Belt types - Continental or Gates

I’m replacing my three drive belts on my 88 V12 XJS. (I’ve removed A/C & air pump)

Previous owner used Gates, but I prefer Continental. I see that the Gates have bigger teeth, and they are variable. The Continental have smaller teeth but are the same.

Any evidence on which belt works better on the V12? No diff?

The variable teeth are to stop harmonics developing.

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Dayco was the OEM for the facelift cars, if that matters. Gates ended up being longer, still useable, just more adjusting needed.

I’d stick with Gates to save you extra adjustment labor.

This 31 year old car is like peeling an onion, always another layer of work that makes me cry. ;). Well, it keeps me busy…

Upon removing the fan and belts, the fan cowl is quite rusted on the inside. It will probably be a few years until I decide to replace the radiator. I assume I can buy a new cowl when the time comes?
For now, there’s plenty of metal to save, so i’m applying rust killer, and then painting with spray paint that can go over rust.

Check out POR-15

Also, consider recoring your radiator. For about $450, I was able to recore the radiator for my AJ16 engine. Took about a week from drop
Off to pickup.

I’m also with Veekay on this one Greg, I am pretty pretty sure it would not be in a few years but in the very near future… and most probably right after your first prolonged hill climb…
You are half way there, dismantling wise, and it’s a good opportunity to do it now, re-core or replace.

And if I was you, call it the shipwrights disease if you may, I would change the front seal as well.
Very easy when everything in the front is out.
It’s called future headache avoidance plan.

Best,
Aristides

Thanks, I know what you mean, but right now it’s time and especially money that I don’t have. The Fan/clutch was pretty easy to remove, as was the fan belt and water pump belt. I have no A/C or air pump. So prep to remove the radiator doesn’t seem like I’m already halfway there, more like 10%. So I don’t mind test driving it first, I may get lucky and the rad isnt too bad.

And when I do, I’d like to upgrade to a solid aluminum, way more than $450.

When you say the seal, do you mean the water pump?

That original radiator is certainly capable of cooling that v12. I’m not sure an aluminum radiator is necessarily worth the premium, but I’m going to leave that as it is.

The two most common destroyers of Jag v12s seems to be the Marelli distributor failure and overheating. I see that time and money are short, I get that, but if you recore that radiator now, you probably would be able to sell it in a year or two when you’re ready to pony up for the aluminum radiator. In the meantime, you’ll all but ensure that you don’t lose the engine to overheating.

As for the fan shroud, there is one for sale on eBay. That part was used for so many years, I wouldn’t think it would be a difficult part to source in the future, unless you came across a new, old stock up for sale at an affordable price.

The car only has 48,000 miles, and I live in cool Seattle. The coolant was nice and green when I bought it, no signs of rust or brown color whatsover. So I may have some time left on the radiator.

Yes, overheating is very important to prevent, which is why I am replacing the fan/clutch, belts, hoses, and thermostats before I even drive it. That’s already cost me a pretty penny and time. I’ll also flush the radiator. If I sense any cooling issues after all that, I will definitely replace the radiator right away.

This is a weekend city car until I replace EVERYTHING. So no long distance hills for a couple years.

You’re probably fine. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. The mechanical clutch is probably in decent shape. Not sure if you’re overthinking that one, but it should be be too costly, and if you’re replacing the yellow fan blades to black, it probably money well spent.

This is not entirely true. Those two potential issues typically come with NEGLIGENT/IGNORANT owner. Only then, they contribute to the early demise of the car.

What commonly destroys v12 can also be the non-start/non-run stories with regards to the Lucas ignition amplifier (specifically the little coax wire) and bills in the thousands from incompetent shops that make the owner promptly sign off on the title and the car ends in your local junk yard…

Nough ranting. Question for Greg, the OP – is your engine finally running as it should? If it is, please update your monster-thread from a few weeks ago – many of us followed it and if there is closure on it, it would be good to have it on record…

Hayden clutch only $30, already apart with yellow fan replacement. So that one was easy.
Regarding monster thread, still waiting on Aj6 engineering. Roger Bywater is SUPER busy. I hope to have a fixed, and enhanced, ECU in my hand in a couple weeks. Will def update thread after i install it.

No, the front crankshaft seal.

Greg – if you decide to replace radiator, PM me. I replaced the radiator out of my 1995 V-12 cause I wanted aluminum and had the money to do so. The radiator I removed had been installed about 2005 rather than try to fix the leak that developed in the original. Long story short - I have a very serviceable radiator sitting in my storage that I would let go of very very reasonably.

Jim

For reference for anyone, including myself in the future, here are the three belts I replaced on my 1988 XJS V12:

Fan:
Gates 9319 13A0815
Contitech AVX13x825

Water pump/power steering:
Gates 9425 13A1080
Contitech AVX13x1075

Alternator:
Gates 7335 11A0850
Contitech AVX10x850

AC/air pump:
No longer used