Injector fuel hoses replacement! It finally happened

YESSS Friends, it finally happend. I replaced the injector fuel hoses. And it was badly needed as the originals were still on it. You almost could see thru the brittle cracks. Don't be a Dodo and get this job done!

I finally had nothing else going on and spent nearly the entire weekend on it. And of course it was freezing cold, which I dislike very much. But it had to be done. A fews week back I was doing a little shoppping and went into the C&A store and by surprise I found a pair of Thermo Jeans. And also a warm flanel shirt. It's the first time I bought new clothes to be used a working clothes. But boy was this comfortable.

In any case, let's start. Earlier in the week I had watch these supporting videos again to for learning and guidance purposes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXovG0zUrTg

But also check out this blog with more supporting video's by someone else, very helpful:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2023/10/clean-and-test-jaguar-xjs-v-12-fuel.html

First items I did remove was the throttle bars, they can simply be pushed out. 

Next removing the gas cable and unscrewing the cableholder and unplugging both cable connectors.

Then removing some kind of air control bar. On both sides I had topped of connectors with a tierap mounted. I have no idea regarding the purpose of it. I guess it's not much of a use since it works OK without them connected. 

Then disconnecting the incoming fuel line and returning fuel line. And then unclicking all the injector connectors. I thought this was going to be difficult as it was unclear how these are fixed. But by using a screw driver I could tilt them slight on one side and with my fingers I was able to disconnect with a little movement. 

Careful though, afterwards I spotted 3 connectors lost the inside gaskets. I spotted them by luck when I  was inspecting the engine bay and I was able able to secure them

Then unscrewing all bolts. Again, be careful not to lose the washers and bolts in your engine bay. Have a magnet stick ready just in case. The removal of the injector rail went pretty easy.

Mind you, I spotted later on that a few injectors had the mounting rubber still inside the injector hole. So have that checked else you will have problem later on when putting the refurbished injectors back in. It's easy to overlook when you are refurbishing the injectors. 

As you can tell, this job needed to be done. Not only the hose was hard and brittle also the furele was heavily corroded.

So it's now just a matter of following the procedure per Youtube video. Just take your time to remove the hose. The one on the injector seems more to take more effort than the on that's on the fuel rail. I used the hacksaw to open up the furele and a knive to cut the hose open. And a screw driver to push it out from the furele.

In order to remove the filter use a screw that fits and goes into the copper. Tap it slightly in so it sits firm and you can pull it out:

I did put the injectors in an ultrasonic cleaner. I had one for my watch hobby so that was easy and it fitted in nicely. Just used tap water and cleaning concentrate. Quite a bit of dirt came of it, I guess the majority from the outside

Then building it up using the new kit:

I bought this clamp tool but it did not work very well for me. On the first attempt the glued protection rubber went lose. So instead I used a large screw and the bench screw and nicely tighten everything together, both the injector protector and the new fuel filtercap

The old fuel filters are entirely made of copper/steel while the new ones are partly plastic. Not sure how long that will last or will cause some issues on the long run?

Just for the records I captured this tag on the fuel rail:

And this tag on the hose, which seems to indicate it's from 18/06/1985
Which is odd as my car is from 1984:

And one refurbished injector ready to be mounted back on the fuel rail. And make sure you put the mounting bracket on correctly. Once the fuel hose is put back in there is no option to change this.

And repeat this 11 more times and presto! 

Clean up the mess:

Putting back the fuel rail went fairly easy, just take your time to position all the injectors and mount the brackets on. And all the other parts. 

I completed this activity in 2 days. The first day dismantling everything and refurbished 6 injectors. The next day I did the other 6 connectors and put everything back again. About 6 hours per day. 

And the moment of truth! I had my fire distinguisher ready but luckily I did not needed it. The car started up pretty quickly, I had turned on the ignition a few times in order build up fuel pressure. And it started fairly quickly but it ran very rough though. I only let it run very shortly a couple of times and inspected for any potential leakage or any other unusal thing. But all was fine. And it started spinning very nicely again. In fact when it became a little warm it ran smoother than ever. And even better response on the gas. I'm so pleased with the result. 

