Great story Bob,
And bottom line is - any engine overhaul - YOU MUST remove the crank plugs,
and totally clean out the inside oil galleries.
It amazes me that so many so called “engine reconditioners” do not do this
as a matter of course.
Some cranks can be so blocked that oil flow to many bearings can be totally
starved.
Roger Payne - XK140MC OTS; E-Type 4.2 S.1 OTS; DSV8.
Canberra.-----Original Message-----
From: owner-xk@jag-lovers.org [mailto:owner-xk@jag-lovers.org] On Behalf Of
Jagdad11@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 12:48 PM
To: xk@jag-lovers.org
Subject: Re: [xk] plugs in the crank
Greetings: You all recall the dire warnings in all the books and Jaguar
articles about
removing, cleaning out and re-installing the six plugs in your crank when
you have your motor work done by a local shop. I told my shop to do this,
but as is probably very common, they did not do it. Didn’t charge me for
it, just flat did not do it. I GUESS they forgot. If I had not happened
to
think about a few minutes before beginning to put in new bearings to check
clearances with plasti-gauge, I would have been very unhappy.
So, I wondered if I REALLY, REALLY needed to do it? I stuck a wire into
the various holes and blew air in. Out came little pellets of crap- some
soft, clay like stuff, some hard and crumbly. But, all gritty and
definitely not the best thing to have smeared on your brand new bearings,
polished
crank, etc. So, I started to try to remove the plugs. Got out a big allen
wrench, and it would not budge. Got a hammer, no dice. Got a BIGGER
hammer-- bingo, no movement, but broke the allen wrench, with two pieces
flying
across my shop. Fortunately not into my eye or into the side of a freshly
painted car.
Crap. So, went home and got out the dentist turbine that my good
friend/dentist gave me when he bought new ones. This is a very useful tool,
by the
way. Next time you are in the dentist, ask him about his old ones. Just
need the tool and an air source.
A bit of trial and error to find the right cutter, and I went to work
removing the little areas where the crank had been peened over the plugs.
Removed 3 peened areas for that plug, then got out my set of “allen
wrenches sticking into the end of a socket”
(which are almost never used in my shop). Since only 3/8" sockets, I got
out my 3/8" to 1/2" adapter and cranked up my impact wrench. A
short application of air at a very low setting and it came right out. Did
it with 4 more plugs, and out they came. On the 6th one, I got a little
proud of myself, and did not do a very good job of removing one of the
peened. My impact wrench was stronger than
my allen in a socket, and broke the allen wrench. Crap again, and a good
cussing to stupid ole Bob. Great idea- where did that snapped off piece
of allen wrench #1 go? A few minutes looking the area where I though I saw
it wiz off to found it. On to my grinder to square it off, punched out the
stub in the socket, another application of air turbine, and the sixth one
was out. I am sure you can do this task with an allen wrench and without
the use of the little sockets and an impact wrench, but as I described
earlier, I no longer had a functional allen wrench-- mine was in pieces!!
Now, looking into the openings- nothing! Other than the cavity from
which the plug came, I could not tell that I had accomplished anything by
removing the plug. The cavities were solidly filled up with crud. I dug
out
the crud using a small screwdriver, and it came out in big hunks. I was
not
giving my self a well-earned “atta boy”. Next I cleaned the areas out,
lots of air and solvent, pipe cleaners, etc., then put the same plugs back
in
using a couple drops of oil on each one. By grinding away the
peened areas, the plugs were totally undamaged by the allen wrench, so all
were re-usable. You can destroy them if you have better allen wrenches
that I had when I began this project. Peened in the plugs and now ready to
go.
I was totally blown away by the quantity of crap in these areas. I am
convinced that some had to be totally or significantly blocking the flow of
oil to a bearing. Now, I suppose if there is no blockage and you do not
stick a wire in the holes or blow in air, so no disturbance of the “cake”
of
steel shavings cooked into the cake, you could possibly get by without
extracting those plugs. But, I can firmly attest that this is a very bad
idea.
Make the shop do it, if you have the
ability to insist and they can prove that they actually did it. But
better yet, do it yourself and you know it got done. Everyone on this list
has
the ability to do this job themselves. You can probably get by without a
dentist’s turbine, instead using a Dremel tool or some sort of wheel or
cutter in your electric drill- Harbor Freight has all kinds of neat
gizmos.
Just do it. But, wear eye
protection- both for the grinding operations and for the flying tools.
I have some amazing photos for anyone interested.
Bob McAnelly