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Jaguar S Bype R - An Imposter, saving a bird, and that effin supercharger!


Crispian_J_Hotson

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Today I got the exhaust resealed. I couldn't be arsed to do it myself and had no sealer or clamps. 

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They charged me no monies, to get me to go back I suppose. Never used this one before so it was a good exercise to see how they operated and who worked there and if I could instill my trust in them to fit the tyres and do the alignment correctly. I only used these because the other one that I always use sounded under pressure and were pretty blunt over the phone and I have a sour taste left after being charged a random £90+vat to align the black jag which had new suspension fitted. That was a piss take.

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  • 2 months later...

Here we go again... 

The diff seal has remained a useful task to have done. Technically, this car does not drip any oil or water. I say technically because there is a power fluid drip hanging off of one of the lines but it hasn't dripped yet.

The car has been good and is now in daily service and being relied upon. There wasn't much to do on it for a bit as spare funds were low after the last splurge. I did however shell out on a Michelin for the rear which replaced the split, worn, and curbed 10 year old one that was on there.

The Diesel decided the water pump should have a shit, the coolant sensor had died, it was due a set of front pads and an aux belt, so that kept me occupied. Of course, it hasn't wanted for anything so I wasn't reluctant to chuck some money at it but the new coolant lever sensor failed after 6 seconds of working and 4 days later one of the rear speed sensors quit. So, after a bit of work, it has 2 faults lighting up the dash. Cars eh?

Using the Rbype daily has seen concern for a blow on the exhaust manifold seemingly worsen and I believe that this blow is responsible for a lean fault on the same bank which raises itself every now and then. Fearing that something was not right, I had a look and today I mostly attempted to remove 1 bit of metal.

Having a look at this manifold blow, I realised that, unlike the conventional vehicle, you cannot see bugger all as the manifold is encased in a stainless metal type tomb.
This prompted me to have a go at removing the outer heat shield which is held onto lugs on the exhaust manifold gasket by what used to be 8mm bolts.
These bolts had now turned into something that can only be described as components from the Titanic shipwreck.
What's more, it is almost impossible to get a thing onto them to even attempt to remove them. Let me show you something...

IMG_20230423_121257031.thumb.jpg.20fb001cdfc8f9e8de1a2b73ffc420a5.jpg

Potato cam close up...

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That was an hour of work, on my back, on the tarmac, with shite raining down into my eyes. I tried to preserve the heat shield but swiftly lost all interest in keeping it. It wasn't done with me yet though.
This was one of those jobs where I didn't have the tools that were long enough, small enough, big enough, and short enough.
3 hours later, all 4 bolt remains were dislodged from the manifold gasket and the shield was free... or was it? Nope, I couldn't actually find a space or an angle big enough to position the shield enough to extract it from the vehicle. So, even if I did save on it, it wasn't to last, as I enjoyed destroying the thing during my attempt to get it out. It's dead now.

Once extracted, I immediately stuffed the camera down the slither of space between the engine and the body. Here's what I saw...

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Oh, how I laughed... the whole time... it was just loose? Lolz... No.

Someone has been here before and we all know what that means... treachery is afoot.

Sure enough, hope dwindled away as this 'loose' nut is locked up on the stud which is tight in the head. I hung off it as much as I dare fearing a snap or a strip and it's not going in any more. Loosening it pulls the stud out but i haven't taken that out yet as I've run out of time today and need to hit myself in the face repeatedly with something heavy and blunt.
But that's not all... checking out the other nuts, I noticed one was wonky, so I touched it and it fell out.

What does this mean? Well, it means that someone has stuck the snapped stud and nut in the manifold hole with exhaust paste and hoped that no one would ever find out.

What else does this mean? in order to remedy this bodgery, the head is going to come off. There is simply no room and no line of sight in that area to try and drill stuff and tap stuff... it's a straight no way.
The rest of the manifold is secure enough and I suppose I can try and release that binding stud, fit a shim, and attempt to tighten it as a get me by, it's not doing anything as it is, so I've nothing to lose.

