She lives again!!
Today I reached yet another major milestone in my engine transplant project of putting a nicely running engine from my crash damaged 1987 XJ6 donor parts car into my 1984 XJ6 Vanden Plas (No, this is not an April Fools Day joke). I started the engine today for the first time in its new host and ran it a few times to check things out, adjust things, and get it up to operating temperature. AND IT STARTED ON THE VERY FIRST TRY!!!
I started this project in December 2018 to get my 1984 XJ6 Vanden Plas back on the road again after some serious engine problems. I decided to give up on its original 200K mile engine after a second blown head gasket and very low oil pressure as verified by a direct reading gauge. Now, after spending hundreds of hours of work I was rewarded by the sweet sounds of a 4.2L XK engine running very nicely in my beautiful car again.
I have the car up on four jack stands so not only was I able to run the engine but I was able to exercise the power steering and verify that the transplanted transmission also worked in Drive and Reverse.
The attached pictures show how it looked this afternoon after running for the first time.
I still have some parts to install before taking it for a drive later this week.
Paul