Super charger mods. V8 R models specific/ Eaton M112

[J44EAG]

One more attempt to get the EGR pipe off the manifold if the weather moderates tomorrow. If I fail, then the OS exhaust manifold will have to come off. At least the cat to manifold bolts will be fairly easy to get out. I assume Longlife exhausts had them off the car to fit the new 200 cell media the other day.

I`m considering phoning John Grieve at Jagcare in Portsmouth to ask him if he would take the car in and remove the EGR pipe and or the manifold. The car needs to go on a ramp for that. I could have the car taken by flat bed truck and have Jon take over the job. I`d like to bring the charger back here for porting and servicing. I could get that done in a day or two then take the charger back for fitting and recommissioning. It would cost a few hundred quid but I can deal with that.

It is better to try and fail than not to try at all. Not to proud to admit I might of chewed off more than I bargained for. I`ll see what tomorrow brings.

Looks like I shall not be going to Supercharger Saturday at Liphook. I`m gutted.

Perhaps I should take up hairdressing. It can`t be that hard and is a lot less technical.

Mike

[Zennan101]

Hi Mike
Sorry to read of your frustrations....
I wouldn't consider hairdressing.....the clients complain however the job is done.
Rod

[J44EAG]

I would have replied earlier but our Marina WiFi has been down. Someone stuck a digger bucket through the cable!

The supercharger job has changed shape slightly due to my own physical limitations and sciatic nerve crush now causing severe leg cramps. I had to re-think options so that I don`t start to really damage myself. It just isn`t worth the repercussions. The financial cost right now isn`t important.

Jagcare are top guys down here in Portsmouth and their workshop is only seven miles away. A call to Jayne Grieve was most helpful. She has arranged a flat bed to take the car into them next Wednesday where husband John and his great workshop guys will remove the charger and pass it back to me for porting and servicing. Not many establishments would entertain that sort of idea. A couple of pals have offered to run myself and the parts around as required. All parts removed so far have been cleaned and nuts and bolts filed in seal top plastic food bags with indelible pen descriptions. New parts have been boxed up and placed in the car. I don`t want the guys having a fight getting this pile back together again.

I can`t reach the exhaust manifold to EGR flange nuts as they are so deeply buried at the back of the OS cylinder head. The working space is incredibly tight and there is a possibility that the exhaust manifold may need to be removed to get at the fastenings.

In the meantime I have de-gunged and polished the throttle body. The "cowhorn" pressure manifold has been cleaned, re-profiled, gas flowed and internally polished to quite a reasonable finish. The same treatment applied to the upper intake pipe. Both items were previously experimentally opened up but I have now applied a proper profile and rub up to these components.

Paying out to get the car back together again is money well spent. I still get to do the elbow and charger porting where my interest lays. I`m indebted to Jagcare for helping get me out of the self dug hole. Perhaps I should buy a ladder for future use!

More in due course.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Confirmation that the tow truck will be here tomorrow to take the car off to Dr John to do the bits that have defeated me. It has been a long week of waiting and twiddling my thumbs.

The "cowhorn" manifold has now received as much attention as I can give it. It is as good as it will get and of vastly better finish and profile that it left the factory. I managed to remove a fair quantity of metal from the by-pass throat, cut back the sides of the pressure outlet which were unequal and bore little resemblance to the gasket. More material was removed from the by-pass outlet before I smoothed out generally and polished up. My finger slides without resistance across the internal polished surface. That will do no harm at all.

A few pics here.

After my first rough out session.

As it is now. Careful examination shows what I started with and what I finished up with.

So with the car collected tomorrow afternoon, John hopes to have the EGR pipe removed on Thursday morning and will call me as soon as the charger is off the car. My job is then to collect the charger and bring it back to base for overhaul and rework. Hopefully the car should be back with me on Monday or Tuesday.

Just had the annual car tax demand arrive. Another £295 on top of the £14 demanded by the DVLA to renew my driving license.....Plus they make you pay for a First Class stamp to stick on their envelope in which to send back the cut up old license! Highway robbery in my opinion.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Gone to Uncle John for repair.

[J44EAG]

Come 16.00hrs this afternoon, John rang to say the charger was off the car and ready for collection.
Apparently it is quite a mess under the charger and that the valley pipe needs to be replaced. Justification enough to warrant the tear down of this section of the car.

The blending of American superchargers on to British engines can cause issues. Most are down to rotted vac and coolant pipes which get totally ignored, completely neglected and go un-cared for until one of them fails dramatically. Several years ago I was driving a friends X300R on the M27 over towards Southampton when what Rob calls "The B`std Hose" failed. It blew out the entire contents of the coolant from the engine in seconds. A rapid stop on the hard shoulder occurred. The foot long hose from the water-pump to the block on the left hand side had split from end to end. Recovered back to Hayling Island, seven hours work removing supercharger, throttle body, actuator etc plus twenty seven Jubilee clips finally had the hose off. It was blown open like a split banana! Un-seen and un-loved for eighteen years, this hose had had enough of life in a hot place. The replacement took nine hours to fit.

