It has been a long few months without the E type on the road. It is one of those things that while the engine is out might as well take care of a few things and the list keeps growing as things are taken apart.
Rebuild head, replace the water pump, new brake flex lines and correct a long-time oil leak because of the warped oil pan.Rebuild front suspension. I went for my first drive this morning with the new 5 speed, keeping my fingers crossed that all would be OK. This job was bigger than anything I ever tackled on the E, it is one thing to take apart and put back together as original but to adapt an after market tranny is another. Transmission tunnel cover not installed yet but still quieter than my worn out 4 speed was. Shifts are a little stiff but should loosen up with use? I had been concerned that the speedo cable was not engaged correctly because I installed it after trans was in place but it is working fine. Have not taken it up to hwy speed yet, want to button up everything first. My biggest concern was when I took it out for a drive I would hear or feel the trans bumping cross member all was good. So far very happy with progress except that my new teflon front seal is leaking at a rate of one drop per second. My old teflon seal was leak free for many years so I must have done something wrong.
Tips for installing Broadsport.
I did not cut into crossmember so it did require other mods.
I actually moved engine forward just under 1/4" by elongating mounting holes.
Transmission sat higher up and shift linkage and reverse switch interfered with tunnel cover. Had to cut and modify a bit to clear. Had I cut into cross member I believe there would still be issues with the cover unless I had replaced supplied rubber mounts with shorter ones? I did not use supplied washers to bring down trans a bit.
Transmission is longer than original and on a short wheelbase, car driveshaft needs to be installed before the engine is all the way back in position.
While under the car do not let the transmission plate fall on your face or for the matter torsion bars!
Moving the engine forward a bit requires that carb linkage for Stroms be shimmed out on firewall.
Went to install water pump pulleys on A/C equipped car and needed to grind 1/16" off shaft to clear picture frame crosspiece. This was a new aftermarket pump.
My wife commented on how much quieter the car was with the new tranny, the old one was far past its prime.
Another job was to replace exhaust down pipes on the Bell stainless system and these new ones fit much closer to body, not hanging down as the old ones did.
Will test at speed as soon as I can resolve the front seal leak.
Glenn
Congratulations Glenn. The end is in sight.
Congrats. Always a great feeling getting an E-type back on the road. The best is yet to come.
The teflon front seal is pretty efficient at what it does but it is just a little delicate - why it has that plastic protective sleeve pre-installation. It’s possible to stretch it during installation enough that the seal is compromised. The other failure mechanism is the spacer. The old rubber seal when it gets hard has a tendency to wear a slight groove in the spacer that will quickly wear just enough from the fine edge of the teflon to reduce its efficiency.
Pita to replace but do-able at least in situ.
I hate those things. I know that others seem to be able to get them to work but I have had a lot of leaks with them. I have gone back to using the standard neoprene seals. These don’t leak and are, after all, what most other cars use.
Regarding the Teflon seal…suggest you look at this old Glen Jarboe thread. Also look at the link to photos within the thread. When I attempted to put that Teflon seal in my 3.8 with the engine on a stand, I had the same gross distortion problem Glen Jarboe describes. I solved it by carefully reducing the outer diameter of the seal per Glen’s recommendation. But that could be a real chore with the engine in the chassis. Mine doesn’t leak, but there’s zero doubt it would have if not resized. I’d use the standard lip seal.
I did a lot of reading about how they’re supposed to work.
Among other things, the surface roughness of the metal seal runner is quite critical and if not correct the seal will not work. You need to install a new seal runner every time you replace the seal.
You are also supposed to give them a number of hours/days (depending on who you are reading) to let them relax and conform perfectly to the seal runner before first startup
You install them with NO oil on the seal runner.
What is supposed to happen is that on first start up the edge of the seal heats up and deposits a thin layer of Teflon onto the seal runner itself. Then you have a Teflon to Teflon sealing surface which is why they’re supposed to last so long.
I have found them very difficult to centre, as have others, and when you look at the ones that leak you can see gaps where the seal isn’t touching the runner at all.
I have neoprene seals on all my cars and we now tend to use them on customer cars too. None of my cars leak oil from the front seal. I can’t speak for longevity yet but as I said modern cars use neoprene seals and I doubt I’m going to have a problem.
I dunno if the situation on the E-type is the same as the V12, but on the V12 it’s also possible for oil to leak under the seal sleeve, between the sleeve and the crankshaft. The brand new seal seems to have some sort of sealant on the ID of that sleeve, but if you ever remove that sleeve and reinstall it you probably should apply something around that ID before you slide it into place.
All sounds familiar. Well done.
It all starts to sound familiar after a while. Did you see my post on the XJS? I’m getting a little bit excited.
No, I’ll go and have a look.
XJS Forum? Can’t see your avatar in any thread. Gizza clue…
The Teflon seal distance piece has an o-ring inside to prevent the oil seepage you describe, It can be retrofitted to earlier engines and/or used with the normal garter spring single-lip seal. The sump gasket thickness can vary considerably from thin gasket paper to almost heavy card. Being split on the centreline, this affects the amount of crush exerted on the rubbery Teflon seal OD. I don’t recall fitting one that didn’t need firm tapping down into the timing cover groove to get it concentric with the crank nose when the sump is fitted,.