Know any good engine rebuilders?

Arse:
http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/images/jageng/jag_eng.jpg

Piston top:
http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/images/jageng/jag_piston_no1.jpg

Bore:
http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/images/jageng/jag_bore_no1.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the head (I was too cross) but head man
reckons it's injested something into No1 because of the damage around the
firing ring (matches damage around top of piston). I'm not so sure as
there are also traces of damage in 3 and 4 - but not as bad.

Either way it's a rebore and 6 new pistons as well as the head repairs.

I thought from the head noise one of the tappet guides had shifted (as is
their wont) but it was something else. Caused by cooking it on the Paris
Peripherique.

It still ran and idled perfectly, made it to Tolpuddle and back last
weekend, just had a noise as if a tappet had gone wildly out of clearance.

Oh well, time to save my pennies.

Anyone got a cheap runabout that they want to pass on? Pref.
estate/hatchback capable of taking a Jag engine.

 

Ouch.

http://www.vse-engines.com/

Run by an old mate of my dad, & my brother worked there for many years.
Mid Wales though, so not exactly convenient.

 

They certainly have a good reputation in Jag circles but a bit tricky to
get to with a bloody great engine and, I suspect, not cheap!

I think I'm looking at around £3.5K for this - oh well....

Resorting to my usual bangernomics I'm tempted to get it rebored, new
pistons, bearings, oil pump, seals, timing chains, head repairs and put
it back together. Probably be able to do that for £1500.

 

It might be pushing the limits of the UR a bit. And yeah, not at all
cheap, but no *good* engine rebuilders are.

Even that sounds expensive, unless you're paying someone else to do the
donkey work.

 

Bore:

Looks like a broken ring has mashed the bore then escaped upwards.

Jag sixes are usually bulletproof so it might be worth phoning around
some breakers for a used engine from a crash writeoff.

Check with a man who knows your model but ISTR the engine and gearbox
has to be dropped out from below so its a ramp job.

Where are you, there is a damn good engine man in Avonmouth who has
rebuilt a few engines for me in years gone by.

 

Could be. Although there's no damage to the crown of either piston or
head, just the firing ring (edge of piston and cylinder head chamber).

That's a thought, the breakers must be absolutely full of 3.8 engines for
40 to 50 year old S-types or Mk2s.

No it's out from the top. From the factory manual:
http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/docs/JagEngine.pdf

Sussex

 

Well, the 3.8 lump lasted for around 40mumble years with only minor changes
so there should be enough to choose from.

 

Common as muck they are:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jaguar-Engine-3-8-Litre-6-Cylinder-/330455264423
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jaguar-Mk2-3-8-Engine-/320567398546

I have a SWB Landy pickup if you need help shifting a lump , although
lifting it the 2 feet into the pickup bed could be a challenge.....

Steve

 

IIRC, the 3.8 ran from 1959 to 1968. So, not that many to choose from.

I could use a 4.2 XJ6 engine, but only one from 1968-1975 but they look
very different.

 

I'm sure that one isn't an XK engine. Compare it to mine:
http://www.sweller.dynalias.org/images/jageng/jag_eng.jpg

That looks interesting - it maybe worth a punt for a couple of hundred.
I've emailed him and asked if he'll hold onto it (I go away for two weeks
on Monday) and what's the engine number. We shall see.

Are you anywhere near the interesting one (Sandhurst, Berks)?

 

14 miles - let me know how it goes.....

 

JackH is looking after my E280 estate that's up for sale. Ping me an
email and maybe we can sort out something.

 

That's the same myth as the Gixer engine one, I'm afraid. I've seen
more than a few killed when put under stress.

No /has to/ at all, not with cars of that age.

Many moons ago, a couple of us wanted a Triumph 2000 engine and
overdrive gearbox out in quick time, and we decided the best way would
be to have the unit out in one(1). We hired a wheeled wind-up (the
hydraulic luxury one was three quid more) engine crane from HSS, got
the car on ramps (and actually thought to check the lift on the crane,
too) and I set to on my back, unscrewing the gearbox end.

Propshaft disconnected, gearbox crossmember removed, gearlever console
and handbrake removed, wiring dangling - all good at my end. My mate
had whipped the rad out and disconnected fuel line, exhaust and engine
wiring, so we had the nuts off the engine mounts and brought up the
crane. A bit of stroppage and it all looked good. Heavy old lumps
though, especially with the 'box attached and the rather spindly crane
looked pretty weedy then, I can tell you.

