My wife and CEO (chief enabling officer) decided earlier this year that she needed a british convertible to go along with my fleet. Last week we were followed home by a 90 xjs of which I have already posted pics in other areas. I have now made space and got it into my garage. I am not Overly encouraged and am not seeing a quick resolution (I will however be victorious). Let me say straight out that I have not had a v-12 before and look forward to the experience. Let me also say that while doing the intensive things on the 66, I have often complained openly about the lack of space on THAT car. This weekend I spent some time clearing a Rather large rodent nest from the top of the engine. In doing so I have come to the conclusion that I will need to remove most of "that fiddly stuff on top" to get everything cleaned up and proper. We shall see how this all plays out....

 

There is another thread like this, I'm seeing a long list in my head, and I'm reaching for a drink. It looks intimidating and the V12s have alot of unnecessary crap, you will be able to clean up quite abit of aimless vac lines etc.

Don't feel intimidated though its essentially a tank engine quite simple every problem every quirk well documented.

 

Veeeeeeeeeeeee...12

 

Well done.

They are simple, really, just needs a different angle of attack.

The phrase (used by Doug often), "while I am in there" becomes the first thoughts VERY quickly.

Replacing that huge Black A/C monster compressor with a Sanden Compact lets a lot of light into the internals.

Once all that neglected "catch up" stuff is done, and done properly, the revisit time is usually another 20++ years. Doing it one item at a time, will drive you nuts.

 

Welcome. I too had a nest right under the cruise control module lol.

Read lots on here. Kirby's book is great once.

 

Yesterday I located an apparently unobtainium rotor so i ordered it up and went ahead with ordering the cap, wires and plugs too. It is by no means all I will need, but its a start. Today I cleared away a lot of rubble from the 66 rebuild activities to make room. Hopefully the xjs wont take another 6 years to make roadworthy like the 66 did.

 

Just a quick observation is the heat shield for the cruise control bellows is on upside down. It should shield the bellows from engine heat, not trap it against bellows. Centre of the V, in front of the distributor.

 

Awesome... Maybe it's just me, but it seems like there are a lot of great threads, people beginning on 1990 (or close) V12's!

First thing I remember doing (after getting the green light for folks here - everything was so new to me) was removing the air blower rails and the tubing. Made for a whole nuther level of room in the Veeee... Pretty easy operation too. All I needed were 12 (I guess) right sized bolts and some RTV to close up all the holes left over in the intake manifold.

WARNING: I don't know how long it's been since yours has RUN but,,,, after removing the rails, with an open tube from the belt driven blower coming up the back O the motor, when I did get her fired up, a MASSIVE amount of rust, dusty and really contaminated "air" came with FORCE out of what was left of the air system... I suspect rust in the blower appliance itself and the length of the tubing that it feeds into... Had I NOT disconnected everything,,, ALL of that really densely contaminated air would have been driven directly into the intake and cylinders, I guess it would have...? If thats where that extra air is actually directed (I'm still unsure of how that air is used)....? It could have been bad.

I would (and did) remove all the Air Blower Stuff... The belt driven appliance itself, much later...

 

Thanks for all your comments. I have been tinkering and spending and tinkering more and spending more...... you all know. I have deleted the air injection tube from the pump and have tapped and installed plugs in the ports on the intakes. I have also renewed the grommets on the throttle shafts. The parts which I got from SNGBarrats (C34388) had an outer surface diameter of about .5mm too small. This made for a "did you really fix that?" result. So I went to my Ace hardware and scoured the "Hardware Department of the gods" and came up with 4 possible solutions. A steel tube which turned out to be too thick- near perfect outer but a too small inner diameter, and from the plumbing area, brass compression olives and 2 sizes of nylon compression fittings. I ended up using a 3/8" nylon compression olive which was a good thickness but too small overall (it needs to be 13mm O.D.), so I clipped it open and slid it in on the diagonal after the grommet was in the throttle plate. The result has no discernible side play and the rotational pressure is such that a light touch will move it. I think almost right- as much as I will get under the circumstances.
I believe that I am now considering the idea of thinking about planning to be ready to re-install the intakes. And its only been 8 months! Also- I have been using my 66 as a parts getter and have driven it to work with no issues! What a hoot.