Such a clean upgrade, could even paint it all black for a complete stealth appearance, (added downforce too!)

What size exhaust pipework are you running? looks quite small

I love this build.

 

Stoney,


Painting was what I would have said as well before driving this car the amount I have. I am going to leave it bare aluminum but possibly polishing could be cool but probably too much work. What I have found is that I drive the crap out of this car so metal sections there as well as the front side of the jacking point bracing, as well as the frame before I installed the front valance on these cars will always get road chips, especially as the car is so low. What I found is the area where the valence covers would need to get re-coated with POR-15 every so often due to rocks, etc. which would be the same for this ram air modification. I put 200-300 miles on the Jag daily and whenever I am not in traffic the car gets driven hard so now I know, painting anything in the Jag that low will require recoating. I will always make sure the undercarriage is fully coated with POR-15 to prevent rust but why make more work for myself. The front valence has eliminated a lot of road chips to the lower sections of the undercarriage and by leaving the new ram air bare aluminum will always look the same as any rocks will not make any noticeable marks.


Since the car is a daily driver and it so low I did not opt to go crazy on the exhaust size. It is 1 7/8" stainless exhaust and I am running headers so it is free flowing enough for a street car. If I went larger it would be hard to route it under the car and either it would scrape or I would have to raise the car. I love the stance and the way it performs so I think this is a nice size. If I were to go crazy it might have been nice to go with the oval pipe as that would be not to tall and get the equivalent of say a 2 1/4" or 2.5" but that would be way too much extra cost for a daily driver like this Jag.

 

Makes total sense with regards to both answers, and that's some solid kms you're putting on it every day!

 

Yes I built this Jag to be a daily driver that is driven hard and needs to be reliable. While I have had to make a number of tweaks, those were expected on a custom car and well worth it. Life is short so I always want to drive a cool classic that is fun to drive.

 

Primaz, with all of your cooling issues I've been reading everything I can find on the subject. Unfortunately big horsepower means a lot of heat and that Jag nose is tight for these big V8s. I can see where the ram air intakes will force a lot of air into the engine bay when the car is underway. One possible downside to that is creating a high pressure area around the engine, which might impede the airflow through the radiator and condenser. You indicate that engine operating temp is normal so obviously this isn't a problem. As I mentioned a while back my plan is to design some simple flexible deflectors that extend below the firewall to create a low pressure area under the back of the engine to (hopefully) pull the hot air down and out.

The problem with both the ram air intakes and the deflectors is that neither does any good in stop and go traffic, and this is when the heat soak is the worst. Other than hood louvers you've done everything I can think of - coated/insulated headers and efficient fans. Keep us posted on how she does this summer.

 

Doug,


What I also have changed is I now have both the pull and pusher fan operate, before the pusher was only when the AC was operating. I was going to tie in a sensor in the engine bay but I think this will work. What I noticed was that before the ram air was added if I ran the car hard for say 1.5 hours + and you stop and check the temperature it was baking, even the front fenders were hot. When I did this check coming straight into my garage the car would stay that hot for a very very long time. Thus when you are then in stop and go the engine bay was already hot enough to fry an egg.


Now with the ram air the fenders are cool and there is no noticeable excessive heat at all. To me while I did a lot of other heat things, this is by far the most noticeable change. Thus I think these ram air will keep the engine bay cool enough for the two fans to keep it under a temperature that will cause the issues I had in the past. I think without the ram air the engine bay becomes an oven even with some air coming via the radiator but when you stuff a big V8 there is very little space for the air to flow around the engine and keep the engine bay cool. I feel the tiny front Jag grill is way too small once you restrict the engine bay with a V8. If you look at all modern cars they have a lower air intake that like what I did will force a large amount of air into the radiator and engine bay; the Jaguars does not have any lower air intake. In a stock Jag all of the air under the car never enters the front of the car to then flow around the headers and then exit out.


FYI, I sold my louvered hood and bought a stock one as I want this to be a sleeper. I hope your deflectors work but my opinion is that you will not get enough air for them to work the way you think because the intake of air is so limited? that is just my opinion... Remember back in the 60's they never experienced stop and go traffic jams of our modern world so that alone may have explained why the stock jag had no issues but run it in stop and go for a long time after already running it for two hours and then you have issues.

 

Here is a recent upgrade, I upgraded the rear brakes. Thanks to Terry at www.jagoutlet.com which is a great place not only for any used Jaguar part as they are a Jaguar wrecking yard but they also sell new parts at great prices!


