Jaguar XJS progress.

frenchyd said:

In reply to yupididit :

No Jaguar had a 3 spd with the TH400 then went to the 4speed  with the 4L80e 

Yes I know

In reply to frenchyd :

Erik came over this evening and together we removed all the glass ( without breakage ) a whole lot of wiring, the dash and started removing the sound deadening. 
   One of the tasks I've set for myself tomorrow is to see how close to my goal of 6 pounds per horsepower we'll be.  I need to get around 2700 pounds 

frenchyd said:

In reply to frenchyd :

Erik came over this evening and together we removed all the glass ( without breakage ) a whole lot of wiring, the dash and started removing the sound deadening. 
   One of the tasks I've set for myself tomorrow is to see how close to my goal of 6 pounds per horsepower we'll be.  I need to get around 2700 pounds 

In other words, the V12 plus about 1500 pounds of car? 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Good one;-). Although the engine's official weight is 680#'s  so 2000 pound plus the engine.  When we were worn out last night I just turned off the lights and went to bed.  Leaving the mess to be cleaned in the morning.  
    But earlier in the day working in the trunk area I disconnected a line. Since nothing came out I assumed the gas tank was empty. ( the car had been sitting for 10+  years in Southern California).  Oops! Dripping came out of the hose later on.  
When my wife came home she complained that the smell was going to make her vomit. I have No sense of smell. Dead skunk could decay on my upper lip and I couldn't smell it.  
   I got out the 20 mule team Borax  and scrubbed the shop floor.  Erick came over and never complained about the stench, sorry Buddy.  
 Checking with my wife when he left, nope it was still giving her a headache.  So I opened up both garage doors the lake side and street side.    
    Still filtering up all night.   So I went to the store and was bewildered by all the cleansers and deodorants  I bought several of each and once things are cleaned up I'll attack. 
 

Any suggestions on what to use on stale gasoline?  

Fire.

Just keep the doors open and let it dry out, the smell will go away. If it wasn't so hot last night we would have definitely had the doors open, otherwise it was better to have some stink than to be sweltering. 

Dawn dish soap and water. Scrub rinse repeat. 
 

Or fresh gasoline?  

In reply to kingbeann :

I opened both doors ( lake side and street side)  again this morning.  And left them open all day. Nice  breeze off the lake and through the garage.  
     Cleaned everything up and then scrubbed again with 20 mule  team Borax and  followed with  a disinfectant and deodorant.  I just checked and while it's not saying anything  I couldn't smell a thing. 
SWMBO isn't complaining so that's progress. 
 

In reply to frenchyd :

680lbs?  Pff.  That's a featherweight.  The 460 in Plymford weighs north of 700 lbs.

I hear ya on the sense of smell thing.  Mrs VCH can smell things and I swear there's nothing there.  She thinks I think she's crazy, she just doesn't spend all day surrounded by an olfactory onslaught.  I did smell when the neighbor was burning plastic the other day, though. 

Old gas is just about the worst smell there is, though.  I think it's worse than burnt gear oil.  And since old gas has had all the volatiles evaporated out of it, it hangs around longer.  You need something that cuts grease/ oil.  Maybe some of that engine degreaser stuff?  Purple power?  Spray 9? 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Yeh, if  your Ford ever takes a connecting rod vacation or something serious like that why not search around now to  have One on hand.  
     To review here's the skinny. 1971-74 had carbs.  4 simple Stromberg carbs. A wire to the coil and bobs your uncle.   Well maybe two if you want the tach to work ;-).  
  From 1975 on its fuel rejected. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But you can retrofit the early carbs.

       If you're handy welding you could cut the stock fuel rejection manifold off and weld a plate for 3 SU type carbs per side. (6) total.  About  an inch &1/2 should do nicely. ( and look very sexy ).   
      Since Ford bought Jaguar in about 1988 you're even keeping it in the family.   The only problem is what will you do with all the space on the sides?  
     Transmission?  From 1971-3/4 1977 the transmission was the cast iron case Borg Warner.  From 3/41977-1992 they are the Turbo 400  which is easily modified to manual select.  ( a good thing ) it forces you to move the lever from 1st, 2nd, 3rd.  Not only can you hold the shift longer, the shifts are instant ( hard)  which keeps the heat out of the gearbox so you won't need a giant cooler  to keep transmission fluid temps down. 
     It's real straight forward to change to a manual transmission. Use a Chevy bell housing and make a simple adapter. The locating dowels are in the same place on Jaguars as on Chevies. 
       

