Most miles on a pushrod Jaguar in 2021

Hi all,

I know this is a bit silly, but what’s the harm?

Besides I’m not doing this to feel good about myself, but I think this can be fun and motivate some of us to use our good old Jaguars (& SS’s) the way they were meant to: driven. :slight_smile:

There’s been a similar positive ”challenge” on fchat under Other makes, Maserati for classic (1950-1980) Maseratis usually won by a Swedish guy I’ve met a couple of times, good fun. (Not that I would ever have owned a classic Maserati.)

So now that I am following the factory ”running-in” instructions I still have 150 miles left of the do-not-exceed-2.500rpm driving, followed by another 500 miles of max 3.000rpm driving.

I used a GPS today and figured out that 2.500rpm in top gear is 75km/h (ca 50mph)

So I was thinking we could have a little challenge and see who do some miles with a classic Jaguar. :slight_smile:

Besides I am sure I will be outrun by one of our friends from Australia or New Zealand. :smiley:

So I have so far done ca 300 miles this year on the rebuilt MKIV engine in our MKV DHC, ca 100 miles today, we had a cruising night and I visited an interesting place with a friend before it, a bit cold and rainy, but so what! :smiley:

Cheers!



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Australia possible NZ not so much, from the top of the north Island to the bottom of the NI is just over 1000klm and from the Ferry in Picton (if you were travelling from the NI) down to the lookout at Bluff just past Invercargill is just over 900klms.
One of our club members did precisely that trip in 2018 in their MKVII or IX can’t remember now :woozy_face:

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In 2021 !!!

I’m throwing in the towel right now. Even back in the 1990s when I first put mine on the road the maximum I ever did in a year was about 3,500 miles but in recent years I seldom exceed 1,000 miles.

Peter :slightly_frowning_face:

Photo above taken by a masochistic friend who in his youth drove 3700 miles around the periphery of Britain in a Mini.

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I’ve been averaging up to around 1000 miles per year. However, just now there is a wrench in the works as I do a transmission swap in a leisurely manner. Certain to be lower this year unless planet rotation counts. Current status reflected in photo. Perhaps the wrenching is as much, or more, fun for me as driving.

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This year we have travelled 544 miles to date. It will drop a bit now as we are coming into our winter. Usually we average 1000 per annum but somewhat less over its lifetime as we are now just over 61000 miles.
While we are doing comparisons - I would be interested to know if anyone is aware of a MkIV which has done less miles? The guards and doors have been repainted, there is a new radiator core, I have replaced the head and carpets but otherwise it is original - right down to the rear window blind.

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Is the photo taken outside your home? If so, then you are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful house!

Tim

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Hi there, just adding my “two bobs worth” to the Most Miles in 2021 post. I usually do about 5 or 6,000 kilometres every year in my 1949 MkV saloon. This year so far I’ve only done about 2,000. About a month ago, members of our local SS Register here in Victoria (Australia) went on a one day run to have lunch at a country pub. One of our members, in a lovely, recently restored MkV DHC, did 922Km on the day to have lunch with us, while I only did 568 in my MkV saloon for the day. Both cars ran beautifully with no problems.

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Rod Greasley of Redcliffe, Queensland would take some beating - in April 2020 he drove from his home to Perth, Western Australia in his 1939 SS Jaguar DHC to attend the National Rally that had been cancelled while he was en-route, so after a few days in Perth, turned around and drove back to Redcliffe - a round journey of some 10,300km…

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Hi Tim, The house in the photo is my next door neighbour’s. The builder (in 1884) built several similar houses but the one in the photo was the builder’s own house and had rather more expensive detailing than our’s. None of them is designed with energy efficiency in mind. Here’s our’s in February this year.

Peter

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It’s still beautiful, Peter! Stone homes are very special.Thank you for the photo. I can just imagine an open fire, single malt and a good book. :relaxed: By the way, I loved the photo of your lovely car by Loch Awe. Wonderful name for a Loch.

Tim

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I’ve PMed you rather than taking Pekka’s thread too far OT.

