right springs back on will transform it.  

From memory (a friend has had four of these/the preceding model which I've helped with tinkering on) these are really sensitive to vacuum leaks and O2 sensor performance.  So that's where I'd start.

At least the heater water pump (it's electric rather than just fed from the coolant loop) is easy enough to get to on the straight six...it's all but integral to the left hand exhaust manifold on the V8.

I have a receipt for the O2 sensor being replaced all the way back in 2003 or so, when the car was 8 years old. With the recent issues I had with the Celsior I wouldn't be surprised if its time again. I need to check if theres an easy way to blink out some codes, no CEL so it might just run perfectly fine and is just a little more lazy than a BMW but you'll never be able to tell without actually getting some sensor readings. No vaccum leaks found yet!

[HMC]

On 05/05/2024 at 21:02, Schaefft said:

The first owner was Morgan Grenfell & Co. who bought it in May 1995, 2 months before they got incorporated. As you can see they were pretty much in the center of London until they shut down in 2013:

Stratstone at Berkeley Street were indeed the dealer supplying the car to them (long gone by the looks of it), not sure who the 2nd and 3rd owners were but I got most of the details of ownership from 1999 onwards.

A few more interesting production stats from the day it was built:

As you can tell, the manual to automatic ratio was something like 1 in 20.

I've had a little time today to have a look around the car and give it a quick vacuum. Gotta love a front-opening bonnet. As you can tell, it was hit with the lowering stick while it was owned by a Retrorides member.

It actually received quite a bit of attention at the time (backbox delete, polybushes all around, lowered) but the thread ended with the intent to revert everything back to stock as it somewhat ruined the experience (what a surprise). I'm not sure how much of that reversal work was carried out but the lowering springs are definitely still present. Will see if I can find a stock set of springs to raise it up a bit.

The interior has held up well compared to most other XJs I've seen. Aside from apparently common pixel/backlight issues with the various displays and a cracked piece of wood veneer on the driver's door things are looking good. The gearshift is currently the biggest issue the car has though (aside from a lack of key fob and the resulting alarm spiel). The linkage bushes appear to be practically gone, making it quite hard to be sure that you are now in 2nd, not in 4th, or even worse, shifting into 4th instead of reverse (which is located where 6th would be, no "lift knob to shift" lockout or anything preventing you from making a very bad mistake there. Every gear feels like neutral basically.

Considering the XJ was thought to be fairly small compared to the E38, and certainly the W140, the backseat still feels sufficiently spacious. The LWB XJ would be the solution for anyone expecting a little more.

And check this out, have you ever seen an XJ without a sagging headliner? Now you have!

The famous AJ16 straight six. It probably would benefit from a tune-up, it seems a little hestitant to rev on the go and stumbles a little at first if you give it some decent throttle at standstill, I didn't see any obvious air or vacuum leaks but it might benefit from a bit of TLC. Comparing it to the M52 2.8 in my E39 this is a lot less responsive despite similar curb weights, you'd expect it to really pull hard in 1st gear. Official 0-62 times are a second apart, I'll have to check if it still manages to stick to them although the shift linkage will need sorting for that first.

I'm also not sure why but a critter has collected gravel inside the engine bay. All cleaned up now. The only leak I've found was from whatever this is:

First fix of the day, tighten up the throttle cable a little. As you can tell there's no adjustment left at this point and I'm sure I wasn't the first one to do so either, the cable might need replacing eventually. Still opens the throttle all the way but the less play the better.

I think all XJs come with toolkits from the factory, or at the very least a place in the engine bay to store them. This one came with an interesting assortment of stuff:

The boot is looking pretty good, too. New battery, however its clear the old one had leaked before, I cleaned up all the acidic residue here already. No harm done this time around but left alone this would have caused much more damage (my SL has a decent sized hole under the battery because of this). Will have to clean up the rust and reseal it all.

Someone had some pretty bad luck with the spare though. Also check out the Corrado line art on the period correct warning triangle.

All four jacking points look great, I removed the rubber covers to blast them with the pressure washer when I'll give it a clean soon.

Another rust trap right under the wiper cowl trim, you can see why:

Both sides look perfect after a quick wipedown though, and that is exactly why this car is worth every penny.

The XJ6 came with a full chrome grille. The Retroride member did wrap the vertical slats in dark grey though, a modification I approve.

I believe this style 16 inch alloy was standard on the Sport? One of my favorite wheel designs for the XJ so they arent going anywhere. Nankangs are from 2019 and have very good tread so no issues there either.

Any interesting loot then? Aside from the tools just a bunch of junk, a lighter and 30p.

