So this past summer I purchased a 1995 xj6. Not just any xj6, but the exact one my parents brought me home from the hospital in. I purchased it back from our neighbors who bought it in 04 and stopped driving it and registering it before the end of the second Bush administration. It had been sitting outside and the Southern Californian such has definitely taken its toll on the paint and leather, but it is fairly straight and much of it is easily salvageable. it was parked for having oil in the spark plug wells and allegedly last ran about 5 years ago. From what I have been able to find it's got 161k miles and everything electronic, sans the stereo and sensor for the radiator fans, works fine. I was wondering how well do these aj16 engines take to sitting and how difficult would it be to get running. Would it be worth it to have a local mechanic do a leak down test and to get it running and then tackle the other jobs myself? I would love to save it and restore it as it has alot of meaning to me from my childhood, but I'm trying to figure out the most feasible way to do so.

 

Dude lets do this , remove the spark plugs and put a little bid of Rislone oil treatment in the cylinders and let loosen up the cylinder rings for a couple of days as this is common problem with the AJ16 engine after long storage . It will smoke for a while as you first start it up .

Any questions just ask

 

5 years....I'd fear the fuel has turned to a jelled mess in certain spots. I would recommend cracking the feed line loose at the fuel rail and jumpering the pump relay to see if fuel flows. (Fuel pumps are prone to failure from sitting around unused for some reason or another as well - could be from trying to pump gel) Anyway, if you get a steady flow of fuel that way, I'd siphon as much out through the filler neck as I could, then pump the remaining 2-3 gal out with the pump, then replace it with fresh 93 octane.
If, instead, you get an oozing gel out of the feed line when you disconnect it, you are probably going to have to remove the rail and all six injectors and clean them out.

Apart from being able to turnover, I don't think sitting unused will harm the engine at all, but the fuel will be rubbish and you are probably looking at complete coolant hose replacement (not too bad of a job - and can be done with about $250 in hose parts.)

Regarding turnover; I know there was a tendency of piston rings to become adhered to cast-iron blocks in days gone by, when left unmolested for a number of years. The remedy was much as Parker described above, but using a product from military surplus stores, "Bore Cleaner, Rifle" but I suppose Rislone may do likewise. However, I've not heard that (piston rings fusing to block) about the AJ16 Aluminum blocks.

 

...... Oh baby .....Oh baby............. OOOOOOOhhhhhhhh...............Baaaaaaaaaaby....... Yes on the replacement on the old fuel as Aholbro1 suggested as the X300 fuel tank can be siphoned to replace easily the old fuel as it has no anti - siphon tubing like most cars . See link below . Make sure you have a full charge on battery on start up as the Engine ECU engine regulation does not function well below 11.5 volts

With regards to the cylinder compression rings in storage as a foundation of what the engine needs they may not give you enough compression . Crank over a few revelations without starting to push the stuff ( Rislone ) into the area of interest being how the rings slide apart from the layers of themselves ultimately forming a better axial directed force on the cylinder walls to get you that Vroom Vroom ..................Vroooooo Vrooooom of that advanced AJ16 . Later after you get it started I would put some fuel injector cleaner in the fuel tank

editing

 

Ops.

 

Hi Swagger XC,

Congratulations on acquiring a Jag with such personal and sentimental value!

Personally, I would forego the expense of a leak down test and just follow the advice you've already received, and a few additional thoughts.

aholbro1 is spot on, you are going to need to clean the fuel system thoroughly and install a new fuel filter. You can test each fuel injector with compressed air and a 9 volt battery to open the solenoid valve, and you can clean the injectors yourself with a simple setup (see how I did it in my photo album at the link in my signature - sorry that only the thumbnails are working currently). The fuel pressure regulator (FPR) diaphram may have also rotted - once you have the fuel system clean and fresh fuel in the tank, you can run the fuel pump and check for signs of wet fuel at the vacuum hose connection on the FPR.

In addition to the Rislone that Lady P mentioned, another product widely used to free up piston rings that may be stuck from long storage is Marvel Mystery Oil. A pump-type oil can makes it easy to put a few squirts into each cylinder and allow to soak for at least a couple of days as Lady P says. You don't need to reinstall the plugs, but set the coils in place to prevent contaminants from getting into the cylinders.