At the start of this project I was considering to uplift the entire fuel rail by spraying it. But I'm glad I didn't. It would have been to shiny/flash in comparisson with the rest. It looks quite OK now.

Now I still need to do the last remaining 4 fuel hoses. Watch this space

Advert - Where would you expect to see all the Jaguars?

 

It's XMAS

More coolant leakage

Last week I had the car run a little longer so it was firmly warmed up. I still found the car was running idle high again. After a while it dropped a little around 1000 RPM which is still to high. I figured the car required a good run so I decided to stop and leave it. But I spotted again a small coolant leakage but could not identify exactly where. I recalled this old blog from 2019 and something was not tightened at a bottom hose:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2019/09/coolant-leakage-check.html

It looked it was from the same area. So yesterday I made new attempt to warm it up. And this time the issue occurred much quicker and now it was quite visible as well. It was the top hose which potentially was never firmly attached:

I was able to losen it up using a normal spanner and shift it slightly so via excisting hole at the top bar I was able to firmly tighten it with a socket wrench. Afterwards it was no longer leaking:

Afterwards when starting up again and the engine was still warm it was now running nearly 800 RPM, which I think is what it should be. Not sure though. At least much better.

Quite possibly, the most extravagant jaguar ever built

Advancing the art of grand touring

The fastest automatic transmission production car in the world

 

Gearbox spring seat rubber + MOT !!!

As per blog: https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2025/11/gearbox-mounting-spring-spring-seat.html

This has been finally done today! To my great surprise I was informed there was not even a spring seat rubber in there! How is that possible? 

Back then I traced it back to the first owner which was the Jaguar dealer himself. See this blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-hunt-part-ii.html He more or less was the long time owner. When reading the story again I see the automatic gearbox had been changed once. It's hard to believe they overlooked this specific rubber? But who knows?

Since the car was in the garage, I asked them to perform an airco fill up. Unfortunately this couldn't be done due to missing a specific socket for this system. So I need to source that, it's not a big deal. 

Also I asked them to perform a MOT. I expect there would be a couple of minor things that needs to be done.  And it was a fail indeed. The headlights had to be adjusted and the window wipers were bad. Why didn't you fix that I told him, do you want me to get a new pair now, I can get them. But he laughed and said they were ordered and should arrive in the next hour. So everything got sorted and the MOT was sa pass later in the afternoon. HURRAY!!!

Certainly did not expected that. Turns out it was more then 6 years ago since it had a valid MOT and effectively not been used since. He told me even the emission tests were a pass in one go. Next he had cleaned up the steeringrack and filled it up and that was about it. 

So all together this round costed me € 265,-  (MOT, window wipers, steeringrack clean and fillup and labour for the gearbox spring rubber installation). Plus of course the costs for the spring, spring seal and the rubber (2x). 

Effectively I did not test drove the car afterwards as it was dark and rainy. The garage is located just across the road. But I have got good hopes the knocking sound is gone as described per blog:

https://erwinxjs.blogspot.com/2023/11/automatic-gearbox-knocking-sound.html

Due to the car having a specific Dutch roadtax rule I can't drive it in the winter months (Dec, Jan and Feb). Which I normally wouldn't do in any case. So I need to wait to the 1st of March. So I know already what I will be doing that day.

This also gives me a little more time to work on some other items, like refurbishing the fuel rail system. 

So watch this space!

Koenig XJS

Via: https://www.facebook.com/groups/175706667805/permalink/10164645047667806/

Now available in the download folder:

Gearbox mounting spring + spring seat rubber

 Last week I did some further checking and printed out the diagram for the mechanics. Then I figured it would be good to buy the spring as well. Just in case it's broken (or the old one being poor). This way the simply could continue the job while it's being open and removed. When ordering the new spring I noticed they offered a polythureen spring seat rubber. Did not spotted that before. Since this is a much thorough one and not much more expensive I ordered that one as well.  But when checking today with the normal one I ordered previously it's much smaller? Typical. In any case I have two now so one should fit hopefully. The mechanic told me the original might better as it's less stiff and as such might cause less vibrations ...

Oh well, in any case the extra spring and rubber and shipping costed  me another € 47,46