Despite the car being in perfect order prior to me doing an initial strip out and regretting it due to difficulties, the fact that John has found a vital pipe in need of urgent replacement, makes me feel a whole lot better about tearing this car to pieces. Valley pipes on X350R, S-type R and 4.2 XFR models are a known weak spot and preventative maintenance costs are money well spent when the car becomes aged or high miles accumulate. My car is thirteen years old and has covered 82k miles. Rubber vac and coolant pipes are at the end of their useful lives and need immediate replacement. A timely warning for any of us running these 4.2R models. be wise and save yourself a long ride on a tow truck. Inspect and replace before the pipes give up the fight.

So a trip over to Jagcare tomorrow morning to collect the charger and elbow. Will take images whilst I`m there and will post them here tomorrow.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Charger collected today from Jagcare.. The valley pipe certainly needs replacing. Simon and Charlie seemed unfazed by the difficulties and Charlie proudly said he had done three X350R charger removals now. He considered the S-type R to be an even tighter car to work on. He thanked me for buying an X350. Had it been an STR, he would probably gone on sick leave!

Back here by 10.00am and the next two hours spent cleaning the charger of gunk and also the throttle elbow. Rather smaller than the one I had been practicing on and as I later found, quite an easy elbow to lightly modify.

12.30 pm saw me draining the charger of oil which was in fair condition. Backlash on the OE coupling was significant. Otherwise the charger looked in fair order with rotor bearings checked for noise prior to removing the snout and the rotor pack from the casing. No sealer or gaskets used. Just a tight fit with thread lock applied to the bolts. The rotors have a few chips in the periphery coating and there are a few scratches in the internal casing. Pretty normal, I would have thought.

The rear needle roller bearings were in sound condition. The casing around the cages was cleaned with acetone and aluminum sticky backed foil applied across the front and inside faces to seal from metal swarf, dust and general machining muck.

The elbow internal surfaces were covered in black sticky crank case breather residue. Engine cleaner then acetone had the worst of it away.

I used a marker pen to draw around the inside of the gasket between the charger inlet and the elbow. I had modified the gasket as per Lawson Smiths details in order to lower the elbow and charger floors to promote lower inlet temperatures and increase performance.

The porting work to the elbow, charger inlet and the pressure plate which is part of the charger casing went very well with no issues at all. I seem to have my technique sorted now. Even so, it took me five hours to port all parts. A small rework was carried out to the small end of the pressure plate V, opening up an area of rotor that was previously inaccessible.

This has been something of a rushed rework but a good basic polish of all areas has been completed tonight.

An early rise tomorrow will see all parts thoroughly cleaned again, thereafter the rotor pack, new up-rated coupling and snout case refitted together with a repack of the caged needle roller bearings. With eight or so bolts holding the snout and the rotor pack in place, these will be torqued having applied thread lock to the bolts. All that is then needed is for the special synthetic new oil to be poured into the charger via the screw in plug. Rebuild complete.

The best thing I can do then is either order a taxi and have the driver take the parts in a large kit bag to Jagcare or try and bum a lift from someone. Jagcare can then put the whole thing back together again. Lucky old them!

I`ll add images tomorrow. Tired, dirty, hungry and in need of a pint right now. Its all coming back together again gradually and not before time.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Charger rebuilt and now back at Jagcare awaiting fitting. I doubt if I will see the car again until Monday evening at the earliest.

Pictures speak a thousand words. The work carried out yesterday and first thing this morning.

More in due course.

Mike

[J44EAG]

The end of a long hard flog! Bravo John and young Charlie at Jagcare. I don`t care that the car is covered in two weeks worth of dust and muck. I`m mobile again! That is a good enough result.

"The Beast" is back and running superbly. An extra big bit of low down grunt added which has transformed the car. Spontaneous pick up with the lovely trickling throttle response I had missed so badly since selling the Paramount S-type V8. Un-blocking inlet, charger and exhaust components has worked a treat. I`ve only driven the car in traffic heavy conditions yet, but so far the improvements have ticked all the right boxes. No more faulting or having to use the iCarsoft unit to clear down restricted performance every trip. Good riddance to the rotted vac pipes.

Upon re-assembly, the car started instantly. Charlie and I spent a few minutes clearing fault codes which had lodged themselves in the various ECU`s due to having to move the car around when loading onto transport and pushing the car into the workshop. No issue with that.

One problem though had us all head scratching. The car left me on the transporter with suspension at a fairly normal height. When visiting Jagcare last Thursday, I noted it had sunk at the front end almost down to the floor. I assumed Charlie had depressurized the system to lower the car and make it easier for him to work on. Not so. After starting the car, we assumed the car would rise back up again. That did not occur. We tried various re-sets to no avail and even a gentle road test to encourage some action. Finally the car rose but then defaulted to full CATS hard condition. We bounced down the road like a kangaroo!

