Hello friends, I rescued a somewhat abandoned 1986 XJ6 Series 3 the other week that has been sitting in a parking garage for three years while owners are doing expatriate work in Asia. As the story went owners had driven the car into the garage after it began running rough and spitting (I have no info on the precourse of that problem) and it sat there until the battery no longer turned the engine. This 1986 model XJ6 (subject says 1984, sorry only a moderator can revise a subject line typo, feel free to help) is an import to Sweden from GA, USA in the early 90s.
That parking spot is located in a more bourgeoisie part of the city with rental fee of some 400GBP per month and the rightful parking spot holder, a friend of the XJ owners, now wanted to reclaim his parking space. So the owners gave him the job to sell the car. From stories told of prospective buyers trying to jump start it the symptoms pointed at a possible blown head gasket. They would first get the engine running, but as things warm up the car would begin emitting white smoke out the exhaust turning the public parking garage into a gas chamber. So I decided to not try that myself. But the interior looked wonderful and paint and Dunlop wire wheel chrome condition looked promising under the thick layers of dust and road grime. The downside was limited. I won the bidding with comparable to some 1500 dollars.

Long story short; now in my mechanics garage I am having some success with it.
It now runs on all six cylinders but I can only do short startups due to all the petroleum in the exhaust system that begins smoking.
Need to drive it outside this week to bless the environment with venting the stuff out.

Compression is ok, and I begin to suspect the whole issue has been caused by water in the fuel tanks rather than a blown head gasket. The smell of water mixed with petrol is so characteristic..
Looks ok on dipstick and under radiator cap.
I will drain fuel tanks now and add some fresh petroleum.

Here some photos of the adventure from as-found, hauling it home and some cleanup. Looks promising !

As inspected on site of that parking spot, not a pretty sight.






Ouch, some engine bay oxidation.


Dunlop bolt on wire wheels, looked dull here but scratching with finger revealed promising chrome


Body panels looked smooth


With brochure dream photos in mind I knew what was possible:


We hauled it home using the Range Rover LSE, another of my DIY objects.
Here at a car wash where we blew some dust off.


Here in my mechanics area in a Stockholm area enthusiast garage community
You can spot a Daimler 4.0 -93 behind it which I am supposed to work on too.
Looked nice without the dust.


I began cleaning one of the wire wheels and it responded well


Here¨s with the wire wheel in place.


So all set for magnificent times once I have sorted out the engine stuff.

The VIN starts with SAJAV1349GC which means a 1986 XJ6
followed by the intriguing 445566, sounds like a phone number easy to remember.


The car was originally U.S spec emission equipped byt someone has installed a regular Series 2 downpipe without catalyst or lambda sensor. The sensor lead just hangs there disconnected.

I asked Roger Bywater at AJ6 Engineering who was kind to reply:
I have ordered a catalyst downpipe and sensor off Ebay sellers and will install that stuff to try to bring it back to lambda feedback shape.

I will post some questions later on about the engine layout; I wonder about some stuff that looks like some emission or PCV stuff that I am unfamiliar with.

 

@gunnar

Great story, thanks for bringing another Series III to life again! I can never understand people who obviously like cars (why would you buy a Jag if you didn't like cars) but then for some reason abandon them :-(

Keep us updated as you progress with the car. I recently bought one too and am doing a lot of little things to get it back to tip top, but already it's my daily driver and I love the old girl

 

Ok here´s one that I need some feedback on;
Looking through the Workshop Manual I cannot find a good engine bay layout picture that identify all the components for a U.S spec XJ series 3.

I came from the carbureted generation and this stuff just wasn´t there on that older XK engine.

There is a rail across the length of the cylinder head that has small pipes going down into the head, then a hose with valve arrangement that routes down to stuff behind the alternator it seems. I wonder why this is so little documented,
and if there is some maintenance I should consider doing on this stuff ?

See the stuff I marked in red


This shows the quite corroded engine bay of the rescued Series 3.
I will have no problems getting it back in cosmetic shape but identifying some components proved a bit tricky.

 

I was able to identify the parts but it took time to find a site with a schematic

These are components for the Air Injection System part of emission control.
So that leftmost alternator-lookalike component is the air pump. I learn every day.
I haven´t seen any workshop manual that actually elaborates on this system for the Series 3 XJ6 and many Jaguar parts companies does not list or mention the stuff:
Parts for Jaguar XJ6 and Daimler Sovereign • Exhaust emission control system (air inje - Exhaust emission control system (air injection) - SC Parts

 

Well done that's a good looking SIII and good price as well.

