Heh guys.

I noticed (last time I was home) that my XJS will probably need an oil change in a few months time (depending on how much I drive her) according to the service sticker on my window.

So, I was just wondering, whats the short and long of it?

You have a bung in the bottom of the sump. You let out all the oil. Replace the filters, put new oil in and away she goes or have I missed about 1,000 steps?

I would be interested to hear from you guys, especially if the XJS has a few little "traps" compared to an average oil change.

I have the workshop manual but judging from past experiences that book can lead you up the garden path.

Also just wondering what frequency you guys change oil and filters (basic service)?

Thanks in advance

 

Exactly as you describe for oil and air. After that change the plugs, then grease the 10 points in the rear axle. While doing the plugs put a FEW drops of oil in the top of the dizzy spindle and click it back and forth through the 15° degrees of movement, this ensures the dizzy does not become stuck and that the vac advance will work properly. Clean the dizzy inside, check the HT leads are clean and good, no cracks etc.

Check that the vac capsule is holding a vac by sucking on it's tube. If you can suck air continuously, it is shot and must be replaced or MPG and performance will worsen greatly.

Annually is good, but if you do only a few thou each year, personally
my view is every two years is plenty.

That's it.
Greg

 

Heh thanks man. I appreciate it.

Once I get back home (currently at sea) I'll probably ping you for some more questions and how to locate and get to some of the components.

The bung for the oil sump. Is it easily accessible from underneath? You gotta jack her up I suppose? If so do you have to jack it up on one side?

Is it necessary to change the air filters or is it overkill? Would you do them every service? I did check them the other day and they look pretty good.

Dizzy spindle....do you mean the kick down switch?

Oh and the VAC capsule, where is that? (Still a beginner...."blushing")

 

Paul,

The V12 holds 10ltrs of oil, so make sure you have a drain oan big enough.

The Goose is drinking Magnatec 15W/40 oil.

Jack the front up as a whole, and put safety stands securely under the beast, pain is not good if it falls on you. We lost a Forum member not long ago when he "just slid under to check something", and it was only on a jack, no stands.

The drain plug is 7/8" (22mm), and is on the RH rear corner of the pan.

The oil filter is on the LH rear of the engine, and is FUN to get off and on. I use Ryco Z113, or equivelent Crossland, Wesfil. Prefill the oil filter before attaching to the engine. A good sense of humour helps you get at that filter, and thank whoever you talk to upstairs that you "No got cat convertors".

I change all our Jags every 6 months, regardless of usage.

Air filters every 2 years.

Fuel filters every 2 years.

Power steer fluid, every year, and Full Synthetic ATF is what it drinks.

Brake fluid flush every year.

Trans fluid, and filter, every 2 years.

The Goose had new plugs before Victa dragged it to your house, so about 40000kms should be the next change time.

I rebuilt the distributor about 18 months prior to it going to you.

Trans service would be getting close on time now I rckon. No biggy if you leave it a tad longer as it runs Synthetic Trans Fluid, and the valve body was cleaned and sorted, front pump seal replaced, and pump o/ring replaced, about 3?? years ago, memory is crap, but that trans would be OK for a while in my opinion. The collision bracket FIASCO is not on that transmission, so the pan basically "falls off", when the bolts are removed.

I would pop the air filters, and wipe out the throttle bodies with a rag soaked in solvent at each oil change. Takes about 2 minutes.

 

Pauly......we all had to start somewhere once, so that's no biggie for any of us here, please ask away, if we can help we will, or at least I mean that Grant, Greg and other knowledgable members will ..lol


Grant / Greg.....really good info, thanks for taking the time to help out

 

Paul, you know where my garage is if you need it, and all the tools you will need. And we have the bat phone to Grant Francis should it be needed.
That direct line came in handy last time with setting the timing.

 

[QUOTE=paulyling;1187207
Dizzy spindle....do you mean the kick down switch?

Oh and the VAC capsule, where is that? (Still a beginner...."blushing")[/QUOTE]

If you undo the three captive screws that hold the dizzy cap on, then lift it off, you find the rotor arm. CAREFULLY rock this off and you soo it is on top of the spindle that turns it in sync with the engine. Place a FEW drops of 100% synthetic oil in the indentation on the top, and turn the spindle by hand anticlockwise and it should spring back. This gets jammed (if not a model that was previously properly service by Grant Francis!) and prevents the vacuum advance working. If it does not want to click back when turned, just keep at it and it will free.

While in there, if you look at the bottom outside of the dizzy, at the rear of it pointing towards the throttle capstan bracket, you will see a tubular thing with a vac tube coming out of it. This is the vac capsule and under certain throttle/manifold vac conditions alters the timing by doing to the throttle spindle what you have just done by hand.

If the car is used, the diaphram in the vac capsule gets fried by engine heat very quickly, a 2 year life is not uncommon. Pull off the vac tube and put on another that allows you to suck directly on the capsule spigot. If you can suck air continuously, the capsule is shot.

If it is, post again as replacing it is quite doable, but a little tricky.

Also, I bow to Grant in all things XJS, so I suggest you take his advice re: oil change timings and what to change!

Greg

 

Damn, I always understood the V12 was the SIMPLE engine, have I missed something again??

 

Wow guys! Thanks again. It is greatly appreciated.

Clarke your very generous mate. Sounds like a plan and another bout of Scotch and beer appreciation .I think I'll leave reversing up the driveway for you though lol!