I've had a quick look into the brochure that came with the car. I think the first line says it all.😂

Are you tempted to put an “andy bracket” on  ? IIRC if basically advances the ignition by a few degrees on these, which peps up the performance and economy slightly.

[Schaefft]

27 minutes ago, HMC said:

Are you tempted to put an “andy bracket” on  ? IIRC if basically advances the ignition by a few degrees on these, which peps up the performance and economy slightly.

I had no idea that's a thing! I'm totally open to suggestions!

[PhilA]

Mm. Jaaaaag. Very nice. I have a ways to go to get mine looking as smart. 

 

It's a nice place to sit though.

[Schaefft]

Had a look at the aforementioned Andy bracket, which seems to be a cheap and easy way to gain some bhp and mpg by slightly changing the position of the crank position sensor. Andy was responsible for the engine mapping for the AJ16 at Jaguar and knew that advancing the timing by 5 degrees beyond whats standard from factory would give you some gains without threatening the health of the engine. Good news, it's still the original bracket on my XJ:

Which naturally means I immediately smashed that Buy Now button to soon unleash the mighty power the car was always supposed to have!

I couldn't control myself and had to polish that exhaust shield as well, nice and shiny now!

Not sure what these two plugs are for. As with many X300 mine didn't come with cruise control, wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them is for the missing motor.

Quick look at the airfilter. Looks good, original Jag!

Also polished all the chrome trim on the outside, looking great!

And cleaned all the plastic and leather surfaces on the inside. The steering wheel came up amazing, it almost looks like new again:

In general Jaguar chose some very good materials to elevate the interior beyond what I'd expect in this class at the time. Everything is soft touch vinyl or leather. While some of the switchgear like the window lifter buttons aren't quite on the same level when it comes to tactile feel as a similar age 7-Series or S-Class the interior materials are actually equal at minimum, a lot of the things like the leather wrapped center console and door grab handles would be a big cost options on the BMW and Mercedes (I just happened to get a set for my E39 528i today) and this is just a base model XJ6. In reality the higher trim levels didn't really give you much more than very specific options, even cruise control was option on cars like the XJR. I'll see if I can find a replacement knob as well, standard was leather but I'm not a huge fan, I saw at least one XJR having a wood shifter so I'll see if I can find something along those lines. If I can find a wood/leather steeringwheel in similar shape for not crazy money I might be tempted as well.

[Schaefft]

My order from Simply Performance arrived earlier than expected, one shifter bushing set and crank sensor bracket:

With the sun out today was the perfect time to throw it all on the car so out with the center console trim which came apart easily:

Rubber gator and tunnel cover removed. And there was already the first surprise. The rubber bushes weren't for any kind of shift linkage, they were actually used for the mounting bolts of the bracket holding the gearstick in place:

Now mine were hardly in the best condition and with one bush and washer already missing it was clear that someone had been in there before. But the bracket was still firmly held in place so these rubber bushes weren't the reason for the excessive wobble. 

You can see that the upper two bolts are easy to reach, the lower ones not so much...

A bunch of extensions and swivel joints were just about enough to reach the lower bolts. Access doesn't look too bad here but fitting a hand in there wasn't fun so getting it all back together already become a worry at that point.

Here's the culprit then. The two plastic washers were apparently worn enough to make the whole linkage flop around like a (insert wang metaphor here).

I don't know how long its been like this (probably years) but in the end all it needed was a decent sized washer shoved in there to make it all nice and tight again.

All of this seemed fairly straight forward, didn't it. Well, getting the lower two bolts and all the bushes and washers lines up and in those bolt holes was an utter clusterfuck. Not only was it near impossible to get a hand in there just to hold the bolt in place, I must have been under the car 50 times retrieving bits that dropped over an hour of pure suffering. For the love of god don't bother starting with the top bolts, you need every mm of clearance you can get to somehow get it all back together. It didn't help that I got a migrane at the end of all of it, one of those lovely ones where you partially lose your eye sight. Lovely. Anyway, I manage to reassemble everything:

It was absolutely worth it though, the shifter feel is completely transformed and with that the driveability of the entire car is massively improved. Its not super tight as you might expect from a gated manual but the diffence that a 1mm wide washer makes is like night and day, you always know exactly what position the gearstick is in, allowing the precise shifts that were near impossible before. This is probably be biggest improvement anyone could have made short of dropping a supercharger on the engine.

I used the momentum from this win to quickly slap the "Andy bracket" on. 3 easy to access bolts later:

It might be the placebo effect but throttle response seems to have improved indeed. I'll have to drive it a little more to really get an idea of how much this impacts power output but first impressions are that yes, it does make a difference in how the engines reacts to throttle input, a closer to what I'd expect from it. Result!