To say I wasn't expecting this is an understatement but more fool me when I consider the idiots that have been let loose on it in the past, I should have expected the worst.
I've got to do it right, so it's going to come off the road (again) to have the work done. I'll have to get a breakdown of the parts required and gather those and of course, the bits for 'you might as well while your there M8' like the valley pipes and things like that. The head will be sent off to a proper machine shop rather than my shed, simply because it needs to be done right, the first time.

Sad times in one respect, but we found yet another catastrophic bodge that's getting put right.

 

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2 hours ago, Crispian_J_Hotson said:

someone has stuck the snapped stud and nut in the manifold hole with exhaust paste and hoped that no one would ever find out

😮

OMFG. I hope karma bites them in the balls, hard.

Head off, then. Both heads? Not sure my OCD could deal with the asymmetry of just one. 

I've done battle with those heatshields before. Absolute ballsack. I keep meaning to put something back onto my Puma (aftermarket) manifold but never got round to it and probably never will. I put that heatproof fibre tape stuff on instead, nothing has caught fire yet.

Then there were the manifold studs on my Maestro, which would sooner turn the Earth off its axis than come out. Luckily there was just about room to deal with them using power tools.

Good luck, you've certainly earned your reward of hitting yourself in the face with something blunt and heavy. 

 

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Progress report #947...

I thought that I'd take a closer look in trying to ease on the exhaust manifold situation. As it is, it's rough. Pulling away emits the characteristic chuff and it sounds painful. I still need the car for a bit so with nothing to lose, attempted to improve on the situation today.
The locknut that is unwound on the manifold was carefully removed, it left the stud behind. Threads were checked and it all looked fine. So, not wanting to snap the stud, a normal nut was put on behind a washer and wound up tight, the lock nut was put on after. Then there is the snapped stud and then the next nut which is corroded and looks ever so slightly loosened. I managed to get a 12mm to bite on it but it wouldn't undo. Not wanting to snap the stud, I eased it tighter until I didn't want to chance any more. Then a washer and a normal nut was put on over it. Theory here was that it would lock up and turn the stud if there was any luck left. The other nuts are not moving but appear tight to the manifold. They all look like sods to remove.

Whilst I was under there I noticed some wiring bodgery associated with the fog lamp running off up into the depths of the engine. This car has endured a little off roading at some point and it shattered the undertray which has been fudged back together with 56 cable ties. The lower grill intake box was all loose and stuffed back in haphazardly.
It looks like any damage was limited to exploding the underside plastics and hooking some wires on the O/S. The bottom of the rad shows some very minor crushing here but has escaped damage from whatever happened.
I re-routed some wiring, tidied up failed insulation and applied new conduit for it to run through. Disconnected plugs, cleaned and greased the connections and secured them where they look like they should go rather than them hanging in a suspended birds nest.
I checked the tightness of main components and the frame, a few mm was got on the steering rack but the rest appeared tight.
Then I finally replaced the fog lamps with some special yellow items that I bought years ago and never fitted, because yellow fog lamps are for winners.
The air intake box was then fitted properly and the remains of the undertray was correctly located and bolted up to the bumper and subframe using new hardware. It looks a lot better from the front now, instead of a load of wonky, falling down plastic and a billion clear and black cable ties, you can just barely see the heads of two bolts.

As the exhaust blow only happens on take off, it needed to go out on the road. Immediately the car was quieter and I can accelerate with it sounding fairly good, I can hear the engine and super charger a lot clearer, making those lovely noises that they are supposed to make. Aggressive acceleration shows a blow still present though but it's not as severe by a long stretch, and perfectly usable. There appears a small blow from manifold to cat too but those nuts are solid and the studs fairly corroded and as I plan to bin all that, I'll leave it for now.

Funny old day weather wise, causing me to fight against the waves of rain showers every hour, but with a 79% success rate, I done alright really.
Car was treated to a tank full of momentum as I can't stand going to the Tesco station during the week, it's one of those where there's queues down the road or half the pumps work or it's just randomly closed for no reason! I'm averaging 19.9- 20mpg going about my weekly business. Double figures I'm happy with.
It's the first tank fill up the car has had in probably 7 years so I was anticipating leaks and /or fire, but we're good.
MOT is due this month, so I'd better get it booked in before the next thing packs up on it!

