Yes, My neighbor who has an Xk120 told me about it so we took the 71 mile trip from the rock. Really nice venue, they had a nice cabana area where they were serving food at reasonable prices. Tree lined setting was perfect for a sunny day. Very laid back as many people brought beach chairs and umbrella's to make a day of it. They were also playing classical and big band jazz music. The din hushed on que when the organizers made announcements every 30 minutes. It was not what I'm used to at a car show but very nice.

 

Yep,
When the 40's music echo's amongst the tree's it's down right magical!

I missed this year ! Next year I plan on going in style!

Rusty

 

This is a short video with temperature data. Ambient was 91 degrees and the system was not in recirc mode. So that's a 50 degree temperature drop at idle with the fan speed on high. Later on during my drive I did put the system in recirc mode and I was getting 39 degree vent temps right before the compressor would switch off.


As a practical matter the car is very cool and comfortable and after a short while, down right chilly if left in full cool. The digital controls of the XJS work well enough. Today it was 91 degrees and sunny and I was able to cruise around in city cycle rush hour traffic with the temp dial set a tick above 70 and the fan on the lowest speed.

The Compressor is a $50 "core" from a specialist Corvette breaker I purchased off of Ebay. It was the lowest price item and the auction stated it worked but no guarantee. I was just gonna use it for mock up but it seemed strong when operated by hand so I ran with it. The stickers said R12 and the date code was 1989. Odd becasue it was very clean. Could have been NOS.

-Accumulator / Drier is original to a 1995 XJS and date coded 1994. Installed in the best possible location. out front and cool. Jag got this right. Having all the refrigerant accumulate in a cooler spot is the right idea. GM insists on installing them in the hot engine compartment, dont know why. Mercedes Benz also puts the accumulator out front.

-Expansion valve is new.

-High side hose is insulated with heat resistant tubing found on Ebay becasue it passes just inches from the header.

-Complete airbox and fan assemblies from a late XJS becasue it was designed with an evaporator and TXV setup for R134a.

-The Condensor is huge and Gen4 Camaro. I think this might account for the excellent and stable performance. The GM condenser is about 35% bigger than the condenser that comes on the XJS.

-2 all custom hoses, 1 XJS hose was shortened.

-System was evacuated for 40 min, filled with 6 OZ of PAG 46 oil and charged until the low side was just 25 psi at 80 ambient. I dont have a high side service port at the moment.

This setup represents everything I know about ideal A/C learned after much trial and error on other project cars, Everything about this system is right and there are no compromises on component choice or packaging. Other SBC conversions I've done using the R12 TXV and GM accumulator didn't cool anywhere nearly as well, not even close. The whole Corvette serpentine system was chosen at great expense just so I could use this type of compressor which is known for being a great performer. This netted some other advantages which include a GM type 2 power steering pump and short water pump.

I hope this will help someone. Bottom line is...You gotta plan these conversions and every last detail from the start to get them right in the end. What good is a convert that doesn't hook or wont handle better than it did in the 70's. What good is a 12 second car that doesn't cool or has rough idle or gets terrible gas mileage, or is so loud you can talk to your passengers.



You can see A/C compressor, hoses and accumulator. High pressure hose can be seen with black insulation becasue it passes just inches from a very hot header.

You can also see the header paint hasnt burned off after months of driving. Thats not a
high dollar ceramic coating. It's header spray paint from Autozone. This is becasue the exhaust flows great at WOT and the GM ECM is tuned with the correct timing under all conditions and with very lean cruising AFR's in the high 15's and low 17's under decel. This keeps the headers cool, helps efficiency / gas mileage, yet throttle response and power are still excellent.

 

Soooo.. Whats It going to be? LS or AJ16 E-Rod Stick or auto? Are you going to start a blue Thread.? I read this whole thread again Its great!

Rusty

 

2017 Coupe project preview....

I love driving the red one so much but it's a hand full and too easy to drive too fast. I'd like a sedate cruiser too. So AJ16 with ZF 4HP24. I'm basically doing a body swap with a 1995 XJS and the focus will be on refinement and cruising so for this 245 HP will be plenty. Haven't made a thread yet...but
soon becasue garage is too messy for photos right now.

The Blue coupe has about 40,000 miles on the Odometer and it shows. The under coating is perfect, nothing is rotted and it was garaged it's whole life. It became a fixture in the garage some time in the early 80's when it lost a cylinder and it sat there unit is was offered to me. So out with the defunct XK and in with the AJ. It will continue it's sedate life with a smooth and AJ16, some modest wheels and tires, the Euro treatment, a rear sway bar, ABS, upgrade Wilwood brakes, XJS everything and refreshed upholstery.

The XJS donor had 38k miles and everything is tight... the diff had no play, rack is tight... so its 40k mile XJC + 38k mile XJS parts.

 

 

Stopped by Taim on the way home to pick up dinner. Took a pict while I waited.

One of the Hottest days, A/C on, sitting in NYC traffic. No issues... I was cool and refreshed for my meeting with a client near Madison Square Garden.

 

Beautiful shot!
I'm no wimp when it comes to taking my cars anywhere but jeepers! It's crowded with everything down there. Then again I don't have 2! Cars....I need bumpers like those. And headlight buckets for 7" lights the place that has them doesn't right now.