So every 6 months Grant for oil eh? Well I guess it is closer than what I thought. Time bloody flies!

Greg cheers for the info mate. Once I get home Ill stick my head under the bonnet and start to identify these components for reference sake.

Home this coming Friday. That means rescuing my XJS after being in the garage asleep for four weeks. Exterior, wheels and engine full of bloody dog fur and my kids sticky hand prints all over the panels!

Will start to get together what I need and come back to the thread either this time round or next.

Again , thanks guys

 

Scotch and beer appreciation....., sounds more like "Set price servicing to me"

I think you have trouble both directions on my drive.

 

This is what my eyes see when approaching said drive way:

 

when you put the new oil filter on lube the o ring with clean engine oil spin it till the o ring contacts the base and then turn it another half to 3/4 turn. if you put it on as tight as you can by hand and then do a 3/4 turn with a wrench you will have a hard time getting it back off. i can get my 1/2-3/4 of a turn after the o ring contacts the base by hand. I do a lot of filters. my big trucks have 3 oil filters and 2 spin on fuel filters that get changed every oil change plus i have several other normal auto's and do all my own oil changes never had a filter leak and can always get them back off without much hassle doing it this way.

changing the oil is pretty straight forward. drain. remove the filters making sure the old o ring comes off with the filter, re-install drain plug re-install filters. fill with oil start the car watch for the oil pressure to rise. quick leak check, shut off re check the oil level, grease all grease points. done

i normally do most my greasing after pulling the drain plug and then i normally punch a hole in the bottom of the oil filters and let them drain. then i grease everything by the time i am done with grease oil pan is totally empty and filters have completely drained and i can then remove the filter and re-install the drain plug and new filters. it is not necessary to punch a hole in the filters but it does make the job a bit cleaner.

there is a couple schools of thoughts on pre-filling oil filters. with oil before instillation. one school of thought is do not pre-fill filters as you will send un filtered oil that you poured into the filter threw the engine. the other school of thought is to prefill the filter with oil before installing as it will reduce the amount of time between start up to having oil pressure.

both of my pickups the oil filters install horizontal so you cannot pre fill the filters anyway. big trucks i pre-fill the filters each filter holds almost a gallon of oil but i fill the filter from the outer ring rather than the big hole in the middle so the oil in the middle has passed threw the filter media. for the jag i pre-fill as well.

 

That's not a drive its a Ski Jump!

 

In my opinion a new oil filter should always be pre-filled with fresh oil before it is installed onto any engine.

If you start the engine with a dry filter there will be no oil pressure until the filter is filled. The lack of oil pressure could damage the bearings and cam lobes. Obviously this is something to avoid.

New oil straight from the bottle is the cleanest it will ever be. The potential for damage due to no oil pressure far exceeds any perception that the oil in the bottle is not clean enough.

Mark

.

 

i do tend to agree with you that the extra moment without oil pressure is probably not a good thing, however i have read factory literature for certain pieces of equipment that recommends against pre-filling filters. I also have a few pickups that there is no way to pre fill the filter because the filters mount horizontally rather than vertically. so there filters have never been pre filled on any oil change with no ill effects.

whenever possible i do still pre fill filters but i fill threw the outer ring of the smaller holes rather than the large hole in the center for this reason.

 

Yep, pre fill if possible works for me.

The S2 6cyl engine has the oil filter between the 2 carbies, and it is mounted vertical, BUT, its upside down, so filling of any sort is impossible. I used to crank them for 3 seconds at a time with the HT lead unplugged, and once that light went out, good for go.

The S Type 3ltr V6 has the oil filter mounted on a remote type housing, and it is vertical in the "normal" sense, BUT, again, when the old filter is dropped, the oil in that housing and its pipes simply runs out. I still pre fill, but there is that split second of "hell" when first fired up after the oil change.

 

I always partially prefill my oil filters on all my cars. On the 90 XJS V12, I do a once a year oil/filter change with Mobil 1 0W40 and a NAPA Gold oil filter.

 

My 92's transmission pan came off no problem at all. This 87 HE I'm working on has 2 threaded bolts that go through the last 2 holes of the pan facing the rear. Is that the collision bracket? It is a nightmare, can it come right off? I undid 1 huge bolt and the whole thing want to press towards the floor. Can't remove the pan without whatever this is gone first.

 

I take those collision brackets off whenever I get one that is still fitted.

It has been a LONG time since I did one, and the cells are fuzzy.

I reckon that spring mount fiasco has to come off first to get the 2 large bolts into the transmission casing. I would then replace that "cotton reel" bush and the spring rubber seat (1). Just because.

Those 2 large bolts go back in once that metal fiasco is out the way.

A couple of suitable pan bolts will replace those studs.

The plate that attaches to the 2 pan studs, and then the 1/2" trans mount pin, can simply be cut to the shape of a washer and used under the nyloc nut as it was before.

DO NOT LOSE THAT SPECIAL WASHER ON TOP OF THE SPACER SLEEVE ON THE MOUNT PIN.

If its not AWOL already.

If you do, panic not. A simple 1/2" "flat section" spring washer is just fine in there.

 

There's a spring there alright, under a good amount of pressure. The 2 bolts that hold this piece up are works of art. The thread pattern done by a master machinist. I'm going to cut the side frame of this bracket and re-weld it later. the 2 side bolts just spin and there isn't a way to hold the back nuts.