GT mediated Awesomeness

[Thread Bear]

There are some rather well priced indulgences out there. Some might argue a BX is but to me its a sensible choice. A Jag, or some higher spec car, with, or without, economy, is not just transport. I am pretty tight fisted as a rule but sometimes you should reward yourself with something you want. Treading water economically is a horrible feeling, as you never seem to advance in life. So time is a gift to yourself as well. So well done and enjoy it.

[Tim Leech]

V6? hmm think its a straight 6 at that age.

[saintjamesy89]

It certainly is a straight 6, and its a beautiful noise! Picking it up in 2 hours and I'm hugely looking forward to it. All the expensive bits have been accounted for and I'm hoping the landrover will go for decent money so I can put some funds aside. Can't wait to get GTing either!

A significant part of wanting a jag is the comfort factor, I'm not expecting it to compete with a BX but its not going to be uncomfortable now is it. Especially on 16" chunky profile tyres.

[Caffiend]

Good to see you back and glad things are looking up for you on the job front. Really hope you can make it to the X-rally, whatever you're driving!

[saintjamesy89]

I do believe it's time for an update, things have been very busy for the last year and a bit, work and family seem to take up all my (limited to start with) spare time. Job wise, stable, but dull atm, im looking for something with more advancement opportunities and of course, more money! I no longer work 3 jobs, just my main Lab technician and occasionally help out at an aquatic shop that friends of mine own, it's like a paid hobby (albeit a poorly paid hobby!) but it's quite enjoyable really as work goes.

House wise, after 2 and a half years of house sitting, we're back in the house we own (as of two weeks ago) so lots and lots of DIY things to do, especially bathroom and kitchen, which we're re-organising fairly majorly. This is my first bash at fairly involved DIYing and apart from the little bits that you always forget/don't think you'll need it's quite satisfying.

The Jag is very enjoyable, and I'm itching to spend on it to get it just so, but of course things have to be saved for. It has worked out just more expensive, to as planned running cost wise. The local garage I get my LPG at has a thingy whereby every time you buy 30 litres of LPG you get an extra penny off of the next 30 litres (up to a max of 10p off, then I whip out my next card and start the process again!) so fuel costs between 63.9 and 53.9 pence a litre Just a shame it does between 17 and 21 mpg on it Anyway, it works out cost wise the same as running a 30-41 mpg petrol car. I drove the bridesmaids at my partners sisters wedding a couple of weeks ago, in full chauffeur attire, that was quite fun. These are the pre wedding piccies.











Shameless shiny pictures! I did spend 6 hours cleaning it though, it's a lot of car to clean, polish, wax, clean the leather, feed the leather... You get the drift.

Now onto more sombre things, I am going to have to let the GT go to pastures anew. Now I have the Jag, I cannot justify also having the GT. Lovely thought the car is, i'd only ever use it to do BXC things which is depressingly infrequent, and the storage price increases every 4 months which is quite bizarre as there is no improvement going on. The GT is provisionally sold, i'll let that person announce if they feel they want to. I am going to get her running before she goes (cam back in, new cambelt on, dizzy back on, time her up and turn the key), it'll be great to see her MOT'd and back on the road in her new ownership, hopefully we'll cross paths at a show in the future. If I had a more convenient and cheaper/free place to put her things may be different (her being stored in our garage under our house has been declined, and unfortunately that is the practical answer) as she's such a lovely car, and in such good order for her age, also i've spent a lot of time on her over the last couple of years.

Fear not! I will hopefully be attending some BXC events later on this year when we're more settled. Really, I don't want to be without a BX, and we are currently saving for a deposit for a bigger house with garden etc, an important piece of criteria being car storage space, I plan to have another in the middle future.

I have some BX bits for sale in the parts section if you haven't already been that way.
Cheers chaps.

[Dollywobbler]

Shame you'er having to sell the GT after so long. As you're discovering though, these XJ6s are thirsty old hectors. I used a 4-litre for a week a while ago and it was horrendous! The fuel tank emptied in no time. Keep an eye on the bulkhead. This one had developed alarming rot there, and it was starting to bubble up around the rear arches and rear window.

Do we need to start a BXC Club non-BX-owners section?

[mds141]

The GT is ( hopefully some time soon ) heading North. I originally wanted to buy it back in 2012, but couldn't afford to take part in the Classic Challenge *and* take possession of a rather beautiful BX. Good things come to those who wait.

[saintjamesy89]

Another update I feel. The GT is still with me, and whether it stays as such really depends on my work situation. I was promised a promotion and of course a pay rise, but it hasn't materialised. I have to wait until May to find out what, if anything will happen. Promotion means I can hopefully keep the GT.
Life is much the same, lots of work and family and little spare time. However I have made some progress with the GT this year. The cam is back in, I had to buy some more bearing cap nuts as i'd lost two down the back of the engine. I bought two replacement crank pulley woodruff keys (just to be safe) and they were so expensive! About £1.50 each... So the belt is back on, but untensioned. What a fiddle getting the woodruff key seated and the cambelt sprocket back over the top of it! Still need to fininsh getting the drivers side opera window done, passenger side is still on and stuck so that's a bonus.

