Well hey guys, its been awhile for a post.

I picked up a amazing 84 series III, drove around for 2 weeks.
While on the road I felt this odd loss of power. kept driving normalish on the freeway I noticed white smoke, behind me when I would accelerate.
When I stopped I noticed a bunch of oil all over the place and on the rear exhaust pipe which is next to the oil dip stick.
Confused, I then started the engine it was missing really bad. when I lifted the dipstick it looks like a steam locomotive puffing out.

Ran a compression test on all the cylinders, and found number 4 up front ZERO and the plug covered in oil. found my problem.
I think its deff the head gasket. but what is odd is there is no coolant loss at all . and it stays cool running. iv read around that the coolant is what ends up breaking through and oil passage really never happens. anywho..

I would like to replace the head gasket on my own but seem to not be able to find any good info on the xk engine online. I do have all the repair books but thought id consult the oracles on the forum and ask for the wisdom and ideas, on the best way to replace a head gasket on and 84 xk engine.

 

Shawn:

Blown head gaskets are bad enough, I suspect it is a bit worse. A blown piston in number four.

The symptoms re almost precise.

All, I can offer is sympathy. Mine was worse in 2001. Came home on a flat bed from Stockton. Zero, not just in one hole, but all six!!!

Five years later, back on the roads, repowered. But, in my view, stronger and better than ever.

Carl ....
% .

 

I'm with Carl. I think there's more to it than just a head gasket

"....no coolant loss at all...." is inconsistent with a blow head gasket.

Years ago I had a minor head gasket failure. Only a small amount of vapor in the exhaust and no coolant-oil mix at all. Even so, I had to top-off the coolant at least once a week.

Cheers
DD

 

Ah crud thx guys.

Im gonna use a camera to peak in the spark plug hole.

If it is a blown piston im assuming there will a hole on it?

 

Post lost???

Or caved in along the edge, Busted lands.

Whereever, bad news.

Carl

 

I agree with the piston being the culprit. No personal experience on these but last spring my brother had similar symptoms in is 302 Bronco, and when we got the head off on that bank, there was a hole right in the middle of the piston. Again, VERY similar symptoms to what you described. I'll be interested to know what you find on it.

 

well here we go... Stuck the camera into the spark plug holes in cylinder 3 and 4. and well 4 is DEAD !
check out these pics

number 3

number 4 with a hole and the sides ruined

 

Un fortunately, one of my thoughts was on target. Collapsed lands. Not good in any case.

Slick tool though.

An in the frame fix ? Pull the head. Drop the sump!!! Replace the rod and piston with a good used assembly???

The famed or infamous Italian tune up can do this!!!

Or consider other options.

At least three.....

Carl

 

I think the Bore is ruined...? which makes the engine gone for good. if im wrong feel free to give me ideas. idk if I can save it.

 

Perfect candidate for a lumpectomy, Personally I would be looking at the situation in a positive light., and looking for a nice late model low mile GM V8 at the same time.
That's exactly what I did when my pristine 86 XJ blew the gasket,... and somewhere at that time I became aware of the v8 swap.
Its a lot of work rebuilding an XK engine and then there are the little things that the old guys knew (who built these engines for a living) that you would not know...(you don't know what you don't know - Yogi ?) --it might never run right again. So now what would you have? disappointment. That was my line of thinking back then. And later when I found out the head had been skimmed before by the original owner so much it threw off some other critical measurements, I began collecting the new GM parts. ( Knowing what I know now ... I should have bought a damaged running GM car and swapped everything over ). So before you commit, think over the real options - if you want to keep the car. Buying a used Jag engine - you are getting 4 quarters for a buck - no permanent improvement, it may suffer the same fate Its a lot of work either way and time consuming..... how old are Jag DOHC engines now ? 30 - 35 years old???. so you would have to buy the best Jag engine you could find and rebuild that...Just the facts. Personally I like the v8 better all around.

 

There's about $5,000 worth of good advise here for free.

Additionally....There are lots of still good series 3's sedans around at a price/condition for any budget. Another option is to buy another, combine whats good and scrap the rest.

Hard to understand how a piece of the piston could just fall off. Perhaps that cylinder was running lean and if so that would need to understood and be corrected too.
Same thing happened to my blue Coupe with just 40k miles.

 

thanks guys. im still thinking on what to do.

 

My 2 cents:
Move the piston to bottom dead center and take pics of the bore. Pic #2 shows that the broken piece stayed on the top of the piston.
Hopefully, the 2nd ring prevented any pieces from getting down the side of the piston.
If there are no gouges on the bore, you may be able to effect a cheap fix.
Pull the head, drop the oil sump, and replace piston and rings.
IMHO, unless you had a rear main seal failure, re-ringing this engine is as easy as any other engine.
Rear main seal replacement requires a special tool to size the new rope seal. If not, when you tighten the rear main bearing cap, it would lock up the crankshaft.
If the bore is good, then you only have to remove the con rod caps to do the job (the cheap way)
Then again..................................?????

 

I would think that with the compression, exhaust, intake, and power stroke all happening very fast... the pieces would get bounced around quite a bit. Valves would be beat up too.
Almost like having a valve bust off and bounce around in there. Do you realize how fast things are going in that combustion chamber? Not a very nice place to live.....Must have made one hell of a racket...

 

I agree with AlynM. Only one way to know the extent of the damage. Pull the cylinder head.

 

Or, save the energy. Go for broke.

1. A known good DOHC. Swap it in.

2. Follow Doug's project. Swap in a good V12.

3. Alyn and I came to the same fix. A bit different in time and scope. GM power.

Carl

 

Yeah I like mine - a simple 350 TBI setup. Reliability is all I want. I am using a Jaguar XJ8 center muffler ( 2 inlets and 2 outlets ) got it for nothing ,..almost new and the right size..- connected to the 2 rear mufflers in front of the cage and 2 mufflers at the stock position under the gas tanks and the little curly Jag pipe tips at the back after the valance panel. Has a really nice sound .low and smooth burbling sound....

 

Shawn
Curious as to your resolution on XJ6 #4 holed piston. I had a XKE with holed #4 piston, just like your pictures. I went with new piston from below and Cylinder head Overhaul. I am retired, so expense was only for parts.
Rgds David

 

In the late 80s early 90s I took my engine out of my 1980 XJ6 and rebuilt it around an uncracked block. I had a normal domestic garage and I installed an RSJ and trolley to take a chain winch to remove the engine. The job took a very long time, but I did get the engine back in and it ran well until I sold the car a few years later. I didn't have any particular problems doing the job it was just the time involved, as I worked in London, so had little time during the week. A 1984 engine will not have cracks between the bores, (or shouldn't have, as it's the slotted block), The block can be re-bored and then the engine can be reassembled with new oversize pistons and bearings. At the same time other overhaul jobs should be done.

Or put in a V8 lump of course !

 

@David84XJ6 The bore is way damaged, was thinking the same thing, but I don't think I can fix it. also was looking into another engine from another car. BUT!
@Sarc has decided that are next foray into engine swaps is going to be replacing the bad engine with a X300 XJR motor. we picked up a 95 last week.
It will be interesting on how we are going to pull this off.