Didn't get far on the Jag, but got over the fear of it

"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
04/16/2020 at 09:49 • Filed to: The Hot Mess

Two things always delay me from starting a big, car disabling project:

Fear of the unknown

Resistance to taking a working car to non-working, even if temporarily

Immobilizing a car is always scary as it sort of.... locks it in until I can finish the job. Similarly on a new-to-me vehicle, I have no idea how difficult a job like the one(s) I’m undertaking is until I elbow deep in it. Stuff like the Saab and the Disco are NBD, I’ve been all over those cars, inside and out, and very little scares me. Fills me with dread, yes, but not fear.

But I digress.

Last night I finally took a wrench to the Jag’s engine, and it was good.

First thing in the list, after finding my freaking 3/8" set which was indeed in storage inside the Volvo, was pulling a plug to see what they looked like. At ~$10 each I didn’t want to throw in a new set unless I needed to.

I need to.

The electrode and gap are excellent, but the insulator is clearly starting to blow a bit, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Unfortunate that these have almost certainly been replaced and are “100k” plugs and have clearly failed in much, much less than that. I’m not so sure about NGK these days....

THAT SAID, I am going to take a chance on some Ruthenium spark plugs because (A) they’re the same price and (B) I like the look of the electrode. If anyone would like to advise me otherwise please speak up soon because that order is going in soon.

Additionally, the S-Type FB people seem to indicate I should do the valve cover and spark plug seals too. That is a firm... maybe. There isn’t a lot of oil making it to the plug, but I do agree that there appears to be some. I’ll take a peek and see if the valve cover gasket is also leaking and go from there. If it is AND changing it doesn’t involve pulling the supercharger, I’ll do it.... probably. My experience with the Rover tells me that it is 100% not worth it as common advice with the Rover people is to change the head gaskets at the same time as the valve cover because you’re already 90% there.

For freaking valve covers!

I also received the suggestion I should throw in new coils, but I’m think that is a bridge too far. They’re only $35 each for the “Actual OE” ones or the same money for NGK , but that is another $300 I don’t need to be spending. Especially as it isn’t like I’m making special access just for them. If I see something squiffy when I pull the plugs I’ll reconsider.

Heh... anyway, I pulled the air intake tube and man isn’t it a funny looking thing.

You have to wonder if having all those chambers is really worth it for whatever problem they’re trying to solve. (Intake noise, I guess?)

I have a new one of these in hand that looks a little... different.

Yes, I bought a performance intake because I am a terrible person. I’ve heard good reviews and it wasn’t hugely expensive. Also i t is very pretty ! I’m a little concerned now about the air inlet into the filter box being too small, but wouldn’t/couldn’t bring myself to go to a “cold air intake,” which I’ve always found to be an oxymoron at best.

Removing the fresh air intake revealed a surprising amount of the engine and good news overall. Most of the hoses and things look like they’ll be mostly accessible once I remove the expansion tank (which, oddly, was not in the instructions) and a ll but one of the hoses that are looking chubby I already have replacements for. The maze of hoses going to and from the supercharger cooler look like new except for about a 4" section which shouldn’t be too bad to cut out and replace.

Overall, access and overall condition certainly looks better than expected. I can even touch the thermostat housing!

Next steps will be to remove the lower cowl and splash shield so I can get to the radiator drain and the lower radiator hose. Additionally I’m going to go ahead and pull the front bumper, which requires the aforementioned pieces to be pulled anyway, so I can replace the horns, one of which is currently inop.

Not too bad!

DISCUSSION (14)

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/16/2020 at 10:16

Spark plug life can be a lot shorter on forced induction engines.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
04/16/2020 at 10:28

For sure. Not nearly as bad as the plugs on the Renegade (which failed in under 30k) but still a little frustrating. I don’t know when these were changed but I don’t think NGK was the OE, meaning these plugs probably lasted 50k at most. Either way, not like I’m going to have this car in another 50k so I guess it is someone else’s problem!

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/16/2020 at 10:42

I gave your other post outlining what all you want to do and... fuck it, it’s not your daily, correct? Go the VW service position route. Just take the whole damn front clip and radiator support off. It probably isn’t as bad as you’d expect.

Also, another fun mod VW kids do/did in the 90s: take the factory airbox out, figure out where it pulls cold air from/where the coldest air is, and just kinda drill a bunch of holds everywhere on that side of the lower intake box. It’s mostly an induction noise thing. Could also just fit an open element filter inside the stock box (swiss cheesed as before) like the S2000 did.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
04/16/2020 at 10:51

Haha with the expansion tank out I’m looking at more access than I’m used to. It is a big ‘ol engine bay, unlike the aforementioned Germans. The plugs look like they might get a little weird as there is a lot of *stuff* mounted on the driver’s side, but removing the front isn’t going to help that :-(

Luckily being a performance model that wasn’t very well fitted from the factory , there are a LOT of guides on how to get the most out of this engine. I don’t recall reading anything about air box modification outside of getting a performance (read: K&N) air filter. Honestly there is a shocking amount of stuff that is basically polishing the intakes and making sure the air has a smooth path into the engine.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/16/2020 at 11:29

Yeah, porting is always a good idea, but that requires pulling the heads and tearing them down , which many people are reluctant to do, for obvious reasons. If the car’s going to be out of commission for a few days, it wouldn’t hurt to pull the intake manifolds off just to see how well the gasket matches the intake and the head.

