pulled the exhaust manifolds off of my donor engine today, full of what I can only describe as “burned cornflakes” - a lot. Is this normal for a barn find engine?

 

Are all the ports like that ? I reckon the engine was burning a lot of oil before it ceased being used. Certainly I never saw anything like that in the two XK engines I worked on, one a 1967 2.4, and the other a 1980 4.2. The XK engines were always oil burners right from 1948, and this was only finally cured in the 60s by putting oil seals on the inlet valve guides. OHC engines were very uncommon then, and I don't suppose the designers realised how much oil would be sloshing around in the camshaft chambers.

Have you assessed the engine for wear yet ?

 

Yeah equal across all 6

no idea of wear as seized block and I only need the head and accessories

 

I would put that down to an engine that never got very hot. Possibly a Sunday driver. Our engines need to be given their head every now and then just to get them really hot and to burn off any excess oil and carbon deposits. You might find the tops of the pistons looking in a similar condition hence the seized block.
I would not use the head as it is though without a strip down and clean. All the ports need to be scrubbed as do all the water ways then I would drop the valves and regrind them following a head skim. New valve oil seals and have the cam followers re shimmed. Might sound like a lot of work but it will give you years of good service where as to not do it and you will always be expecting the worst to happen at every turn.

 

so a good deal is rapidly turning into a money pit?

 

Not if you do the work yourself. It is not hard to scrape all that crud out of the engine. Get a wire brush on a drill down the ports, possibly a thin metal scraper but go easy and make sure it is just the crud you are taking off. Then some 40 or 80 grit emery paper to get the worst out and finish off with some 120 to 240. If you want to pay someone to do it for you it is labour intensive unless they have an acid bath or similar. Lapping the valves is an easy home job unless they are really pitted then you would need someone to recut them for you. fitting new oil seals is an easy swap if you are lapping the valves which you will have to remove. You will need the head skimmed professionally so you might find it less hassle to hand it over to an engine shop who will do the lot for you in half the time. If this is the case ask them to pressure test the head for good measure but as you said not cheap but I would not go as far as money pit. I do this work myself but I would be looking at $500 to $1000 if you gave it to a garage but you will have peace of mind when you get the head back.

 

Thanks… the engine already cost me $2000 and I’m almost out of project funds..

my other car is a spitfire. Parts are 10 a penny and just as cheap.. this car came with 9 boxes of spares.. barely any for this model. So unless I can find buyers I’m going to have to slow way down.

 

Don't know what was wrong with the old engine but sell that off to someone else for $2000 and you will have the money for the rebuild. Whenever I buy (rarely) a new part for my S Type I always sell off the old part which reduces the cost of the new by at least half in most cases. No good hanging on to stuff says my wife. What she does not know is I have a complete set of chrome, glass, lights, gauges, wood, switches, body repair panels and ancillaries squirrelled away in the attic as spares. The other day Maria said if I did not sort out the garage and sell off all the other Jaguar parts that she knows about if anything happened to me she would just hire a skip and throw the lot away. What she does not realise is there is probably more money in spare parts in the garage than the car is worth by its self.
Note to self. Must clean out the garage and sell some stuff.

 

car only came with a decked block… need the donor to complete the engine build.


im trying to sell the “extras” that came with it - I’ve a complete dash for an xj series iii, a center console for a mk I, spare spats, spare windshield, hundreds of mounts, gaskets, etc.

but no one is buying atm… I’m hoping when spring comes people will return to their garages

 

Is the windshield for a MK1 or 2? If it's from a MK2 I'm interested.

 

how do i tell? - 2 identical. one has a crack, you can have that for free to see if it fits.

 

MK1 windshield is smaller than the MK2.

 

I’ll measure

 

50” curved (47” in a straight line) center of the edge to center of the edge
14” top to bottom

One whole, one cracked

 

Since your car is a MK2 you can just lay the windshield on top of yours and see if they are the same size.

However, according to your measurement, the top to bottom height makes them MK1 Windshields. My windshield at the center is about 17.5 inches tall

 

I knew they were shorter than mine. As I said - anyone can have the cracked on for free to try before you buy…