So after replacing the thermostat and replacing both coolant caps on my 1975 XJ6C, it started smoking at start up and going away when getting to operating temp. Fun!

Fast forward a week, I borrowed a scope from a tech at work and low and behold there’s coolant in cylinder one.

It looks like I’ll be giving the local old school Jag shop a call tomorrow morning. He warned me about possibly needing to replace the head gasket when I took the it in for an inspection when I first received the car.

Normally, I would be really upset and annoyed, but this car has grown on me and working on it lately has made me appreciate it even more. Unfortunately, I don’t have the space, time or the superior Jaguar knowledge some of you have so I’ll leave it to a professional to handle.

 

Aw geeeez I hate it when that happens!!
It's good you have someone who knows one end of an XK engine from the other. That's a bit rare in my neck of the weeds (yes, that's what I meant).

More accurately, if it's British they get a rash just thinking about it.

I wish you success.
(';')

 

Oh, me!!!


1. Might as well service the head while it is off. Light skim, valvbe grind or at least a lap.


2. Gotta laugh. When my son ran his auto machine shop, he had an unwritten rule. No Jaguars or VW's. But, many other "odd" critters were fixed there.


3. "In the weeds" is a culinary professional's term. Kitchen is far behind on filling the orders of the wait staff.


If it transcends to yard work, it fits here. But, I now have talented help. Billy the Goat is on the job. A natural "whacker".


Carl

 

PS:


Billy is a "chjck magnet". A tale in itself. But, not for here !!!


Carl

 

Clumsy fingers "Chick" not "chjck" !!!


CHJ

 

Be very careful with this engine in the interim. With that sort of volume of coolant sitting in the cylinder, hydrolocking would make it all too easy to bend a connecting rod while cranking. I'd consider not even using the car until it's fixed. At least remove the plug temporarily, let the engine crank once or twice to clear the liquid then reinstall the plug and start normally.

 

If it's a long stud engine, you need to take particular care to check for cracks between the closely-spaced bores. If cracks are present, then replacing just the head gasket is a short term fix. Cracked blocks on long-stud engines really need the installation of lipped liners to cover the cracks.

How do I know all this ? Yes, that's right !! In my case, though, I managed to source an uncracked block and rebuilt the engine round that. At the same time I replaced all the studs and flushed out the water jacket. You wouldn't believe how much crud accumulates in there.

 

Well, I just got off the phone with my local Jaguar repair shop and looks like I'm going to either let the car sit for a bit before I take it in, or attempt the head removal myself and save a good chunk of money in labor. I have another project gobbling up money and I don't think my wife would appreciate another hefty chunk removed from our checking account.

He is a great guy and even told me to let him know if I do remove the head myself and he will refer me to his machine shop, he's been using him for years. In my experience, most shops wouldn't do that.

Thanks Carl. I will definitely have the head serviced, no point in taking the head off and not having it gone through.

Thank you for the reminder! I vacuum pumped the coolant from the cylinder, but will crank it a couple of time with no plugs for good measure.

Would you have to remove the liners from the cylinders to check for cracks or would it be obvious looking at the block face material between cylinders?

Thank you everyone for the information. There sure is some great information in this forum. I am very grateful for that!

 

Might be worth a look at Clarkes head gasket thread, its a very good blow by blow description on head removal.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...gasket-157830/

 

Thanks for the link. It is definitely a good read.