I simply restored my oil pump same as Cass (page B53 of WS Manual) ~ all clearances to spec & have oil pressure slightly on the high side ~ checked with multiple gauges. They can fib. Don't know spares situation. I Plastigauged all my bearing clearances. (probably excessive ~ old racing habit)

Did you have oil pressure between 35 & 45 psi hot at 3000rpm? I doubt your oil pump was the issue.

Your choice as it might affect the guarantee he gives you on his work.

Good news re pistons.

 

I was told that the tolerances on my old original Oil pump were still tighter than on the new replacement oil pump so the old was cleaned, refurbished and reused.

 

as I recall it was around 30 to 40 depending on rpm.
when the sump was removed I was impressed with how clean the interior of the engine was, no sludge or anything obviously wrong other than the milky stuff at the lowest part of sump. Sure, when the rod caps were removed then the journal and bearing damage was obvious.

when the oil pump assembly was removed there was no obvious problem either. It was clean and oily shiny everywhere, no clogs.

So there is a procedure to get it cleaned? I will study the manual. Thanks.

 

 

The oil pressure gauges are not very accurate, but they usually fail by giving a false low reading. With hot oil, you should see a progressive rise in pressure with engine speed from quite low (a few psi on the gauge) to about 40 psi at 3,000 rpm. Above that sort of level, the relief valve should lift so the pressure shouldn't rise much more. Since the readings sound OK, the pump looks OK and XK engines can survive a long time on quite low oil pressure, my feeling would be the problems arose from the milky stuff that's in the bottom of the sump. If water is reaching the sump, the culprit could be corrosion around the water pump or failure of the head gasket - others will know better. I presume the engine re-builder has already or will pick up any such problems.

 

Yes ~ XK's are not like Aston Martins that need every bit of that > 100psi to survive. An XK will run for a very long time at lowish oil pressure. And if max 35 psi is achieved on some very low viscosity synthetics they will run forever. Why Jaguar did away with the 100 psi gauge to stop people worrying about oil pressure & moved to the 60 psi gauge.

 

I installed a spin-on oil filter adapter, replacing the original canister.
I wonder if it caused the problem.

 

There are others who know more about it than me, but I'd first look very carefully for possible leaks from around the water pump. It's a classic route for water leaks into the sump.

 

When I stripped my engine the back of the timing chain cover around the connection from the water pump to the block had corroded quiet badly resulting in coolant leaking into the timing chain area and sump; Location of the corrosion I found is circled in the photo below (this is not my cover)

 

more parts being replaced:

set of Heater tubes in stainless, compared to the rusty original.

new used connecting rod.

 

I fitted the stainless heater tubes. They are great.

 

Thought of fitting them but at over £100 the ones I have painted black are fine.

 

I removed one tube and did not like what I saw, very crusty inside and rusty outside. It was a no brainer.I am considering removing the heater box too to flush the matrix.