Jaguars....

[prizrak]

Haha, never hurts to plan for the future...which is exactly why I need all those lovely DINAN parts...

Anyway, 500hp on an XJ6 would make me drive the three hours to Dallas to have a looksey

Dude it's gonna make me fly out there

 

[Spectre]

Got the adapter back from the machine shop:

It fits into the recess in the front pulley perfectly:

 

[Spectre]

We've run into a snag with devising the crankshaft sensor mount, but here's some update pictures.

The crankshaft adapter actually mated up perfectly. It's nice when something works right off the drawing table.

The trigger wheel bolted up easily, too. Yes, it's a little on the large side, but we needed it to be that large to get the teeth out where we could put a sensor.

Here's some of the stuff we're trying to get rid of - the coil and the "ignition amplifier" (which is a GM HEI module in a steel Lucas box.)

Here's where the amp used to be, bolted to the intake manifold at the left of the picture. We're going to mount the coil module there instead.

It's amazing the amount of stuff I've accumulated just for this project. The welder, drill press and grinder are all new, along with some of the other stuff in the picture.

 

[tigger]

As far as I'm concerned, any excuse to buy a new drill press or welder is a good one. Keep it up and you're going to have your own little machine shop. Yeah, I can see it now, "Spectre's Machine Shop, No UAW cars or California Plates Allowed" :lol:

 

[syncview]

^^ Hahahahahahahaha

 

[Spectre]

You forgot "Must have gun to enter." :lol:

 

[Spectre]

It is surprisingly difficult to come up with a workable crankshaft position sensor mount for this car - well, at least for me. I wouldn't want to try this without a welder, I don't think you could get it to stay in place with just bolts.

This arrived this week:

This is the Innovate LC-1 wideband oxygen sensor that will be used to tune my car's MegaSquirt. This is actually the second one; the first one got forklifted by UPS prior to delivery. Not real useful when the box was U-shaped because it got run over...

Here's the data collection/interpretation unit.

And here's the sensor itself. The gauge is in the little white box at the lower right.

The gauge is of the "stealth" type and isn't visible until power is applied; I don't want to do that until I'm ready to install the unit.

The only gauge I have left to get for the gauge pod now is a matching fuel pressure gauge. I'm considering upgrading the dashboard flanking gauges to AutoMeter Cobalt Digital units... we'll see how that goes.

 

[tigger]

You forgot "Must have gun to enter." :lol:

Ah, of course! :lol:

 

[Spectre]

We did quite a bit of work on the MegaSquirt conversion today, but I did take a break to finish up another part of the earlier transmission conversion - the center console base plate, where I needed to mount some switches. Since I'm going to be doing a carputer, I also needed to relocate the center-stack mounted cigar lighter and instrument panel dimmer in addition to adding the torque converter lockup override switch.

As a reminder, this is what it looks like stock:

Here's the plate with the intended components (or parts thereof) attached for locating and layout purposes.

Now the switches and such are in there for real, but the plate has to be cleaned and prepped for reveneering. The items installed clockwise from top left: Engine Start button (yes, it's a bit ricey, but I'm going to need it later), original Jaguar dimmer knob (relocated to allow carputer install), original Jaguar cigar lighter (relocated for same reason), and the torque converter lock override switch.

Here's the unit prepped and ready to go be reveneered; all the old glue and veneer fragments have been ground or sanded off. It goes to be reveneered this week.

 

[Wizegui]

Is that an engine start switch from an S2000 that I see?

 

[Spectre]

No, it's one of the clones that's available from eBay. The reason I fitted it is that the old-style Jaguar key switch has a really irritating failure mode - when you turn the key to "start", spring pressure is placed on the circuit board. Too many cycles of the switch to "start" can cause this board to crack, whereas simply putting it in the "on" position doesn't put pressure on the board at all. Since it is very likely that this switch will become NLA in the near future, I will be using the button to start the car instead of the "start" position.

Update on the base plate:

Now, I do have a perfectly good new set of wood for the car - but it seemed a shame to cut up that perfect wood set to add these switches and the screen, so I put that set away in storage for later and went with the modify-then-reveneer idea, as you can see.

Today I took the base plate over to my friend's place (redjag87's) to have him reveneer it and show me how to do it. We got the reveneering step done and he will be doing the sanding/lacquering/polishing/etc over the course of the next two weeks.

