Coming from the P-car world, pistons like these are not an uncommon sight on later M9x engines, where the pistons were forged aluminum with plastic skirt coating. So much damage on cast iron pistons is... quite something.

Re: Rover V8s, there are plenty to choose from but only few which will give a Mk. VII the proverbial pace. Something like an FI 4.6 from a P38 / L318? There should be plenty of them in American junkyards and I'm sure there are OTS ways to bolt them up to a 700r4.
It wouldn't be the same as a Jag engine though. But that's easy to say as I am comfortably spectating this wonderful thread from my armchair

 

Initial thoughts on an engine.

If you want to go outdifr Jsaguar, your call.

That engine series had the engine mount bracket castings/threaded holes up front, adjacent to the timing cover face of the block.

That was in style until about ??? 1967ish, when they moved to the centre of the side of the block, with the Series 1 intro.

Using a later block would require some serious fabrication, NOT impossible of course.

A 4.2, I doubt it will fit easy, as it is longer than the 3.4, and 3.8, and no, I dont know the specs.
Moving the radiator forward would be a mongrel.

That 3.8 mentioned would be a good idea, IF the specs and work can be verified.

 

My uncle and cousin have a machine shop like that. Even with the family discount it would still be cost-prohibitive. But it would be quite the experience if I took a week off work and they let me help them.

Honestly that's part of the reason I am dragging my feet. The XK engine is incredibly beautiful - whatever takes it place will not compare aesthetically.

The seller has no details about the work that was done to 3.8 and it feels like buying a pig in a poke. Other than buying it and doing a complete disassembly, there's no way to know there isn't a gob of something in the crank waiting to spin the #4 bearing.

 

I have nothing but Astonishment at the sight of that oil and the Shards if steel coming out of that engine!
So sad!

 

The pistons are aluminium, I believe.

 

Greg is correct; I just checked with a magnet and they are indeed aluminum.

 

I'm just a lurker here to sponge up wisdom, but here's my input from the peanut galley, as talk is cheap:

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!"

Such a great looking vehicle is asking for another go around with an XK engine.
And as a final fairly worthless input, here's a used '59 3.8 engine local to me, that comes with bonus items.
https://denver.craigslist.org/cto/d/...888932692.html

"Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,..."

 

Hey Chirpy, all are welcome here and I appreciate the thoughts. There's someone local to me who has a 3.4 available - a replacement XK engine isn't off the table yet....

 

Given all the work you've done to the car, I am of the opinion that an XK is the only reasonable option. You redesigned the cooling system, and that works well. You already did the work to fit a new transmission as well. All of that will need to be redone with any other engine, but another XK should drop in. Or "just" rebuild the one you've got.

 

LOVE it! Here is some more

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say "To-morrow is Saint Crispian."
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

It always brings tears to my eyes. Jaguar cars and great literature, two sides of the same culture.

 

I continue to engine shop and hope to have something finalized in the next few days, but in the mean time I was able to remove the last piece of wood from the dash to refinish.

If you have a Mark VII and you're looking to remove the dash, you'll notice that the wood has a U-cut around the steering column but the gear shift for the automatic transmission passes through a hole.


To remove the wood you need to remove the shaft for the transmission gear selector. To do that you need to completely remove the steering column . Once that is done you can get to the two clamps holding the outer column of the transmission gear selector. The below picture shows the transmission gear selector clamp nearest the driver.

Also note the hole someone torched in the dash to make access easier.


In this picture the socket is pointing to the transmission gear selector clamp at the firewall.


This isn't covered in the Repair Manual. Hopefully no one needs this in the future but if you do that's how it's done.

 

I've been busy with yard work and haven't been able to spend much time on the Jaguar, but today I removed both rear wheel brake cylinders. The right side one had started leaking and since the car is not going to be driven for a while, I'll be sending both of them to Apple Hydraulics for a re-sleeve and rebuild.




Still no decision on an an engine but my goal is to finalize my decision and make a purchase before the end of this week.

 

Thank you for the link to the Re-sleeving service. It's always good to have a resource like that
Re-sleeving was the Only way my Datsun stayed on the road, as at the time there were NO brake cylinders On The Planet!
Of course that was some time ago, and that fella has gone to the Great Machine Shop in the sky.
(';')

 

It was not an easy decision to make, but today I purchased an engine and transmission for the Jaguar. Before I share what I bought, I will share what I did not buy.

- First up was another XK engine. There were 3 in reasonable distance to me and all had either unknown histories or were in need of a full rebuild to make me feel comfortable. If this was a car I was going to use for short jaunts around town and Coffee and Classics on Sunday mornings it would have been perfect. But I plan on putting the miles on this car and I personally did not feel that an XK would be up to 12+ hour days of 75+mph high speed cruising.

- Second place was the idea of pulling the straight 6 out of a late 1980's/early 1990's XJ6 and transplanting that in. I'd get the over drive transmission, I'd keep the Jaguar pedigree under the hood. While I found several cars close to me that were potential candidates, there were two strikes against this path. One, I would have to put my MGB in storage over the winter so I had space in my garage to pull the engine. There is no rational reason for me saying this but after 32 years together I did not want to put her in storage. Two, the intake side of the these engines are huge and the engine bay is tight.

