Hello,

So I'm wanting to do a air pump delete and its all planned except the plugging of the inlet holes.

I've seen several methods proposed or done and all require fabing some parts for the holes left behind. Is there a solution anyone has seen that is nice, correct and pre-fab for plugging up the holes?

 

When I did mine I used normal gutter bolts, 1/4" from memory, coated with RTV, slid in the holes, then the clamp was refitted and tightened. Looked OK, and worked.

When the engine was out, I threaded the holes on the head, inserted grub screws, coated in JB Weld, and thats it.

 

I tapped the holes and used set screws/grub screws as Grant mentioned


Cheers
DD

 

I followed the steps on this link:
Removing The Air Rails

It did involve tapping holes, and grinding down bolts. Whatever the method is, it sure cleans up the presentation of the engine.

 

Engine out or jet very careful with the tapping?

 

I should've been more specific

I didn't tap the heads, I tapped the *manifolds* clear thru and then ran the set screws in far enough to be flush with the gasket surface.. secured with Loctite. I had the manifolds off at the time


Cheers
DD

 

Agreed.

Could be done in situ.

Grease up the thread tap, the swarf will stick to that grease, and there will be LITTLE swarf.

Thats how I did both the PreHE's.

The holes go thru to the EXHAUST port, and exit just near where the manifolds bolt on, so any junk that drops will simply blow out the tailpipe eventually.

 

Grant:


Having a bit of a word tussle with my son. He is a talented, self taught
machinist. He has modernized two old CNC mills. Massive updated electronic management. And, larger motors driving the tools on the turrett. Cuts carb and EFI spacers from plastic and alloy.


Lots of what he calls "cuttings" and I term as "swarf". He terms it as an organic term. Naah, That is "chafe".


Wikipedia supports my view!! Son has not accepted it, yet!!!


I had the small vacuum out in the shop. Took away a lot of "swarf" from the vise on the drill table. But, "cuttings" is a synonym. A few from the old Atlas lathe.


TV install progresses. Nowadays, more than "plug and play"!!!


Carl

 

It sure does! Nice tidy V12 you have there. I'm definately doing it for appearance sake. i feel like underneath there somewhere is a beautiful piece of engineering but paper pushers and bureaucrats buried it under tubes and valves and red tape. I'm going to strip it down to the raw beauty underneath.

 

Fantastic info! I'm all ready to pull the air rails and plug it all up this Saturday other than picking up some grub screws.

I really appreciate the help, usually it all makes good sense once I'm finished with a project but at several points along the way it goes all squirrelly and there is an even chance I break something or just get stuck. The worst is having gotten everything disassembled and cleaned and fixed and realizing you're one washer shy of being able to reassemble it. And she's taken the other car shopping.

 

I forgot, I do that a bit,

That air pipe UNDER the RH exhaust manifold basically stays there. It will not come out with the engine in the chassis. Not sure on LHD with stuff on the other side. but RHD, no way, unless you break it up.

Worry not, when that engine comes out, remove that pipe.

 

Armed with all this info, my delete went very smoothly. I did have some trouble working the air rails out without removing any of the in-the-way items but they're out now.

Tapping to holes was another challenge since they're so far down in the block and my tap set is not so long. I cobbled an extension up and it worked fine.

I will revisit this later to tap the covers and inset appropriately cool headed bolts. I have holes leading down to my grub screws currently.

Thanks for all the help!

 

I have removed the Air Pump. It's Air switching valve is vacuum controlled by a solenoid under the back of the right hand intake. Is there any reason not to remove this solenoid and tape off the electrical?

Thanks...Jimmy

 

hmmmm...

i left the vac solenoid in place so as not to spew coolant from is hole. I don't recall any electrical connections. I believe in my 86 it was just vac controlled.

 

Mine is just an electrically actuated solenoid that controls the vacuum to the switching valve, to open and close it. With out the pump the switching valve is NA. So the solenoid should also be NA. Since I am removing the switching valve(if I can reach it) why not pull the solenoid?
...Jimmy

 

Seems reasonable. Mine doesn't have the same setup so I don't want to advise. Mine only had the temperature operated vacuum switch. I misspoke when I said solenoid.

 

Great thread.
This is project I have thought about for a long time. I am engaged in other effort to mine road worthy again right now but plan to do the air rail removal next winter. I am getting the impression that while not mandatory it might be advisable to remove the intake manifolds to do the screw taps and hole plugs.

Too bad someone doesn't make a mold or re-cast of the little hold down keepers except with the air pipe hole filled in and a little stud that fits down into the hole where the air pipe for a tight seal.

The picture provided higher up in the thread by "That guy" shows that he took the air cleaner intake horns off, removed the air pump, and removed both the cruise control unit and the A/C compressor from the front of the valley. The red plug wires look sharp.

 

BradsCat....This website has a really easy way of handling the plugging of the holes. Bernard Embden's Jaguar Website scroll down, second column on right "Air Rail Removal". I just did this and it is much simpler than it sounds. It is all done off the car. The entire process took about 2 hours. I found everything I needed at Lowes, even the O rings and tap. The bolts are 5/16" by 1/2". I also used a little gasket sealer for install. I like over kill. Picture shows process.

...Jimmy

 

That does look much easier than it was sounding and I see exactly what you mean with not having to take the manifolds off. Maybe I won't need to wait until next winter to do this.

I've never "tapped" anything so am not exactly sure what is needed or involved. Once you had the screws thru the holes did you grind off the threads to make ends smooth to fit into the air rail hole?

 

They do, this is a UK firm that does them. They just get fitted under the nearest manifold fixing bolt. See Smog caps when you scroll down a bit.
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Greg