Terry helped me by informing me that a certain year E type rear brakes would be a direct bolt on to replace my stock weak inboard brakes. The install went great and the braking is much better.

 

XJS rear callipers are like that

 

What I found was that the Retro Air lost a lot of cooling due to the V8 heat. What I did was replace all of the factory Retro Air ducting to a more heavy gauge material that was then wrapped with Heat Shield products insulation and that made a big difference in the output.

 

Primaz,
I am putting a modified version of Rock's Retro Air kit in my MK2. I share your concerns about the ducting from the blower to the evaporator located in the engine bay. Now that you have tantalized my curiosity with the image you provided, can you be more specific about the parts you used, particularly the grey ninety degree piece in your photo - FEL-4? I like that a lot.
Lin

 

I am not to that point yet, so just speculating, but the two modifications I was thinking I would want to make were:
1. I agree that the ducting looks floppy and too thin. I was thinking of how I could get it in position for the correct shape, then layer it in fiberglass matting to create a fiberglass duct shaped to fit the installation.
2. The second thing I don't like is the look of the evaporator covered in insulation. I was thinking I could make a metal shield to go over it. Paint it matte black, and visually it would be symmetrical with the heater box.


Now that you have done an installation- do you think this would be possible?

 

just curious but what are the measurements of the Evaporator covered in that insulation?

I ask because maybe a XJ-S black plastic battery cover might fit over it? (the 1986 XJ-S V12 Coupe had the battery with a cover in the trunk and I have one of those covers in near perfect condition).

the measurements of the cover are:

7" (seven inches) in Depth front to rear,

8½" (eight and a half inches) in Height top to bottom,

13" (thirteen inches) in Width side to side.

 

Primaz, so I googled FEL-4. It appears to be a dryer vent corrrect? Nice thinking!
Lin

 

We also used some much heavier gauge ducting. Then the ducting and the entire Evap box was insulated using Heat Shield https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/a...-sticky-shield


The key to me was the stronger 90 and ducting allowed for the heat shield to seal up the duct and insulate it really well and the same goes for the evap box as their insulation was weak. I lost a huge amount of cooling before. The ducting they provide was totally garbage in my opinion.

 

I think you could cover it with sheet metal if you really put your mind to it. I did not bother as it works now and it is a daily driver. The new insulation looks way better than what comes with it stock.

 

I am looking for sprayable thermal / sound insulation in the UK, but seems that it is a US only product, unless I pay large shipping costs.
Anyone any ideas of UK market ?

 

Jon,


Why are you looking for the sound insulation spray? I used something like that on my Jag's inside floor boards. I do not think that spray does that much so I then put on Dynamat over the entire inside floor boards. I personally think Dynamat was all that was needed to help quiet the car interior but my buddy had a spare can of the sound stuff so I used it.


If you are trying to make the interior more quiet use Dynamat on all the floor boards and ideally even the headliner, inside firewall, and the doors.

 

Thanks Alan, it was simply because I thought that it would give better coverage, but I will take your advice and stick with dynamat

I was intending to use Dynamat on the firewall etc. thought that the spray stuff would get to places I couldn't reach with the mat, but if it does not do much I would rather take the time to get the Dynamat installed properly.

 

Hello, I am doing a similar project on a MKII. LSI with a Tremec T6. Any information specific to engine mounting would be helpful. Thanks!
-Bob

 

I think I posted these in another old post here but here are some of the key mods you will likely need to fit an LS V8 in your Jag. On my 3.8s I had to cut a small portion of the passenger firewall. Instead of the dual stock gas tanks, I went with a Mustang 65' tank and cut the spare tire section out as routing a fuel line under the exhaust was not a safe thing to do when you are running a fuel injection modern engine, etc.


There was a lot of little things to make it all work and I have posted most of them I think here on this forum? It is not easy but well worth it. I am amazed at the respect and attention this car gets daily. It is driven daily and I have put on 57,000 miles on it already! It is super reliable, easy to drive, smooth, handles well, and is a blast when you hit the throttle and you blow the doors off so many new cars with an old 1963 Jag that will do zero to sixty in 4.0 seconds! She used to do it in 3.90 seconds but the power band was not smooth so I had a well known local tuner, GP Tuning tune the LS and now it drives smooth thru the entire power band like any new modern car but I lost .10 seconds but I think it is a better driver now.