The airbox drilling thing is just a regular janky VW mod. My cars have (where stock) a quite odd intake design that most people just rip out and replace with an open element filter, and a head shield if they’re smart.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
04/16/2020 at 12:44

Wow yeah not doing that. The porting I’m looking at ( from this guide , if you’re interested ) is mostly deburring castings and cleaning the TB. Basically fixing sloppy parts quality and the like. Will it help? Who can say! Can’t hurt (much). I’m not planning on going further than removing the throttle body as after that you’re looking at removing the supercharger, which is getting far too serious for my liking.

Thisismydisplayname > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/16/2020 at 13:12

I feel you’re pain, a nd excitement. I have my S8 still sitting since November after I lost a roller rocker... well didn’t really lose it, it’s still in the engine, just not where it is supposed to be. I’ve tried to mess with it a little, but super not motivated to tear into it. And now that the weather is breaking, I’m needing to get my truck up and running. And I’ve been limping it along for the past two years on a transmission that’s in need of a rebuild. But that’s my “been through a lot of nuts and bolts” vehicle. It doesn’t scare me to tear into it. Other than what you were describing in taking a working vehicle out of service. But it’s over at my shop just waiting for me to pull the trans. Equal parts excitement, dread and laziness are at play right now.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/16/2020 at 17:00

Pro-tip on the cam covers if you do them - be really careful about following the boltup sequence and torque recommendations, and ease the bolts up a bit at a time following the sequence round and round , rather than just cranking them up . The cover is as flexible AF and if you let it flex while tightening it, it squeezes the gasket out of place. Also be super anal about cleani ng the mating surfaces and getting the gasket just- so in position bef or e assembly, which is non-trivial. I had to do my LH one 4 times before I got it to seal properly, though the RH worked first time .

Fortunately it’s a pretty easy job ( on the XJ, at least) . Bunch of intake plumbing and a couple of emissions items bolted to the body need removing, but that’s just spanner work and if you’re going to be fettling the intake you’re halfway there already. Certainly no need to remove the supercharger, and I expect there’s not on the S either.

Biggest PITA on the XJ was the dip stick tube - you can do the job without removing it, jus t by rotating it out of the way after undoing the top anchor , but it’s really easy to knock it out of the block while it’s not secured at the top and getting it back in takes a lot of blind poki ng around (guess how I know). Pro tip there: leave the dip stick in (or put it back in if you’ve removed it - I can’t remember why I took mine out, the handle may have got in the wa y of a bolt) , and it’ll act as a guide if you knock the tube out of place.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
04/19/2020 at 18:06

Ok funny enough Jag has me covered on drilling holes in the side of the air box! Don’t know when it activates, but there is a little solenoid that pushes this flap out to allow more air flow.

Kinja'd!!!

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/19/2020 at 23:39

Where does that flap open to? Lots of air boxes will have a cold side from the outside of the car and a hot side that will pull air from the engine bay (sometimes a pipe will pull air from near the header), opening and closing the hot side with a valve like that to get warmer air for emissions purposes .

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
04/20/2020 at 01:07

True story that! My Saab has a flap like that which draws warm air from around the exhaust when the car is cold. The one on the Jag draws air from the engine bay and is only fitted to supercharged models, so I assume it isn’t for warm up. My guess is it either opens at high RPM or WOT to allow more air in..

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/20/2020 at 08:26

Could be. That’s the first one I’ve seen where the flap is that size and solenoid operated instead of just vac uum. Was there a hose on that flap? It could very well be a secondary intake hole for high revs, especially if the air is intercooled. It could be shut at low revs just for NVH reduction.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker
04/20/2020 at 10:02

No hose or vacuum connect. Very little is vacuum driven on this car for whatever reason. Air comes into the air box ordinarily via a scoop at the front, which I guess is best case for the engine getting cool air. Guessing at whatever condition more air is more important than cool air, so it opens. Just weird Jag things... I haven’t done a lot of research on it . The parts manual calls it “solenoid, air” which is pretty much ungoogleable because that is a different thing on some of the other engines this car came with. I did manage to confirm it is working, or rather that if I put 13v to it the flap opens, so I’m going to call it good haha.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
04/20/2020 at 10:19

https://www.jaguarforum.com/showthread.php?t=61631&s=f317ba43c903c523469ae7c9bed99c94

Seems your suspicion that it opens at WOT is correct. I guess people lock it open for more induction noise. Cool!