The 'E' Type Forum

My last post crossed with your latest. No, I think a loose valve seat is very unlikely , because warming of the aluminium head is likely to loosen the chilled cast iron seat rather than tighten it, and if it was loose enough to be trapped by the valve and therefore cause significant noise, then almo...

Ah, now my experience of piston slap on XKs is that it shows up as a light tinkling noise which lasts for a very few minutes until the pistons themselves warm up. I have to say that it is very easy to become paranoid about noises on these really quite complex engines, ( we are inclined to foget that...

The fact that it disappears when hot , and the oil is therefore thinner, leads me to suspect the lower timing chain which is tensioned by a piston type tensioner which is actuated by oil pressure. Unfortunately, there is no way of checking this without removing the front cover. What I would do first...

This is absolutely characteristic of the remote servo on 4.2 and later cars. If you repeatedly press the pedal with the engine switched off you will hear it gradually diminish in volume and intensity over about 8 presses until you hear nothing . The noise, and the knock which can be felt through the...

I think the point which has been missed here is that the V12 was not announced until ( if I remember correctly ) about April/May 1971, so irrespective of when they were built, no cars would be sold - or registered - before the spring ( northern hemisphere) of 1971

Thank you for that generous tribute Mark . It was rather a miserable wet day in London, but otherwise it all went very well, and I was relieved that there were no disturbances to spoil things in this needlessly discontented country of ours. God save the King ! - and when occasionally I think that he...

Paul : was it the (lack of ) content or the presentation which you disliked ?

There is a new project launched by the JDHT giving a virtual tour of Lyons's life and creations which is well worth an hour of your time . It is not by any means perfect with the content having rather a lot of holes - notably nothing that I could find about the transition from wooden frame to all-st...

Oh crikey, another spammer, 2 and a half years out of date

Hmmm... the only ones of those 10 that I would regard as beautiful are 1,4 and 10 with 8 being borderline. The rest IMHO vary between insipid ( e.g. 5,7, ) and hideous ( take your pick)

Alan : it also occurs to me that you should check the vac pipes carefully to eliminate the possibility of a hidden split in them And as a further thought, I think that perforation of the servo diaphragm would also have the effect of admitting atmospheric air to the inlet manifold . Sorry that none o...

It sounds to me as though you have got the vacuum pipes transposed in some way so that the manifold is connected to the atmospheric side of the servo ( the rear chamber) . That chamber must always be connected to the vertical port on the reaction valve at the front of the pedal master cylinder. Eith...

That looks to me as though the retainer into which the moveable catch fits has got bent upwards , possibly by someone tryingto force the bonnet upwards with the catch still impinging on the retainer . This will be difficult to rectify without damaging the upper surface of the bonnet, but it may just...

Did you check the compressions with the throttles wide open ? This is essential ( although the 0 at 4 and 5 perhaps suggests a blown gasket between those cylinders ) . Also, one thing you don't mention checking is the ignition timing . Static timing of 10 degs BTDC should do for these purposes

Like Steve ( Mgcjag) and Malcolm I thought this was surprisingly high , but, but......... I think that to get a reasonable idea it is worth pricing the essential replacement parts which I would regard as 6 pistons and ring sets 12 valves 12 guides cam bearing set main and subsidiary timing chains sl...

Perhaps, Herr Lemke, you might take a piece of your own advice, and Shut Up. I resent , strongly, being one of those ( by implication ) criticised for putting forward a view which I hold . Your ill manners do you no favours Edit 2 hours later : oh, life is too short for this sort of disagreement. Le...

In my opinion there is absolutely no chance of that fitting without major ( and disfiguring) surgery to the bodyshell and the tunnel, and frankly I think it would be downright impossible on a short chassis car because of the position of the seating . Those units ( which are very good ) are largely i...

I heard it best on the first clip and could hardly detect it on the others. The interesting thing is that it appeared, in apparently identical form as to pitch and rhythm etc. , on both acceleration and on the overrun. It did not sound mechanical to me, but sounded more like a resonance effect which...

Marek : it was done better, much better, when the two principal Jaguar Clubs a.started it , and b. continued to run it for many years

However, I am otherwise deeply grateful for your patronising lecture