Hello everyone before anything else.
My story with Jaguar related awesome moments and nightmares begun last year when I purchased, almost given away, a 1979 Daimler Sovereign 4.2 that was forgotten in a barn in Central Spain for the last 10 years.
After a costly service including Head Gasket replacement, Steering Rack rebuild and a custom stainless steel exhaust y also had to change the injectors, spark plugs and cables to eliminate an annoying problem of gas odour whilst driving and a huge petrol spending rate.
Got the licensing solved and now it has Historical license plates and exempt of Tax and passes MOT once every 4 years but…
When all seemed to be OK took it for a 400 km ride and on the way back it started to overheat…
Back to a new mechanic that tells me there is a problem with the Gasket, and when he pulls it back again, finds a crack(fissure) in the Cylinder Block.
I luckily found a guaranteed replacement engine coming from a 1984 Jaguar XJ6 4.2 but i need help as I am not sure it is a perfect match.
The big question is: Is there a way to be 100% sure before I purchase that it is compatible? I have the VIN code of the donor car but i found nowhere on-line info about how to verify.
Thank You all in advance for your help!
I am almost at the end of my resources that can go into this project, but, I refuse to let my dream car go to waste or in a graveyard!!!
I certainly don’t envy you in this situation. First of all, your story sounds like you urgently need to find people who know about cars (not even Jags in particular) and - even more urgently - reliable mechanics. Frankly, from just reading your post I wouldn’t know whether the first mechanic made a mistake for pulling the head and replacing the gasket without noticing the crack or the second mechanic has done a lot of things to explain why he didn’t identify more simple causes of the heat problem. 400 km of driving shouldn’t cause an XK engine to crack under normal driving conditions.
Given that things are as you describe, i.e. there is a crack in the block that cannot be welded, and you have a replacement engine, it is not very complicated to do a swap. Get yourself either the info provided by JDHT at very reasonable rates to know anything about your car or the sales brochures from the usual suspects (and yes, there are standard stainless exhaust systems available at around 600 EUR). SNG Barratt should be available wherever you are and they have a wonderful parts catalogue with all the VIN and engine numbers on p. 2.
If your car is a SII car (produced till February 1979 and easily identifiable by the slim chrome bumpers with overriders, protruding chrome door handles and “gothic” tail lights, your engine numbers go from 7L 74000 to 8L1001. In this case your chassis no. would range behind 2S50001, assuming your car is LHD.
If your car is a SIII car - and your mentioning of injectors suggests you have a SIII car as in Europe FI was introduced only on the SIII cars - they use the VIN identification system. All SIII 6 cyl. engine numbers should start with 8L. There may have been minor changes between 1979 and 1986, but they should not frighten a serious mechanic …
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
Yes, my car is indeed one of the firsts SIII, it is has a injection fuel system and it is an english original, therefore a RHD, but luckily the donor car is also an RHD, only 5 years later our of assembly line, an 1984 as the original document proves it.
I must have been really unlucky the first time with the recommended Classic Cars “Restaurateur”. Today when i explained to him the situation the car is in, proving with photos that himself sent me, that the crack was there, when he first “repaired” the head gasket.
His reply was that he used a “Special Gel” substance that was supposed to isolate and seal the crack, and that it is not his fault that it did not do the job… Furthermore he claims that since almost 6 months passed since he gave me back the car, he consideres himself exempt of any responsability…
The sad part is that this kind of pseudo-professionals make people loose faith in the REAL people that know how to and are willing to do the right thing when they accept a job.
I will buy this new engine because i cannot accept that the car has to be abandoned. The other solution proposed was a rebuilt HEAD and CYLINDER BLOCK with an expense over 4.000 which is out of my reach now…
I will keep you posted and tell you how it all went.
Hopefully will soon be able to post a new photo in a Classic Cars meeting after the job is done!
Regards.
Tough luck - but any mechanic discovering cracked block and expect to fix it with anything but welding is gullible to snake oil solutions…
However; the crack could not be detected without removing the head - fair work done. Welding a block would likely be an engine out operation, and not necessarily successful - so you got that far on the cheap…hopefully. A replacement used engine is, and was, indeed the right solution, and the mechanic should have suggested that - keeping his integrity…
If the replacement engine is in good shape, you will be very happy with it. Years ago, my father experienced a situation similar to yours. In 1982 he purchased a three year old 1979 early series 3 XJ6 which had just come off a three year lease. A year and a half later he made the mistake of allowing the woman he was involved with at the time to drive it somewhere alone. When the low coolant warning light came on, she decided to ignore it and continued driving. Only when the engine seized completely and ceased to function did she finally coast to the side of the road. The car was towed to his mechanic, who told him it would cost $$$$ to rebuild the engine, if it was even salvageable. He suggested leaving the car with him to wait and see if he could find any leads on another engine. Several weeks later, they hit the jackpot. They lived in New York, and, at the time, Jaguar’s main US headquarters was located in New Jersey. A cargo vessel filled with new 1984 XJ6’s arrived in port Newark from England. As the longshoremen were unloading the vessel, a pallet shifted to the side, sending a brand new car crashing down on to the pier. Obviously, the car was not saleable, and the car was parted out by a salvage company. The mechanic purchased a brand new 1984 engine with zero miles on it for a reasonable price, and the car was owned until 1997, when he finally sold it. If your replacement engine is in good shape, you should be able to enjoy many more years of happy motoring…
Actually, there is a process other than welding, to fix castings. Dependent on access.
