If you take a photo of the area and post it I could help with some... There's,

(If marelli) a line with an orange hard plastic lead - goes to the ignition ECU in the RH foot well..
A line to the heater spout
A line to the little blue Gizmo right there on the rear of the RH intake manifold
A line that goes to the HVAC inside the cabin...

Then maybe one more that someone will help out with.

 

Oh, I have many more than that. Didn't Jaguar like other brands, show an overview of vacuum lines to aid the mechanic?

 

Got the vacuum parts sorted. Pretty close to getting it started, still have a lower radiator heater hose pending, that's was probably the cause of it all (and the driver not noticing smell, gauge, puddles or anything). So right now, I'm down to only one thing I'm not sure where to attach. There's a wiring loom near the rear throttle tower with 4 wires. Light Green and Dark Green go to the throttle cable micro switch. One white wire is from the ignition and goes to "+" on the coil. Fine. But the last wire I can't find in the books, it's white with a thin light blue mark, and what I've never seen before, the blue line is not straight, it twists around the white wire.

What is it? My initial guess would be tach, going to the "-" on the coil?

 

It is the taco signal. If your car is Lucas ignition, it joins a wire coming out of the amplifier.

 

Disaster. First the good news, engine is back together, compression on all 12 (before only on 10), it starts, it runs fine, the very loud noise that brought it to my garage is gone. But...there are now other noises :-(. In fact it has what I'm sure is valve hitting valve seat noise, just like before, except not as loud, and when it before sounded like only one valve, it now sounds like a few. Bummer.

Now, I can't be sure it's as I describe. That noise could be something else, that was overshadowed by the very loud ticking. But I'm 90% sure it still has valve on valve seat noise.

Assuming I'm right, and asking quite optimistically and perhaps naive: The cylinder shop did valve on 21 valves and replaced valves and seats on 3. I've checked compression, perfect, so they I assume they did a good job. Now, my perhaps naive question: the fact that all valves now do hit against new valve seats, is it so that it takes a bit of time to flatten perfectly, so valve and seat meets perfectly, so is there a hope in hell that this noise will reduce/go away? Or am I too optimistic?

 

If you've had a reputable company do the head work, the valves and seats will have been matched and lapped in correctly. If the head has been assembled with cams and shims correctly, you don't have to "wear" the valves in and they shouldn't be excessively noisy.

Are you sure it's valve train? Did you do as Grant suggested?

Noisy Injectors, caused by lack of use.

30ltrs of GOOD gasoline, full bottle of Injector cleaner, Esky full of beer, ROAD TRIP.
Obviously top up the gasoline as needed, but no more Injector cleaner for about 2000kms.

However far you can with the border fiasco, not far down here.

If they are exactly the same when you return home, take a SMALL hammer, and I mean a SMALL hammer, and with the engine running, go along each Injector and GENTLY "tap, tap, tap" each one. That has revived 100% of all mine over too many years. Never had Injectors professionally cleaned as of typing this scribe.

As said, lack of use, major PAIN for any Injected engine.

Good luck

Paul

 

I would check the tappet clearances first. This noise might well be because they are not to spec. You only have to remove the inlet manifolds and cam covers to check them. Clearances should be:
Inlet valve: 11 to 12 thou
Exhaust valve: 11 to 12 thou

 

Right now I'm not sure of anything. The injectors were not noisy before, there was one significan noise per 2 revolutions, so injectors now have become noisy? Have no injector cleaner here, have tried the small hammer. No change. Also had stethoscope on each injector, and they do vary, but not a lot...

 

Valve clearances are guaranteed ok. All are new of course, all seats and valves aligned. Double and triple checked valve clearances. And even if it was 0.1 mm off, I doubt it could make that noise. But thanks for suggestion

 

Ok. With the hood closed,,, outside,,, car warmed up and been running, can you hear these sounds from 5, 10, 20 feet away?

WHen I have my head in/under the hood mine sounds noisy too.

 

It is very easy to think they are Ok on the bench, but they can turn out not to be once the engine is running, 0.1mm is 4 thou, which is a LOT. Maybe just keep this possibility in mind if nothing else turns up. Can you narrow the noise down to a particular cylinder or cylinders using a mechanic's stethoscope?

 

It's not possible to hear exactly where it comes from, not with stethocscope either. We tried removing plug wires and wires to injectors, no change in noise.
It seems to be at a lower volume now, maybe seats are setting in.
Jay, wIth hood closed can't really hear from outside, but you can from driver's seat.

My friend's XJS and his XJ12 are quiet as a church...

 

Well the project is over. Just having it idle for maybe 30 minutes lowered the noises, maybe valves and new-ground seats just had to meet and shake hands...? Not 100% quiet yet, but with the hood down it's almost nothing, I'm probably just too sensitive. The owner has driven off into the sunset...

Looking back at the project, man, it took time. Had I been working on a US V8, it would have taken half the time.

I found and rectified 8 faults on that car during the project:

1. Vacuum canister on distributor leaking
2. Temp sensor used by computer to control rich/lean mixture faulty
3. Fuel Pressure Regulator, vacuum part leaking
4. Auxilary Air Valve sticking
5. Thermostats grown tired, not working freely
6. The big one, 3 valve seats dropped, valves not straight, compression on 10 cylinders only
7. Blown lower heater hose. Looked very strange, hose very weak in an area the size of a stamp, the rest was like new
8. Too long metal strap on one hose, when tightening it stopped before the hose was tight

Also found that most bolts on one head were easy to loosen, and very hard to loosen on the other head. So at least one unqualified mechanic has dealt with this engine before

Picture of it driving off, an enjoyable sight ;-)