[Schaefft]

Well, Twixfest happened yesterday and the Jag decided that it clearly wasn't ready for its first bigger trip since I got it last week. Misfire on what sounded like 1 cylinder when warm could only really be one thing but with no time to investigate the Z3 was chosen as worthy attendee:

Look at that, it even won a prize:

Anyway, I had a closer look at whats going on this morning. Coilpack was the most likely candidate as an injector, spark plug or wire doesn't fix itself when cold.

Well, all of them are originals so it would indeed be time to replace them. To keep things short, it was #5, I unplugged one after the other and could easily feel the engine running even worse with all but that one. It was originally #6, I already swapped it in the photo above to confirm the issue would move with the coilpack. I bought a NOS one for 27 quid on ebay so hopefully that'll be it for now. Coilpacks usually have about the same lifetime expectancy though so normally you'd replace all at once. If you could only get them from a decent brand for even vaguely reasonable money!

#3 had plenty of oil in the sparkplug hole so someone did an excellent job replacing the valve cover gasket as well. No misfires noticeable on that cylinder though! 4 of the six coilpacks actually had cracks in their casing to I'll have to keep a look out for more NOS parts in the hopes to replace them one by one before the next one dies.

Also made sense to check the plugs. They aren't the greatest type but all look equal, indicating a healthy engine.

I'm also currently getting a few random missing bits and pieces from a breaker, if we can settle on a fair price, incl. 2 key fobs that needs some work but hopefully are serviceable, 25 quid for both. I thought about buying an entire parts donor but if I can get stuff for reasonable money its more hassle than its worth, the XJR I had my eye on was too high mileage as an engine donor and the rear bumper was worse than mine.

I did receive some parts for the Celsior today though! Witness it's transformation!

Amazing, don't mention it.

Finally having a fully working blower motor is a big deal for me though, another big step towards a fully functional car.

The warm weather also finally gave me enough motivation to crawl underneath there again:

If you can remember from 6 months ago, the car had a fuel delivery issue. I could hear at least one of the fuel pumps running but there just wouldn't be any fuel arriving at the front. Today was the day to find out why. Early V8/V12 W140 still have a dual pump setup:

I probably should have checked how much fuel there was in the tank before I pulled the fuel supply hose. 25+ liters of fuel and a flooded driveway later (caught most of it) and we were finally able to start taking the who thing out. Only that it didn't want to.

It took a little while but after being able to free the filter which required some grinding next to a dripping fuel hose (can confirm its safe, didn't die) I got it off in the end. The fuel coming out of the tank and filter actually looked perfectly fine, its not like the filter was clogged up from rust or gunk.

As expected, it's one of the two pumps hooked up in line that somehow seized up. Apply 12V to it results in a click but no beating the hell out of it would bring it back to life. The good news is that its basically the same pump you'd find on all kinds of 80s and early 90s models so around 60 quid will get me a new replacement Bosch unit and hopefully the car going again. We'll see when it arrives, hopefully by end of the week.

[straightSix]

Was gutted I missed out on that XJ. I had the same as an auto and loved it. Hope I get my manual xjr back from the garage soon.

I'd check what the throttle is reading to make sure you're getting 100% at wide open. I might actually have a good spare key fob as well 

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, straightSix said:

Was gutted I missed out on that XJ. I had the same as an auto and loved it. Hope I get my manual xjr back from the garage soon.

I'd check what the throttle is reading to make sure you're getting 100% at wide open. I might actually have a good spare key fob as well 

Is it easy to get diagnostics software for them? I honestly haven't even had a look yet. And if you do have a spare fob please let me know!

[straightSix]

24 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Is it easy to get diagnostics software for them? I honestly haven't even had a look yet. And if you do have a spare fob please let me know!

I checked throttle position using an OBD scanner. The proper Jag software is really hard to get your hands on. I think @Broadsword managed to get his hands on a copy though 

[Schaefft]

29 minutes ago, straightSix said:

I checked throttle position using an OBD scanner. The proper Jag software is really hard to get your hands on. I think @Broadsword managed to get his hands on a copy though 

What year is your car? With this being a '95 I'd be surprised to have any one at all.

[Broadsword]

Did someone say X300 with a Getrag 290?

*parachutes in through roof"

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag!

Exciting to see your progress with yet another manual transmission X300 in the fold. It look really nice and ironically the 3.2 manual is the only setup I've not driven!!! I feel a manual box would suit the 3.2 well since it's much more willing to rev than a 4.0, so it should be faster than you report. A cheap OBD scanner with live data usually reads  an X300 (unless a very early build), so I would check that. To get the proper diagnostics like I have is a major undertaking. Don't bother unless you intend on becoming a serial mid 1990s-2000s Jag botherer.

