"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
05/21/2020 at 11:09 • Filed to: The Hot Mess
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"Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo" (akioohtori)
05/21/2020 at 11:09 • Filed to: The Hot Mess | 6
| 16 |
I am usually pretty easy going about car repair. As I’ve ramped up the project car difficulty, gradually buying more obscure, prestigious, or rare projects, I haven’t yet run into a situation where I’ve been overwhelmed by the cost or complexity of a project. You’d think with an International Harvester, Alfa Romeo, Land Rover, Volvo, and a Saab as past (or current) project cars, something as simple as a Jag made by Ford wouldn’t be a problem.
Or at least I thought that.
I was incorrect.
Complexity
This thing is not simple. The engine cooling is a labyrinth mixed with a jigsaw puzzle. Everything is nested with the thing next to it and there is very little wasted space
Rather remarkable it works at all.
This means, in contrast to most of the work I’ve done in the past, “precision” is the key. What that means in practice is something you can’t access or touch is preventing you from removing or installing the part you need to and the factory service manual (FSM) pretends that isn’t the case.
I removed the radiator fan and shroud the other day and it kept getting hung up on stuff. What? I have no idea. The thing has multiple wiring harnesses attached to it, but I removed those. Or at least I think I did.
Eventually it just came loose and I’m sure that won’t come back to haunt me later.
Oh wait! Last night I was reinstalling it and had the same issue going in. It was snagged on... something... but from the top and the bottom I saw no obstruction.
Then it slotted in.
While reconnecting the auxiliary water pump, one of three water pumps I’ve found so far, I couldn’t get the connector to snap in. After a long struggle I determined it just... didn’t? All the lock pins etc were in the right place, so I just completed the install and left it.
I’m sure that won’t come back to haunt me either.
This project has been full of “why is this happening/like this” much more so than any other I’ve encountered. Partly because the engine bay is packed pretty tight and partly because the FSM is pretty mum about a lot of stuff. Most FSMs I’ve encountered are super into you removing everything that could conceivably be in the way of the job you’re doing.
Not this FSM.
To change the belts it doesn’t even recommend removing the coolant expansion tank and, having just changed the belts with half of the front of the engine removed, I have literally no idea how that would be possible.
To change the serpentine idler pulley it doesn’t indicate you need to remove the supercharger belt tensioner, despite there being less than a belt’s width of clearance between them and they overlap about 25%. Literally don’t know how this could be done otherwise.
To remove the supercharger tensioner they do have you remove a oil cooler pipe, which does indeed give you just enough clearance to remove it... but removing the fan shroud was easier, gave much better access, and didn’t get oil all over my floor.
Truly this FSM was made by sadists.
Cost
Things on this car are expensive.
Again, looking at my car history you’d think I’d be prepared for that. The Land Rover isn’t much older than the Jag and, in my mind, no less prestigious.
And yet... anything made by Jag is expensive.
$300 of pulley right there!
Brake Calipers? $600
Parking brake calipers? $500
Parking brake pad PINS? $100
Supercharger water pump? $400
Idler pulley? $150
Tensioner? $150
Bleed nipple? $35 each. There are 8.
Transmission fluid? $40/qt, takes 10 quarts.
And yes, I know, buying a Jaguar and expecting the parts to be inexpensive is insane. Get out of the comments I don’t need to hear how right you are Heidi Hindsight. The point is I own a lot of other cars that I expected the parts to be expensive and they weren’t, so I (un)reasonably assumed this one would be no different.
This means in practice I’m either not replacing thing I normally replace, repairing what can be repaired, and ignoring the rest.
Conclusion
I think the big issue here I bought a low-volume, high-performance model from a low-volume manufacturer. The trifecta of rarity, prestige, and power is both what attracted me to the car (and that it was cheap) and is what is killing me about this car.
I’ll get it sorted, don’t get me wrong.
Even now the car is more assembled than it has been in weeks.
If I can get my shit together and do a big push this weekend I’m pretty sure it’ll be back on the road by the end of it.
Provided all the shit I broke putting stuff back together wasn’t important....
Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:17 |
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Lol love this car and your way with words!
Nom De Plume
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:21 |
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I find it highly enjoyable you are actively working out (multiple vehicles) complicated repair issues while everyone else makes jokes about yeast infections, posts offensive metal videos, or attempts to derive how a few millimeters make one jack stand prettier than all others.
Where did you ever end up with the search for a shop to work in?
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:29 |
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Keep plugging at it, the Jag is worth it!
dogisbadob
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:30 |
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Hi
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> Nom De Plume
05/21/2020 at 11:34 |
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Ha! Thanks.
As for the shop well... it got weird. After super-duper failing to acquire a property I also got laid off in August, which shifted the timeline significantly. Then the economy imploded so all the money I’d planned to pull out of stocks to fiance part of it also dried up a bit... Revised plan right now is to remodel my existing garage as soon as I can for a work space. Currently have two storage units for excess car storage as there isn’t really the possibility of a long term solution there right now.