Plans. I would like to get her running, so need to have more of a fiddle with the tensioner. I think i'm having a little trouble getting spanners on the square tensioning cam behind the tensioner to retension the belt. To get the old belt off and new one on, I just used a spanner to press down on the tensioner spring to move the roller, I got the tensioner cam locking nut undone but can't turn the cam itself (square 8mm small bolt behind the engine, very close to some unstrategically placed metal pipes!), or if I am turning the cam nothing is hapenning. A possible solution would be a new tensioner but god knows where one of those could be found!
Once she's running, the suspension needs pressurising as I changed the spheres and it hasn't run since, then the oil needs changing and then it's just get her ready for an MOT. I'll have to investigate the speedo cable as when it last drove it wasn't working, it was when I bought it and thankfully it came with a new/good speedo half cable but i'm not sure which.

Hopefully i'll get another chance to do some work tomorrow.

[saintjamesy89]

Tensioner sorted, all back together!

Just charging the battery up at home then in the next couple of days some fresh petrol and a fully charged battery will tell if she'll start or not! Might have to have a look at the timing as the distributor has been removed. Would this affect ease of starting?

[Kitch]

Tensioner sorted, all back together!

Just charging the battery up at home then in the next couple of days some fresh petrol and a fully charged battery will tell if she'll start or not! Might have to have a look at the timing as the distributor has been removed. Would this affect ease of starting?

If the distributor has been removed, it'll definitely affect the ease of starting!

[saintjamesy89]

She started! After much turning over and dissapointment, and a small amount of pedal action she sprang into life. Then the front end rose quite quickly, but not the back end. I went to see why and both passenger saide spheres were discharging lots of LHm, I tightened the front passenger one but can't get to the back. She stalled then and wouldn't restart.

It al sounded quite rough to start with, but did quiten down. I think most of the noise is coming from the leaking exhaust manifold and probably old petrol (although I did put a fresh 5L in) but I will recharge the battery and have anoither go soon, +won't let her stall this time! Get her properly upto running temperature.

Trying and so far failing to upload the video from my phone...

[saintjamesy89]

Hopefully you can see and play this. It's interesting how different you sound on camera - I sound like a right berk on this! Don't sound like that in real life at all.

Opinions are welcome on sound of the engine and how she's running. I'm hoping once she has run a couple of times and got warm she'll get smoother and easier to start.

[saintjamesy89]

Went over to run the GT today, not been since the last post. She started a lot quicker and sounded more or less the same as above - but after a couple of minutes smoothed out to a much quieter and steadier idle - apart from the exhaust manifold blowing and being noisy she sounded just like she did when I bought her!. So i let her run until the cooling fan came on and went off again, she didn't rise but i expect most of the LHM is on the floor - the passenger front and back spheres aren't sealing properly.

There have been updates from work, i didn't get the promotion. Even worse, they are cloing the lab down! We were offered our jobs, with the same contract and terms (under a TUPE arrangement) in Newton Abbot in Devon. This is the company that all the lab work has been outsourced to, unfortunately it's nearly 70 miles from home so is an unreasonable distance. We have the option of redundancy, which I accepted. I was quite nervous about the lack of a job, and I have had several interviews, some i'm still waiting to hear from - but I received an offer on Friday and accepted it. The new job is 3k more, and with the redundancy money it's looking a lot more like I can keep the GT

I will get the next video up whien I can find the USB cable for my phone...

[Pongo]

Good luck mate, look forward to more pictures.

[saintjamesy89]

Hi everyone, never managed to get that video uploaded - but did get one from today, got some pictures too. Apologies for the loose HP belt, got the alternator one nice and tight.



GT is running increasingly quiet and smooth. When the she goes for MOT i'll get them to do the exhaust manifold and she'll be even quieter! There is still a big LHM leak (on front and back spheres) when she's in anything but low suspension setting, i'm surprised there is any LHM left in the system judging by the colour of the floor.





I took all the gumph out of the way and drove her out of the garage today to have a good look all around. Everything seems to work, bar the suspension (granted, quite a big thing), the front fogs and one rear number plate bulb. Of course after two years of ineptitude (on my part) she's filthy dirty inside and out, and I still have one opera window to put back on, and much hardened gak to removet that quite sucessfully blocks me just siliconing the new one on.

Tomorrow, or rather this mornings (just got in from the pub) plan is to re-seat the two leaking spheres and change the engine oil. I will need to change the coolant soon, and have a look at the thermostat for paranoias sake too, but all in good time.

Until next time, and we'll see how I feel tomorrow...