Dateline - Dec 19, 2015 - Got two solid days of working on the car
this week. I had Thursday off so I could take the other Jag to the
insurance adjuster to get an estimate on repairs after the small shunt I had
last week (another driver decided they needed to occupy the same spot in the
road that I was already occupying!). I got most of that done pretty early
in the day so I spent the rest of the day on Thursday, and all day on Saturday
working on the car. Lots of pictures to show.
Thursday:
First, I sandblasted all the red "anodized"
paint that I put on the intake manifold because I really didn't like the look.
After that, I painted it with high heat clear, which made it a solid gray
color. I could have left it natural aluminum, but it would have stained
again, so I decided to paint it.
While the paint was drying, I installed
the brake pedal, booster, and new master cylinder. It was an easy install and getting new
stainless steel fasteners made thing look really sharp!
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| Brake Pedal, Booster and Master Cylinder |
Next I installed the intake manifold. I followed the Edelbrock instructions for
manifold installation (e.g. throw away the end seals and use RTV instead),
however I did put RTV around all the ports.
I know that they recommend that you only put RTV around the water ports,
but the heads were not in the best of shape and I didn’t trust that the gasket
would seal. I think if you were working
with freshly milled heads, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I didn’t want to have vacuum
leaks around the intake ports, so I sealed them anyway.
Then I installed new, angled heater hose outlet fitting to the
manifold, and put in all the other plugs and vacuum fitting. Then I fitted the heater hoses and cut them
to shape.
Next I cleaned and installed the distributor. I’m using the original one that is the HEI
type. Easy to install and all the wiring
is already there. I do have to get a new
cape because, when pulling a wire off to reroute it, the connector pulled out
of the cap! So I’m getting a red Mallory
HEI one. This should look really good
with all the other red in the engine bay!
While installing the distributor, I found the lock down clamp was
really rusted. So I put it through the sandblaster then through the nickel plate bath. A few minutes with some metal
polish and it looked as good as new!
Next I spent some time with the radiator hose spigot. I’m using the one that was originally on the
car, but it was in need of some chrome polish and a bit of filing to get it to
mate flush with the intake. I decided to
replace the thermostat (no since in taking a chance).
That was it for Thursday.
Saturday:
Kicked off the day by installing the carburetor, using a new set
of throttle return springs. I also
hooked up the throttle and transmission kickdown cables. This wasn’t very
challenging but it sure makes the engine look like an engine!
Next I installed the new billet aluminum fuel filter and new fuel
line from the pump to the carb.
Then, I took each valve cover off and spend some time remove the
squeezed out RTV from around the gaskets and cleaned each cover and polished
the T-Handle bolt downs. I still don’t
know if I’m going to stay with the Mickey Thompson valve covers, but they are
an easy swap out if I do decide to change them later.
I then started on some of the wiring. The fans were the easy first choice because I
know which wires were used. Because I
removed the original fan speed resistors and replaced them with the GM version
that works with the interior controls, I need to do a little rewiring, but that
mainly consisted of changing the wire ends on the fan leads from female to male
spades.
I then spent some time finishing up the brake installation. I needed to get some brake hose to replace
the old ones going from the reservoir to the master cylinder, as well as a
bunch of stainless steel fasteners before I could finish things up. So once I got the supplies, I finished up the
installed. I also needed to spend some
time cleaning the reservoir cap and fluid level warning switch. Got those nice and clean and the hooked up
the wiring.
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| Brakes All Hooked Up Including Booster Vacuum Hose |
Next I spent some time on the wiring on the passenger side. I have to figure out how I wanted to run the
positive and ground cables from the engine.
I also needed to reestablish the ground point on the fender as well as
wire in the battery isolation solenoid.
This is a bunch of niggly stuff that takes time and trial, but I think I
have most of it figure out. I do need to
get a new ground cable and bit of cable to run from the solenoid to the
positive pass through terminal on the body.
So things are not quite done there yet.
Finally, I started working on the last of the wiring. I did some research and discovered that one
relay I couldn’t figure out what it was for is the horn relay! Yah!
The other two items I need to figure out are if I need the ballast resistor
and the Lucas voltage regulator. I don’t
think I need either, but I need to get some time on the internet to figure that
out. Once I have that done, I can
finalize all the wiring.
Here are pictures of the completed work from several different angles:
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| Front. Note Radiator Hose Routing, Fuel Filter and Brake Installation |
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| Right Side. |
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| Top End: Distributor, Carburetor, Water Neck, Shiny Aluminium pulleys |
So, outstanding work in the engine area:
Finish wiring
Install new distributor cap
Plumb vacuum lines to the cruise control, vacuum reservoir, and
into the car for the air controls,
Install radiator
Install aftermarket fan system (will require some more wiring)
Tie up loose odds and ends
Check all wires, fitting, hose clamps, etc.
I’m still up in the air about what to do with the exhaust
manifolds. They are not on the car yet
and I started to sandblast one of them. I just worry that painting them is not
going to stay because rust will get under the paint eventually. I should just sent them in and have them
ceramic coated! I need to make a decision!
