Hello Jag-Lovers,
My name is Tom and i live in Vienna/Austria. For this reason please excuse my English and as i’m far away from being a professional mechanics pls. also excuse my lack of understanding in some belongings.
At the age of 30 i was able to make a dream come true and i purchased an America reimported XKE 2+2 1973 make which i had been running a while. Wheres the chassis was in a good condition the engine was causing issues from the beginning.
That time I installed a new radiator and fixed the corroded relays but it become more obvious that i had a problem with the head or head-gasket because i always had to refill water. After cold autumn/fall morning then (with the bottle of coolant on the passenger seat) the engine lost water from the left rear side and my first idea was that a had a frost damage of the head or block. (This is all many years from now). The first car repair (a traditional mechanics) they tried to find the leakage but all welch plugs were intact and months later he said he was not able to fix the engine. The engine remained there for quite a while before i decided to do a restoration of the car including painting and a professional engine revision (this time a “real” professional).
My XKE is now painted in gunmetal opalescent (originally old english racing white) and standing in my tiny garage without engine and interior and what i expected to be a completely rebuilt and reinstalled V12 engine is in fact a box of well sorted parts and a file at the court years later.
So that was my long welcome story and now we want the cat run again 
Kind Regards
Tom
Hi Tom,
welcome to the forum, where you will be able to get a lot of answers to you questions. Typically faster than you think. For V12 specific questions, you may find the V12 group a better resource.
Looking forward to hearing more about your project.
… Ole
Hi Tom, Welcome to J-L E type forum. There are few of us V12 types here, and others on the V12 forum, although many of them have the post HE engines. For a lot of very useful information re the pre HE v12 engine ( yours and mine ) please go to the XJS section of J-L and find Kirby Palms e-book. While this is aimed at the XJS contingent the section on the pre HE V12 is excellent, with lots of very practical information and diagrams.Good luck with the “restored” car
Welcome, Tom. You have found a list of friendly and helpful people who share your “Jaguar” interests. I see that you are already “knee deep” in your Jag. project, and you will get lots of help and support here. Your English is very good, is German your first language?
LLoyd
@holmes: thanks i downloaded kirby’s helpful pdf already which helped me a lot in disengaging the steering chain and creating a plate to remove the heads easily.
@loyd: “knee deep” with knees at my ears …
I am preparing the interior trim by myself (except the leather parts) and now I ended up in stripping down a V12. On the other half of my house other projects and hobbies lie around 
Thanks - German is my first language but the Austrian budget is not as good 
Tom
Hi Tom,
Welcome. I think all of us here would love to hear or see her running again. Think you’ll find friendly and knowledgeable advice here, this group has been around the block for many years. Just ask questions when you have them.
pauls
Best of luck Tom. I have had an E V12 for 43 years…great car. Might want to consider putting in a 5 speed while car is apart. Makes it a different, more enjoyable car, plus, once done, everything from the crank seal rewards is new and modern. Have fun ! John
@paul: thx and I will show pictures once worth being seen …
In the upcoming weeks i should get all the material needed to make the interior bright again. The ambla part should not become too difficult (around the backdoor maybe) but I’m a little afraid of doing the headlining. 
But there will be questions all around the car as I enjoy doing things by myself.
@john: hmm, yes I know. I have read about many different options with GETRA from a Supra being the most favorized if i remember correctly. And with a manual it might also make sense to raise compression ratio as momentum is no longer eaten away by the converter right ? On the other hand some have the opinion to stay with the original configuration (though originality is not my main focus). If i knew where to get a good gearbox and pedals, clutch etc. and this all were not too costly …
Welcome Tom. Your English is fine. I’m sure we all look forward to following the progress of your car. Ask questions, this is a pretty eclectic group, what they don’t collectively know probably isn’t worth knowing.