Jaguar Mk2 340 Restoration to date
 

I thought that I might post some details of my on going restoration of my1967 340.

I got the car in September 2015, it was found in a barn on a deceased estate with chickens on the roof ! I had always wanted a Mk2 from the age of 17, and nearly bought 2 back then for £1000 but was talked out of it as there was too much work to do on them.

I had kept looking on and off over the years, and last year by chance was talking to a client who was an 'antiques finder' and said to him "find me a cheap Mk2" An hour later he said he had found one on a deceased estate.
This turned out to be a 2.4 which wasn't my preferred option, but a couple of wees later he called me to say that they had found another one which was a 3.4, and which one would I like.

I couldn't see the car as the family wanted privacy, so all the cars would go to a dealer, but I could take it unseen, and it was at the right price, so I bought the car unseen !

It took nearly 3 months for everything to get sorted before the car actually arrived one evening, it had last been on the road in 2000.

I then started the process off assessment and stripping the car bit by bit, my workshop isn't big, so I simply worked my way around the car.

I have in the last 12 months replaced 1.2 Sq Mtrs of sheet steel and several repair panels, and now the body is almost finished and I am stripping back to bare metal, treating every inch with rust protector and coating with epoxy primer as I go.

Oddly the drivers side was worse than the passenger side, with rust in the wheel arches, the front cross member, crows feet, chassis rail and numerous other places as I discovered as I removed underseal to exposed more of the metal below.

Wow- making some nice progress. Looks like we are both in about the same place! I heard SNG Barratt is putting up a new building and naming it in our honor.

I hear Martin Robey may be extending too, I will post more stuff shortly, I have a bunch more pictures.

The engine was pretty well seized, so I started stripping it down, by the end of this I had :-

Rebored block
New Pistons
Regrind Crank and balanced
Oil seal conversion
New valve guides
New valves and springs
New valve seats
Flywheel lightened and balanced
Camshaft polished
All new bearings
Uprated oil pump

the list went on .....

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...bf208b3677.jpg

Head before


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...7376dba371.jpg

Block after machining


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...fab3c3553d.jpg

Oil seal conversion


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...eccf1c0455.jpg

Nearly there


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.jag...a0fc899e68.jpg

Getting closer

I have recently fitted a spin on oil filter conversion, alternator and belt now on, radiator is being re-cored with a modern core I will post pictures of that when I have it back.
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That is a beautiful engine:) Nice work!

Check that lower timing cover very carefully where the aluminium of the coolant passage into the block butts up to the block, (there is a gasket separating the two, of course). Corrosion can occur here and rot away the aluminium such that there is a danger of coolant passing the gasket and getting into the timing chest. I had this when I rebuilt an XJ6 engine in the early 90s. If you find another one, you'll have to match it to the top face of the block to make sure there is no lip. A very light machining pass on the block face will suffice.

Edit
Sorry, I see you have already assembled the engine !!

Good point for others Fraser, the lower cover on mine was in very good condition, the area that did have issues with corrosion was the waterways between the block and head.
If you look at the pictures you will see where these are nearly blocked, when the head and block were cleaned, it was apparent that these would require tig welding and were then cleaned and skimmed with the head.
The waterways at this point were corroded past the gasket line which would have caused major issues if not addressed.

The machine work, pistons, valves, seats and oil seal conversion kit came to a total of £3500 alone, had a great local guy who builds race engines do the work, he knows the Jag engine well as he does these for race spec to, he did a first class job, I then rebuilt the engine.

I will get the radiator back from re-coring shortly, I will back a frame for the engine and trans and then test run the engine.

TillyJon,
Love the work, passion, & shear guts to tackle this one. Top of the shell looks sweet from the start.
Any chance you'll fire the engine before install?

Tilleyjon

If there is one car I once had, and would have again, it is the Mark 2 Jaguar. The style is sublime and they go pretty good too ! Trouble is I have no garage to put one in;maybe one day when we (wife and I) downsize to another house. It'll have to have a large garage !

Thank you, it has been a labour of love I have to say ! The worst part was some bodged repairs done in the past, I must say they were much better with the filler than the welding !!!!

I will fire the engine up once I have made a jig and have the radiator back from being re-cored.
I want to run it up before I install to make sure everything is in set up properly.

I got a pair of smooth cam covers shipped from Jose which I am cleaning up and will polish to replace the ribbed covers. I just prefer the look, even though I stripped and polished the ribbed covers they look pretty good, but not as good as smooth covers.

I will post more pictures soon for anyone interested.

Engine bay was covered in some sort of underseal gunk but not as thick !

After scrubbing scraping, blasting, treating with rust converter and eventually into epoxy primer.

Nice job!

Thank you,

picked up the radiator from being re-cored will post pics tomorrow.

The stuff you found in the engine bay that seemed like underseal would be body schutz, and is commonly used to cut down or eliminate drumming noise from panels. The main difference is it is formulated so that paint can be applied on top of it, unlike normal underseal. Having said that, the two are very similar.

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hm...z/1484991.html

Fraser,
I don't think it was Shultz, it was way too soft, it was over the paint, was tar like but soft not hard. It was like it was a build up of oil and dirt but more sticky, pretty uniform cover and everywhere.

It needed more scrubbing than scraping off and was about 2mm thick, it may have been a black rust proofing wax possibly ?

Here's the pics of the old and now re-cored radiator, the old core had 27 rows, the new one has 42 if I've counted correctly !

Simon at Advanced Cooling did a great job

Nice- Nothing like a newly rebuilt part to put a smile on your face.

Your rebuild brings back many memories for me. My rebuild of a Mark 2 took seven years and I got married in Year 1 ! And I'm still married 36 years later and driving another Jaguar, ( a few other cars in the meanwhile of course).

My rebuild was done around a bare shell found in deepest Wales plus another car transferred into it.

Fraser, so what your saying was that you were having an affair before you even got married ! You're lovely wife needs a knighthood.

I'm hoping to have the girl running by next year, and completed if funds allow ! That maybe a dream, but I have to have a goal. My old girl has had 35 years more rust, I wish I had bought the two Mk2's i was offered 35 years ago when I first wanted one of these cars.

Managed to get some time removing paint and underseal from inside the boot area I think someone thought that the underseal would stop the spare wheel vibrating !!

Will treat the bare metal with a phosphating solution clean with a salt remover before applying zinc rich epoxy primer.