XK engine with H8 Sandcast SU listed by Welsh

Here is one for you H8 Sandcast SU experts to dissect. Welsh Enterprises is offering an XK engine for sale, G18XX-8S, which they say has been in storage since 1957. (See link below). The photos of the head and block numbers show a blank where the XX numbers should be, but it looks like that area may have been Photoshopped to obscure the numbers. The H8s (or at least one of them) has the date code L10 which Roger Payne has translated as October 1954. This matches the date on the starter. There are no closeups of the distributor, but it doesnā€™t look like there is a vacuum advance which would be correct for the H8 specification. I could not see if the Otter switch plate was blank or not. The rare ignition coil mount is missing. This is an 8:1 CR car so not one of the rare 9:1 units, but could it be an original factory H8 installation? Any idea what car this came out of?

Jaguar 140 MC with Sand Cast Carbs - USED - G18XX-8S Jaguar Parts and Accessories from Welsh Enterprises

Most interesting offer from Welsh ā€¦
Apart from obvious spark plug lead conduit, and XK120 Generator, this certainly looks most probably one of the very first factory original ā€˜productionā€™ C-type heads and ā€˜productionā€™ H8 carburetters set ups ā€¦
I would really like to see some more detail to be 100% sureā€¦
Be nice to see what date code the front H8 is - the rear one is pictured as being L10ā€¦
It would be nice to see whether both H8 bodies are earlier 5001 casting or later AUC6000 castingā€¦
Be nice to see a photo of underside of both H8sā€¦ there are variations/cluesā€¦
I suspect/sure that all will check out OK, but I DO like 100% confirmationā€¦

Similarly the Headā€¦ OK G18xx-8S is enough, if not annoying ā€˜needingā€™ to block out the last two numbers.
I would really like to see the CASTING SEQUENCE NUMBER, as cast in on the underside/overhanging part of the Head.
The AV504 HEAD SEQUENCE NUMBER is consistent with being one of the very first ā€˜productionā€™ C-type Heads C7707/C3, and this the G18xx8S Engine Numberā€¦

The main thing that I donā€™t like is that each H8 only has one Insulator Block and two Gaskets, rather than the factory supplied H8 arrangement with two blocks and three Gaskets per H8 carburetter, but then the top down shot of the H8 pair shows the top studs excessively protruding which is a good sigh that it does have the eight longer carburetter studs as factory supplied with H8s with their original two blocks/3 gaskets; so I would guess simply a past removing H8s and not refitting two blocks/3 gasketsā€¦

So overall - if I had to place a wager on table, I would play the extremely long odds and say this was a factory supplied original H8 set upā€¦

Be nice to see Distributor and Coil, but no surprises, given the high-tension-leads and conduit arrangement, and wonder why original XK140 Generator been replaced with XK120 oneā€¦ ???

But nice - I think I could find a home for it, if not the likely expected ā€˜asking priceā€™ or is it a case of Dutch Auctionsā€¦

Roger

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Engine number appears to be G1809-8S should have full car details shortly for something been out of a car since 1957 red spark leads ?

Obviously, the original owner went custom with the spark plug conduit and the leads. Does anyone know the origin of the conduit? It appears to be fabricated to fit the XK engine specifically. I agree with Roger that the insulators are wrong, but the true tell tale is the longer manifold bolts which are correct.

It would be interesting to know about the original car. From the engine mounts, it looks like the car might have been red. The vacuum connection to the intake manifold is plugged, so the car was either not an M or the windshield washer was disabled.

This engine raises some interesting issues about the fixation with matching number cars. If this is truly a factory installed H8 engine, then it is extremely rare, rarer than any car it might be put into. Yet, if you value matching numbers above else, then a car would become less valuable if this engine were installed. That makes little sense to me. You could just rebuild the engine as a museum piece a la Jay Leno, but it would be nice to see it installed in a car similar to its original. Hopefully, Terryā€™s research comes up with more information.

I wonder what the oval bosses cast into the exhaust manifolds are for?
Or are these commonly seen, and I just havenā€™t noticed such a thing before ?

Gary,

Itā€™s the manufacturers logo: QUALCAST in an oval. Of course known for their lawn mowers but they also had their own foundries. The logo is ā€œup side downā€ on your photo.

Bob K.

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Thank you Bob, for the interesting information.

Iā€™ve got that same type of metal conduit on my '54 120. Donā€™t know how it got there, but it does get attention from Jag aficionados.