Noisy Tappets?

[Heuer]

Just had a report from Tim Griffin at CMC about my noisy cylinder head:


Seems the tappets are OK but there is wear on both the inlet and exhaust bucket guides. The only remedy is to remove the cylinder head, ream the guides and fit oversize buckets. Fingers crossed there won't be any other problems when the head is removed.

[1954Etype]

So thats after how many miles following your VSE engine rebuild?

[Heuer]

33,000

[1954Etype]

33,000

Blimey! Let me know what they find - I will probably be in the same boat soon!

[Heuer]

So far, apart from the dismal fuel consumption, the costs have been the rear rope seal although CMC replaced the main bearings while they were at it as they did not look good after 25,000 miles:


Having all that extra power and making use of it does take its toll. CMC think the rear seal failed because of a build up of crank case vapour pressure the standard vent was unable to deal with due to the increased power. They fitted dual vents.

[JEP41]

Hi David,

Interesting commiserations on the Bucket Clearance wear, have you thought of opening them out to take the racing buckets this gives you more options on camshafts and their lift. I do this a standard practice on all my cylinder heads along with bronze guides?
Interesting wear on the main bearing shell. Was the engine line bore checked when originally rebuilt?

[MarkE]

I don't think that extra power would knock out the main bearings in 25k miles, David. Thrashing the car when cold wouldn't do it any good, but I can't see you doing that somehow. Given the state of the bucket guides it points to contamination whilst being built.

I've always been advised to avoid 'factory' engine reconditioning services where at all possible as the process can more easily lead to mistakes being made. There are a couple of stages of the work that only require unskilled labour, and cleaning the block, crank and head before and after machining (and maybe blasting for the block) are just some of those.

When one individual has to put his name to the end result, he will make absolutely sure that each job is completed as well as it possibly can be. When my block, head and crank came back from machining, the guy building the engine spent a whole day just cleaning them, despite assurances that they had been cleaned properly by the guys who had done the work at the previous stage. He wasn't happy with somebody else's opinion...he had to satisfy himself!

If I need any such work again, I would certainly seek out a one or two man band, based on recommendations.

[Heuer]

I will go with whatever CMC recommend but I am not minded to make the engine any more extreme so no changing camshafts etc. It is not just the engine but the ancillary parts as well. Koni shocks failing (6k), diff seals (15k), carbs (25k), rear discs (15k), hoses (15k), gearbox (6k and 25k) plus numerous suspension related parts. The rear tyres last 10k, fronts 20k and these are Michelin XVS at ?250 a pop. I do cane it whenever I get the chance, which is quite often, but I have come to understand a bog standard well sorted E-Type driven sensibly on high days and holidays will not be much trouble. Push the power way up, start driving it like a 911 over long distances taking in Alpine passes and things will start to fail. The one thing I do insist on though is changing anything over which there is the slightest doubt because one major breakdown in Europe and my wife will refuse to participate in any more of my mad cap adventures. Fortunately I have found kindred spirits in CMC who tolerate my tinkering but are prepared to ruthlessly check the car each year. E Type UK will do the same for those in the south of the Country.

As for one man bands and 'factory' re-furbishers it can go either way. Although a 'factory' did the engine a highly reputable name did my diff but the seals failed after 15,000 miles.

Most reliable thing on my car is the battery - it is now 11 years old and going strong!

[PeterCrespin]

Was that shell from the centre main David, do you know?

Unusual wear for it to be down to the copper on the outer edges (if the light is not playing tricks). That shell is totally 100% shot, not just 'not looking good'. You were close to a regrind...in fact I don't recall seeing one quite that bad big end or main.

Was the crank reground? How much by if so? Assuming the crank journal is parallel I'd put it down to crank flex if its the middle bearing. If you cane a 4.2 it will whip the crank and the centre main takes a pounding. If the crank is reground it will whip more than standard though you wouldn't normally notice with -0.010". Minus 30 thou is a different matter.

Still, you caught it in time and it's not the world's biggest job to replace shells every couple of years if you continue to thrash it. Jolly good thing too :-)

[Heuer]

According to the VSE rebuild sheet the crank was new, polished and balanced. Big ends and mains were standard. Inlet and exhaust manifolds were bronze o/s during the rebuild in 1999. Inlet camshaft is L2, exhaust camshaft L2B.



