My newly acquired '87 XJ6 is in the shop getting a misfire situation looked at...no fuel smell, no smoke. California car with no check engine light, passed last smog check. Newish distribor, wires, (plugs probably need replacing, but normal wear), vacuum lines great, head gasket was replaced 30k miles ago, mechanic is going to dig deeper today, with lathroscope etc. When starting engine (and an extremely quiet one at that, mechanic said it was the smoothest xj6 he's heard in years!), it fires up quick, runs smooth for 20 seconds then idle lopes, when driving down the street it feels like a misfire situation...they're going to do compression check and leak down to see what it looks like there. Now, with that outta the way, have any of you run into this and what was the fix? Cheers

 

Cracked cylinder head. S#*+ I'm imagining a lot of dough for this. Car was bought for $1000, and in otherwise immaculate shape, mechanic said it's definitely not a throwaway car, even if I spent $1500 more, I'd still be ahead of the game.

 

FWIW

Last time I did I head gasket job on a 4.2 XJ6, 8-9 years ago, a fully rebuilt cylinder head from Coventry West was about $1000

Cheers
DD

 

Option 2 is to lift and dismantle the head after finding a machine shop skilled in plasma welding repair. I have only seen one done but, after what is now about 20,000Km (12,000miles), it is still going strong.

Option 3 would be my plan . . . find a donor engine. Here in Oz, probably cheaper to buy a whole car! (last one into my cattery was a gift) . . . and swap heads.

Of course, the key to holding costs down is whether you are up to any of the work yourself, but either may save you the $1500 bill that Doug is rightly pointing to. Even if you budget in new valves & guides, you end up with a new head . . . and your very desirable Jaguar certainly deserves a resurrection. It's a stunner. Wheels look identical to those on my Series III.

Best wishes and pls keep us posted on what you do,

Ken