I've quite often heard 'The Italian Tune-Up' mentioned on here with regard to the XJS but is it a 'Myth' or else does it do any good, or maybe just the opposite and shouldn't be done at all

And what about all those Carbon deposits, some of which presumably go into the Sump?

Would this require an Oil and Filter Change straight afterwards?

Also wondering who came up with the idea in the first place and how often it should be done?

 

Italian tune-up: Does it really work? - Team-BHP

 

All I know, for sure, is that the jaguar V12 engine runs and goes much better the harder it is worked. Drifting about at low speeds and low loads on the engine is bad for it. Also the entire car as a system, brakes, suspension, gearbox, engine, all perform more smoothly and reliably the harder they are used. Do a hundred fast miles in a lightly driven XJS and you will fell it loosen and go better after a while.

 

Yes, but with caution. As any athlete, a good stretch and warm up first. then get on it!!!

A badly coked engine can preignite and burn a hole in a piston or more!!!

Carl

 

How would they get into the sump past the rings? Presumably any flaky carbon deposits just go out the exhaust.

I was actually just thinking about this yesterday. What would happen to a carbon fouled valve if you ran a heat gun over it for a while? Are big deposits coming off that turn ashy, or are we burning up gel-like varnish?

Interesting in the link one guys speculates that it is an excuse for ferrari mechanics to trash the car. Never mind this is some shade-tree guy on a forum nay-saying a tech that works on ferraris....

Anyways, I've definitely experienced cars generally working better when they are really driven. If they get parked up or just used to idle around town, they seem to run really crappy after a while. I think some people worry to much, it isn't like you are driving the car beyond the redline, you are driving within the limits it was designed and many times these cars were made to drive at high speeds or high rpm, which they never see. It isn't all necessarily intuitive. Just think, if driving at high rpm is bad, what is the opposite? It would be idling, and most people are aware idling is pretty bad on most cars.

Honestly I have a hard time around town doing an italian tune-up because of the gearbox in the XJS. To start in first gear and get it up at all, you end up doing 60-70 mph. So you either have to be come from a dead stop on the highway or be speeding around town. Anyway, it doesn't seem like there is much science for or against the italian tune-up, its all anecdotal. I'd trust is more than seafoam though.

 

back in the 50s when i was getting into car maintenance , i worked for this small repair garage, the old guy who owned the business, one day he said comon we gotta get this car runnin better!

took it out on a long straight hiway, he put it in second gear and floored it for at least 3or 4 minutes, went back to shop he said that should be hot enough now!

he took a Coke bottle of ice cold water out of soda machine , and had me rev it up to maybe 2000rpm , slowly poured it down the carburator, it popped and stuttered blew black smoke and steam out the exhaust.

after all said and done it ran smooth as silk, even sounded smoother!

charged the customer $25. dollars, very happy with it!

he explained that when engine is hot as you can get it, the cold water thermal shocked much of the carbon loose and also helped to steam clean the chambers, he called it a YANKEE tune up!!LOL.

ron

 

It actually works wonders. When I took our former 2002 S80 2.0T to the TÜV for it's emissions test, it failed. The car was already up to proper operating temperature, but hadn't had a thrashing then for like 12 months. I asked if he could wait for 10-20 minutes (a try fo save some money for a second test)... I went on a quick blast through the close country side... 20 mins later I had it checked... Passed with merit!

Simple things just help... And when my V12 is ready, I'll be giving it a proper blast through the countryside. And I mean proper!

 

Hi Ron

I don't think I'd wanna do that in my V12 though back in the day it may have worked on 'Carb Cars'

 

We use a water spray bottle for that. Cold water, WOT and then squirt a couple of times... The engine doesn't like it at first but it likes it after a few seconds and ypu notice how it clears it's throught. Kind of like giving your car a cough sweet.

 

I guess it's a slightly harsher version of this:

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/wat...-does-it-work/

 

What I'd like to know is where I can possibly do this. The limit on the expressways is 100 kph, and while there are a few areas of road where I can drop the car into second and briefly scream up to 5,000+ rpm, I can't sustain it without getting wildly over the speed limit. And, while in general there's a pretty lenient tolerance about limits over here, that only applies to fixed cameras (set, for example, to ignore everything under 140 kph on the expressways).
However, I don't think it would be bad for the car as such. The V12 was originally designed to race, after all. Every so often I like to head into the twisties in the hills and give the suspension a workout with some tight cornering--tight from my conservative perspective, that is. Having the car go sideways into the guard rail, or worse, would be a very expensive fail (insurance will only cover damage to the rail, not my car).

 

My Dad called it "blowing out the engine" Every time he washed the car he took it out on the highway to blow dry it and blow the carbon buildup off the pistons. 1966 SS 396, 4 in the floor Impala convertible.

 

A few years ago when I lived in Sydney and my XJS was daily driver in traffic, rarely getting over 60km/h after a couple of months it would run rough. I took it for a drive down the motorway and it was good for another couple of months, it works.

Don't have that problem now as living in the country most of my driving is 100km/h and the occasional burst in 2nd gear to blow out the cobwebs.

 

You'd have to remove the head to get everything out of the way to get to the valves, so at that point you might as well just replace them.

 

No, it's to remove carbon deposits mainly on top of the piston, they get loosened as harder throttle gets the piston hotter, so the carbon will either burn, or flake off with the higher gas velocities through the combustion chamber and get blown out the exhaust. Typically, it won't do anything for carbon deposits on top of the valve, which usually occur where the PCV inlet is, especially noticeable on the 3.8/4.2 XK engine.

 

It's not ground speed that matters, it's more about putting load on the engine. So for example, if you are merging onto the motorway, use full throttle. Or find steep hills and accelerate up them. Keep "drive it like you stole it" in the back of your mind! Doesn't mean be a hooligan and be hard on the car, just give it some work to do instead of drifting along at small throttle openings.

 

Yep! to all the advantages, It will definitely improve performance, for most of the reasons listed. Early days the cars carboned up due to over rich carburetion. Taking it out and running it down the interstate was known as blowing the "Cobs " out of it. (as in cobwebs) Now it's due to the computer adjusting to the driver. My 2008 Mustang gets sluggish as my wife drives it 95% of the time. After several days of driving it myself, it becomes much more responsive / sharper in all areas of performance. Seat of the pants observation, but no doubt it's happening.

Jack

 

Probably the only way to not lose my license hah. Does this also mean if I theoretically loaded the car to max passengers, you wouldn't have to drive as 'spiritedly' past 100kph/60mph?

 

You probably would because that is no load for the V12. No matter how much you get into the car If you on the othe hand put a trailer on with 3.5t on the rear, then you be alright.

 

I see your in Calgary, best case scenario floor it up and down the deerfoot during the rushour death-race. Lots of opportunity to floor it then slam on the brakes. There are a few range roads where they (cps) don't normally patrol to.


As for the original OP's question. Our Lord and Saviour Mr. Kerbert instructed me in another thread to try an Italian Tune-Up to resolve my excessive oil blowby, I can safely say after slamming the car into 1st and flooring up the side of a mountain at the red line repeatedly the issue has resolved itself. The car also idles and starts better. I can't explain how or why but the harder you push the Jaguar V12 the better it gets, and the better your fuel economy to.