looking for guidance on what to use to clean the secondary air rails - - been getting a lot of FF67s this past year and have decided to bite the bullet and clean out the system on the 1995 6.0 liter XJS. Any recommended products ? Recommended techniques?
And the ROM mentions two sealing rings on the ends of each rail pipe. I assume these are standard o-rings of a small diameter. Is that correct and would anyone know what size - - I would prefer to have on hand before I start the project rather than trying to find them later…particularly since I live in the boondocks.
I recently cleaned out the air rail pipes in my wife’s 1990 XJ-S convertible (5.3L V12), using a small drill bit rolled between my fingers, when I did a thorough engine bay cleanup. Most of the air rail pipes were partially clogged with deposits but they were not too bad. I replaced the 24 O-rings (two on the end of each small pipe) with new ones from the Jaguar dealership parts department. The part number is C35779. I wanted to be sure that they were the correct part made out of the correct material. It gets pretty hot where that O-ring sits and I didn’t want to have any problems with hot exhaust gases leaking past an inferior O-ring.
BTW, the cadmium plating on the air rails had started to show their age with corrosion so I cleaned them up a bit with steel wool and then used the “Golden Cad” paint kit from the Eastwood Company. The attached pictures show how the air rails looked right after I reinstalled them. The really looked nice, very close to the original cadmium finish, and really dressed up the look in the engine bay. Only time will tell if the air rails will continue to look this nice. The air rails came out looking so nice that I decided to try the “Golden Cad” kit on other items in the engine bay that were cadmium plated but corroded over time and they really came out looking great.
That looks really great Paul. I ordered o rings today using the sizing that Jeff provided. Didn’t order from Jag dealer - - just ordered Viton o rings .
Thanks for sharing that
Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
8
The PREFERRED usage there is to pitch the rail over the back fence and
plug those holes with something solid. But yeah, if you’re gonna put the rails
back in, Viton is a must.
– Kirbert
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Kirbert
(Author of the Book, former owner of an '83 XJ-S H.E.)
9
It’s interesting that you would presume that Jaguar would use the “correct
material” there. I went with non-Jaguar Viton O-rings because I presumed
that Jaguar did NOT use the correct material there. And that’s based on the
knowledge that they didn’t use the correct material pretty much anywhere on
this car, including on the O-rings inside the sump. I’d rather KNOW that the
O-rings are Viton than presume Jaguar slipped up and got one right for a
change.
Thanks for that Kirby. I have it drilled into my head from time in the forums and other sites that Viton is usually the best choice for automotive applications.
I thought about discarding the air rails as you suggested in a much older post in the archives. But I am endeavoring to keep the car “original” . Not sure why, since I don’t show it or anything like that.
My pure and simple goal is to stop the recurring FF67 ---- so my thoughts are 1) clean out the rails and 2) if that doesn’t stop it then replace the O2 sensors. And as a last resort send the 36CU to Bywater Engineering to be revitalized – I understand the FF67 can be ignored in the reprogramming they would do.
I always add STABIL when I fill it up , but with the addition of ethanol to gas, i am not sure whether that ethanoled gas is a contributing factor… Just know that I am getting tired of disconnecting the negative battery terminal
How would anyone know for certain that an O-ring was really made of Viton, since most everything, including the “Genuine Viton” seal can be faked? I rely on what I believe are trusted sources, including the local Jaguar dealership parts department as well as some of the usual USA parts suppliers, for what I consider critical parts. I have purchased many hundreds of parts for my six Jaguars over the past 17 years and I have been disappointed with only a handful. I have never been disappointed with the quality of the parts that I purchased from a Jaguar dealerships parts department. I haven’t been around these cars as long as you have, so maybe when I have I will become as cynical.
This is correct Jim. Roger can remove the line from the code that periodically energizes the air-injection pump (my understanding is that this was put in to check the system, nothing more)
Old/lazy O2 sensors will give you FF44/45 before FF67.
As a side note, I have been having issues lately with FF23 and I am afraid to drive the car long distance as the fueling for bank 2 appears to have a mind of its own. Contemplating pulling the whole top engine harness this winter and doing a complete overhaul…my thread from several months ago generated no interest whatsover.
Steve
PS The air rail will have to check valves in the back, which will be rusted/gummed up. Standard GM product that costs a few dollars. BTW, the o-rings for this application are not critical, one can argue…
As you know the production numbers of these relatively late model 6.0 V12s are so so limited that practically no one knows the real answers to virtually any FF code.
After some major work on my car including the manual conversion, driving it some 500+ miles later @ 80mph I got an FF34 code - 1st code ever in 12 years of ownership - but just about everything in the engine bay had been disturbed/removed & re-connected.
From memory FF34 relates to the A bank injectors, so I’m panicked, thinking that one or more aren’t delivering fuel & I’m at risk of melting a piston but the exhaust on both banks at Rickover is showing an even beat with no misfiring - so, I put the car away &'left it for a while, I’m going to drive it on a 120 mile round trip early Saturday morning with my fingers crossed that the FF34 doesn’t re-appear.
Andy - I got that fingers-crossed maneuver down pat.
Steve - -right you are. I think that owning a Jag is a life of mission creep. Had a boat once - - a hole in the water to throw money in. Now it is a Jag
PS The air rail will have to check valves in the back, which will be rusted/gummed up. Standard GM product that costs a few dollars. BTW, the o-rings for this application are not critical, one can argue…
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Hey Steve - - so you just took the secondary check valve to your Autozone or whereever and they could match it to a GM part? Sounds great . I got the air rails out - - lots of penetrating oil and constantly wiggling pulling etc for 2 days . They don’t look too bad - - except the check valves are pretty rusty and let air go both ways. Still trying to break the connection between them and the rail. Pretty frozen on there
