XJR6 – New Parts & Decisions

XJR6 – New Parts & Decisions

I have been working on getting the next stages of the project sorted and needed some more new bits. I have summarised them below:

  • Purchased and fitted a new Brake Master Cylinder & Reservoir from SNG Barratt
    • Pins for reservoir also ordered but the “R” clips were not available so ordered some elsewhere
  • I ordered a pair front shock absorbers (CAC9089B) checking they included the fittings on the top of the shock as some do not appear to come with them
  • I ordered a small alloy filler cap and tiny header tank for the inter-cooler system which I will keep separate from the main engine cooling system
  • About to order an XJS header tank as per Larry Louton used in his car on the Jaguar forum
  • Decided to use the XJR AC set up as much as possible so ordered a new condenser and receiver dryer
    • I will have to have a couple of pipes made up to match the newer XJR pipes with the old evaporator unit in the S2 dash. I have both the old and new pipes so maybe get them cut and joined?
  • Decided to go with a reconditioned S2 radiator I purchased a few years ago (unless I can find the original and it is in OK condition)
  • Came across the size issue with the electric fans as described below but will probably do something similar to Larrys solution as per the link above

The issue with the radiator & electric fans on the XJR is that they are too high to fit into the space in the Series 2 XJ6. This means I need to use either a Series 2 or series 3 radiator and causes a number of issues as follows:

  • There are gearbox cooling pipes that screw into the XJR radiator where as the older S2 radiator used a tube that fitted into the large radiator pipes with the gearbox fluid running inside a collar. I seem to have mislaid that tube/collar too so I will probably have to buy a new one and change the pipes to fit. It might be better to go for a horizontal alloy cooler that I could fit in the front somewhere. Try searching for “universal 7 row cooler” to get an idea of what I am thinking of.
  • I have two radiators to chose from. One is old and rusty looking and will no doubt require a re-core and one all painted gloss black. I do remember purchasing the “reconditioned” one a few years ago.  Neither of them have a fitting for a temperature sensor. This is a little confusing as I checked the older “tear down” pictures and I can clearly see a sensor in the lower right hand corner when looking from the engine bay at the radiator. I will have to hunt around and see if I can find the original radiator along with the gearbox cooler tube/collar.
    • Original radiator & sensor
      Original Radiator & Temp Sensor ~ middle
  • The XJR had electric fans so I need to have some form of electric fans on the new install. As you can see from the pictures below I have the original S2 fan shroud which is all tatty and rusty, A series 3 plastic surround which has the single fan cutout for the engine driven fan and the twin electric assembly from the XJR.
  • Original S2 fan shroud assembly
    Original S2 fan shroud assembly
    Rusty original fan shroud
    Rusty original fan shroud
    Rusty original fan shroud
    Rusty original fan shroud
    XJR dual electric fan assembly
    XJR dual electric fan assembly
    Spot the size issue :-)
    Spot the size issue 🙂

    I plan to cut down the dual electric fan assembly and place them horizontally across the engine bay. This will decrease the height. Currently, I have cut across the bottom right hand corner (where the two lighter coloured flaps are in the photo) so it fits in at an angle but it looks terrible!

Larrys aluminum sheet design (on the jag forum) looks better so I will do something similar. During the rebuild I fitted a new front cross member due to it being rotted away. This means I can drill new holes to mount the radiator a little further towards the front of the car. That will give me a vital couple of extra centimeters providing more clearance between the new fans and the belts at the front of the engine.

Fun and games 🙂

Thanks to Larry Loudon on the Jaguar forum for the ideas and inspiration

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