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You little tinker...

 

Tinkerage... Today I spent a few hours tinkering and fiddling. Two areas were the washer jet on the passenger side which sometimes dribbled and the passenger door mirror which had a left but no right adjustment. They also don't fold, I can hear it all happening but no dice at the mirrors.
I dissected a spare mirror to see how best to remove the glass without breaking anything and then looked at how it worked. The mirrors on the car have both been replaced with heated only and the chromatic plug left off. Both spare chromatics I have are yellowed so it wasn't worth the swap, however, the spare NS mirror donated it's guts as the one on the car had a broken mount for a little pushrod. The folding motor bits were really corroded and there was no obvious entry point to add lubrication, They're seized and I didn't want to go further with it at this time.
The washer jet has a stuck and binding ball spring, I got it to work about 11% and the piddly jet hits the screen just above the wiper blade so that's an mot pass, it'll need a replacement which I'll need to paint.
Then I had a mooch about with some fast cut and got rid of some scratching, the car has been repainted on the NS and it looks fine from 70 yards away but there is a fair amount of stone chips and the NSF wing has been clumped and straightened out in a kind of 'it'll do' fashion.
Tomorrow it needs a good clean before any sun comes up and some cut and wax to get some decent finish on the car, I think it's suffered a bit where it's been sat for a few years. Luckily, it's resale silver so it'll hide a lot of issues!

Next...

She eats on the wax...

After a major scrub, and a discovery that a general £2 cleaning spray performed just as well as GUNK and Wonder wheels, the car was looking well. I got the sunroof open and gave the hole in the roof a wipe over, it's in nice condition in there.
I wash the cars in a coconut scented wax stuff, have done for years, and it forms some protection for about 2 weeks, but this car didn't show the results when I washed it a month ago, telling me that the paint was hungry. I got some wax on it today, well, the rear, quarters, and roof, and then came the fuzzy rain.
Wiping wax off in the rain is a superhuman task so I had to abort. I don't have much luck with waxing on cars, when I started cutting the paint on the black car, it rained for 3 days mid way through! I'll just have to got the bonnet and sides on the next wash.

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As the rain wasn't heavy, I got to shining on my pipes. The tail pipes, like the rest of the exhaust, has been neglected for too long and they were black with encrusted Carbon type deposits, and covered in spots of what can only be described as underseal over spray. They looked shite and tatty.
A good buzzing over with a mini wire whirly doobry in the drill saw them shine up well enough but they are pitted so some imaginative directional wet sanding, decreasing the grit to finish made them a little more tolerable.

Finally, rain is sitting on the paint so something is doing something. Of course, now I've packed up, the fuzzy rain has gone!

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I finally got around to remembering to ordering the nsr speed sensor for the doozil, the postage is high from Berkshire jag spares, so I got a parking sensor too as that car has a failed sensor somewhere in the rear bumper. I'd like to think that icarsoft will identify it as I now know it works on that car, if not, I've a 1 in 4 chance at trial and error!

Meep meep...

IMG-20230508-164322103-3.jpg

 

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  • 1 month later...

Fuck me, where were we? I tried to copy paste text from another forum but the phone wasn't having none of it, so here's the low down...

I'm breaking the black jag to scavenge valuable plastics that would cost me thousands and then it's going around the oval. Can't wait for that. The STR is fucking brilliant, what a car, as I've said in another forum, it's boy racer, mid life crisis, and retirement all rolled into one. That thing uses traction control in the dry, just pulling away from lights (to beat the latest golf GRD) The thing is rapid and hilariously fun.! I mean that it leaves other modernz like they are standing. Thanks to the rear 275 tyres, it still breaks loose, traction control comes on every time. I can turn it off but I'm a bit scared because the rear tyres are £200 each and i don't want to light them up at every roundabout 

I got a replacement arm rest in between the seats, mine didn't open because some dick head snapped the cable mount..  how do you even do that? The replacement is like brand new. I've also got some cats and stuff from magnaflow to build a proper exhaust. The ones that are on it are fucked, most likely smashed out but the new 200 cells are the way to go. The plan is to Frankenstein the front pipes and add in the sensors, I've got 90's to weld in on the Oxygen sensors, move them out of the stream yeah? It'll look professional, I've the bollox of a mig, just need to chuck some stainless wire in it and blame myself when it goes wrong. The original exhaust is that stainless steel/ part steel shite, so we'll see how that goes. Then I've got to rip the head off and get the snapped stud out at a shop, I'll have them all pulled out and new put in. 

