| Author | Message | ||
     David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3597 Registered: 04-2003 |
Not content with one project, Vladimir is tempting fate with another: "I have owned for sometime a Jaguar 420G which was from new the Managing Director's car of Repco Australia in Melbourne. Repco being since I can remember a major supplier of car parts in Australia. The car I have came with bolt on Jaguar wire wheels, almost zero rust but painted brown from new. I don't like brown. I have seen one in black in Sydney and with gleaming chrome it looked spectacular. But I am keeping black for when my white Camargue needs a respray which should be around the time I croak. The 420G came with the 6 cylinder triple carburettor twin overhead camshaft 4.2 litre - 265 hp engine same as the etype. Jaguar did install a V12 into a Zenith body but never put it into production. Some of the Mark 10/420Gs came out with Moss 4 speed manual gearboxes with overdrive but they are rare. Some of the cars that came originally out as automatics were converted to 5 speed manuals using Toyota Supra transmissions but that type of caper to me goes against the grain. My crime will be to fit a pre HE XJS V12 with a Tremec TR 6060 Six Speed Manual Gearbox that has a double overdrive. These Jaguars were never popular for reasons I could never explain. They are starting to command big money in the UK but Australia has probably the cheapest and least rusted ones available. Mine has electric windows and disassembling the doors of everything for a total colour change is a massive task. Jaguar used stainless steel for the window surrounds. Coventry must have bleed Sterling like a stabbed dog on each car with all the stainless steel wood and leather that went into these cars. Sadly they were primarily made for the US market where they went and virtually vanished without a trace bar the rare ones that pop up in Hemmings not often. I always like the look of these cars and I used to go on long very fast drives down south in the countryside with a rich mad Lebanese woman feeding me olives and bread as I drove. Planting the foot flat would produce a nasty growl when the six started to peak. I see it now, Silver with four exhaust pipes and knock off Halibands replacing the wires. A V12 Zenith Monster is being recreated as we speak." . | ||
| Omar M. Shams Prolific User Username: omar Post Number: 1940 Registered: 04-2009 |
big project Vlad!!!! I am changing my tack with projects. For me... I will now put 5 year time limits on them. Any more than that and I will simply run out of life. Soon my 59 Caddy will be ready to drive as a daily driver with all the running gear form a 1995 Caddy fitted. Should be a very practical car when it is done. Aircon, cruise control, ABS brakes, self leveling suspension and so many other amazing features. What state is your jag in? My MK IX is on hold for now and has been for the last 2 years. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3600 Registered: 04-2003 |
Vladimir calling Omar - come in Omar...... "Omar, my good chap, I really do not see the Zenith V12 as a big project. Certainly it's nowhere near the P4 and thereafter project nor does it comes close to the Resto on the Mark 1. I think the biggest thing about the Zenith is how to get the necessary 750 hp out of the pre HE V12. At this stage that looks simplistic - twin turbos with NOS. An avoidance measure to get away from any riff Raff like EFI. The second biggest thing is the paint. A jolly good proportion of it is in fine shape though it's brown. To stripping or not to strip - that is question. I have only one simplistic dent to remove on the PSR door which will be an mongrel to get at properly given the rustproofing gunk inside the door. The car has virtually no rust and that for an old Jaguar is rare. I have been studying its habit for a decade. I have the car 90 percent disassembled including all glass out. 3.5 doors completely starkers. On top of the roof I have four double bed mattresses, two single mattresses, two iron single bed frames, the inside part of the largest split system air conditioner available and a few other items of no consequence. All these items which may or may not be of use one day have to be removed to the laundry after I remove the sink. That will necessitate the moving of the Deep Purple Spirit which fired up marvellously using its new Optima battery yesterday. Secretly In lusting for the possibility that the weight of all this household nonsense has dented the roof which could lead to decapitation to convertible caper though the torture and loathing required to hack through all the perfect condition stainless steel window frames, and the fabrication of custom electric roof could push the Zenith V12 project into the "big project" universe. Obviously, it would be wrong to have only one Jaguar Mark X/420G project given that another could be acquired for beer money and so you see.... To my advantage I have a few secret weapons. The first is I have no Minister of WAR nor even the remote intention of appointing one. And second weapon is that I am no longer in need of another lunatical employer. I have made an in-depth analysis into the big question that the ancient ancestors of our species contemplated around the time that the Aztecs took over heart removal but perhaps even before the Sphinx was getting its first polish...but being mentally lazy I through towel in on that one. As we don't know when the big sleep is going to arrive for any of us I have decided to tinker on regardless and ignore the question in its entirety." . | ||
| Omar M. Shams Prolific User Username: omar Post Number: 1943 Registered: 04-2009 |
well Vlad..... I wish you all the best with that MK X project. I have never been a fan of the Jaguar V12 engine given that i grew up in a hot country. There is not one engine that i have seen that has neither never had a head gasket blow or overheated. They are a poor design full stop. I would never want a Jaguar V12 in anything. Every one o these engines would have necessitated a head removal or replacement at least once its lifetime. If you must have a V12 then why not try a BMW unit? at least they work well. I have one of these in my Phantom and by gum is it powerful or what??? I am please that you dont work any more and that you dont need to either. The most important question is this - do you now make your own beer? If one thinks that they will live forever - one's perspective of life is very different compared to those who know the end is round the corner. I have used the law of averages and my parents as guides to conclude that my end date is the age of 79. working backwards - I now have 20 years to get everything done in. Of those 20 years at least 10 of them will be in a less than versatile body - so really I only have 10 years to ride superbikes, waterski and work on cars. | ||
