Restoration Wednesday – Ready Fire Aim, Injector Rail Rebuilt

posted in: Restoration Wednesday | 2

If you know anything about the Jaguar V12 engines, you know they run hot. Hot like cooking in a wood fire oven hot. Hot like it’s a dry arid desert and we ain’t got no sun block. When I removed the fuel injector rail to get to the spark plugs, a few things became apparent. One, I better take the time to clean the injectors and make certain they squirt correctly now that they’re off. Two, It may be easier to clean them while on the rail. And three, these fuel lines are toast. I’ve got to rebuild or I’m going to be feeding that engine a ghost pepper and I running for the milk.

I was proud of myself for making a cleaner system for the fuel rail. The first thing I did was use a rubber plug and drill a small hole to feed a carb cleaner straw through it. Taped it up tight and plugged the return for the rail as well. Using some alligator clips and a 9 volt battery, I clipped one end on the injector, and touched the other intermittently while pushing on the can to pressurize the system. With my third arm I held everything steady. It was rewarding to see the injector streams clean up. I really wasn’t sure how old the fuel was and if it turned to shellac. Job done.

The rebuild kit came from Mr. Injector in the UK. It cost a little more than some in the US but I watched a Youtube video that recommended the kit and thought, why not. Some American kits didn’t have the longer fuel hoses for cylinders 1A and 1B. Dah. The key to this entire process is making certain you have the brackets aligned properly before pushing on the fuel hoses with injector. See that one close up pic down below? If the bracket was backwards, then nothing would bolt together. Take a picture when you pull it off before taking anything apart. You may notice also that I had the parts zinc plated gold so they looked sorta more pretty.

All told, I probably spent:

  • 2-3 hours tearing everything down
  • 3-4 hours on spark plugs, cap, and rotor
  • 1 hour cleaning injectors
  • 3-4 hours tearing off old hoses and rebuilding the rail
  • 2-3 hours putting the rail and all those fiddly lock washers and nuts back in place. Not a lot of room at the inn on this engine
  • Oh, and another 1.5 hours going to and from the plater

So let’s call it 16 hours for a basic tune up. Two days. How does it run now? Fantastic, see video below. It took about 5 minutes to clear it’s throat before firing on all twelve and not sound clicky. I couldn’t be happier. Now to fix the brakes, install the aluminum radiator and a bunch of other stuff. Oh, and I got my garage space back and moved it inside. It’s not warm working in the driveway on a cold Michigan December day.

 

[kad_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/_iOYba4mbwQ” ]

 

2 Responses

  1. Mike

    What I wanna know is how you made heads or tails of that engine bay….looks like the scene from Indiana Jones when he fill into the snake pit… bravo…and you should patent that injector cleaner idea…

    • Groosh

      Ha! Thanks Mike. Jaguar is famous for a rats nest/snake pit engine bay on these V12s. Solid comparison. It took years of criticism before they cleaned it up. As far as patenting a rubber plug with a tube in it, I’ll let ya know… : )

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