Hi Guys

My 1990 XJS V12 is coming out of mothballs after being off the road and left outside for over 13 years!

which has been under a car port with just a Car Cover on, which to tell you the truth I was scared to take off because I was expecting to find a pile of rust.

During that time I never checked under that cover once because of a family crisis which took up all my time and I couldn't put a car before a person.

So with some trepidation, I lifted off the cover yesterday, only to find that the car was in perfect condition!

No rust, no damp, absolutely amazing! I wasn't expecting that, the only thing I can think of is that when I laid her up, I gave her a good polish using 'Mer' and a liberal application of 'WD' on the chrome.

No dulling of the paintwork, she just shone like a star with exactly the same mirror finish, as the day that I put her away.

Which is when I remembered that the radiator was leaking.

I've now undone the brackets and taken off the pipes, so that the Rad is ready to come out.

So after my tale of woe, here is my question:

Do I need to take the bonnet completely off the car, or if I undo the gas struts, will the bonnet lift up vertical, so two of us can then lift the Rad out?

 

Yes, if you have 2 people you can get it out with the bonnet still on. On my facelift car I also had to remove the front grille to allow the bonnet to extend further.

I've done it both ways and the only issue I had when pulling it out with the bonnet still on is you need to angle the rad backwards away from the bonnet....... in my case there was still some coolant left in the rad, which spilled all over the the engine as we tilted it back. No harm done, just annoying as all the belts were wet and slipping once I started it up again. Went away after a spirited run though.

To be honest, if you have the second person around most of the time anyway, you should also use them to take the bonnet off...... it is literally only 4 bolts, 2 on each hinge.

 

Much easier to take the bonnet off, then you don't have to worry about making extra holes in radiator when you try to work past the brackets and such!

 

In the last six months I changed my water pump so this is fresh in my mind.

You can completely do it by yourself.
I removed it while changed water pump just to make room.

Make sure everything is unbolted and undone and it just pops up and out. Its pretty heavy but doable. Going in is a bit harder than taking it out.

-didn't remove hood
-didn't remove struts

Basically I sat on top of the engine, mostly on the manifolds ( as i often do) and reached down and pulled it up into my lap. Then I kind of stood it up and climbed down from the car while balancing it.

Definitely easier with two people but easily doable.

Honestly its not even something I thought about, I just pulled it out. Really no biggie man

 

Hi Sidescrollin

I think I will probably give it a go on my own, by undoing the gas struts and opening the bonnet (hood) then tying the front edge to the top of the car port, so its up as vertical as possible.

Then hang up a hand ratchet winch from the roof of the car port as well, (which I made myself from scaffolding poles)

Then carefully winch it up and out of the car.

Sarc@JameyXJ6

Thanks for your suggestions guys but I really do dislike the idea of having to take off the bonnet unless I really absolutely have to.

As one slip from myself or a helper could damage the paintwork or worse.

So I am going to give it a try with the bonnet still on, as in any event I am going to have the radiator rebuilt for which I have been quoted £250+vat which was more or less what I expected.

 

Good luck and be careful! Radiators have a strange and unexplainable magnetic attraction to all sharp or jagged edges!

 

One of the more simple mods I did to my 88, and am about to do to my 90 is to weld a nut about 6" forward of the original lower anchor point on one side. When I need to work on the motor I just relocate the lower strut and my bonnet will open a full 90 degrees. It only needs one side done as in this position it is only holding the bonnet in place, not lifting it.

 

Nice idea! (in theory) but I don't want to do any welding on my Car, I would rather tie it up in the air to a solid object.

What they should have done is copy the strut idea on my Merc 190 which is not only simple but also brilliant as well.

On my Merc 190 you can have the bonnet (hood) half open, or push a clip on the gas strut and then lift the bonnet wide open right up in the air.

Obviously the bonnet on the Merc 190 opens from the Rad end rather than the Windscreen end on the Jag but I'm sure they could have probably come up with something similar to the Merc.

 

I just reinstalled my radiator yesterday (for the second time since owning this car). No need to remove the hood. Just remove the grille (five screws) undo the struts from the hood (two bolts) and flip it forward. It'll stay put.

I have also had no trouble removing and reinstalling the radiator by myself. It's a little heavy, but an assistant isn't absolutely necessary.

 

Hi Thanks for that, I am going to take the Rad out as soon as we get better weather but what happens if you don't take out the grill?

 

If you don't remove the grill the hood hinges will crush or break it.

 

Whoops! I better start getting the grill out before I forget!

 

Last week my '90 was starting to run a little warm so I figured now was as good a time as any to swap radiators from my parts car. I also replaced the yellow plastic fan as well as the thermostats while I was in there. When I removed the aluminum radiator from the parts car of course, no matter how careful I tried to be, I managed to just barely scrape a couple of tubes. These were fixed with a dab of JB Weld and all is well. The thermostats I used had no jigglers so I drilled a .125" hole and inserted a cotter pin. These were then installed with the holes at the top. After all was said and done I re-read Kirby's book and noticed a passage that suggested asking for a later thermostat and it might come with a jiggler. While I was under the car I noticed that the R/H exhaust manifold had both bolts missing on the rear collecter flange! This seems to be an issue with this car as I also had the rear brake caliper fall off due to the main bolt backing out! I didn't loose the caliper but it did crack the hard line causing me to loose hydraulic pressure. The last owners mechanic must have been useless! I've only had the car for about 4 months now so I'm still sorting out the minor bugs. but I am loving every minute of it!