LOL, find another mechanic, seriously. "I'll do it for beer" is not the guy you want mangling your vinyl and breaking your flares off...

Engine comes out the bottom. Looking at mine I don't think I could get the heads up between the shock towers. Or better said the car lifts off of the front cross member, engine and trans. I'd say 6-8 hours to get the body off first time around. At least as much going the other way.

You'll need to lock the cams before removing the chain. There's a special tool you'll need to do it.

I'd do a donor engine and not screw with yours at all.

If you've not downloaded the free X150 Service Manual we are wasting our time.

Your guy is woefully unprepared for this job. I don't think I would attempt this. Especially not at home. Call a couple shops and see what the rate is to do an engine swap on an S type. Same basic problems.

You are screwed. But if you plan on proceeding, post up plenty of pics as you do it.

 

+1 to further inspection and NOT pulling the motor. There’s plenty of room on the N/A motor to take it apart in place.

 

IDK, pulling the valve covers and exhaust manifolds in place is going to be a miserable mother of a job. Front dress and cover not a huge deal. Getting the heads off will suck a little compared to the rest.

I'm actually more concerned with what caused the heads to lift in the beginning. It would almost have to have had a coolant seep that partially hydro-locked the engine. I'm also curious why it was blowing condensation out both sides. Usually it's one or the other lifts, not both.

I do agree about pulling the plugs and doing a compression test before any further work is planned.

 

Notice that the factory repair manual provides instructions for removing the LH cylinder head (12.29.02), but does not provide instructions for removing the RH cylinder head while the engine remains installed. Is that because the RH side cannot be removed? I guess the OP will eventually tell us.

Also, the instructions expect you to remove the cylinder head with the exhaust manifold still attached to it.

 

 

Well, there are separate instructions for the LH and RH camshafts; the LH and RH engine mounts; the LH and RH exhaust manifolds; and the LH and RH valve covers.

It would not surprise me if the RH side cannot be removed because the clearance is less due to the aluminum pipes to the heater core. When I was replacing the engine coolant hoses on that side of the car, it was not obvious to me how to remove those pipes while the engine was installed in the car.

 

I've found that our electronic version of the X150 manual is missing a few sections. I've found stuff referenced and linked that isn't in the PDF when I was trying to get the interior apart.

What concerns me about our friends problems is he hasn't mentioned the coolant level in his reservoir. That would be the first thing I would check with a head gasket concern. I'd also drain the oil / coolant mix and let it sit in a glass jar to separate and make sure the water component smelled like coolant. I'd have the spark plugs out looking for coolant indications on the tips and probably do a compression check. I'd also be tempted to use the compression test tool to inject air pressure into the cylinder and see if the coolant loop start blowing bubbles.

When faced by problems like this I trust nothing and verify everything to both prove and disprove any theory I come up with related to the problem. I've seen a lot of folks make asses out of themselves because they jumped to conclusions without verifying and isolating the problem.

In other words, don't jump down the rabbit hole unless you know the rabbit's down there.

 

+1

 

Ranch I'm with you here and good advice. Couple the compression test with a leak down test and test the coolant for exhaust gases. Also look at codes . Look before you leap and keep the wrenches in the tool box until something is verified.

 

I stand corrected, thanks.

 

I think he needs to do the compression test and see if some of the cylinders are low. The last time it ran, 4/23 post #180, there was no mention of it running poorly. From post #180:
"Ran the car for about 5 minutes and then she started leaking coolant all over the ground."

There are three pieces of information that are needed to get a good idea of the problem:
1. Compression test results.
2. How long did it run while leaking coolant?
3. Root cause of the coolant leak.

 

Ok Ill try to explain everything the best I can and also some scenarios on what might happen here.

The car all winter was started and ran maybe once every 1-2 weeks for about 5 minutes. It never had any issues and ran smooth. Then one day my wife and I were testing out the stereo system and sitting in the car for about 10 minutes with the running (running nice and smooth) and I shut off the car and got out. My wife said what the hell is that under the car. I looked down and it was a small puddle of coolant but was pouring down very quickly. After about 10 minutes it was a HUGE puddle and the coolant tank was empty. It had no smell, even not much of taste (yes I tasted it) and it almost seemed like water to me with a very slight pink look to it.

The car was never started again and my key was stolen. a few weeks later I trailered my car to the jag dealership and the dealer started it and it ran for 1 second then shut off and thats all the dealer did. Must have been part of the process for the car programming.

I get the car home and the next morning I fill my coolant tank and am about to drive it 2 blocks to a friends mechanic shop. The car starts and runs really rough for a min or two blowing out that white/grey smoke. Then it wont run again. A few hours later it does the same thing. The next day it does the same thing. On the second day there is still no coolant leak as we looked under the car and the coolant tank is full. Later that night the car leaked out all the coolant, tank is now dam near empty. Not sure why it leaked it all out when we were not around.

So I have had a total of 5 mechanics and one Jag owner who is on this forum come and look at my car. Compression was done on the coolant leak and it was very small, meaning its a small leak. But we have not done anything else except look at the oil and it was full of water/coolant.

Every mechanic pretty much said the same thing saying its for sure the head gasket. A few mechanics argued that its more than that and might be a cracked block. Nobody really knows as there were no tools at my friends house (he isnt a tool type guy) and I havent had time to go there and really dig into it.

