Sorry for the compression troubles. I feel your pain.

I will be very interested in seeing your posts about the Quarterbreed installation. I'm pondering this for my '66 S-Type project, but have more urgent needs like brakes and steering.

Cheers,

Don

 

If you're seriously considering it, I would go ahead and buy the kit now. There was a rumor he is retiring and closing up shop and I don't know of anyone else that makes a kit to change the transmission.

 

Thorsen
How will you drive th rev counter, the speedo and the fuel gauge. Are they able to accept the OEM inputs?

 

The tach will read from the ignition coil. You can adjust it to how many pulses per rev the coil generates. On a 6 cylinder, 4-cycle engine I believe that would be 3 coil fires per 1 revolution of the crank.

The speedo is a GPS unit, so it will operate independent of the transmission I put in, tire size, or rear end ratio.

The fuel sender is adjustable too. It can accept the most common fuel level sender ranges (0-90, 240-33, etc) or you can set it for the resistance of your unit by pressing a button when the sender is full up and then pressing it again when it is fully down.

 

What is the current thought on head gaskets for the XK engine? The standard option is the stamped steel gasket. I see there is also a composite head gasket made by Payen that is available, at roughly triple the price. Ignoring the cost aspect, what is the best option for sealing the head to the block?

 

I used the PAYEN head gaskets when I rebuilt the 1990 V12 and installed new cylinder heads. Much more expensive though.

 

I had some good luck out in the garage today. The finally arrived and I got to work seeing if it would work on the rear hub.

First I chucked up a piece of steel in the lathe and made a stepped rod to push on both the end of the axle shaft and the nut I had put on the shaft. I was trying to prevent the axle shaft thread from distorting.


The other end of the stepped rod got a small counter-sunk hole to match up to the OTC tool.


I bolted the plate to the wheel hub, greased the drive screw, and put my impact wrench on the end until I felt like there was sufficient tension.


I gave the end of the screw a few gentle taps with my sledge and the hub popped off with a dull thud. It was nice to have a victory.


After that I did the math for the new shims I need. I am sure I will need one more order of shims but this was a good start.
I was able to find the missing #6 exhaust shim in the bag of valve parts from the original disassembly. It's a lesson in taking your time and taking nothing for granted.

 

FYI
I had the head rebuilt in my 1957 MK1 about a year ago. Included welding up corrosion areas, new valve guides and valves.
The engineer who did the work is a second generation in the engine rebuilding trade and extremely knowledgeable.
I agreed to do the tappet clearances as our group has a shim set and I have done this a number of times.
One interesting point is that the engineer said the Jaguar 4 thou inlet and 6 thou exhaust clearances are too tight and he had seen numbers of burnt valves in older Jaguars.
He recommended 6 thou on the inlet and 8 thou on the exhaust.
I went along with his recommendation and after assembly the engine still runs quietly with no tappet noise.

 

Chicago is under a heat advisory and today was a hot day in the garage, but I tried to think about all the days in the winter when I thought it was too cold. I don't know if that helped but I got a lot done.

I pulled the buffer out from under the workbench. My goal was to clean up some of the oxidization from the aluminum but not go all the way to a chrome look.
You can see the intake manifold was a little crusty looking.


After that, I thought I might as well polish the carbs too. This dashpot on the left is as-is, the dashpot on the right is after polishing but before the final Brasso rub-down.


If you're going to do the carbs, you might as well do the cam covers too.


I saved the air filter manifold for my Dad to polish - it's always good to keep him busy.
The air filter went into the sand blaster and got sprayed with 2k paint.



I'm not sure how NOS this air filter is. It looks like someone did some welding on the mounts and they are not even close to lining up. I can make it fit with some spacers.


Out of curiosity, I put the Sphinx air filter (minus the actual air filter part) on.


Feeling like the top of the engine was sufficiently polished, I moved to the crank pulley. If you remember I am adding an AC compressor and don't want it to share a belt with the water pump.
On the left is the original single pulley that came on the car, in the middle are the pulleys from an XJ6 (C23131, C37137), and on the right is the triple pulley from a V12 (C37892).


As I started checking the alignment of the pulleys, my mind went to how tight the space is in front of the engine. I have a radiator, an AC condenser, an automatic transmission cooler, and a fan I need to fit up here, and this water pump is taking up a lot of space. I need to do some research but I might have a way to clean this up.

 

Speaking of transmission coolers, I put one on an olde Chrysler 727 I had once, along with a PH8 spin-on external filter adapter and magnets in the pan. It ran 100,000 miles before it finally got morning sickness and wouldn't move until it warmed up for about 15 minutes. But I was the only driver so it was ok. (About that time Nix came to live with me so I sold the car.)

I highly recommend a few craft magnets, or even better yet, old hard drive magnets if you can find them.
(';')

 

Another hot day in Chicagoland and I only made it to about 11:30 before the heat + humidity drove my inside.

I had picked up a front caliper from a Volvo 240. I really liked that it was a Girling design with 4 pistons. To get it to fit over the rotor I needed to remove the two tabs on each side.


It fit the rotor (barely) but there was no clearance to the wheel (keep reading below).


I believe these are Dunlop wheels and they have four indentions evenly spaced around the rim. They do a great job of limiting space for brake upgrades.


Here's a better view. I suspect this was designed in to add strength.

It was at this point that I decided to table the brake upgrade to the winter so I could stay focused on the bigger picture. I rationalized that if 4 drum brakes are good for my Dad's 1966 Charger with a 330+ hp V8, they will be ok for this car.


Next I moved on to the cylinder head pressure test plate. This is a piece of 6" x 6" steel 1/2" thick with 4 strategically placed holes and a sheet of 1/8" compressible rubber sheet to act as a gasket.


