Hi Thorsen,
You should give the condenser a light coat of black paint so it won't show through the grill and spoil the looks of the grill.

Be careful using silicone hose, back in the 90's there were a few rescue squads/ambulances that caught fire due to the conversion shop using the wrong type of hose clamps with silicone hoses and 90-100% antifreeze. The sharp edge of the clamps cut the hose and high concentration of propylene glycol if flammable. A bad combination that led to thermal events.

P.S. Between Christmas and New Years, I made last minute trip to Chicago and could have delivered those parts.

 

You absolutely have to use the right hose clamps with silicone hoses or you're asking for trouble. And don't buy the cheapest hoses you can find either. Buy the good stuff.

Let me know the next time you're heading my way - would love to have you stop by.

 

Sounds good, I'd love to see you cars.

 

It's also wise to ensure silicone hose doesn't touch anything along its length as its abrasion resistance is not good. Where there is a possibility of contact, it can be wrapped with an abrasion resistant rubber.

 

I fail to see why people use silicone hose at all.

The only place I used silicone extruded hose on my car was as an anti rattle seal on the glass of my gauges when we refurbished them. Got a place that makes medical hoses to extrude 5 metres of 2.5mm OD x 1mm ID black silicone tubing (perfect replacement seal) for me. Very kind of them because it's a PIA to do such short runs. Must have put my melancholy face on.

 

Because they can take the heat better and don't get hard.
My low pressure lines from the power steering reservoir would always harden up being right next to the exhaust manifolds, and would eventually leak, these are apparently hydraulic lines meant for low oil pressure.
The silicone lines that are in there are still supple and don't leak.

The rubber coolant lines or what ever they're made from, rot eventually.

That's been my experience.

 

Oh Jeff that is a feeble response. Give me one OEM that uses silicone hoses OE. It's nonsense.

Note Peter's accurate comment.

Don't compare ancient technology with the present compounding & construction methods & materials.

You need to use modern "rubber" (many varieties called rubber by the proletariat) to protect your silicone.

It's nothing but bling. Nice purple or dayglo green.

 

Here we go again....

I'm going by my personal experience, not just with my Jaguar, but the hoses on the Bentley and my truck.

What ancient technology, all the hoses on those said vehicles are from new stock, or a few years old from sitting on the shelf, and what ever they're made off (rubber or some special compound?) ?
The fact is they break down and need replacing.
The ones that I mentioned on the power steering reservoir, have been there for a number of years now and have not suffered from getting hard, thus causing leaks where it's clamped.
The other hoses that I have used are had from a hydraulic shop and brake down from heat, they are not from ancient stock.

I believe OEM does not use silicone because it's expensive, requiring special clamps, according to Peter.
And abrasion, there's nothing in any of those vehicles that's so tightly packed that cause abrasion, maybe in a new car perhaps ?

There's an entire sight that manufacture these silicone hoses for racing vehicles _ there must be some advantage to it, not just having pretty red hoses under the hood.

Also, why do you have to be so insulting Glyn "feeble response" ?
Why is Thorsen using silicone hoses, just for bling, or was that his only option he had for his custom work ?

 

Believe what you wish. You won't find any silicone hose on a Mercedes F1 car. You can be pretty chippy yourself on occasion. ~ contemplate that seriously.

Silicone is not expensive. It might be overcharged for ~ yes. No OEM uses it which has nothing to do with cost.

Would you replace a Viton seal with silicone?

It is silicone that requires special clamps.

Silicone is a severe pollutant. It's a curse. It breaks down into smaller & smaller particles that can't be got rid of. It is virtually indestructible. If you like fish your body is probably full of it.

Thorsen is doing a fine job of his car. His standard of workmanship & concepts is outstanding. Only the windscreen fit needs sorting.

 

This requires to be said.
Thorsen ~ I apologise for causing a minor tiff within your excellent thread.
Jeff ~ Peace. I am after all of Canadian heritage. Looking forward I am more than willing to help you with any matters Tribological ~ from lubricating giant clock springs or prosthetic joints with bodily fluids to whatever. 'nuff said.

 

Another busy morning in the garage. I started with just setting the new speedometer and tach in the dash to see how they look.


The goal today was to get some wiring done. I started with the radiator fan controller. I'm using 10 gauge wire from the fans to the controller, then 10 gauge from the controller to ground.


I mounted the controller and started wiring up the battery, ignition, and ground terminals.


Each fan has a 30 amp circuit breaker


While I knew @Bob_S was right about how out of place the unpainted aluminum condenser would like behind the grill, I resisted painting it because a layer of paint does nothing to help the heat exchange.


...so I misted on the lightest coat of paint I could manage. Enough to hide it behind the grill but not enough paint to keep it from doing its job.