So here is were the real trouble starts. Im out of funds. A few hundred bucks to my name. I cannot trailer it to a dealer or shop because I have no funds to pay them to figure out the problem.

Right now I have a few options to decide.

1. Save up thousands of dollars (will take over a year for sure) and finally bring it to a shop to have it looked at. I have other important bills and stuff to take care of that has came up so it will be hard to save.

2. Bring it home and park in in my garage for 4 years until the loan is paid off, then get another loan to get it fixed as it probably needs a new engine and if not its still a cost of 4-5K to get it fixed at best case scenario.

3. This is the option 99% of everyone here locally is telling me. They all said screw this wimpy 4.2 and put a LS1 or crate engine and tranny in it as most guys around me are american muscle car guys and can do the job. I HAVE NO IDEA IF THIS IS DOABLE! This is just what they said I might as well do as it will cost probably the same if not less. I have a friend with a badass LS1 all modified and rebuilt he would sell me for 2500.

So no matter what my choice is the thing I do know is I have zero funds left and it will be a very long time before anything can happen. The more I think about it and after being in my buddy Dans XKR Jag I really hate how wimpy my engine is. So maybe I should go all out and get something really fast and fun. IDK. I am a train wreck and feel like I lost a member of my family. All this work for nothing. Maybe there is light at the end of this long tunnel but right now I feel like its going to be a long time before something can happen.

You guys are all awesome and all have great advice which I want to use once I get it to a shop, but until I get some funds it will be awhile.

Not to mention my wife just found out her grandma has really bad cancer and doesnt have long to life so she is a train wreck and her car (chevy cruze) started having issues. When it rains it pours.

I will do all I can to hussle, make some money and try to make this project finished. And of course I will continue to update this forum thread as I know many of you love reading the progress. I do have to admit though, getting rid of this jaguar engine and putting a new more powerful one sounds like a good choice for this car.

 

He has at least four symptoms and at I think at least problems.

1. One is the mystery coolant leak in #180

2. Another is the running on after being shut down

3. Excessive water / condensation blowing out the exhaust

4. And finally water / coolant looking stuff in the oil

So, do all of these tie back into a head gasket failure and if so what caused it? #1 cylinder pressure over pressurized the coolant system and caused a leak. #2, dieseling from the water mixture in the chambers? #3 + 4, lifted a head causing massive leakage into the combustion chambers and also into the oil sump.

As a follow up, I'd park the damn car a walk away for a while. Save some fundage and look for a wrecked XKR from Coparts to donate it's drive train.

 

Give yourself a time out. Putting an LS1 into you car isn't going to be cheap and will make the vehicle worthless. I've done conversions and they are highly overrated.

Park it until you can afford to have it properly diagnosed. You're getting information overload right now. Time is your friend. Step back and let the emotion pass, then you can pick a direction.

 

Yep, the LH head R&R is under "In vehicle Repair", implying the RH cannot be done with engine in place. RH is the same procedure but needs to be pulled, unless one of the techs knows a magic workaround.

 

Yup, when $$ are gone the best approach has got to be to just park it under a good cover and work on the rest of what life is throwing at you. Family must come first!

As to what to do with the power train, attempting to put someone elses power plant in this car is 1) much more expensive to under take and 2) almost impossible due to incompatibility issues with electronics! If more power is what you seek, Ranch is right, go for a wrecked XKR donor when funds become available.

We'll all still be here when you are ready.

 

Suckage. WORST part is you were finally DONE with all your work.
.... and to THAT point, with all the mods you've done to it so far, there really isn't much intrinsic value left as per "Jaguar". Now, it's a modified vehicle and only worth what someone would pay for it. Some maybe a lot, others, maybe nothing. So regardless of everything, keeping it 'stock' is not an option.
An LS swap would be doable, but like people say, it's NOT cheap to get all the electronics working and NOBODY has a swap kit. Besides, that'd be less power and make it a "Li'l *******". The "Keep it Stock" would not affect the value now no matter what you did to it.

Agreed with pwpacp, wait until you can get a replacement 4.2 and then worry about doing anything. In the meantime, you could slowly work on it, take it apart and do whatever is possible sans-funds. Remember to DOCUMENT any work, and take a LOT of pictures during any disassembly, you don't know when you'll be able to reassemble and time does wonders for "where's this go?".

 

It is to bad that you have what you have. It looks like the build went well and the final product is an eye catcher. This is just another slight road block. I've converted XJS's and XJ6's and they were fun to do and turned out great. With the XJS the ECU was only for the engine so there was no problem just disconnecting it. I went with an early Corvette TPI using the stock GM ECM and a modified R700 auto box. With the X150 series the biggest issue I can see is how the ECM works with the other processors and how you can remove it out of the system. I bet some of the guys in the UK who race the X150 over there know how to do it. Would be a fun thing to do. Pretty easy to fabricate engine mounts or exhaust systems. I would even try to put in a 6 speed manual gearbox. But I'm to old for that kind of fun again. Good luck

 

 

You really should get that compression test and a leak down test to see if you have a head gasket issue, and if so, which side is the culprit.
No $$? You could start one of those 'Go Fund Me' pages, you might get some interest to get you out of this pickle, and get that car on the road.