English Rose's engine is kaput, broken, gone to Coventry in the sky. It'll need to be replaced, and I have neither the time nor the room to do it myself at the moment. Is there a shop within towing distance of Metro Detroit that anyone is familiar with and would be willing to take it on?

 

V12 or six? Really the first step is to locate a cheap rusty running donor car. That can take months.

Rebuilding is not economically wise.

 

V12. I'm fairly confident I can find one on Ebay. I'm less confident that I can find a shop that wants to do the work.

 

Fellow Detroiter here! I can't recommend J&L foreign Auto enough. They're right on Cass. Honest, amazing guys. Had my subframe mounts replaced there last year. They work fast, they're honest and upfront about everything and genuinely care about their customers. They've always done quality work on my XJS. Mike, the main mechanic will try to save you money when he can, which is something you don't really get from a shop often. They specialize in Vintage Jaguars. If you go tell them Brendan said "hi"

 

What exactly is wrong with the motor?
greg

 

Blown head gasket. One shop had it long enough to tell me that the engine would need a complete rebuild and, no, they wouldn't do it.

 

Why would a head gasket warrant a total rebuild?

 

maybe it was driven with coolant in the lube oil, for a long time!

two things can happen, overheat and scored liners and pistons.

and oil turns to jelly and wont pump thru system, and ruins the lower end!

best idea is find a used engine with some type of history!

most V12 cost close to twice the money of a 6 cylinder( DUH).

also 75/80% of Jaguar V12s go down because of loss of coolant!

 

Before you going rebuilding the engine, I would pull the heads and sump off, to survey the damage.

It's possible you would need to rebuild one head and maybe replace a few pistons and liners, severe overheating can cause pistons to swell and score the bore. If the block deck is good then you would not even need to pull the engine out of the car.

 

Ah forgive me, last time I did some head gaskets it was on a discovery. They tend to leak at the ends of each head, so the coolant leaks out externally and doesn't end up mixing with the oil and entering cylinders. I was in the mindset and wasn't really even considering it damaging bearings or the like.

Maybe it was because "What is wrong with it" was answered by "it has a blown head gasket" rather than "it needs new main bearings" or whatever the big issue is.


Idk how many crop up on ebay but I see a fair share on CL. I bought a spare V12 for $100 on CL.

 

I can see the shop's reluctance to "merely" swap in a new gasket. Project creep is a two edge sword. It may make a ton on $'s or cost a ton and a customer. Call backs are a no/no to an enterprise dedicated to make a fair profit.


So, that shop relying on two things.


1. Avoid the job.


2. Take the risk, but for adequate $'s.


Carl