That's a typical value at idle. Highway cruise is probably 5-600°C. I had a exhaust temp gauge fitted to another car with the 4.2 XK engine and on a long mountain grade where I kept the car at full throttle for close to 20 km I pegged my gauge at its max reading of 1100°C. For reference, steel glows red hot at 750°C.

 

I think Glyn mentioned that joints in the steering column can wear and give a lot of free play. I've seen a bottom UJ that was incredibly bad. At the same time, many would not regard an inch at the perimeter of a 17inch steering wheel as excessive.

Concerning the general tendency to wander, my car didn't do it on standard size radials from Avon, Dunlop, or Pirelli. I've driven a few other Mk2 over the years, at least one had XJ6 wheels and tyres, and I've not noticed wandering. However, according to Dougal of Longstone Tyres in an article in last month's Classic Jaguar, either I'm insensitive or the cars I've driven are unusual. He says expect a lot of wandering over bumps, that it gets worse if use more modern wider tyres .... He should know better than me, but he does tend to insist on traditional OE (expensive) rubber or even narrower Citroen DS tyres. A chat between him and Primaz would be interesting.

 

See my post no 67 on this thread & what follows.

 

i'm beginning to think that that may be the issue. there are a couple of universal joints between the steering wheel and the pinion/power-steering mechanism and maybe a splined connection or two too.

i'll soon be taking the car to a local shop that has a lift. so i'll be getting a better look at it in the near future.

 

Those nylon wheels on the top CV joint wear.

 

thanks, i'll be looking into that.

 

You can't really see the lower steering column from under the car. You have to test it by feel. Try and get a hold of it with two hands whilst someone winds the steering wheel back and forth. Easier on a LHD car than a RHD car as on the RHD it is tucked under the carbs, above the oil filter housing and getting one hand on it is difficult.

 

for some reason that's not surprising me...

 

Are you sure that the steering rack is solidly mounted?
I have had wandering steering in XJ6, XJ40 and X300 cars and it was caused by decayed rubbers in the rack mounting.
Another source of wandering in MK1 and MK2s is decayed rubbers in the rear radius arms allowing the rear axle to wander out of alignment.
It's only a fractional movement but I have experienced it in a couple of MKs

 

i crawled under it with a light, checked the mounting bolts and all the rubber bushings, etc. and they are all in good condition. now thinking it may be in the universal joints on the steering column.

waiting for a callback from a guy with a lift. will be getting it up and doing the inspection I SHOULD HAVE DONE @#$}?/+^% before i bought the thing.

 

I'll second Bill on checking the rubber in the rear suspension and also the front suspension.

We've all suggested the lower column UJs, but, when the car was converted to a rack and pinion, the lower column would have been removed and either replaced or been cut and welded to adjust the length. It's difficult to imagine anyone doing all that work without noticing the condition of the UJs.

 

Please don't become so negative and start calling it a thing. Be more positive and embrace the ownership of a classic car. Lots of people have names for their cars, I do not, which makes it very personal for them. Classic cars do break down. Parts are harder to come across. Classic cars are so much easier to work on. If you can't do the work yourself search the back alleys to find a small local garage that can. Join your local classic car, British car club or your local Jaguar enthusiast club (JEC) as there will always be people who will help, have experience of doing the jobs, have the tools you need or know a garage which can help.
When I say ownership we are not the owners just the custodians until we pass the custody on to the next person. In the time you have custody of the car do what is best for it. Replace things before they break. Always look for better original parts to replace older worn or tarnished parts. Don't change the car to suit you but keep the car original and change the way you use and look at it. Too many original cars are spoilt by the custodians by making them more modern which suits the custodian but not the originality of the car.

 

It takes it out of the context of cars, which perhaps makes it clearer, but the link below is indicative of the kind of restoration and improvement that Cass would discourage:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur...Europa%20Press.

