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AxeHealey
AxeHealey SuperDork
11/9/23 9:40 a.m.

In reply to a_florida_man :

Glad to see you back at this. 

I got a can from Pete on trade for...something... It's stashed out in my shed because it smells so bad but having a 5 gal bucket of it sure is handy!

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/9/23 9:09 p.m.

In reply to AxeHealey :

Yeah the stuff is amazing. Ive used it for years as a parts soak for carbs and pistons mainly. Amazingly effective. When you read the safety data sheets, it really not that bad either....

It does a phenomenal job cleaning pistons and oil rings.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/9/23 9:16 p.m.

Side note, I wasn't concerned too much with turning this into a challenge car, after buying the car back from Steve for Jack to campaign.

However, a rough tally shows car : 1200, parts 1100, EASY recoup on a few ornamental XKR bits approx $430 and we are at $1870, with hopefully little more to go.

With this in mind, I asked the wife... "....wanna race a car...?".

She didn't say no. 

So, maybe just maybe it will be out there in big tire under budget.

I'll have to check the tread wear, lol...

 

 

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/15/23 6:48 p.m.

So, I bought the ChemDip today.

Pretty sure the old can was from BK, before kids!

Note the lid in the foreground... this is how it ships. Order a resealable one from Amazon before you open the new can. Thank me later.

 

The intercoolers ARE nasty oil soaked...

However.. as soon as I placed one in, the oil started floating off.

This should work just fine.

$200 in stock at select OReilly's

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/16/23 7:00 p.m.

One overnight soak.

Pulled it out at lunchtime today.

This stuff flat works.

Takes the paint off too!

To recap, last night... going in...

Lunchtime today.

Very Clean!

 

No agitation, no rinsing, nothing!

Yep that did it!​​​​​​

11GTCS
11GTCS SuperDork
11/16/23 7:03 p.m.

In reply to a_florida_man :

That's amazing.  Is it one and done for that can or can you still use it for other things? 

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/16/23 7:13 p.m.
11GTCS said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

That's amazing.  Is it one and done for that can or can you still use it for other things? 

You can use it over and over... the old can is over 10 years old, the only reason I bought a new one was to have a full can for maximum submersion.

Mr_Asa
Mr_Asa UltimaDork
11/22/23 4:37 p.m.
a_florida_man said:
11GTCS said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

That's amazing.  Is it one and done for that can or can you still use it for other things? 

You can use it over and over... the old can is over 10 years old, the only reason I bought a new one was to have a full can for maximum submersion.

If its the same stuff I've looked at in the past, it does have some volatile chemicals that will evaporate over time.  Those aren't necessarily things that will kill the effectiveness of it, though just make it a bit slower.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/28/23 6:56 p.m.

Some details from the blower tear down:

OEM Eaton Seal on the Right, Kit seal on left... meh.. should be ok.. right?

Also confirmed that the drive pulley is undersized from OEM.

Gearcase was cleanish... for 190k miles anyway.

The rear bearings were pretty bad. Probably not about to fail bad, but certainly noisy bad.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
11/28/23 7:01 p.m.

The case and the nose cleaned up well in the chemdip. The blower lobes and gears were cleaned by hand.

Rear bearings installed.

Already 'feels' better.

You can see how well the chemdip works...

 

Found "EAG" engraved on the blower snout.

The guy that put the pulley on? OEM Eaton assembly? IDK.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/3/23 2:09 a.m.

When I used to build models as a kid I never could refrain from mocking up parts ahead of time ... supercharger Is rebuilt

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/3/23 2:12 a.m.

Stampie... I'm making progress...

you and bob need to stop by.

Stampie
Stampie MegaDork
12/3/23 8:18 a.m.

In reply to a_florida_man :

After the wedding last night and it's open bar I might swear off for at least 12 hours or so. 

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/9/23 10:44 p.m.

Progress continues.

I serviced the transmission with a filter kit, replaced the broken rear mount, and helicoiled the the mount to transmission bolt.