We came close to unsticking when the lump came up (after we'd been
taking turns cranking the crane up to max lift) when the gearbox caught
on the bulkhead and we started, unknowingly, to lift the car. The end
of the crane "jib" took on a Concordski profile and it looked a bit
sadder, like a down-in-the-mouth Hammerite Blue heron with a soft-on.
We'd just changed the 1/2" drive 'speedbrace' for a ratchet as turning
it was getting tough and we were getting blisters (even on our
wanking-hardened palms) when we realised that we'd just exceeded the
SWL of the crane by about a ton and had to back it off.

I got up on the wing and then down onto the chassis leg and wiggled the
thing free, and my mate announced it had got much easier as he joyfully
ratcheted the jib beyond horizontal. However, the engine remained
largely horizontal due to the way we'd suspended it (we'd started off
at a bit of an angle, as desired, but it had flattened out once the
weight of the gearbox came on) and the gearbox was now obviously going
to catch like a bastard.

Not only that, but the crane was now at full lift, it was getting close
to teatime and rain had already started falling ... and there was no
way that the well of the sump was going to clear the bonnet slam panel
(well, it would be the slam panel but the T2000 had a front-hinged
bonnet, so it would be the bonnet-hinge panel ... but you know what I
mean, eh?) so I edged up on the front wings, straddled the engine and
planted my feet where the bonnet hinges used to be. Instructing my
mate to take the strain and edge the crane + engine backwards, I bent
my knees, took a good grip and by straightening my legs lifted the
engine up and forwards - and the sump came clear of the front panel
just as I started to see sparks and pinkness.

It was at this point, as they say, that things started to happen quite
quickly.

The engine jammed on what we assumed at the pub post-mortem was the
sump drain plug on the slam panel. My mate felt it catch, so he braced
off the front of the car and shoved the crane backwards, as I gave
another convulsive heave.

Every action, as they say, has an equal and opposite reaction. So it
was in this case. I could feel things going my way, at last. Well,
they were going some way, because I could feel movement - and not just
in the bowel or hernia department for a change.

Remember back up there ^^^ when I popped the gear lever out ... and the
console and the handbrake ... well, that was about to come home to
roost. As well as having its engine dangling from the weediest engine
crane in the world, the car was up in the air at the front courtesy of
Halfords cheapest ramps, made not from proper manly angle iron, but
lightweight pressed tin of the smooth and girly variety.

The tree next to me moved slowly past the front of the car, see. Only
it wasn't the tree that was moving, was it? As we'd heaved
simultaneously, we'd dislodged the car from its inertia and it was
going back along the flat top of the little ramps. This was good in a
way, as the engine was coming out: one more little lift and the sump
was clear, then a bang as the bellhousing hit ... and then I was
feeding it as fast as ever I could, between my legs as the bolt
protruding from the top of the rocker box caught me in the nuts and
ripped a chunk out of the crotch of my second-best overalls.

Discretion being the better part of a squashed scrotum, I stepped back
along the inner wings as the car rolled back a bit further, then hoist
height became irrelevant as the front of the car dropped as the ramped
bit of the ramps came into play and the tree retreated ever more
quickly. I was feeding gearbox hand-over-hand by then, but it didn't
matter any more as the car had taken to its wheels and the transmission
was in free space - although there was a small piece of me that was
forever Triumph, as the gearchange extension had managed to catch the
back of my nuts a lovetap on the way through.

The car stopped when it hit another tree, so I relaxed, comfortably,
reclining gracefully against the windscreen, hands and mind full of
tapped nuts and pinged scrotum. "I'm going home for tea now", I
squeaked through the mists of pain. "You're bloody well not" replied
my mate (him with the easy end of the job) "you can't leave me here
with a bloody great engine and box dangling like this. What if my Dad
sees me?"

So I relented and shuffled about a bit and we dropped the lump into the
boot of his roadworthy T2000 and then I went home for tea - and then he
took me to the pub and assuaged the pain in the traditional manner.

So - there's no such thing as an engine in a car of that era that won't
come out through the top: most of them were designed to then, and the
rest just take a bit of persuasion.


1. It was possible, even advisable with T2000s, considering the weight
and bulk of that old six-pot with its dirty great gearbox and the
sainted Laycock de Normanville's overdrive on the tail of it to have
the transmission out with the front suspension and lift the body off,
but we didn't have the yoofpower to lift the body, and we needed the
car to still look like a car and be pushable aboutable for the time
being.

 

My definition of cheap and yours may differ. Are we looking at around
£500?

 

Maybe a little more, I need to check back with him if there have been
any nibbles so far...

Drop me an email at timo <at> unix-consult dot com and we can discuss.

 

[snip tale of comedy]

Reminds me of trying to extract the motor from a Mk2 inside the garage
with a chain block wrapped onto a rafter in the garage roof.
Guess what happened next......

 

You had a bang on the head and invented the flux capacitor?

 

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