Monday 27 November 2017

Engine overheating cause

Yes, it has been a while since I've been working on my XJS. But as said, I have other more important priorities for now. In any case I'm still following closely interesting XJS updates. Yesterday I came across this interesting posting on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/350319041788353/permalink/940303346123250/

To avoid potential overheating of the engine this guy had his A/C compressor and dryer removed. Apparently this also resulted in obtaining a higher top speed. Personally I do like my comfort in the car, so disabling the A/C is certainly I would not fancy. When flicking thru the comment fields I noticed the following remark in red:

William Dampier The V12 is anything but delicate. If you’ve ever taken one apart it looks like a 8000 horsepower top fuel dragster engine with 4 extra cylinders.
The worst thing for a Jaguar is ignorant mechanics. Mechanics who replace the radiator, the waterpump, headgaskets and even rebuild it simply because they fail to oil the distributor. If not properly oiled the advance freezes and causes the timing to be off. That’s the usual reason for overheating.
Mechanics who fail to properly adjust the throttle linkage or replace cracked rubber hoses. Mechanics who neglect the rubber fuel line and allow the engine to catch on fire.
Mechanics who replace whole computers and a lot of company’s because a sensor is loose or contacts corroded a bit.


Then an interesting spin off discussion takes place on this matter. You can read the all the other comments yourself given the FB link above.

Clearly there could be other causes for overheated engines but this one is a easy one to check and to tackle. I did happen to have my rotor and cap replaced last year:


As far as I can recall the rotor went smooth. Would have been an ideal opportunity to have it oiled ... If I only would have known this earlier ...