I've also bought a spare touch screen and cd player that can go off to JAGDROID, (a bloke that turns the touchscreen into Android) so that I can bring the interior up to date, I miss my toonz, cds are only good for so long. I'll have Stevie nicks, the clash, and similar in there but sometimes want banging drum and bass, especially when the tarmac is open. I'll be sneaking in some more poly bush too... Take off is fine but when a rabbit runs out into the road ... Control could be better than 20 year old rubber at 80mph. 

She's a charm fellas, go and get one now!

 

Edit: Oooh, forgot to mention, it's got a caldoofy intake coming too. I liked it ... It was shiny. 

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On rear tyres, I managed to find some dunlops for £150 each a couple of weeks ago. Still not exactly pocket money but better than £400 a pair.

I’d like to do the rear subframe bushes on mine as it does that strange sideways wiggle over bumps when it’s loaded up. Think I’ll concentrate on getting it to run for 5 mins with no warning lights first. Ungrateful fucker.

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On 5/1/2023 at 7:47 PM, Crispian_J_Hotson said:

yellow fog lamps are for winners.

This.

I'm glad you're finally enjoying the S-BYPE, you've earned it. When I am struggling with my Maestro, I re-read this thread and suddenly everything's OK again. 

May your roads be clear and your petrol pumps be plentiful. 

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8 hours ago, J-T said:

On rear tyres, I managed to find some dunlops for £150 each a couple of weeks ago. Still not exactly pocket money but better than £400 a pair.

I’d like to do the rear subframe bushes on mine as it does that strange sideways wiggle over bumps when it’s loaded up. Think I’ll concentrate on getting it to run for 5 mins with no warning lights first. Ungrateful fucker.

I thought mine had a wiggle, but done that bit of road in another car and the same thing happened in the same spot... 6 mile bottom ironically. They'll always need changing tho. I used to strictly buy Sports but found the wider types started cracking after a couple of years, so was put off.

8 hours ago, grogee said:

This.

I'm glad you're finally enjoying the S-BYPE, you've earned it. When I am struggling with my Maestro, I re-read this thread and suddenly everything's OK again. 

May your roads be clear and your petrol pumps be plentiful. 

Cheers. The original war is not over, and something catastrophic will come around again at some point but it's getting used, and these need to be used. It's on a strict training program of lean butchers meat and protein!

Likewise, may your maestro have many smooth gear changes!

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Breaking the black jag has started! Already it's providing parts for the STR. Really sorry to see it go but it's the most cost effective way. Stupid 60's garage is too smoll so I'm having to strip it one side at a time. I aim to get this done quick so it can be scooped up and ovaled asap!

I've also sorted out my parts itinerary ready for selling and swapping, that car has 650 quids worth of genuine rear suspension that's done a couple of thousands miles. It's coming off!

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On 6/9/2023 at 8:05 PM, Crispian_J_Hotson said:

Fuck me, where were we? I tried to copy paste text from another forum but the phone wasn't having none of it, so here's the low down...