A “stitching” system. Small threaded rods with heads to be removed. Drill a small hole, tap it. Screw in the bit. Cut, snap or grind off the head. Drill again, part in the bit and part in the block. an overlap. Repeat. Continue to the far end of the fissure. File or grind the surface flat.
Old Ford Flat head V8 blocks were bad about cracking across the valve seat in to the adjacent cylinder. Many junked. But many “stitched”.
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot. Some things, I recall. I wonder how many I’ve forgotten!!!
I do recall reading of Juan Manuel Fangio’s early days in racing.
Mid 30’s Chevrolets in endurance contests across the Argentine Pampas. One part described an over night “pit stop” and equipment repair. A cracked head on the trusty OHV GM 6 banger. They used the “stitch” method and were ready go for the next day’s competition.
Hello everyone, has been a while but i thought i will update you on the continuing nightmare with my Daimler.
I went on with the advice of the mechanic that discovered the fissure in the block and instead of attempting the repair I bought a used engine from a breaking yard.
Problem is that the mechanic took a week longer than the guaranteed period of time to install and test the second engine so when he did discover that the unit had a pressure problem(head gasket was gone) i could not get my money back so another 1600 euros down the drain(between the engine’s price and the labour) paid to be able to retrieve my car from the shop.
Now the official Spain Jaguar dealer in Barcelona estimated a 5.000 euros price to rebuild a guaranteed engine taking parts of the two I now own plus a lot of new parts( they recommend the pistons, shirts and the valves to be new).
Since late November I am sitting and mulling about what to do next now that my confidence in Spanish Independent “Specialists” it’s gone and the price the official shop is asking is beyond my reach at the moment.
Spent too much to simply scrape it, and for now nobody was keen to pay even the insanely small 2.000 euros i priced it for.
It still has a valid MOT until December 2019, and as the things develop in Spain, with the contamination protection laws that are banning owners from using old vehicles, I am sure the historical plates i spent so much time, money and energy on will become increasingly valuable
Thoughts?
Maybe you should get in touch with Inaki - you seem to be in a similarly sad situation of poor supply in cars and mechanics …
5000 EUR is not bad as a fixed price for a rebuilt engine with warranty - make sure to use the car as much as possible during the warranty period. If you don’t feel like spending that much money, you’d have to carefully analyse the second engine: compression tests wet and dry, cylinder wear (with an endoscope from top), if possible main bearings (from underneath, with the front suspension tilted downwards).
If the results turns out fine, pay 1000 EUR to have the gasket replaced, and once under way, check the head and adjust valve lash.
Or rather, go for a vacation to the UK or Germany and take a rusted out hull with a running engine for less than 2000 EUR home and swap engines again.
With your fuel injected car you’ve reached pretty much the end of the flagstaff of XK engine development. Some say that the last engines were of worse quality even as the cast models deteriorated. XK engines have been produced though till the demise of the Daimler limousine (in 1992?). So, no, I doubt you’d be better off searching for a younger specimen of the same engine.
Younger engine types (from XJ40 cars, e.g.) can be transplanted, but it will take quite some effort and they might jeopardize your historic car plates.
I agree with Frank Mario…
If you have the possibility do it your self.
I am sure you will do a good job, invest in some tools and if you don’t know how just ask, there are many very knowledgeable people in this forum that would be happy to answer all your questions.
You can find the parts manuals here https://www.jaguarclassicparts.com/uk
and there is a wealth of info in the archives.
If I was you I would take the head out and inspect, you have nothing to loose…
The cost would be minimal and you have two engines from to choose the best parts.
And you will become a true Jag-Lover
Thank you very much for your quick and useful replies.
I will try to keep it and take your advice in learning and do more things myself, even more now that I am looking at a career change and will have more time for my own projects.
I will keep you posted.
Regards
Spain works a bit different when it comes to laws and enforcing them…
My car does not meet the new emissions requirements but as I have the Historical License plates, i am exempt of beeing tested for emmissions or signaling or lights, so as long as the car crawls(so to speak) through the test, I am good to go on the road for the next 4 years
it is a quite common and very necessary principle that goods in private possession remain useable under the legal conditions of their first marketing. There are still industrial dwellings in use with heat insulation from asbestos - as long as there is no risk of asbestos fibres escaping you can keep using them.
Similarly with cars: A car from 1965 in line with the then valid regulations can be used in 2018 without any limitation. Thus in Germany cars up to 1972 don’t have any emission control (regulatory standard then: exhaust fumes must not restrict visibility). For older cars it is possible to go without electric indicators or with only one tail light. - Many owners have resorted to more modern lighting for the sake of their own safety, of course.
The only instance of retroactive regulation in the field of motorcar I’m aware of are hazard lights. When hazard lights became compulsory in 1970, they had to be retrofitted to whatever car participation in public traffic, even to the 1886 Benz motorcar.
And, if I were to put money on the next one coming at us: it will be devices permitting self-driving cars to communicate. …