 

And on the note of helicoil work.... the number of broken, missing, and incorrect fasteners on this job has been exceptional. I would say that 90% of the time when OEM parts were missing, there was thread damage from using the wrong bolt or nut thread size... sorta sad.

It has enhanced my selection of hardware stock and thread kits.

Like here. Some one just had to get the job done and run the wrong nut up the exhaust stud. Granted it is a lot easier to fix these things when it is all blown apart...but how about not doing it to begin with? The other manifold had all 4 studs replaced from oem (they were all flat studs without torx heads on them for installation like these). But at least they were correct with the right hardware... 

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/9/23 11:14 p.m.

As I have been taking the time to fix all of the little issues... I've been considering where Im going with this overall.

Im pretty sure that I can keep it a challenge car. At the same time I don't want to skip fixing any issues.

Here's the deal. This car has 185k miles on it. And for that mileage it is in amazing mechanical shape, ESPECIALLY when you consider all of the poor repairs and lack of proper upkeep.

I have found several areas aside from damaged hardware and a lack of maintenance  that that need to be addressed.

  1. Oil vapor management
  2. Wiring degradation
  3. Cooling system reliability

Oil vapor management is not optimal for this supercharged engine. The crud in the intercoolers, the throttle body, and in the bypass valve were not too bad for 185k miles, BUT It should not have been there if you want to maintain performance and driveability. Good news here is a cheap catch can will fix this by routing the low and high volume breather systems away from the intake stream.

Wiring degradation. The engine harness is not the best in the world. Places on the harness where oil and heat have taken action have resulted in the loss of insulation to a greater degree than ypou would expect to find. This was especially so on the wiring to the coil packs. I already have wiring and pigtails in the budget for all 8 coils, but I'll have to make sure to really go over the rest of the harness to be sure.

Cooling system reliability. Lets start off with some pictures.

As you can see... it's complicated. There is a cooling system for the engine, a system for the the intercoolers and a substantial bit of rubber wizardry going on in the rear for the heater core. There are about a dozen official Jaguar assemblies of molded hoses. Some are in the aftermarket. Some are Jaguar only. Some are obsolete. Almost ALL of the are hard to get to, especially the two that run under the supercharger. There is a mechanical pump and two electrical pumps, two check valves and two radiators. Any of these can put you on the side of the road. 

My plan is to replicate all of this with simple silicone hose and bulk alluminum tube. Once and done.

I may also place a valve between or just separate the supercharger and engine cooling systems. They are only connected by a hose with a small orifice for the assumed purpose of sharing a reservoir. 

 

Stampie
Stampie MegaDork
12/9/23 11:19 p.m.

In reply to a_florida_man :

You're making me miss Gainesville.  

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/9/23 11:19 p.m.

In taking picture to discuss the cooling system, I was taking pictures of the heater core valve, pump, hoses, and check valve that are still on the car.

When I noticed this:

Yep. Pretty sure the kink in that heater core hose has been there for 24 years. I wonder how well the heater worked? LOL.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/9/23 11:25 p.m.
Stampie said:

In reply to a_florida_man :

You're making me miss Gainesville.  

LOL

Gainesville misses you

and Bob

and Lil Stampie

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/9/23 11:32 p.m.

SO.. funny thing.. a quick internet search found an XK8 owner with no heat and this exact hose kinked shut from OEM.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/10/23 4:52 p.m.

5/16 hose just arrived.

This application needs 3/8" I think, but I wanted to see how well it handles bends.

I think the small molded hoses can all be replaced with straight hose sections.

I should also be able to continue to use the OEM spring clamps.

Parker with too many Projects
Parker with too many Projects Dork
12/13/23 9:04 a.m.

So basically the aftercoolers and the engine coolant come from a common reservoir? That probably makes for a nice warm IAT...

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/13/23 11:15 a.m.

In reply to Parker with too many Projects :

The two circuits share the coolant (for balance when topping off) but they are isolated by a small orifice. There is minimal heat exchange between the two. The intercooler side has its own fill port. 

a_florida_man
a_florida_man Dork
12/13/23 8:43 p.m.

In reply to a_florida_man :

As a result the intercooler cooling system has its own electric pump as well.

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