If you scroll down to the picture of the gauge panel, that’s where this thread actually starts. For the record, I did not build this engine nor paint the car as shown. I bought this “failed restoration project” from my elderly aunt in 2003. She had the work done on the car between 1990 and 1995 when in frustration and a great deal of money down the drain, she demanded the car be returned to her. What was driven into a shop in Salt Lake City came out in pieces on a trailer. After languishing for 8 years in her garage in Scottsdale, I bought it. The car’s best quality is that it is rust free and it has “good bones”. But everything I have touched - now including the engine - has had to been completely redone. So as to not have to re-post the background of why the engine was pulled, here is a link to the start of this latest debacle.
What did you do to your E-Type today? (Part 2) - #449 by REBUILD61OTS My posts in that thread are directly below:
Not today, but on Jan 10, 2024. The restart after sitting for two years while I rebuilt the IRS.
good news and bad news. The good news is the engine started right up! And I drove it down my formidable driveway - about 35 deg steep with two switchbacks. The trany shifted great through 3rd gear. Trany is a 1965 all-synchro. And the rear end felt good as did the brakes…all the first time being used. But that wisp of vapor coming from the breather tube was not good news. There was a leak of water into the engine sump. Bummer.
Jan 10, 2024 Start Up and Walk Around
And proof of the leak - Oil the color of coffee with cream!
Wiggles
Enough evidence?
The driveway is 750 feet long. And not Mrs. Orcutt’s type as you cannot do 200mph on my drive!!
I have videos from 2 years ago that show no vapor at the blow-by pipe. There was no oil water mix before starting the engine. So, something failed. I’ll start the search today. Gee I hate putting it back up on jack stands after just one week on its tires. Fun fun fun 'til her daddy took the T-bird away…
Right … Merde indeed! Sounds like sound advice.
Remember, no oil nor water leaks on the floor or outside the engine. Oil was fine before this start. I didn’t check the antifreeze assuming it had not changed. I had planned to change the oil, filter and antifreeze once I ran the engine briefly. I did watch the temp gauge to see it came up and stabilized and it did. Pic of engine gauges just before climbing my driveway. The fan never came on and I didn’t expect it to.
So, there we go. From having first been started after 30 years in August, 2021 and then sitting for 2 years while I rebuilt the IRS, it was started and driven on January 10, 2024 - a moment of excitement immediately followed by dismay and a decision to pull first the head and then the engine. The engine is at Dick Maury’s Shop in Snellville, GA where the engine and gearbox (an early all-synchro transplant) will be built like they should have in 1990. In retrospect, I should have started with this back in 2003!
I have never pulled a Jaguar engine so this was a new experience for me. I decided to pull the engine out the bottom after much consideration. More about that in a bit. The deciding factor was that the Reaction Tie Plate has to be removed regardless of whether the engine/gearbox come out the top or the bottom. In order to remove the Tie Plate there are two options: 1) release the torsion on the Torsion Bars so the Tie Plate bolts can be removed, or 2) pin the Torsion Bars in place so the bolts can be removed. Both methods are perfectly viable. I chose to release the tension which requires separating the Front Upper Ball Joint. I had replaced those ball joints recently so I knew they would come apart easily.
I really did not want to pull the engine; I was still under the impression, wishfully, that the engine had been rebuilt. After all, my aunt had paid to have it done. So my first approach was to find the leak. It didn’t take long to determine water was getting into the oil via the #5 cylinder (2nd from the front).
Water in the Hole - here’s proof (hover over pics for description).
To determine where the water was going was easy. I simply pulled the sparkplugs and saw the water in #5. Water sucked into a cylinder will be pumped into the crankcase immediately and that isn’t good because it washes all the oil off the cylinder walls and that is hard on the rings. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th pics were made with an endoscope. The 3rd and 4th pics were made after I pumped the water out, applied about 15 psi pressure to the radiator and watched the water accumulate in #5. All well and good, but I was hoping to see where it was coming from. I couldn’t, I could only note that it came from “above”. That is the gasket or a crack in the head or ??. I’m told it is possible to see water spraying but I could only see it coming down the cylinder wall. My borescope is a cheap one. This however was sufficient reason to pull the head. But first I checked the intake manifold and it was dry as were the exhaust ports.
I removed the carbs intact with their manifold.
Set the Engine to Top Dead Center.
Secure the Cam Gears after cutting the safety wire and removing the 4 Bolts.
There’s a lot to remove to get the head ready to take off. It’s just work but there’s quite a bit to do. I use an Oberg Tilt Lift attached to my cherry picker and sometimes I attach a leveling strap as in the case with the head removal.
We know now that somewhere in the process I bent a valve. The valves will stick down below head’s surface; perhaps I hit one with the wood block I used to help adjust the ratchet strap?
At this point in the process I was anxious to get the head to Dick. I could not see anything wrong with the head that would indicate where the leak actually came from. While I removed the head gasket, I had not yet cleaned the top of the block. I did not it was heavily coated with Copper Seal. Note how the #5 cylinder looks like it has been steamed cleaned…evidence of water getting in the cylinder while the engine was running. So far, I only knew the water got into #5 but I did not know how or from where.
It is an all day trip for me to Atlanta and back and then I have to spend some time with my better half, so a couple of days passed before I cleaned the top of the block. Meanwhile Dick is telling me the head looks pretty good and admonishing me to find the source of the leak. (He’s a tough mentor! 
)
I’m going to post this now and add to it later. Yet to come: finding the source of the leak, pulling the engine.
