1992 Jaguar XJ40 SuperTurboDiesel

I wonder when they came up with that solution... Must remember to only buy cars made before that date!



Thanks man! Still plenty to catch up with

4th May 2020

Bit more progress this weekend

Took the plunge and chopped out the rusted fuel filler area. Figured out I could just get away with not removing the rear window for now, meaning I could still do it outside.




Also finished re-making my pressed bracket thing (which I've since discovered are still available for £16...).



Next up was making a replacement panel for the body. Was thinking this was going to be tricky, but in all honesty some 1mm steel and a ball-peen hammer had it made surprisingly easily.



Tacked it in place very, very slowly with clamps all the way. Welding outside actually had some benefits here. When there's gust of wind it blows your shielding gas away so you have to wait for lulls which stops me getting impatient and rushing! Connected up all the tacks and very carefully sandy-flap wheeled it flush. It's slightly below the level of the panel so there's some space to filler it flat.




Once the paint was dry on the underside (and the pressed panel) it got bonded in place with copious amounts of tigerseal. I also redid the seam that runs up to the c-piller as that had worked loose.

Getting the tank in was a bit of a struggle. Not sure if I got the tank in slightly slanted or all the little errors adding up with the panel replacements meaning it's slightly off. It fits, but it's tight at the filler neck.




Still, it's in and sealed up with hylomar blue and a coat of halford's best pending a respray. Will fettle the position a bit later.

Oh, and while I was waiting for various paints to dry I remade the rear brake pipes in kunifer (including the long fore-aft pipe not pictured here). Just as well as the original steel ones cracked as I removed them...



The list is getting shorter! Not much shorter, but still pleased with progress

10th May 2020

Got the IRS in this weekend much lighter half built up.



Little access hatch is already coming in useful. Forgot to bolt the bracket for the speedo sensor before getting it in place, which would normally be a pain but with the panel off it's no problem



Also sorted my fuel flexi lines which run above the suspension unit.



All of the various bits for the IRS are bolted up now. I've left the driveshafts and various bits untouched as the bearings and UJs are good (or at least good enough). When one of them goes I'll do the lot, but for now it's onto the next job



11th May 2020

Everything torqued up and the ARB fitted now that I can tell the rough ride height it was easy to see the ARB links were a little long. Cut them down by 20mm and it sits much nicer.



You might notice the new holes in the boot as well. Decided I was fed up with having to drop the rear of the suspension unit to get a socket onto the rear of the long through bolt for the wishbones so I'll weld some bits of tube to scallop the boot so you should be able to remove everything in situ if needed.

Also worked out a plan to get the engines in and out without having to drag it up into the garage which is a bonus. Will mean it's all done outside, but that's no major issue really.

Going to try and catch up a bit as I've made a fair bit of progress recently that we're still quite a way from!

1st June 2020

Haha so it turns out something went a little awry with the lowering springs I bought half a decade ago. It's a little slammed! This is with my mate in the boot simulating 90 litres of fuel and it's on the bumpstops! If anyone can recommend a good set of lowering springs I'm all ears (athough the ground is pretty uneven here).



Still, it's rollable which means the BMW can come out of long term storage



The front end of these comes apart in no time.




Only took about a day or so to get the engine out, and at a pretty leasurely pace as well.



Pulled out most of the electrics I'll need, and some spare stock for wiring other cars. Taken the ECU, the EWS immobiliser module and the electrocin throttle so I can get at the sensor. I'll also need the reluctor ring from the steering column just in case. Planning an EWS delete to simplify things, but if all else fails I'll have the bits needed to make sure the modern electronics are happy.



They also come with a rather nifty splitter in the boot with a sodding great 250a fuse and another 100a fuse which is useful to know for anyone planning to put a battery in the boot of another car.

With that sorted over a weekend and the BMW back in its place, the Jag could be dragged out front ready for surgery

ooof !

Haha thanks guys! Oof indeed!

This'll be the first properly powerful car I'll have owned so it's quite exciting really! Closest previously would be a 2.5 V6 Alfa 156, and an E46 330i Touring (which wasn't noticeably quicker than the Alfa until you got over motorway speeds).

Next catch-up update

15th June 2020

Latest progress is the engine bay's pretty much stripped. Decided that it'll be much easier to chase the rust in the engine bay without all the junk in it. Especially at the bulkhead.



These cars are by and large pretty good with general rust. Lots of good quality seam sealer shows that they were really trying to fight the 'rusty British cars' stigma. It worked pretty well given that they're better than every E46 I've ever owned (probably skewed by the rock-bottom price of every E46 I've ever owned), but unfortunately they've got a few real rust traps which tend to show themselves as they age. One of those is at the base of the windscreen:



If this goes, it soaks the insulation behind the dash and rusts out the bulkhead along one of its seams. Bits like this are a dead giveaway:



Unfortunately it's a dash-out job to fix so that's on the cards over the next few weeks (and likely a windscreen out at some point soon too).

Last bit out of the engine bay




Turns out the pedal box comes out as a unit, avoiding splitting master cylinders and the like. Now onto de-rusting and spraying most of it before contemplating a dashboard remove...

So much awesomeness going on here, an XJ6 sideways in a cloud of black smoke is going to be art.

Great project 👍🏻 A Big comfy barge with tons of torque and sensible mpg has got to be fun

I’m contemplating something similar as I’ve just bought a cheap OM606

That sounds like a good solution, but there's no vac on a diesel inlet. Suppose you could pipe some in from whatever vacuum system it has elsewhere (will have a vac pump I imagine) but starting to get more complicated!

ah pox i forgot diesel . there are leccy pumps on ebay for 49 quid brand new ? i ws pondering putting on on medusa .

Thanks guys!



It's not done yet I'm afraid (although that does mean it's still current!). Much further forward than what I've posted here though, so plenty to come



Oh absolutely I wonder what the easiest way would be to have a switchable smokescreen map...

A ghetto method could be to have a simple switched feed to one of the sensors making it run rich



I'm hoping so! My girlfriend thought it was very cheesy when I described it as a 'cruise missile', but hopefully that'll quite an accurate description!



Oh absolutely do it. OM606s are stellar engines, and if anything a bit simpler to get big power out of as it's all old-school mechanical injection. What're you thinking for the car?

I was up the other night when storm Bella was howling around wondering what car I'd continue with if a tree squashed this Jag too. Realistically another Jag would both be sensible and wanted, but I was struck by how awesome (and practical!) an SD1 would be with a big honking turbodiesel. Was even wondering about the TDV8s you get in Rangies...







What problem was this to solve? Is it for the crankcase pressure?

The BMW has a vacuum pump on the nose of the engine which is used for actuating the turbo on older cars (like mine, later ones used electronic actuators), and assisting the brakes. This is just as well as all of the Jag's climate control stuff is vacuum operated and I didn't fancy re-engineering that!

You can definitely generate vacuum with clever placement in a turbo inlet too. I think it works the same way paint guns work, by passing air over the top of an aperture it sucks up stuff beneath it.

Really I'm reluctant to connect it to the inlet again as it al gets very coked up on a diesel (although part of that will be the EGR which is deleted). Wondering if I'll have similar issues running the PCV valve to the vacuum pump...