I have a 1971 Jaguar XJ6. It was running find until about a year ago. I started it up and had a huge gas leak. Unfortunately, the car is at my parent's home and is very hard to work on there, especially in non running condition as I cannot easily move it any other way. Now that I own a home, and thus a garage, I need to move the car here. I have decided to just have the carbs rebuilt as even if it's just a gasket, it's been about 10 years since they have been rebuilt (though not a lot of miles).

I have the original US Stromberg's on it. I was wondering any and all parts I would need to rebuild this while making sure I can use fuel with ethanol in it. That would be the carbs and any other fuel delivery components. I would like to buy everything and either try to rebuild myself (probably will not) or give the parts to the person to rebuild.

Sorry, I am sure this has come up but I am really unfamiliar with carburetors. This is the only car I have owned that is not fuel injected and haven't worked on many cars with carburetors since high school.

 

First thing with carburettors is there are no pesky electronics to worry about. These things are "steam-powered " analogue devices !!

Give this firm a call/e-mail; they are UK based but ship worldwide. I expect they will know about ethanol in petrol.

CD Stromberg Rebuild kits - Zenith Caburetters

They may have a USA dealer(s)

 

Hi - You can easily get the kits from XK's unlimited or any of the other Jag specialty suppliers. The biggest thing to worry about when using new-fangled gas with ethanol is the floats and the inlet needle valve tips. Get a float made out of Nitrophyl (easily gotten on ebay or XK's unlimited etc...). When it comes to the needle valve, a newer kit will probably have a viton tipped valve. Don't buy any new-old-stock kits you find on ebay because of this. You could also just replace them with Grosse jets which are basically metal ball valves and are pretty much impervious to fuel additives. Some people don't like them but I have never had a problem with them. Other than that, the carbs will be just fine with ethanol gas, just don't let it sit around in the bowls for months on end, that's how you'll cause yourself problems ethanol-added fuels absorb water from the atmosphere.
Also if the car hasn't been driven in a while put a clear fuel filter in the line just before the carbs so you can see if any garbage is coming through the lines.
I drive my Zenith-Stromberg equipped 72 XJ6 all the time - almost daily. In the early spring I drove it from New Jersey to Tennessee mostly on ethanol-added gas with no problems. Like I said though... don't let it sit for along time without treating it with Sta-bil or something similar.

~Mike

 

Thank you so much for all that info. I am learning that the last bit of advice is probably very important, talking with a few friends with large car collections that don't drive them much. Many go to great lengths to get all fuel out of the carbs on valuable cars that sit. I have always used fuel stabilizers as well but a lot of things happened this year (bought first home, got engaged and married, etc) and since I was driving it a lot before, or at least running it for periods of time, it really wasn't until it didn't get started for a few months that I started having issues. Then a long 6 month sit and my fuel was dumping out. Still have not had time to figure out the cause but I need to rebuild my carbs anyway.

 

No problem. BTW if you have gas dumping out the carbs you most likely have a stuck needle valve or float issue... try gently tapping the fuel bowl area to dislodge. Could also be a piece of fuel tank rust or gunk stuck in the seat of the needle valve.

Also if the car has to sit for a long time a good way to clear the bowls for storage without disassembly is to pull the power lead off the active fuel pump and just run the car on what's left in the carbs until it dies. That way most if not all the fuel in the carbs will be used up.