Reference previous post: Test fit prep — Engine and gearbox (1)
In preparation for the test fit, and before the replacement engine and gearbox went anywhere near the freshly surfaced body shell, I needed to give the whole thing a good clean. The engine has been sitting for years and was filthy!
As an aside, I believe the engine to be in reasonable condition, although I’m assuming it will need a complete overhaul. As soon as the test fit is complete, I’ll get the engine checked out. As you can see from the image below this engine was coupled to an automatic gearbox.
If I’d realised just how dirty it was, I may have decided to take it somewhere and have it steam cleaned.
First I removed the alternator and a few of the more obvious bits and pieces that would get in the way of the initial clean.
The next job was to get the engine outside and clean the worst of the accumulated muck off it. I did this as best I could without spraying stuff everywhere and being conscious about containing and collecting the waste. Then it was back into the garage for a better clean.
At this point I decided that an engine stand would be the business, allowing easy access to everything. I went out and purchased a stand rated at 560 kg, plenty for the XK engine which weighs in at about 270 kg. Unfortunately, a quick test showed I had made a rookie error. I hadn’t realised that the vee shaped legs of the stand would foul the legs of my engine crane, making it impossible to get the stand and crane close enough together, even with the boom on the crane extended to it’s maximum. With the crane and stand offset (as below) the distance issue is solved, but the engine is pointing in the wrong direction making it too difficult to get things lined up. Arrrgh!
After thinking up some potentially dangerous schemes, google came to the rescue. I found a great site about overcoming these (very common it turns out) issues. A ball bearing swivel hook allowing the engine to be easily rotated is the answer. Now the stand and crane can be offset, allowing the engine to be aligned. I ordered one of these and an engine leveller for good measure. More expense.
While waiting for these items to arrive, I got on and removed the drive plate and flywheel, allowing me to bolt the engine stand mounting plate to the back of the engine.
With the engine now on the stand, I began the process of cleaning the remaining grease off the engine in preparation for the changes I needed to make. I started with the simple things …
I needed access to the top and the side of the engine, so I next removed the hot air duct and hot air pickup. I hope I won’t need these horrible looking things on the completed engine. I’m in for a steep learning curve as even though this is not a modern engine, things changed a lot between my 1962 2.4 and this 1979 vintage 3.4-litre engine.
Next I removed the hot air pipe from behind the rear exhaust manifold. This connects to the Automatic Enrichment Device (AED) which sits between the carburettors.
My plan was to remove the inlet manifold complete with carburettors. However, I couldn’t budge the manifold from the head, even with a judiciously placed block of wood and a good few blows with a mallet. In the end, I decided to leave it well alone. The engine needs a teardown and inspection so that can come later. I simply removed the carburettors; 8 bolts and job done! The carburettors fitted to this engine (3.4-litre Series 3) are twin SU HIF 7s.
I then removed the remaining components: the distributor, the mounting plate for the coil and ballast resistor, the engine mount, power steering mount, distributor, oil filter and the thermostat housing.
I managed to break one of the bolts on the thermostat housing while taking it off; luckily this was in the housing, not the inlet manifold. I was able to get the stud out by applying a bit of heat to the housing.
The oil filter housing on my XJ engine had provision for an oil cooler, which had been removed before I purchased the engine. During the clean-up, I plugged the access points for the cooler pipes with some blanking plugs I got from the local Bunnings Warehouse. Luckily they were a perfect fit!
Putting it all back together
The engine mounts from my 2.4-litre engine were a straight bolt on to the front of the XJ engine. I used new rubber mounts sourced from the Daimler Jaguar Spare Parts Club.
Oil filter housing
As per the previous post Test fit prep — Engine and gearbox (1), I knew I had to convert the oil filter from the XJ outward pointing to the Mk2 downward pointing type. Prepare to enter the confusing world of Jaguar oil filter housings:
It’s easy to go off track at any point in an engine swap, but doubly so when dealing with Jaguar oil filter housings. At one point I became concerned that the oil galleries in the later engines were different from the earlier engines, but I was soon put right by the Ian and Theo from the Jag-lovers forum. Thanks guys!
The most common approach is to use the 5 bolt FA2122 filter housing, this is the type fitted to Mk2s from September 1962 (Original Jaguar Mk1/Mk11 Nigel Thorley), and I believe the 240/340, the S Type and other models I assume. I got one of these from the Jaguar Workshop in Auckland. It came with everything I needed to bolt it up to the 3.4 block including the fittings for the oil return to the sump.
As an aside my Mk2 has the earlier 4 bolt housing which replaced the original upward pointing filter in Nov 1960 (Original Jaguar Mk1/Mk11 Nigel Thorley). Clearly Jaguar made lots of changes to the filter configuration.
I ran into a minor issue when doing a quick test fit of the filter and housing before fitting the return pipe. The oil pressure switch adaptor fouls the filter body, the quick solution to this was grind a bit of the bottom of the of the switch housing. Of course having done that, and after refitting it for a test, I realised that the even faster option would be to loosen the banjo bolt and simply rotate the adaptor out of the way! That would have been fine for the test fit. I ended up rotating the housing a bit anyway to ensure there was plenty of clearance.
Fitting the Gearbox
I cleaned the gearbox up as well, which was very straightforward. The only bit of fiddling about was removing, cleaning and reassembling the rear engine mount.
Bolting the gearbox to the engine was straightforward, especially as I didn’t bother fitting the flywheel or clutch at this stage. The bolts were as per the Mk2; I got the sizes directly from Lin Rose’s website. Thanks Lin!
Because of the concern about the sump potentially fouling the front cross member, I gave it (the cross member) a quick scrub and purchased new rubber mounts front and rear. I count myself lucky that I belong the Daimler Jaguar Spare parts club. I can simply ring up and ask the team for the parts I need, and they are in the mail the next day!
About the only thing of note here was that I needed to clean the threads up on the front legs of the cross member where it bolts to the chassis. These had become damaged somewhere along the line. I purchased a thread file for this was pleasantly surprised by the result.
For whatever reason I neglected to take photos of these final steps, anyway here is an image of the thread file! It has the following thread sizes: 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 24 TPI.
Now we are ready to fit the engine into the body shell …