Rusty

 

ICS, you're a braver man than I will ever be for bringing a car that nice anywhere close to the high-traffic rat's nest that is the West 30s in Manhattan.

 

Great pic man, amazing that you're finished and driving that car in such a short amount of time. Can't wait for the blue one.

 

Rusty, Tr6/mgb buckets are the same, just rivet the clip on for the ring. Chrome rings are the bit that's hard to get.

 

i also found generic buckets on ebay for 15$, worked great for me

 

 

It was a great night at the drag strip. As I sit enjoying some Amarula neat I'm all smiles becasue the 2015 Coupe ran the 1/4 mile in 12.66 seconds at 111 MPH. This is just my 2nd try with the car. I got to the track late and didn't have time to lower tire pressure and I forgot to turn off the A/C. It was a no drama run, the Coupe went down the track pin straight and the sound of the 6000 RPM shifts was thrilling.

This is a good time for a comfortable daily driver. This was probably my last run for this year as the track will close soon. Next year I'm going for the 11's and will somehow retain the dead smooth idle and easy driving characteristics. No boost, no nitrous... all motor. Dont know how I'm going to do it for sure... but I have a few ideas.

 

Sweet.......very very sweet!

 

Congrats and stuff!
(';')

 

This car is finshed but continues to evolve. I'm trying to up the capabilities of the 2015 coupe and retain its smooth idle and buttery ride for a track day in June.

I was thinking about installing the slightly larger V12 sway bar to up the handling on this coupe. I already added a rear sway bar long ago and the car handled very well. After driving the XJS 6.0 6 speed with it's taughter front bar I liked it. It didn't exhibited the po-go stick quality of other cars I've had with thick front sway bars. Good FORTUNE struck when out of the blue a Jaguar friend offered me a v12 22MM (7/8) sway bar. Some time presented itself late Christmas day and in it went. It certainly improved the driving dynamic and no additional harshness was observed. Schwing!

Good FORTUNE struck again when a set of $550 Crower Enduro 1.7 ratio stainless roller rockers presented on Ebay BIN for $125 (free shipping) I cheek-illy offer $100 and 10 minutes later my offer was accepted. They arrived a few days later well packed and looking like new.
I wanted these 1.7's to replace the 1.6 rockers I had for more valve lift. Doing this is a way to get more valve lift with out changing the cam or adding duration which will decrease idle quality and mileage. The AFR heads can handle the lift and my well broken in standard base cam was good candidate for this technique

So in they went... and MISFORTUNE stikes. My mistake...I mis-adjusted one rocker and bent a valve. I should know better, I've done this countless times. Piston came up...valve was hung open from an over adjusted rocker and they kissed! No good! Out came more wrenches and head came off while I waited for an over night shipment of 1 AFR exhaust valve.

Other recent changes...

Some X bracing behind the radiator.... made a huge differance.

Intake manifold was swapped out for a higher rev'ing design with a 10 inch runner length. This favors higher RPM and the engine's power now stays until its 6300 shift point. I'm gonna tweak the transmission govenor for a few hundred extra RPM when time presents. This maniold should pull until 7000 RPM. The old manifold had a 16 inch runner length and that favored lower RPM power. With the new shorter runner length power is deffinatly down at 3500 RPM but really picks up again at 3800 and now keeps pulling much harder after 5600 RPM. All this to try and crack into the 11's normally aspiratred... Will it work? Engine and track simulation sotware only says I will pick up a 10th. We shall see...track opens in 80 days A nice side effect of the new and smaller intake volume is much better part throttle response. This was very noticeable.




Bent Valve passes the tourch to un-bent valve.


Shiny valve... New kid on the block.


Pistons and bores look great. I was wondering since this thing is flogged every ride.



Doesnt look like much differance but the 22mm V12 bar is cosiderably heavier. <br/>



All back together with a new valve and a new intake. X brace can be observed in this pict too.




X brace.... another chassis stiffening technique using thin wall tube to save weight. 8$ worth of 1 inch EMT welded in to an X and bolted in.

 

I Hate it when stuff like this happens!
And it was all going so well........
(';')

 

what did the X brace at the nose accomplish? something to do with shock response.? I'm very curios about this!

Rusty

 

It reduced cowl shake considerably.

I noticed after I made the airbox the chassis felt slightly more rigid. The airbox is a large welded part of the upper radiator support and efectivly stiffened it. This suggesed the front frame rails were moving under stress and trappazoiding the frame around the radiator. The new thicker upper rad support was helping.

Initially, I hastily did one strut from the top right to the lower left to triangulate the area and test the theory. It worked and I noticed improved steering response and no cowel shake and just a general and incrimental improvment in solidity especially over rough road sufaces. I upped the air presssure in the front tires to a point which had made hashness very appent before the strut, and it was greatly reduced with the strut in place. I added a second strut to complete the X look but it made no further differance.

No room for this with a I6 or v12 behind the radiaor as pictured so it's strickly for a setback v8 conversion. The 2017 coupe project with its I6 will be getting one too but it will have to go in front of the rad in the space between the rad and the condensor.