60th anniversary of the Mk2

[Glyn Ruck]

Thanks for all the pics & commentary guys! Great for us folk from further afield.

[Orlando St.R]

Yes, thanks, Rob, especially, for organising us all and for your excellent and thorough write-up. It was great to meet you, too. Also nice to meet Norman, Nigel (again) and Stan (again). It was a good day, though, as Rob infers, a little disappointing in the turnout of compact saloons. I was also surprised that so many departed so soon, esp when there was so much to ogle over inside. It clearly didn't help that there was a competing event at CMC in Bridgnorth.

The ever-dedicated Moves Like Jaguar has put together a nice video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiL22ZKwSiI. Keep your eyes open at 7:30. Anybody would think they knew we were coming! More images at 11:45.

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And for those with a hankering for more on JLR's Classic Works, there is a quite a bit on YouTube, eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA_Bhs28s4s.

Nigel, your images are excellent, thank you. I'll just add a couple that we took at the end.

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[NigelW]

It was great meeting up with everyone and great video. We left a bit earlier than planned as I was worried about the charging problem and the head gasket, I had visions of sitting on the side of the M1 for hours.The car lost water on the way back but made it home. I sorted the charging problem out today having the alternator rebuilt by London and Essex Electricall, took it in at 10:30 this morning and it was ready for pickup at 2:00, good service in this day and age! I wanted to keep the Lucas item and not buy one of the cheap Chinese things off Ebay Ordered the head gasket parts including an uprated composite head gasket from SNG this morning and will get on that asap.

[JCS]

Nigel
Just a few words that might help you (and others) with that head gasket issue, assuming you do not know the full history of the engine.

Always, but always, obtain compression pressures BEFORE removing Jaguar cylinder heads. If you don’t know the engine history you will probably not know the state of tune of the cylinder head as to its history regarding surface grinding. A compression test will indicate the current compression ratio, and this can be invaluable after the head is removed, it does not suffice to take the stamped compression ratio as gospel.

No doubt you will probably find the head, and block faces are corroded particularly along the exhaust side and may require re-facing. If this results in a substantial amount of metal removing a composite head gasket will be required. On the other hand if only a minor sweep of the faces is required a particular head gasket thickness may be needed, if this is not available it may be necessary to remove more metal. However, at least in the USA different thickness composite head gaskets are available and may now be available here from the usual suspects.

I note you have already ordered a composite gasket from SNG Barratt but I would suggest you check the compression pressures/ratio to ascertain that you have the correct gasket thickness.

Five further suggestions,

Fettle around the inlet manifold studs to ensure easy wrench access once the manifold is removed.

Liberally coat the head gasket in Wellseal before fitting.

Renew the inlet and exhaust side core plugs.

Tap into the oil gallery and fit a secondary camshaft flexible oil feed pipe to the inlet camshaft, using an extended banjo bolt at the camshaft to retain the original oil supply.

Reposition the block coolant tap by fitting an armoured pipe between block and front underside of the alternator / dynamo, makes life easy when draining coolant.

[NigelW]

Thanks very much for your advice on this, fortunately I know the history of the head and the engine very well as I've rebuilt twice in the 43 years of ownership. The last rebuild I had the engineering shop weld all the coolant slots and reface it so not expecting so see much in the way of corrosion as it's always had the antifreeze changed regularly. I've seen the various thickness gaskets available in the US but the lead time to the UK is about five weeks and about £140 as quoted by my local speed shop Burtons. I like the idea of an oil feed to the inlet cam but it would be challenging to fit with the limited room behind with the engine in situ. I think what has caused this to happen is that I recently changed the head nuts for new ones doing one at a time so not a great idea as it turns out.

Photo of last rebuild.

[Orlando St.R]

I can understand your keenness to get home, Nigel. Particularly unfortunate timing for both those problems to rear their heads. That's a phenomenal service on the alternator. I remember pulling the little blighters apart regularly for one reason or another in the 70s. Hope your head gasket issues are easily solved and nothing more major. At least you've caught it early.

[NigelW]

Yes that firm is outstanding, they tested it in thier rig while I waited to diagnose the fault. I'll post up on the engine thread with what I find.

[cass3958]

Running it with diesel in possibly did not help Nigel!

A compression test will indicate the current compression ratio, and this can be invaluable after the head is removed

For anyone taking the head off and looking at your pistons it is actually very easy to see the difference between 7:1, 8:1 and 9:1 ration pistons. The difference is in the domed shape of the top of the piston. The Compression chamber as can be seen in Nigels photo is domed.
7:1 ratio pistons are basically flat so there is a lot of room between piston and the top of the compression chamber.
8:1 ratio pistons which are the standard pistons fitted to the S Type engines have a small dome in the centre which covers 50% of the pistons top surface area. With this there is a gap between the top of the piston and the compression chamber.
9:1 ratio pistons, which were used for racing engines and in some of the more powerful 3.8 S Types, has a large complete dome on the top of the piston almost from side to side and this fills the compression chamber when the piston is at TDC.
The Americans refer to a lot of their powerful engines as being HEMI's. This refers to the piston and compression chamber being hemispherical so the two items mesh together making a high compression engine. Jaguar XK engines designed in 1945 were one of the original HEMI engines especially the 9:1 ratio version.

[Glyn Ruck]

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[NigelW]

These are the pistons in my engine 8:1 solid skirt (no slot) Hepolite.

No the diesel probably didn't do any good! I did have a mix of rocket fuel (octane booster) in the tanks on Saturday to counteract a bit of pinking that was still present.