I'm breaking the black jag to scavenge valuable plastics that would cost me thousands and then it's going around the oval. Can't wait for that. The STR is fucking brilliant, what a car, as I've said in another forum, it's boy racer, mid life crisis, and retirement all rolled into one. That thing uses traction control in the dry, just pulling away from lights (to beat the latest golf GRD) The thing is rapid and hilariously fun.! I mean that it leaves other modernz like they are standing. Thanks to the rear 275 tyres, it still breaks loose, traction control comes on every time. I can turn it off but I'm a bit scared because the rear tyres are £200 each and i don't want to light them up at every roundabout 

I got a replacement arm rest in between the seats, mine didn't open because some dick head snapped the cable mount..  how do you even do that? The replacement is like brand new. I've also got some cats and stuff from magnaflow to build a proper exhaust. The ones that are on it are fucked, most likely smashed out but the new 200 cells are the way to go. The plan is to Frankenstein the front pipes and add in the sensors, I've got 90's to weld in on the Oxygen sensors, move them out of the stream yeah? It'll look professional, I've the bollox of a mig, just need to chuck some stainless wire in it and blame myself when it goes wrong. The original exhaust is that stainless steel/ part steel shite, so we'll see how that goes. Then I've got to rip the head off and get the snapped stud out at a shop, I'll have them all pulled out and new put in. 

I've also bought a spare touch screen and cd player that can go off to JAGDROID, (a bloke that turns the touchscreen into Android) so that I can bring the interior up to date, I miss my toonz, cds are only good for so long. I'll have Stevie nicks, the clash, and similar in there but sometimes want banging drum and bass, especially when the tarmac is open. I'll be sneaking in some more poly bush too... Take off is fine but when a rabbit runs out into the road ... Control could be better than 20 year old rubber at 80mph. 

She's a charm fellas, go and get one now!

 

Edit: Oooh, forgot to mention, it's got a caldoofy intake coming too. I liked it ... It was shiny. 

As fucked as the black one may be, rather than it going round the oval would it be of any use to the competitors in the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club race series? A long and heroic retirement of continual track thrashing!

https://jec.org.uk/racing/series/the-jaguar-enthusiasts-club-saloon-and-gt-championship

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-As fucked as the black one may be, rather than it going round the oval would it be of any use to the competitors in the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club race series? A long and heroic retirement of continual track thrashing!-

 

That ship has sailed but thanks for the suggestion. This is the best way to recover some of the thousands that I spent on it. It's a trade off. I would hazard a good guess that the STR would have got broken as it sat doing nothing into it's 6th year, if someone like me wasn't nuts enough to save it's arse. Unfortunately without any takers it meant the black car had to sacrifice itself. It's already provided parts to improve the STR... and there will be more. The black 3.0 is also on its tunable limit... A no mod zone, even a special exhaust back box will make it sound shit.

The early interior cars are hugely unpopular and that was probably my biggest error in trying to restore it and make it a bit more up to date inside, but I had fun and learned a lot. Now I have 2 other s types with the later interior, that was a vast improvement, I sat in the black car for the first time in months yesterday and although I flew the flag for the old interior for a while, I have to admit that it's a bit shit in comparison. The early shell though, I'm still with that, and that's where the x202 ticks the right boxes. 

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More goodness and drama... 

I managed to get a bank 1 (RH) exhaust manifold as there is the chance that the one on it might be warped and I already have a genuine NOS gasket for that. Caldoofy hasn't turned up yet but there is a long delivery time so I'll have to wait for that fun stuff.

The doner Jagdroid screen turned up and was not the one I bought, it's for a diesel spec. Instead of getting mad, I had the cunning plan that this could go in the er, diesel and I'll get the one I was supposed to get for cheaper, no harm done M8?

Seller was cool with that and the proper one is on the way. In the meantime, Jagdroid bloke got in touch and gave me a date to send the unit off. I am preparing to do the head work during this period so I've other things to get like a timing set, gaskets, DCCV valve, intake hoses, and other bits and pieces... and I wouldn't mind swapping the supercharger pully to the smaller one- whilst I'm there like. I'll do the CATs at this point. 

As everyone does, I have further plans beyond this essential work and the black car may be donating more than I first thought. For example, anyone seen this:

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See those rear arches? Those are stype front arches and I like that- a lot! The STR is going to need rear arch work in the next few years and not only that, the STR's rear subframe is not great but the 3.0 rear frame is absolutely minty, so I need to see if that works. They don't transfer to the X202.5 body but STR is the 200 body, the same as the 3.0 body. The STR frame could be beefed up in places and I could add said beefing if it requires it but some assessment is required. The diff needs upgrading to LSD too which is something I nearly started to get the bits for but I need to sort the exhaust system out first and I need to get Jagdroid now or I'll never get it!