 

Great-looking car; nice save!
I paid $1500 for my black '86 as well!
Thanks for posting the photos; they help me get mine together.
I drained my tanks then removed the bungs and flushed. there is a plastic screen on each fuel pickup pipe and one of mine was coming apart so I replaced both; cheap, and they come out through the bung on the bottom of each tank anyway. I also had to replace the fuel pump and filter before it would run. it would die at every intersection; I found the ballast resistor on the coil was bad; was advised it was not needed so I tossed it and the car is running fine. The ballast resistor is that rectangular thing lying alongside the ignition coil and attached to the + post of the coil. Just remove it and connect both spaded terminal wires to the + post.
By the way: that ignition amplifier box has a cheap GM ignition module inside, so don't pay a fortune for a new one; get the module, take the back off, and change it if necessary. Ha! some are being offered for $400 to $800 on the internet! I paid $24 for the module at the local parts store.
Got to replace the air conditioning compressor on mine now. Another cheap GM item.
Good luck! You can find a lot of good help and advice on this Forum; I know I have.

 

beautiful car! love the wire rims!

 

I concur! Lovely car and I too, love the wires! Been looking for some for quite some time! GOOD job resurrecting her!

 

Agreed, that old girl looks great. No doubt it will come back to life with some TLC. Keep up the good work and keep us posted!

 

Two beauties there. The Jaguar was outshone by the lass on the white pant suit.

But, still a great looking gal, the Jaguar, that is !!!!

Kudos for the recovery and saving of a really fine car.

Yeah, I have detested those air pumps and the air injection system for decades!!! Parasitic and of only limited value. And, I like clean air as well as anyone. My idea of a contribution is a well tuned machine properly used and driven. If your jusrisdiction allows it, i'd ditch it and plug the holes in the engine. I did it two of my past critters, relying on paperwork variances to make it legal. And, on one past critter, when the dump pump froze, I just cut the belt and motored along just fine until the next inspection. One of my present critters has an electric pump. it works for about three minutes or so on startup, then shuts down. It's maker published a delete bulletin, claiming it does more harm than good and that the engine will meet any standard sans pump. But, SMOG inspectors being what they are around here, I have left it in place. At the moment, I'm not sure if my other critter even has one!!!

Welcome. Lots of help on this forum and elsewhere in Jagdom!!

 

The trouble with these Series 3s is the more you look to do, the more you find to do ! Good luck with the car; the condition of those wire wheels could indicate the previous owner looked after it.

 

You need a Silver Shadow; then the Series III would be like a vacation to you.

 

Here´s an update on the XJ6 Series 3 project.
I spent time on the instant reward type of activities and it looks pretty clean in the photos.
But there will be some more down to earth type of work to be done such as going over the
chassis components and getting a firmer road behavior.
But photos for now convey some of the visually cooler stuff.
Here´s some of what I have done so far:
- New headlamps
- A good wash over revealed the repainted body which is nice overall.
- The wire wheels now substituted for a lovely set of restored GKN Kent wheels to match brochure photos.
- All floor mats scrubbed and cleaned to get rid of mould and odour. Interior now pretty good.
- Exhaust end pipes with that rolled edge finish.
- New catalyst downpipe and oxygen sensor
Remains the chassis bushing overhaul and some front and rear underbody panel work front and rear.
And I got some engine examination to do. Ignition setting, etc. Finding out what a ticking sound at idle is about, and such.
I might have the engine out and refinish stuff under the hood if the rest turns out well.
Here´s some recent photos:

 

Lovely car.
Those wire wheels were lovely, but maybe better on an earlier jag. I would have kept them for shows etc.

 

Good work. The car looks great !

Fabulous cars, those Series IIIs


Cheers
DD

 

Like home!!

The brochure depicts the car in San Francisco, probably at Crissy Field with the golden gate bridge in the background!!!

And, perhaps, grosvenor Brown as my car is. Original, I think. Still shines up well after 30 years!!

I did forsake the Kents, in passable condition, in favor of a set of pristine lattice XJS wheels from a nearby Kiwi!!

Carl

 

Hi Gunnar

You seem to have a really lovely car there, and I wish you every happiness with it. May it run for thousands of miles !

 

Hard to believe its's the same car before and after. Well done!

 

Beautiful rescue!! I must admit I loved the look of the wire wheels on the car, after you had polished them up a bit. Lykke til with the rest of your restoration

 

Great work!