Our Jaguar XJS restoration skills were fully utilised during one of our latest projects, which features as our ‘Car of the month’ for March 2016.

The new owner of this stunning example of a fully restored XJS V12 coupé requested that we first find and purchase the donor car.

A Jaguar V12 cooling system in good condition is capable of dealing with all conditions, contrary to popular belief, and does not need upgrading or fancy coolants and additives. However, it is relatively complex and more difficult to keep in good condition compared to the I6 engines.

A common problem is that the heater will not blow hot even with the engine up to full temperature. As far as the source of heat is concerned, there are two main likely problems:

As part of a new series of blog posts, we will be inviting a number of XJS owners and Jaguar enthusiasts to contribute to our blog, telling us exactly why they love the XJS. This week, we’ve gone across the pond and asked California-based, Rhett Redelings what makes the car so special to him.

• 1988 Jaguar XJ-S coupe in Glacier White with a Mulberry interior, an HE V12 engine [...]
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We’ve had the pleasure of working on this increasingly customised V12 XJS on a number of occasions. On its latest visit to our workshop, we’ve been asked to install our Digital Engine Management (DEM) system. The system will release more power, and will allow us to optimise the fuelling and ignition for other modifications, such as cold air inlets.

Modifying these engines would normally have little or no effect, unless the fuelling and ignition is re-mappable. Without specialist knowledge of the original firmware-based map and ability to re-blow vintage eproms, this is not really possible.

Our modern Omex system, however, allows for full re-mapping. This XJS was dyno-tested at just over 300bhp, prior to any modifications being carried out. Once the installation of the system has been completed, we will be able to check on the gains we’ve made.

Another advantage of the modern engine management is the much-improved reliability. The old Lucas system

In many V12 HE cars (all of which up to 1993 are fitted with the GM400 box) a common issue we’ve encountered, and one that can worry its owners, is for large clouds of white smoke to emanate from the back of the vehicle, particularly on a hot run and after a service.

This is usually a result of the gearbox being overfilled, with the excess being blown out of the breather, which is invisibly placed on top of the box. The oil drips down, hits the hot exhausts and produces an impressive cloud of smoke. Equally, it is easy to under-fill, as the procedure is not widely understood, and dipstick readings can be misleading when oil accumulates in the bottom of the dip t [...]

We’ve recently completed the restoration of this now-stunning classic car. We were asked by the client to source a low-mileage donor car – it had to be blue, V12 and a convertible.

The car we found was actually Solent blue (a mid metallic blue). It was stripped back and repainted in Jaguar Westminster blue (a gorgeous dark navy).

Are Kevlar-reinforced replacement coolant hoses good enough to use in your classic Jaguar XJS? Based on our experience, we’d have to say no. So which hoses are best to use? And what’s important to consider when fitting them?

Find out what KWE recommends for coolant and fuel hoses in our new technical note on the website:

Coolant and Fuel Hoses