CMC fitted new shells whilst they had the engine in bits. Well spotted Pete, looks like that shell came off the middle bearing:

[Heuer]

Collected my car from CMC last week and the engine is now quiet and the performance superb, very quick indeed. Head was removed and sent to VSE who charged ?708.05 to recondition but at least I got some nice new gold paint. Gaskets/seals/studs and washers were about ?90. Unfortunately CMC found one of the crank covers was cracked and needed welding so that added to the cost and the 40 hours labour involved. I also got CMC to re-bush and shim the front suspension which has improved the steering feel and cornering no end (goodbye polybushes!).

My only disappointment is the fact VSE fully rebuilt the engine and carbs in 1999 but after 33,000 it has required new crank bearings, carb rebuild, rear rope seal and the head overhaul. I know I drive the car fairly hard at times but it does make me wonder whether these engines are reconditioned with the expectation that few will do more than 600 miles a year.

[christopher storey]

I have a nasty feeling that with all engine work you get what you pay for. On my FHC rebuild I did all the work , except for machining, myself , but still spent ?2660 on the engine for parts and machining ( boring , grinding, refacing of valve seats , and some reaming of eg little ends) alone, together with ?140 for balancing . Quite how some of the rebuilders do it for what they charge I do not know , because the man who did the machining, who has an E himself , told me that he always budgets for 40 hours labour on a reassembly for an XK if it is to be done properly with clearances checked at each stage . I stress this last because your bearing shell interests me - when I stripped my engine before the rebuild I found the main shells rather like that and in fact there was an apparent interference fit with the shells being -.010" but the crank only being 7 thou under !!

[PeterCrespin]

My only disappointment is the fact VSE fully rebuilt the engine and carbs in 1999 but after 33,000 it has required new crank bearings, carb rebuild, rear rope seal and the head overhaul. I know I drive the car fairly hard at times but it does make me wonder whether these engines are reconditioned with the expectation that few will do more than 600 miles a year.

My home-rebuilt engine is on 90K and rising, 6 of those being on my build. The engine was in spec with everything from bore sizes, journal sizes, even valve stem sizes well inside wear limits. There are two differences I can think of that account for the vastly different lifespans - and I would not expaect mine to look like yours until maybe 30K of hard driving like you've done:

1) The first 84,000 miles were done in an XJ6 automatic. By far the majority of 4.2s will have spent their life on an auto box and therefore the increased crank whip will not be an issue as autos aren't thrashed.

2) I assume my engine has had standard air filtration all its life, it certainly does at present in the E and I assume it did when it was in the Series 3 XJ. I have a feeling you've used ITG or some other custom filter arrangement? This is the biggest reason for the general wear I'm sure, although I would expect it to affect your bores too eventually, which it seems not to have done. I could believe they've left the rings and pistons alone but did they check bore wear? Microscopic dust particles are mopped up by the oil and turn it into grinding paste. Regular changes help mitigate this and I'm obviously exaggerating to some extent with 'grinding paste' comment, but it definitely wears engines out faster to have 'sports' air filtration compared to boring old standard filtration.

The rear crank seal is one of those things I suspect. If it was truly peeing out then no wonder you changed it. If it was just dribbling a bit, othersm ight havel eft it for 90,000 miles not getting any worse. I'm surprised they left the standard breather on a race-spec engine or close to. It will have stressed all engineselas right enough at high revs.

Are you saying CMC rebuilt your engine using the big end shells that were in it? I would find that astonishing given the state of your mains. If they replaced the big ends then it has needed new big ends as well, not just mains. For the minimal extra trouble and cost I'd have re-ringed it and glaze-busted it myself <shrug>

[Heuer]

Pete

CMC replaced the rope seal and while they were at it, the shells and bearings. The seal was just dribbling but steadily getting worse. VSE rebuilt the engine to their VSE02 spec and indeed left the standard breather in place . CMC spotted it and replaced with their dual breather for the reasons you suggested (Angus: take note!). The bores were OK on inspection and you have to draw the financial line somewhere.

The engine has been on ITG filters since it was re-built - originally the socks, which kept falling off so grit could have been ingested although the head problem was due to loose buckets rather than wear. Perhaps I am the exception in driving my E-Type very hard over long distances? Unfortunately I got used to hammering air-cooled 911's for 150,000 miles without problems and V8 BMW's for 400,000 miles plus so I was expecting the same from the XK. But if I thought I was not going to drive it within an inch of its life I would sell it immediately! My hooligan behaviour translates to 15mpg, Michelin XVS tyres lasting 8,000 miles and a lot of maintenance work - good fun though.