Peter :wink:

Hi all,

I guess I shouldn’t have tempted it. As I managed to screw up big time. :frowning:

Well today I did a whopping 24 miles, trying to debug and adjust both the timing and oil pressure.

So now I have done 300 miles this year and about 410 miles of my engine’s running in.

The bad part is of course that it was performing really well until I tried to get rid of one oil leak, the wrong way!

I’ll add more info in the ”Oil pressure relief valve” thread but as a warning here: ONLY USE A FIBRE WASHER between the brass relief valve body and the aluminum oil filter housing.

I could not get one in the right size so I used copper. That was not right either so I filed one that would fit. It would still leak, with or without sealant. :frowning:

So I overtightened it and it broke. Then I blocked it and had one careful successful drive and cruising night with it. Then the next day I screwed it up and the oil pump shaft jumped, but I thought it was just the gauge. 20km without the oil pump. :frowning:

Towed back home but now that I have everything back together it looks like I did wear out some bearings prematurily. Oil pressure is fine when not yet warm but fully warmed up looks like just a bit over the minimum, 20lbs at 2000rpm. It was 40-45lbs prior to the incident. Just about 10lbs at idle when hot.

I checked with an IR camera on my phone the temps and they all look good, but I think I may need to pull the oil pan off again next winter and replace the big end bearings and see what that would do for the oil pressure. Any thoughts?

Cheers!


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Just to be clear: Are you saying that you prevented the relief valve from opening and this caused the pump shaft to jump? I can understand the relief valve but how did you know that the pump shaft had jumped? I can’t see any connection between the closed relief valve and the pump shaft. Are you suggesting that exceedingly high oil pressure effectively stopped the pump from turning? Did the rev counter stop working even though the engine was still running?

Peter

Hi,

Yes! And the tell tale was that the rev counter angle drive had thrown the top with the zerk (if we’re not allowed to say grease nipple :slight_smile: ) off and I could also see marks on the oil pump end of the shaft.

I have made 3D CAD models of both and for the future plan to have some new ones made.

And most likely I will replace the big end bearings next winter just to see how much they took damage and what this’ll do for the oil pressure.

Cheers!

So was the exceedingly high oil pressure caused by your blockage in the relief valve coming adrift and lodging in the actual output of the oil pump? What did you use to block the valve?

I can’t remember, is the driving gear in the pump attached to its shaft by a pin that has now sheared?

Peter

Hi,

Nope, just two No. 20 Woodruff keys, 3/32” more about that and pics in the Oil filter housing thread.

Cheers!

Ps. Here: Oil Filter Cartridge 3.5 MKV - #23 by ptelivuo

So technically nothing is broken (except that original relief valve body) and that was a puzzle. But I think it’s now obvious what happened, the needle pegged on the gauge when I drove a steep ramp up and took a swing to the right with a cold engine! :frowning: I should have allowed the car to idle in the garage, I know. But then I thought I just blew the gauge. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Cheers!

OK, I think I understand now. The drive shaft is keyed to the gear that engages with the camshaft using two woodruff keys and the bottom of that shaft is machined to a blade shape that drives a corresponding slot in the top of the pump shaft. Somehow the shaft has lifted and disconnected itself from the oil pump.

I was initially confused by my parts list that appears to show the long 2.5 litre shaft in the 3.5 litre drawing and the short shaft in the 2.5 litre drawing.

I think you asked what the horizontal groove in the shaft was for

I guess that’s for the circlip J76 in the parts list C491 that prevents the shaft from rising. :slightly_frowning_face:

Peter

Hi Pekka,

Did you manage to find a spare relief valve body? (Sorry, I didn’t read your thread previously.) I have one you can have for free. It will work but it needs the valve seating ground because it has worn unevenly. You might need to make a different shaped plunger with a tapered nose.

Peter

Yea…I wouldn’t wait. If you lightly scuffed the bearings, pop in new shells, and you’ll likely be fine.

Drive it further…and the crank may need to be ground. The sudden lack of oil pressure is diagnostic not all is well inside.

Choose.