Midwest XJS owner intro
#1
Midwest XJS owner intro
Howdy everyone. I'm Jake, a freshly-minted Jag owner from Wichita Kansas. My car, bought last week for $2500 is a 1977 XJ-S with a Chevy 350 dropped in place of the V12 that was in it when it was purchased in 1978 from Scotland, Arizona. The car has the typical maladies: rusted out floor wells from the A/C condensation and clogged drain tubes, finnicky electronics, trashed seats, and vacuum leaks but the Chevy 350 and TH350 transmission does get it from Point A to Point B (albeit at a dismal 11mpg).
The interior boasts a Nardi Classic wooden steering wheel and mostly stock interior in fairly serviceable shape sans the rusted out floor pans. The engine is a 350 bored .030" over with a mild cam, Edelbrock 600cfm four-barrel carburetor, and some exhaust leaks, the transmission is a 3-speed TH350 with a non-locking torque converter that results in 3000rpm on the highway. Fairly miserable, hopefully going to be ditched for a 4 speed with overdrive at some point.
Hopefully the floor pans will be replaced before the end of the month then I can get some sound deadening and carpets in the car, tune the carb up, finish repairing or replacing the electronics of the A/C (my current plan is to use R/C hobby servos and an Arduino microcontroller to modernize the A/C controls and get rid of the vacuum nonsense), make new door cards out of acrylic instead of the soggy cardboard, replace the 12 year old aftermarket stereo, and put some more miles on the car. Today I'm hoping to blow the clog out of the HVAC drain lines and fix a fairly obnoxious exhaust leak right below the driver's feet and take a look at stuffing some more, er, stuffing into the rather deflated-looking seats.
My other cars include a 2002 Mazda Miata SE that is my autocross car and currently-broken daily driver and a 1986 V6 notchback Mustang I bought my girlfriend as a daily driver and converted to a 5 speed manual.
The interior boasts a Nardi Classic wooden steering wheel and mostly stock interior in fairly serviceable shape sans the rusted out floor pans. The engine is a 350 bored .030" over with a mild cam, Edelbrock 600cfm four-barrel carburetor, and some exhaust leaks, the transmission is a 3-speed TH350 with a non-locking torque converter that results in 3000rpm on the highway. Fairly miserable, hopefully going to be ditched for a 4 speed with overdrive at some point.
Hopefully the floor pans will be replaced before the end of the month then I can get some sound deadening and carpets in the car, tune the carb up, finish repairing or replacing the electronics of the A/C (my current plan is to use R/C hobby servos and an Arduino microcontroller to modernize the A/C controls and get rid of the vacuum nonsense), make new door cards out of acrylic instead of the soggy cardboard, replace the 12 year old aftermarket stereo, and put some more miles on the car. Today I'm hoping to blow the clog out of the HVAC drain lines and fix a fairly obnoxious exhaust leak right below the driver's feet and take a look at stuffing some more, er, stuffing into the rather deflated-looking seats.
My other cars include a 2002 Mazda Miata SE that is my autocross car and currently-broken daily driver and a 1986 V6 notchback Mustang I bought my girlfriend as a daily driver and converted to a 5 speed manual.
#2
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Tehama County, California, USA
Posts: 25,656
Received 9,463 Likes
on
5,466 Posts
#3
Welcome to the forum Jake,
Good to have you with us at Jaguar forums.
Follow this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xjs-x27-32/ to the XJS forum for help, advice and information. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues.
Please remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.
You can also visit the US Central Region forum by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/us-central-36/ to find other members in your region.
Enjoy the forums.
Graham
Good to have you with us at Jaguar forums.
Follow this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xjs-x27-32/ to the XJS forum for help, advice and information. The 'HOW TO' thread at the top is a good place to start for information on regular issues.
Please remember to add vehicle details to your Signature to help others to give relevant advice. Go to the User CP button on the left of the top menu bar, then Settings & Options under Your Control Panel. Select Edit Signature and enter the details.
You can also visit the US Central Region forum by following this link https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/us-central-36/ to find other members in your region.
Enjoy the forums.
Graham
#4
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Dural, Northwest Sydney. Australia.
Posts: 40,675
Received 4,052 Likes
on
2,909 Posts
#5
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Delaneys Creek,Qld. Australia
Posts: 28,381
Received 6,327 Likes
on
4,370 Posts
#6
#7
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Summerville, South Carolina
Posts: 24,814
Received 4,331 Likes
on
3,741 Posts
Trending Topics
#8
Thanks for the kind words everyone!
What is your setup like? I feel like the short-geared 3 speed (3000rpm on the highway!) has a lot to do with it. I need to get my hands on a borrowed wideband O2 sensor so I can see if I'm running rich, and by how much. I also feel my heads need reworked since there's a bit of vacuum flutter at idle that I doubt is caused by the cam (not lumpy enough) and is instead probably the valves requiring lapped and new valve stem seals.
What is your setup like? I feel like the short-geared 3 speed (3000rpm on the highway!) has a lot to do with it. I need to get my hands on a borrowed wideband O2 sensor so I can see if I'm running rich, and by how much. I also feel my heads need reworked since there's a bit of vacuum flutter at idle that I doubt is caused by the cam (not lumpy enough) and is instead probably the valves requiring lapped and new valve stem seals.
#9
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: PHX some of the time
Posts: 117,785
Received 6,357 Likes
on
5,533 Posts
Welcome to Jaguar Forums Jake,
Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.
If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help
Good to have you with us.
Enjoy the forum.
If you haven't done so already you should add your car details to your signature to help others to help you.
If you need help with getting around and using the forum follow this link for some help Forum Help