The 'E' Type Forum

I am on the hunt for some old-style cam covers for my Series II to replace the 'modern' ribbed ones. Either polished or one that I can polish up.
But I'm not sure of the differences (if any) between the different models. I'm guessing the rev-counter drive will be different, but apart from that, is there anything preventing me from fitting (or adapting) a pair of cam covers from a Series I 4.2 or 3.8 or even, come to that, any other engines of this family?

All will fit your car except ( so rare as to be virtually unknown now) the very early XK120 ones without the front stud holes. The covers are all the same irrespective of tacho drive - they are adapted with different rear end plugs

Hugo,
New smooth covers are available (SNGB and possibly others) if you are unable to find some secondhand.....

Why don't you polish the ribbed ones. They can look mighty fine once done and just as eye catching as the smooth ones.
Obviously I'm biased

Nick,

That's exactly what I did with mine after debating it for some time. I wanted the authenticity of the series 2 but with a bit of series 1 bling.
Hugo if you are buying second hand covers check for cracks from over tightening.



Simon

christopher storey wrote:The covers are all the same irrespective of tacho drive - they are adapted with different rear end plugs

Not quite. The AC tach generator S1 E-types use an extended rear inlet cam cap and the largest rear cutaway. You can't fit any other cover unless you cut off the extended bearing cap, or you fit a shorter cap (which probably won't exactly fit the bearing halves concentrically because it will have been line-bored on another head).

Pete

Sorry Peter , no. I have S1 cam covers on my S2 and they required no adaptation whatsoever

The hidden "gotcha" in here relates not to fitting earlier covers to a later head (as Hugo is considering) but fitting a later head to a tach-generator engine and wanting to retain the tach generator.

Using a cam-driven tach-gen on a short rear bearing cap head leaves a semicircular gap between cover and generator body. A semicircular spacer piece reproducing the shape of the rear part of the extended bearing cap must then be used to fill the gap. I was faced with this when I fitted a new military head to my S1. The spacer was available off the shelf from SNGB. Or I could have cut the extension off an extended cap and used that as the spacer.

Quite right Christopher, but you can't do the reverse

Ah, I see your point Peter - but I have never seen anyone want to put the ribbed covers on an earlier engine

By "...can't fit any other cover'.." I meant any cover with the smaller cutaway, which is every cover prior to the advent of the 3.8 in 1958 (?) or whenever the MkIX or XK150 3.8 came out.

So it was just the 'all the same' bit I took issue with.

Hi Hugo, I have a pair of New Series 2 cam covers. Email me, best Barry

Barry : he wants polished smooth alloys, not the ribbed type

Simon is right:
If you get second hand covers look very careful for those tiny little stress-cracks close to the holes.
I had some hardly visible with the bare eye (at least to hard for my eyes) and I was surprised how much oils crawls out of these tiny cracks. In fact it was so much it saved me the yearly oil change until I git them welded up, which is not easy as well. So take a magnifying glass with you.
Happy hunting
Alex

Until you get the chance to get them properly welded, try sealing the cracks from the inside with JB Weld. That stuff does wonders for problems like that. In fact, you may forget to get them properly welded!

Thanks for all the input. I'm in Florida working on a couple of Corvairs which have small holes in the floorpans. They're not bad enough to warrant welding in a new floor - just a couple of pin-holes here & there. I have repaired them with POR15 paste, which is an extraordinary substance - goes on like mastic & sets like concrete! That might be the ideal stuff to repair hairline cracks in cam covers.
I'm a bit frustrated with my quest for cam covers - I already bought a pair on eBay but they never arrived. I took it up with eBay & they refunded my money & that was it! Not another word from anybody!

Does anyone know how well-polished the Series I cam covers were when they came from the factory? Many of us spend hours polishing them to a high shine (guilty as charged), but I doubt that the factory with its penny pinchers would have allowed an inordinate amount of time to be spent on bringing them beyond "shiny enough." Just curious.

Hugo, there's a pair just been listed on eBay starting at £199
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JAGUAR-XK-E-T ... SwzhRZjh2p

Great - keep 'em coming! My engine is in a million bits at the moment so I've got plenty of time.

Mark Gordon wrote:Does anyone know how well-polished the Series I cam covers were when they came from the factory? Many of us spend hours polishing them to a high shine (guilty as charged), but I doubt that the factory with its penny pinchers would have allowed an inordinate amount of time to be spent on bringing them beyond "shiny enough." Just curious.

We never had an E type in the family, but my Father, and later me, had a number of new XK engined cars, Mark VIII, IX and 10 in his case , and Mark 2 in my case and as I recall -sadly now over a distance of 50 and more years - they had a nice polished sheen to them but they were nothing like the brilliant almost mirror finish that one sees often on restored cars