John and I had a discussion about the leveling units to be found on the lower suspension drop arms. Only the near side one on my MY04 car controls leveling and although the off side unit is present, it has no useful function other than to link to the suspension system. Johns immediate reaction was to laugh and suggest my near side sensor had dropped off the drop arm. Jacking the car up, his diagnosis was correct. Part of the mounting spring clip had broken or corroded away. Charlie did a temporary repair with a couple of cable ties and up came the suspension within seconds. The temporary repair may well become permanent.....back to normal ride and height again.

Charlie tells me that charger removal and refit is made much easier and quicker by removing the thermostat manifold which links to the front of both cylinder heads. So that has been apart as well and new gaskets, seals and pipes fitted as preventative maintenance. I`m more than happy with that.

This image shows the notorious and well buried valley pipe which can disintegrate due to heat, age and mileage. In actual fact, mine all though only showing the first signs of ageing and 82k miles of use, is still in pretty good nick. Taking the opportunity to replace it makes me feel a lot happier. I consider I would have been a mug not to have had it changed. Fitting the new pipe is one less component on the car to fail over the coming years. The part number is 2W93-9F814-BC and am told it is common to all 4.2R V8 Jaguar models. This is the pipe which runs from the back of the engine, along the NS cylinder bank before coming to a central point somewhere behind the thermostat unit. Failure of the pipe is usually first shows as a coolant leak. Ignored, the pipe can split open like a ripe banana sending torrents of scalding coolant in all directions. Not good on the motorway. In fact not good at all.

This is the first time I`ve done any charger porting and polishing although I cut my teeth gas flowing cylinder heads and manifolds. Porting the charger and other components was not difficult although I approached metal removal in the immediate area of the rotor inlets with some trepidation. Fortunately Lawson Smith had sent me some images showing the areas to work so all I did was copy his ideas. To my knowledge Lawson has not ever ported the cowhorn pressure plenum roof or cleaned out the restricted by-pass duct and entry. I must have another chat to him about that.

The up-rated coupling is a tad noisier than the OE component. I was warned about that by Lawson. The extra noise does not invade the car although one is aware of it standing at the front of the car with the engine running.

So there we have it. A wonderful conclusion to some difficult issues and the satisfaction of having successfully carried out the porting myself. Not so happy though about being unable to remove the charger myself as described earlier in this thread. We can`t win them all I suppose.

Mike

[davidr]

Well done Mike - delighted to hear it's all worked out well in the end!

[ptjs1]

Mike,

Glad to hear it's all sorted even though you wimped out of undoing a few 10mm bolts and sent it away!

Now you've finsihed your fettling (until you find enough money for that Quaife Diff!) it would be great to see it on a rolling road to understand how it's improved the low and mid-range torque figures - the important areas of performance for most of us! Also to see if your aspiration of "500bhp before Christmas" was realised!

Cheers

Paul

[PPV]

Great to see such technical work taking place. Glad you can feel the result when driving. Keep up the good articles. I await with interest to seeif you can reach the specific power outputs of my A45 (just joking or maybe not).
Regards,

[J44EAG]

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement. May I please clarify that the bolts I was unable to extract were 13mm and therefore larger and harder to get undone. They were also upside down so my ratchet spanners were at a disadvantage as indeed was I. My bus pass arrives next year so all this stuff may become academic.

Anyway, I`m out of hospital now and have returned the crutches to the skip where we found them in Southsea. I am also eating well again.

Gerald Morten (Viezu Berkshire) came up with the following estimate which he feels will not be far short of a realistic figure. It will be verified in due course once the high flow Bosch inter-cooler pump and the massive XK8 double pass inter-cooler radiator has been fitted. The two items together further serve to reduce IAT, increase air density and increase oxygen content. Increased torque is the usual effect of similar mods. Those items fitted, Gerald will supervise a rolling road session.

A standard car is said to be 400hp.
K&N filter adds 4hp (404)
Cold air pipe adds 15hp (419)
10% pulley adds 40hp (459)
Sports cats add 35hp (494)
X-pipe adds 5hp (499)
Induction plenum rework adds 2hp (501)
Charger re-port adds 18hp (519)
Cowhorn mods 5hp (524)
ECU reflash adds 35hp (559) This is the estimate of where the car is today)
I/C rad and pump adds 10hp (569)

If you are used to power gains experienced with a naturally aspirated car you will probably find these estimates rather unbelievable. Where supercharging is involved then the gains come in much larger slices.

A rolling road session will be most interesting. Gerald informs me he finds estimates with S/C models to be quite predictable. Geralds credentials are impeccable. He started Paramount with Paul Busby which is now better known as Viezu.

Mike

[Zennan101]

Hi Mike,

Your posts are always informative. Many thanks for sharing your projects. Glad to see you didn't actually take up hairdressing!
It would be interesting to see what the output actually is on a rolling road which would show a figure (as new) engine output plus your performance mods less any horses that have escaped over time.
I hope you are keeping your insurance company appraised of the upgrades and your beast is protected.

Rod

[poprivet]

When's the Nitrous kit due Mike?

Seriously well done,quite an achievement.