Thanks Roger and Brian. I’ll hopefully get time to take a closer look today. Brian - that’s a nice purpose-built stand you’ve made. If/when I drop the engine out, I should probably look at building something similar. Do you have a pic of it in isolation? Cheers, Lloyd
Lloyd a couple of pics of the stand. I can’t claim credit for the excellent design, it was imagineered by another forum member and the info may still be available.
However it allows the bonnet to be safely mounted and can be tilted forward without toppling over, the castors allow for easy mobility.
Mine has been absconded by another Jagnut friend for his project, but if you want, I can get the measurements and forward. Let me know. regards, Brian / Mytype
Given your location, I won’t be popping by to borrow it off you anyway. I’m in Western Australia. I could probably figure out some measurements based on where you’ve supported the bonnet (or do you call it a ‘hood’?). My bonnet was recently shipped off and returned for some tidying up as well. The houses where I live in the port of Fremantle aren’t known for their block sizes, so storing the timber frame afterwards could be tricky. Maybe I’ll design it so that I can tear it down for storage. Cheers, Lloyd
yep, I got lucky, my NEW shiny head nuts were all over the place internal depth wise
2 would have failed to clamp at all (added a washer)
(cheaper to get old head nuts re-chromed)
the bottom of the waterway is filled with swamp-like sludge, and removal of a head stud on an old engine will usually result in scum ingress to the hole, pulling the adjacent welch plug you can see the stud/hole junction
even if the block is chemically cleaned the holes can still have compacted debris
I made a whole lot of measurements this morning. Although there is some variation in stud height, there is sufficient depth within the studs to torque up the head properly. I removed the head prior to taking these measurements.since whatever was wrong would necessitate head removal anyway. On close inspection of the cylinder liners, I found a small hole toward the top of the liner in cylinder number 4, so there’s at least one issue. I’ll look into pulling the engine out over the next week or so. I need to know what I’m doing when removing the torsion bars from the reaction plate. Cheers, Lloyd
Hi Lloyd A curious problem. As I’m sure you know the liners in a XK engine are not wet, so the issue is how does water get behind it. As I understand it Jaguar used liners in the 4.2l blocks because they couldn’t be certain of core placement in casting and had no way to determine wall thickness after boring, so I suppose it’s possible that your block was either so thin or non existent in that location that the liner was exposed, and rusted through? Are you actually able to get a pick through the hole and into the water jacket?
As to removing the torsion bars etc I would urge you to try the method set out in the manual using a close fitting rod (it calls for silver steel which was a precision ground rod) and not actually removing the bars. Resetting used bars is a real P in the A .
Hi Terry. Thanks for your reply. I took the block to an engine rebuilder for his appraisal yesterday. As for removing the reaction plate, that all went well once the torsion bars were fully unloaded. Cheers, Lloyd
This is not good news . Our 61 Jag Mk 2 3.8 had the same problem . Coolant was seeping between the sleeves in the block at the head due to minute cracks . Replaced the block , complete engine rebuild . Like you thought the water pump the problem , head etc . These are old engines maybe over heated just once too often .
I was fortunate to source another block in excellent condition . Don’t waste time trying to patch up a problem engine .
Kim R.