Here's a better view of it all sandwhiched together. This lets me pump comperessed air in through the spark plug holes and make sure the valves are sealing.


Then I moved to putting the front left suspension back together. New polyurethane ball joint boots replaced the rubber ones that were there.


After that I moved on to brake backing plates. Looking at the front left, I feel like it would be easier to bleed the brakes if the fluid inlet went into the bottom of the lower wheel cylinder. That would keep all the bubbles moving up.


After sand-blasting the left side front and rear plates, they were treated to 2k chassis black paint. I like how the 2k paint cures in about 15 minutes and it's durable enough I shouldn't have to worry about it chipping.


Finally, I did some research and I think the Davies Craig electric water pump is going to help free up almost 3.5" of space in front of the radiator. The pumps are rated for 7,000 hours - if you average 30 mph that's over 200,000 miles of driving. I'd go with the aluminum housing for durability. I need to see where I could mount the pump but going this route will let me mount an electric fan in a puller configuration. I'd remove the existing water pump and mount a plate with a fitting to take water from the pump.

 

I happen to have just upgraded the original front Dunlop 2-piston calipers in our '66 S-Type to those Girling 4-piston calipers for the Volvo 240, and I really like the setup. In the S-Type, the original 11-inch diameter rotor has to be reduced to 10-11/16 inches, so 5/32 inch (4 mm) must be removed from the radius. The calipers center more easily on 1/2 inch thick rotors, so I used rotors from a Series 2 E-Type, which start out at 11-1/8 inches diameter, so 7/32 inch (5.56 mm) must be removed from the radius. Here are a couple of photos of the installation:




I'll post a more complete write-up in the Mk II S-Type forum. I hope you'll eventually figure out how to make them work on your car - they made a very nice difference on our car.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thank you for the pictures - those are pretty. I'll get back to them after I actually get to drive the car.

 

The drum brakes on MK7s are extremely effective. I drove Mk7s for over 15 years in all types of traffic including inner city and remote outback roads. That was from 1964 to 1979.
One point I learned when restoring a drum braked MK1 in 1984 was that Jaguar used a softer brake shoe composition for better grip.
That came from an old timer mechanic who was just retiring from a brake specialist business.
My current 1957 MK1 on drum brakes will lock up its wheels on bitumen tarmac.
So don't spend too much effort trying to get disc brakes into the car.
I suggest more effort to get the fuel system sorted out and get rid of those BLOODY FUEL PUMPS mounted on the chassis rails under the car!!!

 

Thank you for the perspective Bill.

What do you suggest on the fuel pumps? I liked how my 420 had the pumps next to the tank but changing them was difficult with the tight space. I thought under the car was going to make it easier to change a pump if needed but I did worry about being exposed to rocks and water spray (not like I drive them in bad weather....)

 

I do agree that under the car is an accident waiting to happen. There must be room in the boot/trunk, surely, for something nice and modern from Facet or similar?
Or box them in somehow to protect them if no other place for them?

 

Those fuel pumps under the car were a PITA. If you had to change a pump you first had to drain the fuel tank.
Every other carburetted sedan that Jag made after the MK7/8/9 had fuel pumps in the trunk/boot.
The Mk7 has a pretty cavernous boot so re-siting the pumps into the boot would not take up much space.
I would also ditch the SU pumps as they are expensive, outdated and unreliable. That comes from 60 years with Jags.
In regards Greg's suggestion I have used Facet pumps now for 20 years and they are completely reliable.

 

Tonight was a busy but productive evening in the garage. The UPS man delivered my new intake valves and I got busy lapping and installing them. With 6 new intake valves and valve springs, I had no reason for any leakage.

To test my theory, I bolted the pressure test plate mentioned above to the bottom of the head and started my test.


I broke out the leakdown tester which is supposed to tell you, as a percent, how much air you have leaking out.


The problem was these gauges are notoriously inaccurate. In the picture above I was showing 0% leakage at 27psi, but the end of the test gauge was not connected to anything. By my logic, that would be closer to 100% leakage than 0%.

I abandoned that test and went back to a test mentioned above. I stood the head on the exhaust port and filled all 6 intake runner with acetone, then checked the combustion chamber for signs of acetone leaking past the valves. It was dry, and still dry after 5 minutes - so I decided the valves were not leaking. I repeated the test for the exhaust valves and with the same result I moved on to adjusting the valves.

The intake side took me 4 attempts to get all 6 valves adjusted to .006" as per Bill Mac's advice. Proving that I am not a slow learner, the exhaust side was done in 1 try, with the exception of needing one more shim that should be on the way soon. .008" clearance on the exhaust valves was my target.

I ended up ordering the Payen composite head gasket from SNG Barratt. Not a cheap head gasket but buy once, cry once.

 

Great work, nothing so satisfying as having got valves nicely lapped in!
The speed with which you get things done continues to amaze me, Thorsen!

 

The nice thing about a big project is there is always something to do. While I wait for the last valve shim so I can put the head back on, I moved back to the brakes. I sand-blasted the top wheel cylinder for the left front, lightly honed the inside walls, then painted it. I should get a rebuild kit sometime in the next few days.


It looks pretty good on the back plate that I sand-blasted and painted.


One thing I wasn't happy with was the flare on the fuel line to the carbs. I know this will see very low ( less than 5 psi) fuel pressure but a while back I had a fuel leak on my Range Rover Classic and it left me with 3rd degree burns on most of my arm. So when I have the chance to make anything related to the fuel lines safer I always do.


I cut off the flare, de-burred the edges, and slipped on a compression-to-AN fitting. I used these on my fuel-injected MGB and they don't leak even with 55-60 psi, so this should easily handle the 3 or 4 psi the fuel pump provides.


It's a little blingy for my tastes but the air filter manifold will mostly hide this.