- Third place was a 2.3L Ford Ecoboost motor and transmission. They put up big numbers for a small engine and by my measurements it would easily fit in the engine bay. The downside is that I basically wire $7k to a company, wait 2 months for them to pull everything, and in the mean time hope that they didn't go under because if they did, $7k of my money was gone. My accountant (me) and my banker (my wife) did not like this plan.

- Fourth place was a Rover V8 and transmission. While not a Jaguar engine it was still British and I would have felt good about the power plant still being from the same country. This was little more than an idea as the Rover V8's seem to be scarce these days. There was one guy in the MG world who used to be able to get them but health issues seem to have side-lined him.

- Fifth place was the winner and was my back up plan from the beginning. It's nothing special, just a Chevrolet V8 from a Camaro with a 6-speed manual transmission. It's the same engine (mid 1990's LT1) that I put in my yellow XJ6 a year or two back. I already know how to plumb and wire the engine so I won't have any surprises there.
The manual transmission was a decision and was selected for the fact that it has two overdrive gears (.74 and .5) which will pair nice with the 4.11 rear end I have. The automatic transmission has an overdrive ratio of .7. At 77mph (my typical highway cruising speed) the automatic would have had the engine turning 2,700 rpm. 6th gear with the manual will put the revs around 1,900 for the same speed. Keeping the v8 under 2k rpm's was worth the trade-off of switching to a manual.
I did consider an LS motor but since the demand for them is so high they carry a $2,500 premium as compared to the Gen 2 LT motors.

I will need to make motor mounts as what is in the car now will not even be close. I spent a couple hours yesterday comparing the LT1 engine width specs to the space I have available. I think clearance to the steering shaft is going to be close but if it is a problem I have a plan of how to address that. I am not overly concerned about cooling; I think a 3 or 4 row Mustang radiator will fit the space I have. The engine will weigh less than the Jaguar engine I pulled so I imagine I will need to adjust the torsion bars. If I am lucky I will be able to reuse the drive shaft I had made a couple of months back for the Chevy transmission.

More to come.

 

Excellent decision. You will have a superb classic car to used and enjoyed at the end of this story. These cars are for DRIVING, not museum pieces or quasi-religious artefacts to be preserved like antiquities.
Thoroughly approve of your faultless reasoning.

 

HERE, HERE!!
And, Thomas, as you already have experience with said Chevy engine, there will be fewer surprises along the line.
Besides all that, this will keep you occupied for the winter.
(';')

 

A short night in the garage tonight but I started working on something that had bothered me since the first time I got to drive the Mark VII. The under-dash panel was in poor shape and falling apart. The vinyl covering was hanging down and tickling my feet when I drove.
Tonight I picked up a piece of wood to make a new panel. After I get the shape right and the holes drilled I'll put on a few coats of Thompson's to seal the wood before I recover it.

 

That very thin covering for the under-dash panelling was always difficult to source. Standard upholstery materials were far too thick and heavy
I found a suitable replacement with book binders fabric material which looked exactly the same as the original Jaguar material.
I have used it in a number of MK1 and MK2s

 

Between being super busy at work and waiting on the new motor - things have been slow.

I need to wait until the wood on the dash is back in the car so I can finish marking out where to cut the new under-dash tray. Dad doesn't even have all the pieces yet so this one is on me

Switching to a manual transmission means I need to make sure the parking brake is 100%. I wasn't too worried about it this summer because you put the automatic transmission in park and it's not going anywhere. A manual transmission makes the brake more critical; I have the right side adjusted perfectly but the left side doesn't want to release. I need to fix that.

I've also started looking at how I am going to do a clutch pedal. I was hoping to find another Mark VII brake pedal and use that for the clutch, but those have been hard to find. I'm also looking at the aftermarket, something like this. Or maybe I do something like this to have a matching brake and clutch pedal. No rush - I have plenty of time to think this one through.

 

About 10 minutes after I made yesterday's post, I remembered this summer I was playing around with a disc brake conversion for my car. Over on the "other" forum, there is a thread called Mark VII Disc Brake Conversion where someone put together a list of parts he used to convert the drums on his Mark VII to discs. It's mostly custom made parts, or heavily-modified off-the-shelf parts, but it's a start. The thread is almost 25 years old (an eternity in internet time) but I reached out to the poster over the summer and he sent me the front brackets in exchange for me making them available to other Jaguar enthusiasts.

You can download the file here and take it to a place like SendCutSend to have it cut. The name of the file is Front Bracket - Original - v2.dxf



I loosely bolted them in place today.


This is the brake disc from a 1975 Cadillac Eldorado that conveniently has the same 5x5 lug pattern as the Jaguar, although the center bore needs to be opened up and the back of the bolt holes need to be opened up.


I decided to make some modifications to the bracket so I could use the brake calipers from a 2005 Buick Century.