I'll have to see what it says. No bad thing, I guess.

 

I added a few comments to the post.

 

I was looking at it, the thermostat has been replaced fairly recently, just going by calibrated eyeball.
The pump hasn't been leaking, but I was eyeing it. The mounts are the same on both this and the one in the car.

Those are in-car swaps though. Access to both the water pump and thermostat are good

Phil

 

Pulled the center console and fitted the replacement ashtray unit. Light works, lighter works (75 watts, quite beefy!) and the lid now flips open with a light touch.
Need to change the armrest. Cup holder is broken and it's the wrong color.

Phil

 

Refitted the crank pulley and accessories.

Pulled the plugs. They all look good. Compression was a touch low dry, added some oil and that woke the rings up.


Cranks over nice and evenly now.

Phil

 

Took the engine apart again to double check my work. Yup, had got the A bank intake cam timed wrong. B bank was good.


All back together, though you do need 3 arms to do that correctly.
Glad I checked.

Phil

 

Checked and charged the AC - just not much it can do with these 105-110 days

 

If you run it on the recirculating setting and keep it there then it will continue to cool/re-cool the car’s interior air only without trying to continually cool 105-110F exterior air. Both it and you will probably have an easier time coping.

 

Having an all black car definitely has its drawbacks.

 

Cleaned up the fuel filler neck.

The ethanol vapor appears to be behind turning the pot metal into gray powder. Removed that and it looks ok.

Found also that all modern rubber is trash. These were new in 2019. Jacking the car up and having the weight of the suspension on it caused it to explode.

Suggestions? Polyurethane? Keep it regular rubber bushings?

Phil
​​​

 

I haven’t had a black car for a while but the Carnival Red and the Regency Red on the last two daily driver Jags have the similar trait of looking dusty almost as quickly as you could wash them.

I remember late night television ads for California Dusters and put them in the same classification as miracle mileage boosters and pocket fishermen. Then I had someone I respect recommend them and quickly became a convert.

They’re no substitute for washing the car when it’s actually dirty but for picking up dust and restoring that “just washed” look to an otherwise clean car, to quote Tony the Tiger, they really do work GREAAAT in a matter of minutes.

 

I drove mine to work so it'd had a run this week. I really must replace the wiper as there's in inch or so of it not working & that happens to be just at eye level when I cleaned the screen earlier.

Anyone else find the wipers on these cars seem to only last a few months even when you buy decent makes? I've never known a car like it for streaks as soon as the wiper gets slightly old.

 

Having a single blade requires a longer blade and that is where the rub is.
The longer the blade is the less downward force that is applied to the spline.
Premium blades make some difference, but the fault is in the design.

 

Aye I get that, but I don't recall always seeming to need to replace them on the XJ40 I had years ago.

 

I've not found them to be shortlived although we don't get that much rain here compared to some places. On the other hand, we do get more than our share of ice and snow... I replaced the blade that was on the car when we picked it up as it was starting to streak a bit after two years (I don't know how old it was prior to our picking it up).

I replaced it with a Bosch Icon blade wiper in the spring that I've been happy with - it only seems to miss the outside bottom edge of the passenger side where the windshield curves the most and does a good job everywhere else in both directions while being noticeably quiet while sweeping and while reversing.

Of note is that Bosch makes A and B blades with A for the drivers side and B for the passenger side. Although they look identical, the B blades apparently perform better on passenger side as they're calibrated for that higher curve in the glass. I may switch to a B blade the next time it needs replacing just to see if it makes a difference.

 

I do my wiper blade maybe 1 or 2 times per year. Daily it year round, but it stays in the garage when its actively snowing or the roads are freshly salted. I've been using just the cheapie $10 blades and they work well enough, but they don't curve well enough so I can't get to either lower corner when it wipes.

Technically not today, but yesterday I had to re-apply my nearly 2 year old repair job from when I snapped the line while removing the bank 1 cam cover. 34,000 miles out of a 10 cent heat shrink tube versus buying that line and routing it under the supercharger? I'll take that all day long!

 

I replace mine about as often, but mine only does 2k miles or so per year as my dailies have two wheels so my XJR does see snow & ice when it's too bad for bikes. I just don't recall needing to swap blades all the time on my XJ40 that was used in a very similar way. It's hardly a major cost though, so no biggy.

 

I buy whatever is cheapest and replace every six months. With pollution, tree sap, pollen, and weather (hot and cold), I find they deteriorate quickly no matter how expensive (Land Rover OEM, years ago were great and an exception): a couple of bucks and ten minutes and works like brand new!

 

So, while waiting to parts to arrive to finish the driveline repairs on my LS-swapped '00 XJR posted elsewhere within this forum, I decided to try and make an airbox/baffle to try and reduce the amount of hot air that could be pulled into the air filter. When the car was last at the tuner, they noted some very high intake air temps, especially when stopped or in stop/go traffic with AC on. Theory being that the proximity of the high speed (right side) fan to the air filter is causing the air to be pushed towards the filter. I thought about adapting an OEM airbox and making a new lid, but the configuration isn't right and would make finding a filter that would work inside it difficult. So, I tried out my metal fabrication skills... Having not done something like this before, I think it came out ok. I found an image of the Mina Motorsports setup when I was done and I think is pretty close to what that one does, but for the changed intake tube location. The gold reflective insulation is to try and minimize the heat transfer as much as possible. These LS engines throw a ton of heat and it's why I'm doing this in the first place.


I made templates from cardboard that followed the contour of the passenger fender well and up to the height of the existing bodyline/weatherstripping for a close seal to the hood insulation. I then transferred to sheet metal. (I forget what gauge I used, but I could cut it with my jigsaw and metal scissors).


I made the longitudinal piece such that it slid between the crush tube and fender well, and extends under the radiator support out towards the back of the headlight. It ends right next to the headlight adjuster knob. It's riveted to the piece that curves on the wheel well.


After measuring 3x, I made one cut to allow the intake tube to pass into the closed off area. The piece along the wheelwell is screwed to the inner fender and also the wheel well, hidden under the wiring loom in this pic.


I'm pretty happy with the finished product. It closes things up nicely. I used underwood weatherstripping from a Mercedes that I scavenged at the local pick-n-pull to close the gaps at the top and bottom of the cut pieces and press up against the hood insulation. Next step is to have to the tune adapted to accommodate the revised intake characteristics.

 

I had replaced the left bank O2 sensor about a month ago and have been running through the emissions systems reset profile every time I drive the car (not very often). Anyway, after 5 or six runs through the profile, the green "all systems ready" check mark finally popped up on my portable reader. All those runs probably totaled about a hundred miles with irate motorists shaking their fists as I sped up and slowed down during the various profiles. Lots of anxiety, a fair amount of danger, and wasted fuel to add to the repair itself..... Never, never erase stored codes as you risk all systems going to factory settings, whereupon the car has to relearn emissions ready status. (This assumes your car is registered in a mandated emissions test area like Dallas-Fort Worth).