I feel your pain regarding the gear selector tower bushings. I've had to do this several times now, including once where I accidentally reversed the direction of the lever and had to repeat the whole process immediately after finishing. I always have cut hands at the end. Those are exactly the bushings I fit to my XJR manuals. By the way that gear knob is a strange thing. Jaguar knew the gear shift is straight out of a tractor so made the knob weighted to "help" with the throw. It weighs 450 grams!! If you end up replacing yours, I would be very interesting in the one you have since NLW lacks the part and I prefer the heavy knob.

I advise getting a £20 OBD scanner with live data and checking fuel trims, throttle position and operation of oxygen sensors to get a handle on the performance issue. It has been established that the Andy bracket gives some 10% on gain on a well running X300 and improves fuel economy. It is one of the best mods for the car. The plugs look OK, but make sure they are the Champion plugs recommended in the handbook.

The oil leak you point to won't be that cam position sensor, it will probably be weeping from the oil gallery on the head gasket. It's an X300 thing and on my car it ended up so bad, oil would piss out. Yours looks ok, so just keep an eye. I had to replace the head gasket, which was otherwise absolutely fine, but the oil gallery seals with a rubber O-ring, which had disintegrated!

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, Broadsword said:

Did someone say X300 with a Getrag 290?

*parachutes in through roof"

Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag!

Exciting to see your progress with yet another manual transmission X300 in the fold. It look really nice and ironically the 3.2 manual is the only setup I've not driven!!! I feel a manual box would suit the 3.2 well since it's much more willing to rev than a 4.0, so it should be faster than you report. A cheap OBD scanner with live data usually reads  an X300 (unless a very early build), so I would check that. To get the proper diagnostics like I have is a major undertaking. Don't bother unless you intend on becoming a serial mid 1990s-2000s Jag botherer.

I feel your pain regarding the gear selector tower bushings. I've had to do this several times now, including once where I accidentally reversed the direction of the lever and had to repeat the whole process immediately after finishing. I always have cut hands at the end. Those are exactly the bushings I fit to my XJR manuals. By the way that gear knob is a strange thing. Jaguar knew the gear shift is straight out of a tractor so made the knob weighted to "help" with the throw. It weighs 450 grams!! If you end up replacing yours, I would be very interesting in the one you have since NLW lacks the part and I prefer the heavy knob.

I advise getting a £20 OBD scanner with live data and checking fuel trims, throttle position and operation of oxygen sensors to get a handle on the performance issue. It has been established that the Andy bracket gives some 10% on gain on a well running X300 and improves fuel economy. It is one of the best mods for the car. The plugs look OK, but make sure they are the Champion plugs recommended in the handbook.

The oil leak you point to won't be that cam position sensor, it will probably be weeping from the oil gallery on the head gasket. It's an X300 thing and on my car it ended up so bad, oil would piss out. Yours looks ok, so just keep an eye. I had to replace the head gasket, which was otherwise absolutely fine, but the oil gallery seals with a rubber O-ring, which had disintegrated!

I was surprised how heavy that knob is when I took it off but I can tell why it would be needed. Where is the OBD port located on these, with OBD2 generally introduced for the '96 model year in the States I'm worried that mine might be just a little bit too early as it was built on the 26th of April 1995. I have a Forscan OBD2 dongle that works fine on most Fords/Lincolns so it wouldn't have any problems with an OBD2 Jag I'd assume. The plugs are Bosch FR7DC+, not sure if they contribute to it all a little.

And yeah, changing the headgasket because of an oil leak doesn't sound much fun. Depending on how attached I become to the car the engine might get replaced by its supercharged sibling eventually anyway.

[Broadsword]

You need a !genuine! Rotunda VCM 1 to talk to an X300 properly and the Jaguar IDS software, which I can share with anyone here who has a VCM.

My blue factory manual XJR6 was built May 10th 1995 and works fine on OBD2, so you might be fine with a generic tool.

The OBD port is just above the clutch pedal.

Champion RC9YCC are the spec plugs. You can use RC12YCC also, which was specified to cure rough idle on some cars.

Here I show how to change the head gasket on an XJR. Big job.

 

[Schaefft]

32 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

You need a !genuine! Rotunda VCM 1 to talk to an X300 properly and the Jaguar IDS software, which I can share with anyone here who has a VCM.

My blue factory manual XJR6 was built May 10th 1995 and works fine on OBD2, so you might be fine with a generic tool.