After the oil soak, but while the spark plugs are still out, it would be prudent to manually rotate the crankshaft through a couple of rotations with a large socket on the crankshaft/harmonic balancer bolt, just to confirm the internal components are moving freely with no interference.

To prime the oil pump and distribute oil throughout the engine, leave the spark plugs out and pull the fuel pump relay in the trunk fuse box. Crank the engine for several seconds.

Replace the spark plugs with the correct Champions only. They're cheap and these engines seem to like them best.

Once you get the engine running again, change all the fluids, including the oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid and transmission fluid. The best transmission fluids I know of for the ZF 4HP24 are Redline Oil D4 ATF and Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF. Other modern Dexron III substitutes (Dex/Merc, Dex VI, etc.) are too thin (their viscosities are too low). When changing the engine oil, add two bottles of Rislone Oil Treatment or CD2 Oil Detergent before topping up the oil to help dissolve accumulated sludge.

For your own safety, you should replace the tires, clean and regrease the front wheel bearings, and inspect the brake pads and rotors and replace if necessary.

As Lady P says, Jaguars require strong, healthy batteries, and it is unlikely the one in the car will be up to the task after being depleted for so long. Buy a good quality battery of the proper size with the highest Cold Cranking Amps and Amp-Hour ratings you can find (Johnson Controls, Exide and East Penn make most of the brands available in the U.S., so shop for the best price for the highest capacity ratings)

Resolving the oil in the spark plug wells will probably just be a matter of replacing the cam cover gasket and spark plug tube seals.

We'll be anxious for updates!

Cheers,

Don

 

So update on this car. I am usually away from home as I go to school half-way across the country. However in the past few days I've done all the advice listed here and she started right on up! However she sputtered and died after about 5 seconds. It ran well but it seems to be fuel starvation, from what I can tell the pump isn't coming on so I have a new pump on order. But now I know she runs I have two other worries. First the valve cover gasket was a little bubbly on the inside so I scraped off any potential loose material. I'm worried about it deteriorating further into the valve-train and eventually into other parts of the engine. Is this common and if I don't drive it much until I fully refurb the valve cover should I be okay? Secondly there appears to be some oil weeping coming from the front of the engine around the timing chain area where the head meets the block. Is this serious and how difficult of a repair could this be? Head-gasket potentially? While It might not make the most fiscal sense to save the car I'm hopeful I can save it. Once I run a compression test and determine the transmission is shifting well I think I'll move forward with slowing resurrecting it.

 

In the starting sequence the fuel pump relay will click 3 times . On 4 seconds - off - on for the duration of the drive . The first 2 clicks come from turning the key to on postion before start position and this primes the fuel rail with a charge . Once the the Crankshaft sensor sees engine rotation it will command the ECU to turn back on the fuel pump as this is a crash desiign safety feature . You seem to be using up that initial fuel charge and starving after that . Put your finger on the fuel pump relay and feel for the 3 clicks and you can also hear the fuel pump respond and run at the same time while in the trunk . You'll have to put your finger on it as there are other relays in the area that will click at the same time .

The CKPS will fault in this one aspect of use without giving a fail CEL code . Before you where to change the CKPS you can clean the connector being in a bad environment and clean the sensing face of the sensor as debris across the air gap can interfere with the signal . The wiring shield ground is important on this intelligence carrying wire . You can bypass the relay control circuit and put a jumper wire across the Fwd and aft sockets for the relay to get you running . But this will drain your battery as it is " hot at all times " .

Oil leaks other then the valve cover mating surface . The small cover with 2 bolts for the timing chain tensioner is a o=ring so tightening is no help , just replace the o ring . The power steering pump adapter in the vertical mating surface it the same way . Both no big deal as a DIY . There is a common teak from the power steering pump hoses as it comes out from under the reservoir and you can cut off a small bit of the hose so you have newer rubber to seal as you clamp down .

Any debris entering the oil system is not a good thing .. Look at the cork gasket on the oil fill cap as it gets old and brittle .

I personalty would hold off on the compression test until you have broken in the engine again with the use of the same reslone in the oil tank which will loosen up the ring groves in the piston itself as well as the expansion of the rings . This will improve your compression after a while so a early reading would be different ..

 

Threw in a fuel pump, fuel filter, and relay since they all were really cheap. Added a battery and gas and voila! She runs, and fairly well at that!