Oil delivery to camshaft

How much oil should I see transferred to the camshaft from the sump when cranking the engine with the solenoid button and, should I see pressure on the gauge? With plugs removed, I pressed the Solenoid button for 5 seconds, released for 5 seconds, pressed again for 5 seconds – 10 solenoid button activations total. I then installed the plugs and repeated the above about 5 times. I looked in the oil fill hole when cranking the engine but, did not see any oil moving around. The sump has 6 quarts of 10W40 and a pint of Marvel Mystery Oil.

Are ten 5 second engine solenoid activations enough to see some oil activity? How do I determine the condition of the oil delivery system?

I was told the engine had been rebuilt by a reputable shop when I purchased my “basket case” ’56 Mk 1, about 15 years ago. I assume everything was done correctly. The sump did not have oil in it until I installed the round cover plate at the bottom of the sump a few months ago.

Thanks in advance for guidance on this.

If you just want to know if the oil pump is pumping, take off the oil pressure gauge hose connection at the filter head, then crank it a bit. You should see something come out of there. Or you can remove one of the brass oil gallery plugs in the right hand side of the block down near the sump level.
Do not assume that an unknown “reputable shop” would do everything correctly, especially if they left the cover plate off, didn’t finish the job.

I just went thru all this…answer is no, that is not enough time

I had primed my engine galleries and filter with oil, and have fitted a digital gauge in galleries and idiot light.

Upon cranking, after ~40secs, digital gauge read 4psi, shortly after Idiot light extiguish,
much more than 40secs crank still no oil apparent under cam covers.

decided to start it rather than undo rear cam oil feed pipe (given above)

Once the engine fired, took a few seconds for OP to jump up to 30+psi on digigauge,
hopped out and checked under camcover, and saw oil starting to flow

I have previously read that XK cam bearings are somewhat tolerant to low OP

Not sure how good it is , or how affective , but I always add slick 50 to a engine , for that bit of protection on low oil pressure start up !

Thanks for the suggestions. This is what I did: removed the plugs and cranked engine for a longer time - 30 seconds - 2 times. No oil at cams.

Then, removed the oil pressure gauge hose at the filter housing - cranked engine for 30 seconds - 2 times. No oil.

Then, removed the brass oil gallery plug - cranked engine for 30 seconds - 2 times. No oil.

Should I crank engine longer than 30 seconds? What should I do next? Thanks.

At this point I would start to be concerned. Is the distributor rotor turning? I would give a squirt of oil in each cylinder and then prime the pump by pressurizing the oil gallery as much as you can. That could be as complex as adapting a weed sprayer to the oil gallery hole where the plug was or simply wedging a hose in the hole, putting a funnel in the other end of the hose and pouring in as much oil as possible. Back when I rebuilt engines I would coat the bearings with Vaseline to protect the surfaces until the oil started flowing. I would also put plenty of Vaseline in the oil pump so it would seal better and be able to pump air to draw the oil up into it. Priming the pump with oil as I described above will hopefully have a similar effect.

The distributor rotor is turning.

I have been reading JL postings regarding priming through the oil gallery with a adapted, oil filled, pressurized weed sprayer. I’ll try that next.

Would this problem occur if the wrong gasket was used between the block and the Filter Head Assembly?

6 quarts of oil?!..why not the required ~14? We are talking a standard 3.4L sump here, right? My fresh rebuild generates about 25 psi within 45-60 seconds of cranking…but that is at a slow cranking speed because the plugs are installed…I’m sure I got pressure within 15 seconds with no plugs and a strong battery previously. Pressure gauge hooked up to the filter housing thru a short piece of hose.

I was/would be concerned about “unprimed oil pump” so added 1litre thru gallery plug and 2litre thru OP sender hole (to fill filter cannister) using a cheap pressure sprayer…my hope was this would backfill oil pump

oil MUST at least flow out gallery hole when cranking before start

as the oil pickup tube dips into a deep well, should pickup oil even if low, but i too would add the specified amount…not sure on 6 quarts, but would that even show on bottom of dipstick?

