Jaguar E-type S1 FHC
Last month I left you partway through a stripdown of the fuel system to check for ethanolinduced corrosion. Although the gasket for the fuel tank sump was degraded, the inside of the tank itself hadn’t suffered so I moved my attention to the filter that lives in a little glass bowl in the engine bay. There was no debris in the bowl and the filter looked clean, but it was due for replacement so I fitted a new one. I could see an accumulation of black goo inside the carburettor float chambers. How it got there is a mystery; if it’s from the degraded sump gasket it must have passed through the filter sock on the pump and inline filter.
I found the same sort of debris in there when I started using the car 10 years ago but it seemed to have stopped appearing after a few rounds of driving it and cleaning out the float chambers. With the float chambers dried out I found light oxidation on the inner surfaces that wiped off with a cloth but everything else looked clean, including the needles and brass float chambers. So that left the carburettors. I’ve heard tales of modern fuel turning an SU’S innards into a corrosion-furred nightmare, so I feared what I’d find as I removed the dashpots and pistons to reveal the needles and brass jets. And… breathe, phew – everything looked perfectly clean inside.
All that remained was the job I always dread. Each of the banjo bolts fixing the solid fuel line to the float chambers uses a pair of fibre washers that are always reluctant to seal. The only way I’ve found to avoid leaks is to do the bolts up as tight as I dare then re-tighten once the pump has re-filled the system with fuel. The washers seem to need to be wetted with fuel and the bolts re-tightened numerous times before they compress and seal properly, so re-tightening them before I drive anywhere becomes a tedious ritual. In the past I’ve pre-soaked the washers in fuel, with no luck; this time I’m trying a smear of Wellseal non-setting gasket sealant on the washers.
It seems that part-filling the tank to ensure that fuel never sits around for long and draining the system before any lengthy layups is helping to protect it. At least with fuel with up to 5% ethanol. I’m not looking forward to when 10% arrives in 2021.