I started working through the sending units for the new gauges. It looks like the temperature sensor needs a 5/8-18 male to 1/8-27 NPT adapter and a 1/4 NPT to 1/8 NPT for the oil pressure sensor.


The new radiator fan controller measures the outlet temp from the radiator and uses that to determine how fast to spin the fans. Here is the sensor for the controller mounted in a 1-3/4" adapter.


My car originally had an automatic transmission and still had the lower hose fluid cooler in place. I thought this was a good time to get rid of it.
I'm plumbing with silicone hose again and my vendor didn't have a piece of 1-3/4" silicone tubing in black so I had to use blue. I'm typically OCD enough that this would bother me but it's tucked up and no one will see it.
But I bet you a cheap bottle of scotch it gets changed to a black tube before I'm done

(Does anyone else have a crankshaft sponge?)

Here's the full run of the lower hose. The left side joins to the stock hose that goes to the water pump and you can see the temp sensor for the radiator fan controller just to the right of the blue section of hose. Three 90° bends get me to the radiator outlet.

 

It was Bob_S that suggested painting the condenser black. Benz condensers are totally different in construction & a sort of matt charcoal finish.

Never seen a crankshaft pointer sponge.

I'm a strange beast being a Mercedes fanatic & Moderator at MBWorld & a Jag fanatic.

 

I stand corrected and have updated the post.

 

More wiring fun today. I decided to run a new +12v cable to the starter and due to insufficient room to get my wrench on the terminal on the starter - I got to drop the starter out the bottom to replace the cable. Not difficult but time consuming. I also ran a dedicated ground from the starter to the body just beacuse.
I also decided that 56 years was a pretty good run for the plastic insulators on this terminal post. Can you imagine the sparks if the plastic cracked and the stud grounded out? I have a solution in mind for this.


Today was the day I got serious about the AC. After spending some time looking at how everything would line up I decided to put it with the thermostat facing the trunk area and the pipes in the back.


This was my Cortes 'burning the ships' moment. After measuring I drilled two holes in the trunk floor for the evap drains. The kit comes with some nice grommets but I am not a fan of the hoses - I can replace those later.


The rear most mounting brackets were easy enough to attach. I have them held in place with sheet metal screws for the moment but I will replace them with nuts and bolts when everything is finalized.
The forward brackets were against the bulkhead and impossible to reach. I considered punching holes in the bulkhead so I could get to them but decided against it. I ended up making a bracket with a welded nut - a bolt comes through the bulkhead to hold the bracket in place.


The other end of the bracket bolts to the evap case. It's very solid and doesn't wiggle.


Wiring and plumbing the AC are next on my list.

 

No worries at all!

 

Thanks for correcting this, it didn't matter who received the credit for the suggestion.

As for the sponge. If your watch Seinfeld, Elaine would say this Jaguar is "Sponge Worthy". LOL

 

I've been busy with work and family but had some time to get out in the garage tonight.
Back in November I talked my Dad into polishing the air intake manifold I bought on eBay. I forgot to get a before picture but here it is at the end of Day 1 after Dad had wet sanded.


I bought him a buffer/polisher and he took his time getting it "shinier than a dollar in a goat's ***". I'm not sure what he means but I'll take his word for it.


First thing tonight was reconnecting the cooling system. For the first time in several months I have a cooling system that will hold water.
After that I turned my attention to the rear package shelf. This car had AC before and the cutouts on the rear panel were covered over with carpet. The outside holes were the perfect size but the center hole was too big to hold the air intake grille for the AC. So I bought a sheet of board and cut out a new panel.


Here is the air return panel sitting nicely in the center hole.
I bought some new carpet and will glue that on this weekend.


After that I turned my attention to the power post on the firewall. The old one had served it's duty and it was time to replace it. are easy to find and this bolted right up to the firewall.


I put terminals on the new alternator cable and starter cable and re-connected everything.


I have a few AC fittings coming tomorrow and I'll be able to start plumbing the AC system in earnest this weekend.

 

Polishing the carbs and Plenum chamber to the correct sort of finish is easily achieved by using Autosol Metal Polish sparingly & newspaper surprisingly. Trick taught to me by my first & fired restorer. (allowed the project to languish while I was on expat assignment & cost me another paint job)

 

This is my spare that I polished up but I had a polishing wheel and lots of time on my hands during Covid lock downs. This one is actually up for sale on EBay but I have had no takers yet. Every spring I pull mine from the engine bay along with the cam covers and give them a once over with the polishing wheel in time for the first shows.

 

Yes ~ One must remember that Jaguar polished parts of the engine were NOT mirror finish. They were as I show above. (from Autosol & newspaper). Just being my concours self. Don't mind me. They were finished with a wheel which would de-burr & polish in one operation. A combination of cotton & metal fibres. It's in a video somewhere.