Old cars have problems and qualities that can make them less convenient than moderns. There's an inevitable shake down period when you buy one. Once the shake down is over and given reasonable care, they are as reliable as anything and often easier and cheaper to fix. The longer you keep it, the better you know it and the easier it is to maintain. Apart from that, old Jaguars are incredibly special and not just to the owners. I don't know about the US, but in European advertising they feature heavily. There are XKs, E-types, Mk2s, D and C types selling everything from coffee pods, through perfume to women's underwear. Ferrari, Maserati, Ford Mustang - they don't get close.
​​​​

 

Love that Pete.
In my view of my S Type "You cannot improve on perfection".
Even though there are imperfections that others might see in the minor details (we call these Patina) the overall concept which is the same with the Mk2, E Type, S Type etc etc should remain as it came out of the factory. I have an XF Sportbrake. One might say this is an improvement on the Mk2 and S Type but sadly No. It might be quicker, more comfortable, fancy looking but it is full of electronic sensors that keep telling me something is wrong with the car when it is actually the sensor that has failed. Can't wait to sell it as soon as I get the latest electrical gremlin fixed.

 

S Type:



Stubby tail Mk2:




E Type:




Roadster:

 

The S-type (S series) tends to look best in darker colors (colours) which effectively mask the line of the trailing edge of the rear doors, which was a cost saving hold-over from the "stubby tail Mk-2". Glyn's is an exceptionally attractive example. IMHO.

 

in reference to my post #100...

after much searching i bought two temp sensors. and today i installed one of them. good news is that the one that was in the car was registering about 20C too high. i suspected this on my trip back from the rebuilders and even more so after verifying that there was a 20C difference between the gauge on the dash an my laser gun's reading.

bad news is that neither of the new one really fit. both had too many threads on them. it seems the hole in the thermostat housing into which they thread is a blind threaded hole and they were bottoming out too soon. soooo, ended up buying a couple of copper washers as spacers. this effectively reduced the threaded portion. it's now water tight. and ya, it's a hack and i don't like it. but maybe i'll forget about it in a year or two.

FYI, the thread types of the old and new (the one i eventually installed today) temp sensors matched but their hex heads did not. the old one was whitworth and the new two were probably metric. and the one i bought from moss after personally talking to their representative on the phone to make sure i was getting the right one had so many threads on it, i never even tried to mount.

in any event, the car on this warm day ran very well, and engine temps never moved above about 85C. and no heat soak or vapor lock or hard starting after a number of short five to ten minute stoppages. oil pressure was about 20psi at idle and 45psi at speed on this hot day.

things to do yet:

1) fix horn doesn't work. i'm hoping it's a wire that was left loose when the engine was pulled/installed. plan on tracking it down with multimeter, a couple of jumper wires and my spare 12v motorcycle battery.
2) front bumper looks to sag as it wraps around the front fender towards the wheel well. can't decide if i'm imaging it or not.
3) the small, orange, translucent plastic thing-a-ma-jig on top of the left front turn signal is now missing
4) power brakes are sticking on, but will release of the brake pedal is lightly tapped. it's a priority.
5) stopped by mech's shop today and scheduled a hour session on his lift for next monday. purpose is to inspect for things that i've thus far missed and maybe a quick lube as there are lots and lots of old-school grease fittings under there.
6) need to change oil and filter now that i've got close to 1000 miles on the rebuild. i'll be doing that.
7) remove HUGE double snouted air cleaner in order to mount two smaller pancake ones to facilitate carb tuning access.

probably won't update any more on this thread. the rebuilder's are now out of the picture.

thanks to all who have contributed.!

 

Did your engine builder give you instructions to re-torque the cylinder head at 1K miles? If I recall correctly, that is/was SOP on engines of that era as the head gasket compresses a bit to its final thickness and a re-torque helps to prevent issues later on...

 

Some do & some don't. I intend re-torquing mine.

 

Cylinder head studs and bolts are loaded heavily in tension in order to maintain a seal. The relationship between that tension and the torque on the head nuts is not at all consistent and depends a lot on friction between components. Also, it's possible some old gasket types may relax and creep slightly. And for the thread of the nut or stud to deform slightly. For those reasons, it's a very good idea to re-torque after the studs have been loaded by running the engine. When a modern engine is built in a factory, everything is super clean and the studs are likely to be pre-tensioned so the whole torquing problem is eliminated.