All,

I know I'm "preaching to the choir" here, but this forum (and by that I mean all of you who have so generously contributed your knowledge, understanding, expertise, advice, experience and Lessons Learned) is such an outstanding benefit to me and (I'm certain) many others.

I am *very* mechanically inclined. I have done most of my own maintenance on my cars for a long time, including two and a half restorations. But I've never owned a Jaguar before, and I know that there is so much about the engineering, operation and maintenance that is unique. This forum gives me a leg up. I've already spent a couple of hours searching, reading, following links & threads....

Today I'm doing a number of the items recommended in a whole host of posts. This car quite obviously sat for a long time before the previous owner (a young professional) bought it at an auction and drove it for a year and a half. Had I not read through a bunch of posts about the cooling system, I wouldn't have known to look between the radiator and the A/C condenser & oil cooler. When I did, here is what I managed to clean out:


For reference, the red circle you see highlights a 1/2" red plastic cap (the crown of the cap is 3/4")

In addition to the red cap (above), I also gained a new-to-me 5/16" wrench, two cigarette butts and a small nylon-insert nut.

WOW. The cooling system was doing fine; I will feel a lot better though once I get a good mix of coolant back in (what came out was a bit weak, IMO, though I didn't actually measure the specific gravity) and get the system bled (per the very detailed directions that have been provided!!)

Thanks to everyone! Hopefully some day I'll be able to *give* advice rather than just soak it up all the time!

Brad
Ginger - my 1st Jaguar, a beautiful '91 XJS with 72k miles
Leigh - '61 Ranchero just finishing total repaint
Maggie - '62 Lincoln Continental in ICU....