PyramidHat
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:54 |
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When I bought the Z3, I learned that there are plastic cooling pipes that run underneath the intake manifold - to replace, you then have to remove said intake manifold and part of the fuel rail and a bunch of other stuff. I bitched about that at at the time. I’ll stop bitching, now.
CompactLuxuryFan
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 11:58 |
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That just means this car is getting even rarer by the minute. Let that be your driving force :p
MoCamino
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 12:14 |
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With all those cooling pipes and eight(!) bleed nipples, I imagine getting all the air out of the cooling system will be fun. And by fun I mean “roughly comparable to an appendectomy sans anes thesia.”
Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 12:30 |
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Random thought: You might save money on parts if you find the Ford/Lincoln equivalent, as Ford used this same platform and engine in a couple of their cars. Not that this helps with the way it’s constructed (these are quite amazing pieces of engineering that don’t look like they were designed with maintenance in mind at all; my LS needed a COP replaced and just getting the cover off was absolutely ridiculous, as it used 7mm bolts that it seems were last tightened at the factory before the engine was installed because like 4 or 6 of them on each side were so close to the firewall that it took some serious contortion with a collection of weird sized/shaped specialty tools to get them out and back in).
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> MoCamino
05/21/2020 at 12:38 |
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Mostly worried about breaking them off when I do the bleed! After the shit show of bleeding the Alfa’s brakes I went ahead a bought a power bleeder so... hopefully the bleed won’t be terribad.
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 14:23 |
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I had (have) a dog like that once...
Thisismydisplayname
> MoCamino
05/21/2020 at 15:18 |
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A vacuum bleeder for the coolant system will make short work of it all. I’ve had great luck with the one I have. It pulls a good vacuum on the entire cooling system, then open the fill valve and it’ll suck in a gallon or more of coolant to fill the system. Then just top off the reservoir and you’re good to go.
GoodIdeaAtTheTime
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
05/21/2020 at 15:33 |
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Ya know, you can substitute the factory J ag trans fluid with M ercon V right ? The S-type gearboxes are from an Explorer, and the Jag fluid has a different coloring agent, that’s it . I find it irritating I still know where all those hoses connect to on the front of the engine ... and to really bleed the air out, get an A irlift, pull a vacuum on the cooling system, 20-25 inhg and let it suck coolant back in, top off as needed. Takes just a few minutes. The belts are done from the top and bottom, I still have the scars. I forget where I used to get the aux pumps from, but I remember them only being like $130, BMW maybe, but that was also 10 years ago. All the p ulley’s.... where off the shelf parts for a Continental or Contour , well they were off of some Ford/ Lincoln/Mercury sedan. I’ll dig through some of my old notes and see if I can find it.
Do the self leveling headlights still work? They seem to be pointed down, quite a bit.
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Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> GoodIdeaAtTheTime
05/21/2020 at 16:35 |
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Lol I feel like you’ve seen a few of these. I did acquire the aux pump but didn’t have luck on the supercharger pump. Not failed so I didn’t spring for a new one. The front isn’t THAT hard to remove if it does fail .
No idea how you’d do the belts without doing a full overhaul. Literally can’t fathom even getting the supercharger belt off without removing the tensioner. There isn’t room to slip the belt by the serpentine belt idler pulley! I guess if you were doing a lot of them maybe you’d get used to it...
As for t he pulleys, I found generic replacements for all of them . T he primary problem was determining if I had the “update” kit everyone kept trying to sell me. (I did.) Ended up having to press a new bearing into one, but that was fun too.
I found some off-brand (non-ZF) fluid was supposedly the same as OE. I’d read that you could use Mercon V, but couldn’t find anyone saying with 100% certainty it wouldn’t hurt the transmission and I didn’t want to risk it . The OE fluid looks nor smells like Mercon V , more like fish oil that’d been left in a hot car, and the transmission is at least different enough to warrant a different section on Wikipedia than the Explorer tranny. T hough I don’t doubt they’re very similar.
Self leveling headlights would have worked it I hadn’t broken them. Which is to say one of the sensors was bad, I replaced it , but apparently the PO had done the “jam a screw in it” trick so when the system restored itself it stripped out the leveling gears. Hooray. I’ve restored the “jam a screw in it” fix but it still needs adjustments. Baby steps.
Luckily I’m on the home stretch here. Provided I don’t bork the calipers I have all the parts I need to finish and one long weekend should get it done.
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MoCamino
> Thisismydisplayname
05/21/2020 at 16:43 |
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I knew such a thing existed for brakes...I honestly had no idea they existed for coolant systems. I think I need one!
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Thisismydisplayname
> MoCamino
05/21/2020 at 21:50 |
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Yeah, and they work great. Some cars service manuals call them out, but they work for conventional simple systems too. The problem is when you have an almost full system, because then you can end up vacuuming out coolant through the Venturi and it will make a mess. But if the radiator is empty, that’s normally enough to keep from making a mess.