Camshaft oil supply pipe

[on2wheels]

Hi,
I have been reading the section on oil supply to the engine in my manaul.
Not much else to do!
The camshaft oil supply pipe seems to be of a very narrow gauge.
Are there any maintenance issues, and can one carry out any easy checks to the pipe? Are they difficult to remove?
Do they ever get blocked?
Without removing the cam covers, (still apprehensive as I have an oil tight engine at the moment) can one look through the oil filler aperture to check whether oil is getting to the cams correctly?

Thanks.

[christopher storey]

Nick : if there is oil in the camshaft cover then you know at least that the exhaust side is being fed . In over 50 years of acquaintance with quite a number of XK engines I only know of one failure , which was about 3 years ago in a car which was let out on hire from time to time, when the exhaust cam seized . You cannot check the inlet side all that easily, although if you remove one of the cam cover holding down nuts and its copper washer then with a little running it is likely that some oil will seep up between stud and cover, to reassure you . Frankly, however, this is not something about which I would ever worry, unless there was some obvious sign of failure e.g. a cracked pipe

[on2wheels]

Thanks once again Chris.