sensible.

 

XK engines can distribute a lot of oil around the engine in the cam boxes etc. With the engine hot after a decent run, it's fine so long as there's oil on the dipstick. If the engine hasn't run for a few hours, especially if you're planning to drive a distance, I'd fill it to the top of the knurled section. My car used to consume some oil and my oiling and watering procedures every morning on long continental journeys caused others some amusement. My girlfriend learnt not to check us out of hotels until I'd finished and had the opportunity to go back and wash my hands (my engine bay has never been at the height of cleanliness of Rob's or Glyn's).

 

This engine does not have a rear seal, it's a slinger type pump. I used binder clips to attach a piece of pig mat (2" x 8") to the base of the bell housing. After 50 miles of driving the pig mat was fully saturated with oil. After setting for an hour, there was a 10" diameter wet oil slick under the pig mat. That's a lot oil for 50 miles of driving, plus there was more that had dripped off during the drive. Is this an indication there's too much oil in the sump?

 

It's definitely an indication that you have an oil leak! I don't have any oil coming from the bell housing but then as I have already said I tend not to overfill my engine with oil. My neighbours daughter decided to top up the oil in her Nissan Micra. Kept pouring oil in through the filler cap until she could see the oil level in the top of the valve cover. The real fun was then starting the car as oil does not compress even on a down stroke. The sump dropped out the bottom, the head came off the block snapping some head bolts and tearing others through the alloy head. Her father was not best pleased at the mess on his driveway.

 

i wouldn't want to guess, so i'd probably drain the oil and fill with a proper amount (maybe slightly less than the proper amount to make certain i hadn't overfilled it) and see if the leaking increased or decreased.

 

What type of rear main seal does your engine have? My engine has no rear main seal, it's a slinger or basic pump, not a good way to seal. If you park on a hill with the rear being the lowest point, oil can pour out of it. If it's over full then it leak that much more.

 

I drained enough oil to lower the level to midway of the cross hatched section of the dip stick. There was less oil leaking out at the base of the bell housing. However, the lower attached sump pan has been damaged. It has a round double-gasket cover plate on the bottom side that is leaking also. The sump pan may also have some leaks from the dents it has received over the past 60 plus years. At some point, the sump was damaged from a failed rod bouncing around inside, it also wiped out both sump tubes.
The 500 mile engine break-in period is complete. I'll be attempting to fix the leaks in the lower sump pan when I change the oil.

 

sounds like you might have a few complications. may be too early to blame the seal, eh? hope so.

 

I hope it's mostly the seals on the sump cover. A couple of the dents may have some small cracks that could be leaking also.

 

I just have the rope seal in place on my S Type. Well soaked before installing it. There is a modern seal that you can have installed but it requires machining the back of the block to fit not a route I wanted to go down. Others might help with the Mk2 engine and what seals are available and if the Mk2 engine was any different in design to the S Type engine in this department. My S Type has an alloy sump and does not have that round cover plate you referred to.

 

From what I've understood, it also involves machining the crank. Somehow, machining all that metal to make it fit a bit of rubber grates with me - shouldn't we find or make a piece of rubber fit the metal?. Apart from that, the rope seal and the previous scroll work well so long as the crankcase ventilation is working properly.

 

The "scroll" on the crankshaft and the main cap must be machined to allow for a basic seal. The scroll design is not a seal and it will leak some. Most of the oil is pumped back towards the sump.

 

The rear main oil leak was caused by excessive crank case pressure. The cylinder head breather did not have a vent breather tube and I had installed a temporary clamp on filter. The crank case was being pressurized by air flow over the small filter, I've re-routed the filter. The engine has a little over 500 miles now, time to change the oil and fix the lower sump leaks.

 

I suspect a great many spend a load of money on rear crankshaft seal work when all they had to do was sort their crankcase ventilation.

 

i'm a little unclear....are you talking about what people often refer to as the PCV valve, or at least a primitive version of it?

...asking because i recently replaced my standard air cleaner (1967 mk2). and there was a hose i disconnected coming from somewhere up front near the thermostat housing and i have yet to determine what to do with it. up until now, i've assumed it involved crankcase or head ventilation and that attaching it to some sort of standalone air filter or running it to one or both of the new air cleaners might be a solution.

any thoughts? thanks

 

I think we've discussed this a few times in recent months. The early XK engines vented to atmosphere without problems. Later cars had the hose that you mentioned from the front of the head to the air cleaner box. That system is usually OK but can get bunged up with oily dirt. A few cars had some drain arrangement added to let condensation out - they tend to block. Probably, the last XK engined XJ6 cars had a more modern (and complicated PCV arrangement), I'm not sure. With an intake system with no kind of plenum, the simplest solution is to vent to atmosphere. The problem with improvised PCV (positive = more suction crankcase ventilation) is that it often doesn't work as people expect and causes more troubles with blockages or oil in the intake system..

 

well, from what i gather from your response, it looks as though my "lazy fair" philosophy has led me to a possible satisfactory solution, because i simply turned the end of the rubber hose straight up and it now points directly at the hood. although, i'll probably be looking for a thin and semi porous clamp-on cap of some sort to protect the paint and catch any debris that may exit the hose. thanks again.

 

I'd be inclined to point it towards the ground. Otherwise, oil may collect inside and eventually block it. It's important to keep the system open. If you want to keep the ground clean. I guess you could arrange a drip collection cup below it. In the XK120, the exit was at what was (hoped to be) a low pressure area under the car.

My memory has begun to work! The last XK engines in XJ6 cars still had more or less the same system of a hose to the air cleaner (at least in the UK). The part that changed over the years, was the oil trap on the front of the cylinder head. Whichever is there, it benefits from occasional cleaning.

 

i'll take a look at it again, and see how feasible it is to point it in other directions.

 

A flexible breather line will let you vent engine to atmosphere, closer to the ground below your motor. You will get a messy oil film all over the side of the engine with your current configuration.

https://mossmotors.com/jes-8234-cylinder-head-breather

Rgds
David