By Jeff Glucker
I’ve been looking at every listing near me for months now. Time tricks the brain into action. And that’s what happened yesterday. There was a lovely old XJ I saw for sale finished in brilliant British Racing Green. I emailed the seller, refreshed the ad, and to my dismay the listing was no longer there. My head went onto my keyboard. Then I peeled my face away from it, looked up, and clicked back to a listing I’ve seen up for a bit now. But this time I looked closer and found something intriguing…
which I’ll get into tomorrow. For now, enjoy this singular shot of a car that’s joining the Hooniverse fleet.
Last Call indicates the end of Hooniverse’s broadcast day. It’s meant to be an open forum for anyone and anything. Thread jacking is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.
Series III? No matter what, the thing done is a good thing of course, but Series III is very good thing.
Honestly, I know so little of this era of Jag except that I like what I see… I need to start doing serious research into these.
By no means an expert (just someone who spends too much time looking at old Jags on Kijiji that he has nowhere to park), but yup, ’86 is Series III. Roughly, final evolution of the original ’68 XJ, and right towards the end of the S3’s US run* AND several years post-BL, so they were about as well sorted at that point as you could reasonably expect for a low-production British car. Also, Pininfarina-designed, so very pretty.
So yes, while I may have Strong Internet Feelings about an XJ with anything other than an I6/V12, I am jealous.
*The Series III carried on internationally until ’92, because Jaguar engineers designed the XJ40 (next generation, the square headlights one) to only accommodate an I6 so the Rover V8 couldn’t be forced on them. To keep the XJ12 around, they just kept building the old car until they finally revised the XJ40 for ’93.
Now, see, Kamil makes it difficult for me to deduce information from his pictures. This one has the answer written all over it.
https://alternativeautotrade.com/svdp/16892872/Used-1986-Jaguar-XJ6-Base-for-sale-in-Orange-CA-92687
Except with only one pic remaining I don’t think I can find anything intriguing about it. Was it made the year you were born?
Unless I do an image search for ‘1986 Jaguar XJ6’ and find all the other pics that are still on CarGurus.
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-1986-Jaguar-XJ-Series-XJ6-Sedan-RWD-t47315#listing=288171977
I wonder if it could perhaps be what’s going on under the hood that has something to do with it?
Bingo. https://dailyturismo.com/chevy-v8-1986-jaguar-xj6/
The article calls it an LT1, but that’s a Tuned Port Injection L98 in the pictures. The swap is period appropriate to the vehicle, and apparently passed California smog. It gives up some horsepower compared to an LT or LS, but a way cooler choice in this case.
Way to go, Jeff. I look forward to the writeup and any followup articles.
Oh, man. The engine bay photo on DailyTurismo is the Tinder profile shot, and the one on CarGurus is what shows up on the first date.
There are a few changes between those pictures. One is the yellow spark plug wire on what appears to be plug #4. The smog report shows that the car was right at the limit for HC. That could be a sign of ignition that isn’t working perfectly. Maybe someone changed the worst wire to get it to pass. I bet one of Jeff’s first how-to articles on the Jag will be a tune up.
I pick it up today. I am then having a far more qualified person fully run through it to tell me everything wrong.
I want to fix the wiring insanity under the hood, make sure cooling is up to snuff, and apparently the transmission needs “a vacuum adjustment”.
The radiator hose was changed out after the Daily Turismo pictures were taken, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the vacuum hoses had also aged beyond usefulness. Also, the intake manifold runners (and their bolt-in nature) tend to be a source of vacuum leak issues.
And vacuum leaks will cause HC measurements to rise.
If it’s a 700R4 (I think that’s what the ad mentioned) it may be the TV cable. If so, bowtie overdrives may be in your future.
And yep, best part of the car is the CARB sticker…
Often that’s the exact point where Cheap Date and Cheap Thrills overlap in the Venn diagram. Of course, usually both those circles are entirely enclosed inside the Big Big Trouble Circle….but hey!
lol, I love the internet! Nice work.
I mean…that’s not it!
you guys are amazing haha
Wow, you pulled the trigger. Time to buy a square thumb of land in Scotland for that “Lord”-title, to get the complete package. Congrats!
That’s not technically even required, the UK still reserves the right to grant people titles like “Duchess of Leinster” even though those areas are a technically in another country now, which is a bit cheeky, but that’s never stopped them claiming other peoples stuff.
Anyway, while in other parts of the world a jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag may be seen as faaaancy, in the UK and Ireland the XJ would be more associated with “Arthur Daley” wheeler dealer types https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minder_(TV_series)
Think Mike Brewer, but with a criminal history..
Haha, so if that’s a spectrum, would Jeff land in the middle?
I honestly don’t know anything about this title thing. But after I shared a photo of the Centennial on Facebook, driving it home across the mountains last year, our advertising AI overlords have tried to interest me in buying such a title countless times. I do not condone the connection between formerly fancy cars and fake fancy titles.
LOL, a guy I ride mountain bikes with has that – and he later found out he’s not Scottish, he’s English in heritage… so maybe it makes more sense now?
I wouldn’t wish a Jag on anyone, but if it had an L98 in it, I might be dumb enough to buy it myself in a moment of weakness.
Looking forward to the full report.
Is jagsthatrun.com still around?
We’ll need to have a “help Jeff pick new valve covers” thread at some point. Those look period correct for an IROC on its third owner, a high school junior, circa 1992. And for the record, I had a Mustang and was a sophomore in 1992.