One reason of cracking blocks might be that the user gets water leakage in
the radiator hoses or cap(s) because of the high water pressure of the XK
cooling system. A too low water level is not good business for this engine
and it happened to me a few times. SO JAGUAR OWNERS !! Replace any old
water hoses and caps that you might have. It may save you the investment
of correcting engine trouble later. And we all want to see the big cats moving,
don't we ??
To solve my problem I bought another engine from an imported XJ series 2 that
some poor kids had found in Britain. (When they came home they found out that
the import taxes would exceed the price of the car, and it needed a lot of
bodywork too so they sold it in pieces). The engine looked good all round
but when I'd managed to replace the old one with this engine (all you Jag
mechanics *KNOW* the kind of work involved) and started it up..Kerrrowww!
The camshaft bearings had lived a hard life before so I saw another 24 hours
of engine removal work before me. So..
I took the excellent cylinder head from the bad (we will see which is worse
soon)
engine and replaced the head of the new creature and repeated the whole
installation
the second time. And now life felt great for 10 minutes. Until I noted that the
oil pressure was quite low. One of the main bearings could be heard as the
source
of trouble. But who gives up ? This spring I will give it a new try and the cat
will be on the road this summer.
The end for now of this exiting Jag report. ..just to balance out the massive
conversation about Sprites and TR's.
/Gunnar
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