| ross kowalski Prolific User Username: cdfpw Post Number: 1319 Registered: 11-2015 |
Vlad, The 420G / MK X are great cars, you will fully enjoy driving it. Is the original 6 is in restorable condition. It is not only only one of the all time great motors, it's a pretty good unit for that car. I also fully agree that these are highly underappreciated cars. | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3602 Registered: 04-2003 |
Vladimir returns serve to Omar: "Omar, really, a German V12 in a real Jaguar??? Not only that but the Jaguar in Coventry made especially to nick Crewe's clientele ! I refuse to state whether that though crossed my mind Omar, but in the end I retain a preference of real Rolls Royce engines in real Rolls Royces and real Jaguar engines in real Jaguars. I concede the Jaguar V12 was in places a tad shabby. The timing chain adjuster was pure Kafka and harmonic balancer regularly totalled the crankshafts. The sight under the bonnet was beyond crazy and dropping of a small spanner let alone a nut or a bolt anywhere over the engine proved that black holes exist under the Jaguar bonnet and that everything in Alice in Wonderland is actually true and must have happened. Kirby's free XJS manual on the internet is quite helpful and there are a pile of PhD Americans that tinker with these engines is sometype of masochistic orgy. My dream nightmare pychotic reaction is to take the Jaguar V12 as a blank page and make it better. I have or maybe had a military trained Chinese engineer who once produced a magnificent result for bagged rice money on a BMW 7 Series final drive (diff) that I fried that the thought of getting him to cut a gear drive set to replace the timing chain mess is not yet out of the question. BMW only wanted $7,000 for parts and I repaired the diff for $275. A Jaguar V12 XJS did win the Bathurst (read Aussie LeMans with jumping kangaroos and wandering lizards) in 1985. I cannot imagine what torture the pit crew underwent every time they opened the bonnet. The beer fermenter stand is empty these days Omar even though I have supplies to crank out 60 litres of Russian beer without warning at anytime. Madam Liquor let me down and continually failed to produce the desired effect. Hence these days I jab my finger into a 240 volt light socket or hunt down electrical faults with my new $200 multimeter to get my jollies. The English can be understood Omar but only if you learn written Russian backwards." Moderator Intrusion - the story of the Bathurst winning Jaguar V12 XJS driven by John Goss is detailed in the following link: https://www.tradeuniquecars.com.au/feature-cars/1107/jaguar-xjs-ex-twr-1984-004 . | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 3620 Registered: 04-2003 |
For Ross from Vladimir who is having problems queuing certain posts for Moderator approval most probably due to his remote area internet connection "timing out" before the message is delivered in its entirety: "Ross it's true that the E-Type engine that I have here is a good engine for my Zenith project, 265 HP, double overhead cam, triple carburettors etc and it is restorable but the car has a strange knock and I think it could be in the auto trans which will be croaked for valve body bits and gears for chess pieces and Salvadore Dali type artistic montages of foul language (also in glass cases ). In any case soon engine and transmission are coming out and the engine will go into a glass case but with 6 hand fabricated exhaust pipes straight out the side of my man cave/den(of iniquity) to be cranked up to 5,500 rpm at 3 am whilst the amp is playing Led Zeppelin Immigrant Song at full tilt. This Zenith Project must have a V12 and only single cam heads because the quad cam may not fit between the inside mudguards. Due to the media announcing yesterday that some Mercedes driving twit down south is making $35,000 AUD per weekend selling Nitrous Oxide [NOS] for fools to inhale, the caper may have to be shelved. NOS in Queensland is illegal for reasons that cannot be explained but there is always the Northern Territory where NOS is legal and still with one stretch of road with an unlimited speed limit. Then again law in Australia is a very fluid type creature and Kafka has nothing on it. The essential desire is to hurl this Zenith down the road at least at 200 mph without using F1 aerodynamic suction devices to keep it from becoming airborne... But that's another story...." . | ||
| Al Abbasi New User Username: alabbasi Post Number: 15 Registered: 02-2018 |
Nice project. I'm finally down to three Jags. 1994 XJS V12 Convertible , 1994 XJ12 and a 75 XJ12C. The earlier 5.3 V12's were known to drop valves once overheated and you tend to see way too many dead XJ V12's with around 45k miles. That said, given that the only other companies making V12's when Jaguar introduced theirs were Italian and had a name ending with an 'i', it's probably the most reliable V12 engine in its era, but suffered from the fact that the people who could afford to buy the car could not afford to maintain a V12. The later 6 liter engine appears to be more resilient. My goal is to unload the two 94's and keep the coupe. I don't know if using a BMW V12 would give you any gains in terms of reliability. It's basically two M20 engines welded together and has two of everything that can break. Best of luck of with it. | ||
| RossDonnelley Unregistered guest Posted From: 1.157.211.152 |
Hi … is this Post still alive? It’s November 2024 and I am moving forward to do the same V12 Into a Mk 10 Chassis No. 305072BW - Did you project ever happen or is it still in dreamland? Cheers Ross D Sydney Australia (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| David Gore Moderator Username: david_gore Post Number: 4282 Registered: 04-2003 |
Hi Ross, I regret to advise there has been no further activity in this thread since February 2020 and it may be safely assumed it has been terminated by the original contributors. I can only suggest you try and find a Jaguar forum most likely in the UK and/or the USA and try your luck in getting a response. . |
