Howdy peeps. I picked up my long desired dream car, an XKE FHC (SII). The car is not equipped with AC, something desirable for summers here where temps hit 90 for much of July & August.

Has anyone retrofitted their car with AC and able to offer guidance? I saw this company (website below) that offers model specific AC kits. In looking at the specs, the mechanics who have long worked on my small car collection viewed installation as straight forward. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

https://www.classicautoair.com/shop/...ioning-system/

 

Hi Smonop,
I have never heard about the kit you mentioned in your post, but it does look very nice and complete. I have the dealer installed ac for my 68 FHC that is undergoing restoration, and it looks very very similar to the kit you are considering.
Good luck with your choice of ac. Let us know how it turns out. Oh, and post some photos of your E-Type.
Stay safe.
Bill.

 

Just remember E-Types have a tendency to run hot anyway, the Series II cars are fortunately better than the Series I's in this regard. So make sure your radiator has been flushed and isn't clogged or you'll have an overheating problem once this is done (if you don't have already) Jaguars of that age were designed for a far cooler climate. Back when I was working as a Jaguar mechanic the air-conditioned cars were having near-constant overheating issues during the summers in California. But if your cooling system is in good shape you shouldn't have an issue but it is better to address this before rather than after the installation. Oh and make sure your water pump and thermostat are in good shape as well. Do post pictures as I'm sure a number of us would like to see how this comes out. Best of luck!

 

Have you been looking over my shoulder? Yesterday when I received the car I took her for a 2 mile drive to register the vehicle. Between sitting in the sun for an hour, idling for 5 minutes or so and the 2 mile drive, the temp gauge sat just shy of the red line (temp was 91 here yesterday) which concerned me obviously. On the trip back home, the RPM’s just flat lined. Contacted the shop where I purchased the car, they suggested checking / replacing the cooling fan fuse, (the other items relying on that fuse were operating) and when I replaced that fuse with a US comparable fuse (vs Lucius) nothing worked. I put the original fuses back in and now I have RPM’s back but can’t hear the fuel pump (that’s frightening). Electrical gremlins?

 

So I removed fuses six and seven, used sandpaper on the contacts and put in two new fuses and I believe the cooling fans are now functional given I just drove 20 miles and the temp needle stay dead center. My brake lights hadn’t been functioning either cured with a new fuse.

But I do have a question about RPMs. Since today is only my second day with the car and the RPMs didn’t engage yesterday (due to the fuse problem) I don’t know what normal is but they seem to be awfully high, pegged at just about red line in 4th gear (see pic below) which I thought was odd. Having owned various manual transmissions it didn’t sound to me like I was stressing the engine i.e. it wasn’t screaming at me. Thoughts?

Also posting a few pics of the car!

 

Congratulations Smonop, That is a beautiful example of what looks to be a very nicely sorted E-Type.
52 MPH and the tach at 4,800 RPM, I'd say the tach is not reading correctly.
Good luck with your new car. Enjoy it in good health.
Bill.

 

Impressively clean car. Low power or a bad ground will cause a Tach to read high. Could be a fault in the tach itself as well. But given how clean that car is I'd look for a ground problem. I've replaced all my gauges with current generation stuff and never rewired at Tach myself, but if you have a shop manual (and you should buy one if you don't have one) you should be able to sort this pretty easily. Good luck! (Their are full wiring diagrams online as well). This should be pretty close (look middle right): https://www.coolcatcorp.com/faqs/XKE...%20Diagram.bmp

 

Thank you, I will look into it! Appreciate the advice.

 

Welcome, let me know if you get this sorted. Good luck!