Hi guys/gals, we just bought a 1962 MK2 2 owner car the family we got from bought it 1970 so we have a real good history on it. We've been looking at buying an MK2 for about 8 months and it was tough to find a good one in our price range (well at least we think we bought a good one time will tell) Anyway I'm sure i'll be on the forum quite bit figuring out the car. I was wondering about the 3.8 motors a lot of the cars we looked at had rebuilt motors and they were getting rebuilds at low mileage do these motors need rebuilds after 60K ? About 4-5 of the ones we looked at were rebuilt with less than 60K on the clock. The one we bought had a complete rebuild at 54k from the crank up all new. Looking forward to the adventure of owning a real classic !
Lou

 

Welcome aboard, Lou. Good having you with us

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Lou, welcome to the forum, and congratulations on your new acquisition.

The XK engine is pretty bombproof, and if maintained is good for many thousands of miles, however overheating if not maintained can be a problem as you will discover when reading this forum.

I suspect a lot of the rebuilt engines you have noticed will be from cars that have sat around for years and have had problems associated with simple lack of use and maintenance, or overheating has blown gaskets etc. Incorrect or little/no antifreeze wreaks havoc with the waterways especially if they are left for a long time.

Your car is 55 years old, so if it had a rebuild at 54K, it has either done 1K a year or has been dormant for a fair period in it's life, when was the engine rebuilt, and do you have any paperwork to tell you what they did exactly ?

I have just rebuilt my engine which was at 90K but it had stood in a barn from 2001 to 2016 and was seized. When I stripped it it had signs of wear on the bearings, but not so far that they would have been an issue, in fact the bearings on the cam were the worst, but I would suspect that was due to lack of oil at some point due to oil pump or poor maintenance.

My decision to completely rebuild it was due to the fact that the waterways were corroded / blocked due to lack of use/maintenance, and once I had stripped it, it was going to get rebuilt as I don't want to do it again for a long time.

 

Hi Tilley, makes sense about lack of use which now has me a bit concerned as the motor was rebuilt at 54K, 10 years ago and has been driven only 2K since rebuild. It was a complete rebuild from crank up and apparently the block had to be replaced. I have all the paperwork from rebuild. The guy who had all the work done got sick shortly after and the car sat for long periods of time. He wouldn't let go of it kept it till the end He loved that car. I bought it from his Daughter who had no interest in it. I was thinking the rebuilt motor is big plus but maybe not ? I guess time will tell. The car is being shipped to us and we should have it late next week. The automatic transmission was also rebuilt when the motor was. I'm planning on draining/replacing all fluids when I get it and go from there.
Thanks

 

Welcome Lou! I can only echo TilleyJon's comments. The 3.8 in mine was a poor attempt by the previous owner to stop smoke with rings. Knocked after he was done. I never gave it a second thought, pulled it like a bad tooth, then sold the entire drive train.
I'm headed down a different road with mine.
Enjoy your trip.

 

Lou,

If the engine has been sat for a long time, you will need to carefully recommission it, do you know if it has been started recently (hopefully not if it has been sat for a while)

It could be absolutely great, depending on the antifreeze that was in it (called coolant these days) this will protect the aluminium from corrosion mostly, condensation in the bores can cause surface rust, and the rings can stick to the pistons.

Ideally get the plugs out and use a boroscope (camera with a thin flexi head) to have a look at the bores to see if there is any corrosion at all, if there is use some running in oil from an oil can and squirt some into the bores you could use a thicker more viscous oil if you haven't got any running in oil.
Allow it to sit overnight and then look to see if there is any oil left in the cylinders (there probably wont be much or even any as it should be able to find it's way slowly past the splits in the rings, if the engine has enough corrosion this may seal the pistons to the bores )

Put a little more oil in and turn the engine by hand about 1/4 of a turn, this will expose more bore on 2 cylinders and less on the other 2, repeat the same procedure and another 1/4 turn ( you will only need about 1 squirt of oil, you just need to make sure the bores are well lubricated when you are turning the engine as you want to avoid any corrosion scoring the bores)

If someone has already started the engine then the above procedure is irrelevant as any scoring will have already taken place.

Then go through the usual flushing of the radiator, if the water is filthy the I would pop the core plugs out and look inside the block, you will soon know if you have an issue there. Change all fluids as you have said, check brake lines and other rubber parts and flush the fuel lines etc.

This is my opinion, there may be other better opinions out there too.

Hopefully most of this will not be necessary other than fluid change etc.

There must have been quite an issue for the block to go, what other parts were replaced ?

Pictures please when it arrives.

 

Thanks for the tip on getting her run in I would have never thought of that.
From what I can tell reading the paperwork is aprx 4k spent on parts and 8k on labor it looks like new bearings, pistons and rings, cam and some other misc. parts all other major components seem to be rebuilt it says the block was a used XJ6 block. Going through the paperwork I found a receipt from 2 months ago the owner took the car in to get it ready to sell and they did a fair amount of work to it, replacing brake lines, fuel pump,went through the carbs doing minor rebuild, plugs, oil, ignition module ? (it must have elec. ignition kit in there) they pulled the fuel tank cleaned it and sealed it. Well at least I won't have to mess with running in procedure hopefully no damage was done when the got it running. I will defiantly post up some pics when it gets here. I'm finding out that shipping a car is as much trouble as finding a good one to buy and not near as much fun !
Thanks
Lou

 

That's cool Lou, looks like you can forget recommissioning, sounds like she's good to go, what fun, can't wait to see pics

 

Hopefully not the 2.8 litre XJ6 block!

 

Besides car being real slow, how would know if you have a 2.8 or 3.8 motor? The car was advertised as a 3.8L.

 

Loubrava,


Are you in Sonoma, CA? If so check out the West Coast forum here on Jaguar Forums as there is an informal group doing a few Jaguar car drives in the Bay Area California that might enjoy. The group is all about driving these Jaguars through some scenic mountain roads and ending somewhere for lunch or picnic....

 

I'll do that, I'm in Sonoma sounds like fun & networking with other Jag owners I'm sure will have it's benifits.
Thanks

 

Check the side of the block (inlet side). Capacity should be embossed on the crankcase casting, towards the front of the motor. Hopefully it will say "4.2 Litre". As far as I know, there's no such thing as a 3.8 liter XJ6 motor........

 

First prototype XJ6 and a first few that hit the Euro market had 3.8L, the Jaguar upped the production of the 4.2L. Money wise, get rid of excess first, Lyons specialty.

 

Finally arrived !! In great shape and it has a 3.8L block in it I was really sweating it after the post about the XJ6 blocks not being 3.8L I guess the paperwork from rebuild was wrong ?? Anyway we took it out today and ran it hard these things go pretty good ! Now the shopping begins prob spend about 2-3K on cosmetic stuff
and about 2k for some mech. things.

 

Another pic or 2

 

Super clean! You did it right - buy a driver! Enjoy.

 

Post up a pic of the block & let our resident Jagsperts have their say on which block you've got.

 

Looks great well done, more pics when you get time please

 

Cant get a good pic of the block but on intake side theres big "3.8 LITER" letters cast into it so I'm pretty sure it's a 3.8.
Lou