Hi!
History: 1964 E-type 3.8 OTS; dad bought it 1975; gave to me 1980; 1985 after a great 200 mile day trip put it in garage and just never got back to it. Stupid me. Now trying to resurrect it to see if it starts/drives. Am going slow waking it back up. I know I will seek a lot of advice and so thank everyone in advance for any help/advice/tips/knowledge you might provide.

Is a numbers matching car; has 76K miles; was repainted before we got it, not sure why; mechanical looks mostly complete but some things seem odd here and there, like before we got it interior and top were cheaply redone, console not original, still discovering things after so many years of not paying attention to it. I am pretty sure it was not crashed.

Initial job is to hand crank engine to see if it turns. Marvel oil in the plug holes. Pulled D side cam cover to inspect and Marvel tappets/valves/cams/etc.

Question 1: the head is/was painted red. In my searches so far folks say C type heads were red, and mine should be gold? Any ideas on correct color? Or would this mean maybe someone did head work on it and painted it wrong color? I've attached some photos that include head number.

Question 2: Speaking of possible head work: Pulled Driver/exhaust side cam cover and it looks clean so far. BUT, in the 3rd tappet over from front of car, it looks like there is some black epoxy(?) around the outside of the tappet running from 10-12 oclock. It is very hard and is not soot/gunk. Could someone have patched something right there? Or the tappet was loose to they cemented it? Wondering if anyone has run into this before. I don't recall my dad saying anything about this, so we must have put a couple thousand miles on the car with it there. I've attached a photo.

Sorry for the length of this post. Thanks for reading.
Dalitoe

 

Hi Dalitoe and greetings from afar.

Somewhat reluctant to weigh in about LHD US delivered E-Types, because they were always so differently spec'd to the RHD that the UK had . . . and fortunately, which we received also. Ours were all gold painted "straight port" heads with triple 2" SU carbs and with revised high lift cams . . . none of which was available of any of the then current saloons.

On the other hand, I can't bear to see your query go unanswered for a week with no reply, so here goes. Firstly, your 3.8L must be one of the last, or your 1964 must be year of local delivery rather than manufacture in UK. Either way, any Series 1 is a great inheritance. My preference (and experience) focused more on the 4.2L, but many in the market vote the late 3.8L as all the more desirable.

The epoxied tappet sleeve is a worry. Check cam lobe carefully for chipping. Rare on the 3.8L; known issue on some 4.2L that have overheated badly . . . if the sleeve has lifted and been smacked by the cam, perhaps some backyard whizz has tried an epoxy quick-fix. Either way, you are never going to relax until you pull it down to check. I would be equally worried about what other "surprises" the car may may have suffered in the 11 years before your father acquired it.

Nor would I plan to "give it a go" in turning over such a long inactive engine. The potential problems are not solved by throwing lubricant at easily accessible bits. Turning over such a dry engine may well ruin bearings and bores, whereas stripping down and re-building is not insurmountable. Finally, you might weigh up the potential value of such a car. No doubt you are aware of the high value of Series 1 E-Types in most markets . . . but those high values are reserved for very good, no short-cut examples.

Taken all together, I suggest all this points to 2 things for your consideration - what do you want to achieve with the car? - and do you have the budget or time and skills to achieve it? Perhaps you will follow the trend shown in many threads here - a carefully planned, full rebuild.

Best wishes with your project,

Ken

 

Thanks for the reply Ken!

I agree with all you say. Yes, based on car numbers I do think it's a very late '63. Still wonder about that dark red head. Will keep searching.

I also agree with your advice on not just firing it up. I am in a spot of not having much money to afford to do it justice. I would LOVE to pop out the $$$ do do the full strip and rebuild that I see others do, but just can't afford that. My ongoing plan is to just see how far I can go on my own, before I hit an insurmountable $$$ wall and then decide to sell (or win the lottery).

So far I can't get the engine to budge by hand, even though it has oil (perfectly clean on the dipstick after 35 years, amazing!). Pulled the cam covers and chains and all I can see are very well lubed, no rust down in there. My thought now is to keep seeing if I can get it to move by hand, drop the oil pan and inspect what I can down there, and just see what I can do short of pulling the engine.

One thing I am trying to figure out is if there is a way to pump/prime the system with oil. If I can get the engine to turn by hand, and get oil pumping through it, I'd feel safer. Any ideas on that?

Thanks again for replying.