The OBD port is just above the clutch pedal.

Champion RC9YCC are the spec plugs. You can use RC12YCC also, which was specified to cure rough idle on some cars.

Here I show how to change the head gasket on an XJR. Big job.

 

Excellent info, I shall have a look then and see what I can find. And yeah, might be worth getting some new plugs then although the aging coil packs are probably the biggest contribution to any loss in performance. New coil pack should be here tomorrow or Wednesday at least.

And yes, please let me know if you have a spare fob!

[Schaefft]

Well that didn't go as planned. The fuel pump arrived today so it was all slapped back together and installed underneath the car:

Few key cycles and the car ran! Only to be greeted by this:

Well fuck. Maybe just condensation buildup?

No. It doesn't look quite as bad here but a look into the valve cover and coolant reservoir (empty but smoking) basically confirms it, blown headgasket. Doesn't help that the car misfires, too. I cannot remember looking at the oil when I got the car but considering it hasn't been running since I got it this certainly hasn't happened during my ownership. The seller mentioned he did have it running briefly, at the very latest they would have noticed then.

Anyone here wants a S-Class Coupe? Only 37k* miles, honestly!

[loserone]

Ah FFS 😞

[horriblemercedes]

When I read the title I had a mini panic attack that it was the Jaguar I sold you that has head gasket problems. 

 

Sorry to hear it. I am relieved that I don't have to feel guilty but sorry for your problems 

[Schaefft]

5 minutes ago, loserone said:

Ah FFS 😞

 

Just now, horriblemercedes said:

When I read the title I had a mini panic attack that it was the Jaguar I sold you that has head gasket problems. 

 

Sorry to hear it. I am relieved that I don't have to feel guilty but sorry for your problems 

Nothing that can't be fixed. The problem is that with the rough paint and any other issues currently not on my radar it's unlikely that it would ever make sense to fix this. Best way to get my money back would be breaking it unfortunately.

[scaryoldcortina]

Dude, call me when I get back from Tenerife 😂

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, scaryoldcortina said:

Dude, call me when I get back from Tenerife 😂

Is this an offer to help fix it or to buy it?😂 Or did the Cadillac blow a headgasket now as well?😂

I completely forgot about it but the seller actually included a new waterpump and thermostat with the car. Surprises like above happen when you are so fixated at one issue that you completely ignore all the basic checks. I had a look at the sparkplugs today. Burning coolant would normally mean a steam cleaned plug but not so here, just lots of short runs and some crud on the threads of one of them.

Then again, it all depends on how long its been running with coolant getting burned.

I'll see if I can do an oil change on the 4-door soon, I'll use the old oil to replace the puke currently in the Coupe. If I keep losing coolant and seeing more slime build up that'll be a final confirmation, I don't think these have engine oil coolers where oil would mix with water (it wouldn't blow this much white smoke either or pressurize the reservoir).

Back to the Jag. New coil fixed the misfire, however it still doesn't run perfectly smooth.

This is supposed to be NOS, hard to tell whether that was true but I'll take it for 26 quid. Certainly won't be the last time I'll have to buy one. I've got a few tips on which code readers would communicate with a '95 X300 so I might be able to get some live data out of it after all.

About this:

The cursty old Jag badge was offensive enough that it had to go. You can still get NOS badges for them so off with the old one, only mild violence required:

Cleaned, hard to see here but there are some hints that the bootlid probably got a respray at one point:

Bam. Excuse the reflections, the badge is indeed looking brand new. I may have lost the chrome bezel but I'll take this over what was on there before.

Part number for those who care:

[Schaefft]

In other news, remember the house purchase we lost out on a 6 weeks ago because someone topped our bid at the last minute?

Well, looks like that buyer just dropped out. Got a phone call from the estate agent this morning asking whether we would still be interested. How the tables have turned...

Unfortunate for them we viewed another property on Monday. Not only is that one significantly cheaper, yet still very attractive, it also offers enough space for literally thousands of cars😂

Which puts us in an odd position now: Make the same offer (or slightly lower) with a very high chance to actually buy property #1 above, or let the opportunity slip and bid on the 2nd house without any guarantee to have the winning bid (sellers refuse to give us a number they'd be happy with, they have all the time in the world to wait for an idiot to overspend).

What would you do? Both me and my partner are now leaning towards the more generous, slightly more attractive and most likely cheaper house #2 but it feels like wasting an opportunity to get a fair deal for #1 presented on a silver plate. The estate agent wants an answer in the next day before they start readvertising the property. We will not get any confirmation for an offer from seller #2 anytime soon.