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Speaking of smell,  for several nights I've been smelling that stale gas smell at night.  
My bedroom is on the lakeside of the house and the car is on the street side 50 feet away. 
    I've left both sets of doors open all day and a few nights.  Wash wash, scrub scrub.  Tried everything others have recommended. 
    When I go into the garage I can't smell anything.  But there's the smell every night.  
    Grrrrr then this morning I smelled it on my hands just after putting my shoes on.   
  Yep! The shoes!   

In reply to frenchyd :

Yep!  Mrs. VCH always tells me, leave my grubby, gasoline-smelling work boots out in the mud room! 

We're sticking with Big Ford power for Plymford.  400HP is just too easy out of 7-1/2 liters.  Plus mounds of lb-ft at hundreds of RPM.  Hang the gas costs. 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Success!!   
such wealth. !   I've found a total of 99 cents. In the Challenge Jaguar.  

Frenchy, if the gas smell persists, most Ace Hardware stores here in town sell a product called Atmosklear that works pretty good for eliminating odors (you can also order it from Amazon).  It comes in a spray bottle.  https://www.maryellenproducts.com/atmosklear.html

In reply to stuart in mn :

 Thank you Stuart, I'm heading over there now  

Until I figure out how to remove the gas tank I'm afraid  the smell will persist. 

There's about 400 pounds. To be replaced with less than 100 pounds.  The stripped doors minus hinges, windows door latches etc etc etc still weigh between 40-50 pounds each. A complete door is likely well over 100 pounds. .  Their replacements will weigh between 3-4 pounds each. 

In reply to frenchyd :

 Look at the ground clearance now. It actually measures 12 inches to the bottom of the rocker panel. 
 Now granted there is about 400 pound of panels missing. But they will be replaced with less than 100 pounds of fiberglass etc. 

  Remarkably, the heaviest single item I removed is the HVAC  unit. Now that doesn't count the heavy York compressor etc.  All together I'll bet there is well over 100 pounds. 

If you look the passenger side intake manifold  is a stock Fuel injection manifold. We intend to mill the face off it and weld a plate to take  threes HS 4  SU carbs  per side ( total of 6 )  for those not familiar with Carbs they are found on MG's since 1954, common on MGB's  in fact as near as I can figure even the needles ( ES ) should be close to the required size. 
     So if you have a set of HS4 SU's sitting around getting dusty I'd like to talk to you.  
   The drivers side has the much rarer carb manifold. Which I originally planned on using. With 4 HD 8 carbs. ( XKE )  but finding that 4th one has proven elusive. 
   The good thing is it's pretty hard to over carb SU's.  4   HD8 SU's is 8 inches of  throttle bore size.  Roughly 1200cfm. 
   While 6   HS4 's  is 10 inches inches  of throttle bore. roughly 1600 cfm. 
  One of the standard modifications for the V12  is to put a bigger pair of throttle bores on. 
With the way SU's work it allows over sized carbs to work. 
    The XKE  with 258 cu inches used  950 CFM carbs. While that big of carb on a Chevy 350 would have a massive bog on acceleration. 

Look the smelly gas tank is gone.  It's not rusty or anything wrong with it ( that I can see ) but  I need to clean and paint the trunk etc. in order to replicate Group 44's XJS. Thanks Erik. 

Looks like that paint will polish up nicely.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Yes but Group 44 was a white car with lite green and dark green bottom. 

So how much do you think it will weigh race weight? 3200?

I've got an mgb Stromberg if you want to skip the milling and just bolt it to that manifold for the laughs!

I'm bummed you're not closer. Would love to get involved in working on this.

Motorcycle carbs?  HSR42 Mikuni's? $100 each on eBay for knock offs

Or the chinese S&S knock-offs? @ $50 each on Ebay