So, still plenty of fun to be had out of it!

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My not stolen centre caps turned up today, excellent service from someone that is not a crack head. Immediately, I set about 'diluting' the appearance of the screwdriver marks and proceeded to go fit them...

 

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That's 2bhp added, if ever I've seen it! I cannot wait to rip the head off and get this exhaust manifold issue sorted, I still have never heard the beauty of this car taking off because it is destroyed by tractor sounds from under the bonnet. What a day that is going to be! Found a firm that does snout pulley work for the 10%er. It's 350£ odd,  but you know.... Whilst I'm there etc ...

This car is going to be fucking fast. That's all I have, I'm overcome with excitement. 

I know you are all eyeing up the neighbours Nissan, it's fucked, stop it 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's done. If ever you want sweaty palms, buy the full top end gasket and full timing chain sets for the 4.2. Jesus. Free postage though... so every cloud!

Anyhoo, I have lost my bottle on 'top hose roulette' and it's got a silicone unit coming as the rad top hose feels like chewing gum, expands... a lot, and collapses when cooled. That took a bit of working out to order as it's a reducer pipe at 90 degrees (ish), but a few measurements and 3.14 division later... we got very close.

Next will be 20 head bolts, funds set aside for the pully conversion on the supercharger, head work (stud replacement) on both heads, new tensioner pully and belt, valley pipes, and a heater valve because I know mine is packing up very soon. Then it'll be fluids and filters (again). With all that in stock I should have at least 46.4% of the bits I'll need during my 'journey'. All in all, about a grand in bits and a week to 'whip' the heads off and sellotape them back on I reckon.

I'm basically going to pull the front end off the car and whilst I'm at it I can realign the front wings around the headlamps. They don't look bad but I can see an issue where it's been flown into a ditch at some point, evidence can be seen by most of the missing undertrays and broken arch liner. I've replaced one which was totally missing.

I also got 98mm 'Jaguar R' logos for the Brembo calipers whilst they are easily available, for a future rebuild. They are the same sized logos on both front and back. I don't want silly things like decent logos being a pain to get a hold of.

After the engine top end is dealt with, the cats and exhaust I have are welded on, I can focus on LSD conversion, consider remap and continue with poly bushing.

That should quench a massive part of what this car is screaming out for.

In other news...

Interesting history was discovered, I found record of the original reg KE53 GYR which was swapped out somewhere in between 2016 and 2019 for S8 YPE. Someone who has interest in plate origination may find additional info as it appears that the car was first bought in Germany! That will explain the German coin I found under the back seat (and threw in the bin). It didn't stay long there before being bought over to the UK... almost delivery mileage!
I recall that a few years ago there was a period where it was financially beneficial to purchase RHD cars in Europe and bring them back the UK. I write 'back' as it would have been built in the UK and on presale taken to Germany, only to come back once purchased? I guess that this was part of that movement? Terrible Carbon footprint!

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Better catch up, this is an evolving machine... Things have happened, things have broken, but we are still moving.

Filling the car with fuel became an issue. For every 10£ put in the tank, 2£ hit the floor of the forecourt. It got worse. Several attempts at bodgery didn't have an ounce of effect and it persistently leaked fuel on fill up. It would appear that the filler hose which is made from steel, has rotted out where it connects to a rubber hose to the tank. This rubber hose had also broke down, leaving thick black deposits over anything that touched it. 75 jubilee clips later, I threw the towel in and looked at my options.

Meanwhile under the bonnet, I had some cover parts on the black car which were too unicorn poo like to waste, so set about seeing if I could fit those on this car which had the locating holes in the inner wings.

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In the meantime, the radiator top hose turned up and I went to fit it.

The radiator top mounts on the car were formed of plastic and on the black car they are metal so for what is was worth, I swapped these out. 

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Whilst in there I scanned over the rest of the cooling system. Removing the top hose it appeared that the radiator plastic core was fragmenting as it had lost it's hose securing bead and looked like rats had been at it. So a radiator was added to the list.

