I’m about to send out my block to be rebuilt. I disassembled it and I’ve had the block cleaned , magna fluxed and bores measured. It all looks good for a rebuild with one concern. The bore liners, which I believe to be original, look to be 20 thousands below the deck on each cylinder. Has anyone ever seen this? Is this normal or have they dropped? What are the possible corrections if needed?

 

Any photos ?
You need to check for cracking between the bores of the block material. If there are cracks, the block is not scrap, but needs lipped liners fitted. This involves machining out the old liners, machining space around each bore to take the lip, prssing in the lipped liners, followed, finally, by a reface of the block deck with the timing cover bolted on.
This YouTube video shows the process: -
And guess what, the block they're working on is from an E-type !

 

Thanks for the feed back. There do not appear to be any cracks but it will get double checked. Attached is a picture. I did get a response from another owner that had the same issue on his 70 engine when he rebuilt his engine. They decided it probably came form the factory like that and just used a thick head gasket. It been 3 years and he has about 3000 miles on it with no problem so far. I'm thinking shaving off .002 from the head is pretty risky however maybe taking .0005 or .001 and sticking with a thick gasket might do the trick. I'm going to consult a couple long time Jag engine builders if they have encounter this issue before and how they resolved it. Of course new liners would be the optimum but far more costly solution. Great video!

 

If every liner is dropped by the same amount, it does indeed suggest it came from the factory like that, but it is certainly unusual. Normally the liners would be pressed in, then the block faced off so everything is level. The only alternative I can think of is the liners have been replaced. However, do check very carefully for cracks at the very thin section between the bores.
I suppose the engine has got from 1970 to today 2023, so hasn't done badly !

Jaguar machine shop technology was pretty primitive. Jaguar had no machine shop at all until after WW2, all the mechanical stuff was bought in, with the engines made by the Standard Motor Company. The tooling and machine tools came from Standard Motors in the late 40s when their CEO, John Black decided he didn't want to supply Jaguar anymore, so Jaguar bought the tooling. It was then used by Jaguar for decades.

 

I agree however, even if they were replaced ,I would think the rebuild procedure would be the same.. press in the new cylinders then reface the deck flat. Its kind of a mystery, how ever they were installed, it was possible to get them all what appears to be exactly the same distance below the deck. Note that the manga flux investigation did not show any cracks but I will definitely recheck check for cracks again between the cylinders as shown in this video.

 

Ya Britain was never one of the most advanced manufacturers after coming out of a lot of hard times .. .. especially if you ever had the opportunity to visit Morgan..and I forget the numbers but in the 70's MG made like 10,000 cars with 30,000 workers and Olds at its peak made about 1M Cutlasses with 1,000 workers a year. ... Thankfully those days are gone.

 

So now that it has been determined that re-sleeving the block with top hat liners is the better choice of safety over valor / chance and cost, is it reasonable to think that the old pistons can be rebuilt and reused?