Since the base plate was larger than any single sheet of veneer on hand, we had to bookmatch (or "put two pieces on so they were mirror images of each other") the veneer.

Here you see the first half already applied and the second half waiting for the contact cement to dry.

Once the veneer is applied, you have to cut out the holes prior to lacquering.

Here's the veneered part with all the holes cut out.

By wetting the veneer a little, you can get a preview of what the finished color will be (minus however much gloss one cares to apply/polish in). This looks like it will be a fine dark color, so off we go. (Not my workbench or lighter there, folks...)

Update - Megasquirt:

Finally got a working crankshaft position sensor welded up with all the geometry correct.

No comments on the crappy welding, please - I'm a welding n00b and this is the first real thing I've welded that wasn't just a practice piece. Also, this is flux-core welding as the gas kit for my welder is on backorder.

 

[Spectre]

Just happened to get a nice rear shot of it tonight while I was getting some better shots of my Pathfinder.

It does look good with the exhaust, wide tires, and the TWR spoiler, doesn't it?

The console top reveneer has been put on hold temporarily. It turned out we didn't have enough veneer to do *all* of the other parts at the same time, so either I had to get more veneer and let this part just not match or get more veneer and reveneer this piece. I've chosen the latter; I purchased several sheets of this veneer and will be redoing the dash, center stack, console top, switch panel, the new gauge pod and the door fillets.

 

[Wizegui]

Damn the car looks good. The rear tires and the rear spoiler really gives it a nice menacing look. Is it just more or does the rear bumper look a bit dented? It could be the lighting though.

 

[Spectre]

The rear bumper cover has two molded in "bulges" on it. It's not usually obvious unless the lighting is at the right (or wrong) angle, and I think there's a rub mark on the left side of the left bulge.

 

[syncview]

Your car looks really nice spectre

off topic but

Yesterday I for the first time, saw a Jag XJ V12L and damn.. in black it was a really really graceful car.. and also compared to the japanese landcruisers, civics, corollas.. and an old american chevrolet caprice parked there.. it was just different, outstanding. And it was owned by someone in the army, so it was kept well and clean body, original wheels etc etc.. had quite a lot of goosebumps i must say..

 

[Spectre]

Couple more important parts came in today...

The 3 bar (i.e., good for up to 29psi of boost) manifold air pressure sensor and the final gauge for my gauge pod, a fuel pressure gauge. The MAP sensor will take the place of the old flap-type air flow meter.

 

[tigger]

Also, this is flux-core welding as the gas kit for my welder is on backorder.

Flux-core? That farmer-welding-fence-post crap has no place on a Jaguar! :lol:

Have you run MIG with shielding gas yet? If you can do that with flux-core you're going to lay down some great beads with gas. At least you got good penetration and it doesn't look contaminated.

 

[Spectre]

Flux-core? That farmer-welding-fence-post crap has no place on a Jaguar! :lol:

Have you run MIG with shielding gas yet? If you can do that with flux-core you're going to lay down some great beads with gas. At least you got good penetration and it doesn't look contaminated.

Well, that's only the prototype, used only to get angle and spacing correct and for testing. Now that I have all the angles and such right, I'll be designing something more elegant to take to the machine shop.

I've run MIG with gas on my friend's welder and I do okay with it - in fact, the carputer display bracket will be run off over on his welder sometime this week. The reason we didn't use it for the CPS bracket is because his setup is built into a welding workbench he built and cannot be easily moved. Mine's portable, but the MIG/gas conversion kit (that will change it from flux-core to a MIG welder) is on backorder and won't be here for a couple more weeks - but we could move it to where it could be used in Milltek's garage. We used what we had available... but there will be a slick CNC machined part going on mine, and we'll swap out the crudely welded one pictured above on his when it's ready. In the meantime, he can begin his wiring and we can get his car running.

 

[tigger]

It's just a prototype, huh? And some CNC'd goodness will replace it? Good, I was almost afraid you were slipping there, Spectre.

What type of welder is it anyway? A little Lincoln or something?

 

[Spectre]

It's a Century Pow'rMate 70. With flux core, it's good with up to 1/4 plate.

Lincoln bought Century about five years ago, but Century's stuff was more reliable and easier to maintain, if a bit spartan.