If you still have no pressure , you could take the filter housing off , and give it a go , if there is no oil pumping out , you need to dig deeper , take the sump off ,
May sound like a silly question :slight_smile:
Years ago a friend had a starter problem , so they put a new starter motor on it , car would not start !!
Took them a long time but they found the starter motor was the wrong polarity , it was turning the engine over the wrong direction , only a thought !!

2.4L sump

6 quarts oil plus 1 pint MMO shows full sump on dipstick. I could probably add another quart to give 15 pints total.

If I had 14 quarts that would be 28 pints. That would be over capacity by 13 pints per the service manual, page B.16

If the starter was spinning in the wrong direction would the distributor spin clockwise? Just checked - distributor is spinning counter clockwise.

Wrong filter head gasket? Yes, that might be it if the pump was pumping just into the filter head and the oil was ALL being dumped right back into the sump from there, essentially blocked from going into the oil gallery.

When I did the “gauge hose removed” test on my XK120 I had oil squirting out in about 5 seconds.

Looking in the 2.4 Litre Mark 1 parts catalogue, I see they had three different oil filter arrangements, and two of them have a blanking plate in between the block and filter head with two gaskets, all depending on engine serial number.

So at this point, you’d better look over these pictures in the parts catalogue, or give us your engine number and see if we can figure out what you are supposed to have. It may be that some DPO has mixed and matched wrong stuff together.

If the starter was turning in the wrong direction I doubt the bendix spring drive would engage. I always used normal starters on my Jaguars when I changed from pos to neg ground with alternator conversions. There are a lot of types of oil filter housings and many more gaskets. Work that out logically.

My Mk 1 has the "3rd type” of oil cleaner installed (Plate BC, page 17 in parts book.) It is designated for engines BC2256 – BC9999. The number of my block is BC 1986. The parts book calls for the “2nd type” of oil cleaner (Plate AC, page 15) to be used for engine BC1001 to BC2225.

Could the wrong filter housing be the cause of my oil flow problem? Thanks

Yes, this could be the problem if you have the wrong blanking plate in there or it is missing. The AC type uses two identical gaskets, where the BC type has a different blanking plate and uses two different gaskets. The holes in the two blanking plates seem to be in different places.
There is only one block part number. You should have one of the two steel sumps, which are interchangeable. Not the aluminum one, which goes with the Plate C type oil filter assy.
In which case either the Plate AC or the BC type will work if all the parts are consistent.
Better take off the filter head and check the gaskets and the blanking plate to see if the flow passages line up correctly. Post pictures here.
While you have it off, crank the engine and see if you get oil gushing out one of the holes in the block. IIRC it should be the lower rear hole. That will tell you that at least the pump is working.
It is good that you checked for this before firing it up.

“Took them a long time but they found the starter motor was the wrong polarity , it was turning the engine over the wrong direction , only a thought !!”

Starters are usually series-wound and turn the same way regardless of polarity. Something is badly wrong if you are not getting oil at the gallery.
Pete

The friends car was not a Jaguar , but a old Triumph 1500 !

found that out the same day I found a dead flat battery CAN be recharged with the wrong polarity

not a good learning experience though as my alternator got smoked

I removed the oil filter housing and closer inspection revealed I have the correct housing unit for my engine. (2nd type, plate AC.) Not sure if the gaskets or blanking plate is correct. Every passageway at the block is completely dry; oil filter is dry and unused. The gaskets between the block/blanking plate and blanking plate/housing are paper thin – much thinner than the extra, unused oil housing gaskets I received from the previous owner. The installed gaskets have a faint outline of blue gasket material. I cranked the engine after housing removal - no oil appeared. Since the filter housing is removed, should I prime the block through one of the holes available? Thanks. Attached are a few photos.

Housing

Gasket between housing and blanking plate

Blanking Plate

Gasket between blanking plate and engine block

Engine block

Can I use these gaskets? - not exactly the same.