Good day to you Jaguar lovers. I have recently acquired a “lost” engine, one of the original 2 litre XK100 DOHC four cylinder ones, this one completely unknown to the JDHT, so now there seem to be five engines and not four. One in Australia, one in England, two at the JDHT - and mine… The block carries, unusually it seems, an XK engine number and the foundry stamp is SM and the date 11/46. I am gathering as much information on this as I can, and I am sure that there are people here who can help.As a new member, I understand the restrictions placed upon me, and for the moment perhaps one is that I can’t seem to find a way of posting photos.Perhaps later, but in the meantime please post away. Looking forward to your input.
2 Likes
Very interesting. I cannot help you with any information but if you send a reply to every reply you get you will soon be at the trust level where you can post pictures. Perhaps a bit of info on how you came to find this engine etc. In each reply. Also, welcome to the forum!
Just one of those crazy things, as the song goes. Sitting at home, and get a call from an old friend who I hadn’t seen for a few years. Turned out he is selling his Jaguars and going prewar, and has bought a Bugatti type 44. He had a spare engine; did I want to buy it and how much? Not really I didn’t; I mean both my Jaguars have engines in fine fettle, but then he mentioned “four cylinder”. To cut a long story short I have bought it and it is sitting on its little rolling stand in the lounge. A most interesting engine it is too. I have spent two weeks researching and have the complete time line, so know where it went from the factory right down the line until it reached me. So that, in a nutshell, is the basic story.
Nice. Is it just a bare block and head or is in full dress?
Terry Larson has one, also.
Original stovepipe carbs with attached AED, starter with built in solenoid, and a C39 dynamo.
Don’t think so. There is one in Perth though, I understand, and I have a photo of it when it was in the Freemantle museum
I’ve seen it. It exists.
Ah, Terry Larson’s one. I believe that one was the old Walter Hill engine I saw in 1992. Unfortunately it is a cut and shut six cylinder one the same as the Minis used back in the day. From memory, cylinders 3 & 4 were cut out. I’ve been to tTerry’s place at Mesa as well.
Any plans to start and run the engine?
If I could post some photos you would see that this is an engine designed purely for bench-testing Geoff. The sump is tiny and I would need to run an external oil feed, it has no oil filter, there are seven water inlets and outlets to enable temperature testing, and in any case, on taking off the cam cover the cams have surface rust and goodness knows what it is like inside.It’s seized solid anyway, and at the moment I have oil sitting in the plug wells for a month or two and then I’ll try and get a plug out and try and measure the bore and stroke. from everything I have learned from Bill Heynes notes and those of Walter Hassan, it has to be about the first XK block. I am in correspondence with Richard Hassan and he is coming to Le Mans in September for the race and has asked to come and see it. what more can one ask for? He must be about the last person alive who was there at the time.
2 Likes
I just reviewed the prerequisites to reaching trust level 1 which enables you to post pictures. Turns out I was incorrect on how easily you can reach that level. I have enclosed the requirements for you.
Well, looks as if it’ll take some time. Having written many articles for Jaguar magazines over the years, owned a number of Jaguars and built the Kettle C-type, I have less to contribute these days since retiring. I still have my 1961 roadster and a Lynx XKSS. Never mind though.
Bienvenue Tony. I have photos (not on this phone) of the XK100 head casting that Neville Swales has/had. From memory there were lots of openings in odd places, which sounds a bit like yours. He is busy with his XJ13 and Tera™ quad cam V12 projects these days, so may have little use for it?
Pete
1 Like
That woulda been such a cool lil 4-banger, in a real car!
Nice photo. Thank you for that. I now have photos of all five engines, and am awaiting more detailed ones…The only John Burton I know is my friend of over 30 years and he is a director of the JDC, Perhaps you would thank this John Burton for the photo on my behalf?
If it had been around mid 50s might have made the MGA Twin Cam a far better car but Jaguar and MG weren’t talking then.
1 Like
Strange reply Tony, you’re stating that the engine shown is not the engine in your possession ! It seems to be sitting on a trolley as described.