Nickel is magnetic, but I have no idea how much is deposited or whether it's in metallic form. If you have liners I would expect a visible seam.

 

That is what I wondered, since there is no visible seam for liners. That Nikasil must be plen hard, since all the clag is on the pistons and not on the cylinder walls.

Other than possibly having the pistons knurled and machined to spec, a clean set of pistons seems to be my option.

TC

 

Thanks Norri,

Just got tired of the little waving dude. May use smilies again--if I find one not so irritating. Thanks again.

Chuck
05/XK8

 

With regards to my bearing failures: I think there's a chance that with the extra quart or so added to the 4.2 there's a chance that over filling led to foaming which caused the failure. As I understand it, when Jaguar raised the capacity of the engine all they did was change the dip stick markings so there's less room for error on over filling. With that in mind, my new engine never gets more oil than center on the dip stick. However, this is just a theory of mine, with little evidence to back it up.

 

Possible, I suppose, but the engine design does include a "windage tray." From the original Jag technical document on the engine design:

"A windage tray attached to the top of the structural sump isolates the oil pan from the disturbed air produced by the rotation of the crankshaft, to prevent oil aeration and improve oil drainage."


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