Dalitoe

 

Good to know because this spells out some sensible boundaries to the advice I can offer. It is also familiar territory . . . despite my comments about the inherent value now associated with this car, it is both a simple engine to work on, and well within the bounds of a diy enthusiast to tackle. The following will be long-winded but, as some bore & bearing damage is inevitable, we must be careful to minimize that.

OK Dalitoe. Let's do some prep work up top. All spark plugs out, spray down holes with plenty of good penetrating oil - not just engine oil . . . we want this stuff to flush past pistons rings and bores, so count on using a full can or more. Ordinarily, this dilution of the sump's oil would be unacceptable, but we will discard that once engine is rotating. Stop spark plug holes with rag; remove dizzy cap and HT leads. Carefully mark position of dizzy adjust plate and carefully note orientation and alignment of rotor cap. Remove adjust plate retention bolt but do NOT loosen the cross-clamp nor remove the rotor arm. Lift and remove dizzy as complete assembly. Repeat a flooding soak of penetrating oil down into dizzy/oil pump drive shaft. Cover dizzy drive area to exclude dirt.

OK; now lift the inlet cam cover again. Do NOT try to turn engine, NOR touch the cam gear bolts or settings. Oil well around the cam follower buckets. Now lift the front 2 cam bearing caps as well as #4, keeping each ready to return to correct position. Loosen the final #3 cap but only undo a couple of turns against pressure of cam lobes to bucket cups - this pressure lifting the camshaft journals off their bearings. Do NOT lift #3 cap any further. Oil well all cam journals and in-head bearing shells. Oil and refit cam bearing caps #1. #2 and #4. Tighten down cap nuts such that tension comes off #3 cap nuts. Remove #3 cap, oil and refit. Tension all caps in sequence to spec. Repeat entire process for exhaust cam, again oiling all journals and bearings before refitting and retensioning.

The simple, broad answer to this question is . . . no . . . but as you can see, all the work done thus far has now addressed all but the crank itself. Penetrating oil takes time to do its stuff . . . so be patient and repeat the flushing down plug holes and dizzy drive as often as you feel it is assisting.

Assuming a 4 speed manual gearbox with clutch, engage neutral. Use assistant to slowly depress clutch while you check that release rod under car is pushing in/out to work clutch. Next, release handbrake and either rock car back and forth or raise rear wheels to ensure that, still using neutral, prop shaft & diff are freely disengaged from engine. OK; now we do the sump off part and that starts with either hoist, ramps or tallish body stands and creeper. Next, IIRC, remove steering gear or anti-roll bar or whatever it was that was always in the way. Drain and remove sump and oil pipes inside sump. Do NOT remove oil pump.

Remove main journal bearing and conrod big-end bearing caps, strictly one at a time . . . oil well the cap shell and accessible half of journal or big end and immediately refit, correct way around with number to number,and retension to spec. Do NOT be tempted to dislodge the conrod off its crankpin. Complete for all 6 crankpins and all 7 main journals. Once done, you may have only done one half of each of these bearings, but this will suffice.

Now, for our rocking method . . . a long bar with appropriate socket to engage the front crank pulley lock bolt . . . and emphasis on rocking, not wildly rotating. Limit should be about 10-15 degrees back and forth, attempting to return to where you start. Take your time to apply more oil once you "crack" that initial lockup. Rock and repeat, noting the loosening.

Next, fit a new condenser and points to distributor and gap points to spec. Then, align rotor and adjustment plate to previously recorded positions. Tighten setscrew to fix dizzy. OK; now you are free to rotate engine, traveling at least one full engine rotation but stopping at the static #1 firing position (?8BTDC). Check and adjust static ignition timing. Refit sump, add new oil filter and fill with recommended engine oil to midpoint on the dipstick. With plugs still out, use fully charged battery to crank engine for 5 seconds; more oil down plug holes but this time, engine oil, NOT penetrating oil; then repeat cranking. Gap to spec, then fit, a full set of new spark plugs.

Check fuel pump delivery of fresh new fuel, to carbs. If OK, stop and replace fuel filter with new. Flush and reverse flush both the radiator & engine block, then fit new thermostat and any hoses that appear either bloated or spongy. Fill with new coolant. Engine should now be ready to start.

Best wishes,

Ken

 

Ken,
I really appreciate your long-windedness! Thanks much for spending so much time writing all of that out. Lots of work but you provided very clear steps that I do think I can handle. Can't say thanks enough.
Dalitoe