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I went on eBay and purchased two spare CD-magazines for the remote player. This way I can have three magazines loaded for quick changes instead of the long process of swapping CDs within just the one 6-CD mag.
As per other items located in the trunk, I made two elasticated straps to hold the two spare loaded CD magazines for ease of access and re-loading.
Finally got around to calling a local wheel refinisher about my wheels getting refinished or rechromed, was told that it's not something they would do. I was getting some chrome bubbling where brake dust builds up along the inside the rim, their reasoning was that the amount of material they'd need to remove to create a smooth surface leads to an unsafe wheel. So I guess it's time for wheel shopping soon, and uhh... anyone want some dusty chrome-ish Pentas?
Also received some aluminium tubes to use as tools for front wheel bearing replacement. Now I just need a day that I'm off and it's not raining.
Although the location is slightly off, are you sure you its not the injectors?
They are the only "noisy" part on both our Jag V-8's.
I'm pretty sure it's the tappets. The engine has 234k miles on it. The location of the noise is only in that area and the noise from all the injectors is, as I've heard people describe, more like a sewing machine.
I'm burning oil, so I'm doing a few investigative operations. Used a borescope to look into the cylinders and found that everything is very dirty. Used intake cleaner and seafoam and that's started to clean them. Can see oil dripping from the valves too. My first attempt to correct that will be a stop leak type product for reconditioning the valve seals. Worth a try!
The engine runs a lot better after the intake cleaner and seafoam treatment but the oil loss seems slightly worse: now got a little bit of smoke at start up.
Cylinder head Immediately after a shot or two of intake cleaner. The carbon is beginning to loosen
After a shot of seafoam. This application blocked the cat though so I needed more intake cleaner to unblock that.
Using the 90 degree attachment, this shows the cylinder wall. Looks like oil is dripping down from the valves.
Did front rotors and pads, and both front wheel bearings in an attempt to solve weird vibration and noises I've been getting. Found out the hard way that the LBJ is M12x1.5 (uncommon) and the UBJ is M12x1.75 (common). Fortunately the only casualty there was a damaged UBJ stud, and I needed to replace that one soon anyway as the boot was disintegrating. These may vary by ball joint manufacturer too, so don't take it as reference, just lessons learned...
Don't think I actually needed to do the bearings, it didn't seem to solve much. 57mph howl still present, vibration still sort of present, overall seems to drive a bit quieter but that may all be in my head, who knows. Back to spending a bit more time with chassis ears to see if the howl is now trans, elsewhere in driveline, or PAS system... One day...
Checked the junkyard inventory and saw they had a 98 XJR recently in. Went in and got a full set of A- grade silver Pentas, no bad rust, no dents I saw, only a bit of curb rash on one or two. The car had only been there a few days but someone had already snagged the s/c and intercoolers, and drivers' seat. Really surprised that the wheels were still there, but I'll be glad to get rid of my rusty chrome ones, and now maybe the tires will hold air steadily.
Time of the year when Eastern NC is @ it's finest weather wise, low-mid 70's FH during the day, break way for the 50's @ night. Cleaned up ol' girl & went on the waterfront w/ the windows down a bit,sunroof open w/ the best of Hall & Oates just enjoying life. There's nothing quite like these cars when they are properly sorted & performing as they were intended.
Last edited by King Charles; May 15, 2019 at 10:38 PM.
Decided to try out one of those mechanic in a bottle products, designed for turbo seal reconditioning I think, before opening her up and changing the valve seals to stem my oil leaking into the cylinders. I'm glad to say that it has definitely helped reduce the problem quite significantly.
I wasn't getting blue clouds on start up but after coasting down the off ramp and stopping, the engine would usually be extremely laboured, making acceleration problematic. With incoming traffic at a roundabout, that made life slightly more edgy than I enjoy!
Guess I'll have to change the valve seals at some stage, but at least I've got a small win for now.
Finally got fed up with a wobbly air box, worn screws on the maf (they're m4, 8mm long btw) and thought I might as well replace the throttle body seal too as that looked a bit loose. A bit of silicone grease on the thick seal of the air box has swelled that back up to size and it's a nice fit now.
Well, been 5000 miles since the black 98 came home with me. The 3rd gen tensioners, new chains, plugs and water pump have all proven themselves and it runs beautifully...except...one tick on the passenger side. It was slowly getting more pronounced so off we went to the doc. My thought was a shim or maybe weakened valve spring..we are just crossing 100thousand mi. He told me today he'll get to it in a couple days..I'm thankful the weather's cold and wet cuz my truck feels good in mud and it makes it easier to wait.
Changed all the light bulbs to Xenon and boy what a difference in night vision. Great bulbs and cheap and easy to replace.
I'm also interested in which bulbs you replaced (I'm thinking headlights; low & high beams?) Especially which brand bulbs, where bought, cost & more about your impressions of the difference between OEM bulbs & the new Xenon.
In 2012, I had 1 headlight low beam go out & replaced both with a match for the OEM that I bought @ Walmart (Sylvania Halogen H7) for <$10 ea. I never even considered upgrading the bulbs, maybe I should have? Since then I have a 2016 car with Xenon headlights & they are much better & recently a 2019 with LED headlights & even better than Xenon headlights.