Another radiator which turned out to be the supercharger cooler, appeared to be leaking too.

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This unit isn't cheap and research is telling me that this is the best thing to use to cool the supercharger, thin and plenty of surface area, so my options are limited for a replacement. I had visions of some ally thing hanging out the front with Yee har text pained on in JDM style, but that isn't going to happen. I can likely get this repaired but I'll need it out to have a proper look at it.

The Cooling rad however, there is an aftermarket Ally item by Worley. I bit the bullet and ordered that.

The top rad hose I ordered in silicone was too big, I had grossly over measured in the tight space. Disappointing but I could at least measure it properly now and get the right one. This turned up a couple of days later and was fitted.

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The engine was topped back up with coolant, bled and run up to fan. It's interesting to note here that the header tank for the STR is different from the usual offerings in that it has an outlet for a hose to the Supercharge cooler, seen in the above image, coming out the back of the tank. I have read a case where a normal tank was fitted and the hose bunged off. This extra feed provides pressure equalisation to both systems, so bunging the hose off is probably not a good idea.

Further parts were ordered for the engine overhaul next month. There is an issue with these cars where 2 cooling hoses run under the supercharger in the valley between the heads. The hoses have a dead stop restriction where the pipes change size and it is here that many owners have found issue with hoses tearing. It's a sod of a job to replace these hoses but I found a modded hose where the reduction is part of the hose molding, eliminating this problem area. It is made of rubber, I was after silicone but couldn't source any so ordered those. Once they arrived, I found the ones I wanted in silicone... Bugger. So I got those too.

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In the meantime, the 20 head bolts turned up to go with the timing set, top end gasket set and 200 cell CATs.

Jagdroid gave me a date to send the touchscreen off and that was now. I had already ordered a spare unit to run whilst mine was being modified but it turned up 'not as advertised' i.e; the wrong unit, so I got the right one sent for a small extra cost. I took out my unit and prepared it for sending off.

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That has now been sent where it will be propelled into the 21st century, but look standard fit and retain all of original functions.

I found myself watching lots of you tubes where vehicles were catching fire, given the car leaks fuel, it got me spooked so I fitted a can of no flames discreetly in the glove box:

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The Caldoofy intake is also made and on it's way, can't wait for that bit!

The car was low on fuel, I had one last go at putting fuel in it, saw what leaked out and called it a day. It needed fixing immediately. I used the fuel in the tank and looked at my options. In a nutshell, the filler neck is no longer available. I found a rotten one in the UK for 80£ which would get me nowhere and a good one in the States for 180£. 

Being a bit mad, I hatched a plan and thought that I'd go against the Jaguar owners code of fitting the exact same part because the same cars are so different and nothing crosses over, and find an alternative solution. Most, if not all of the other S Type filler necks are expensive and made from stainless steel unlike my rotten thing. It would be an expensive trial if the part didn't fit. I did however stumble across a Diesel neck with the rubber connection included for 25£. I can swallow that... So I did!

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Yesterday, I allowed myself 3 hours to get it done. Removing the old stuff was fairly straight forward, just having to unbolt something on top of the rear frame to create access to a securing tab on the pipe. The toughest bit was trying to remove the 20+ year old fixings from the inner arch liner. With a bit of a wangle, the old filler neck came out and revealed its failing.

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She's done. I compared the two necks...

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That was looking promising in a 'your going to fit whether you like it or not' kind of way, even if it involved a blow torch.

Well, it didn't involve a torch and with a bit of brute force, it was in it's new home.

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I had to make a spacer and add a new fixing as it was in a completely different place, but it was factory. The replacement had a mounting tab that lined up the same as the old one, and the rubber hose to the tank fitted perfectly.

All that was missing was the filler cap. That was different to my one. I trialed the one off the Diesel S Type and it fitted so ordered an extra.

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Hilarious.

I then placed an old aerosol lid over the other cars open filler and kept the stolen borrowed one. I had no time to test anything so took the car to the fuel station, filled it up to the top and took off on a 100 mile trip. There were no issues with leaks, running operations or anything untoward. So that is considered a success.

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