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[r.ludeke]

Hello, my e-type is finished after a complete restoration :D . At first everything was ok, she started within a second of turning the key. But now it is very difficult starting the car, i drove not more then 100 km's.
Today i had a better look at he car, tried to adjust the su's and improve the starting. No luck but a strange thing occured when idling. There was a lot of damp coming from the breather pipe. I put my thumb on the breather pipe, pressure was building up and when i released it a splash of water was coming out of the breather pipe.
I then removed the spark plugs one by one and when started steam was coming out of them for a couple of seconds except for the front cylinder.
I think and hope it is the head gasket. there was a little bit of white residu on the radiator cap, but not much. ( we drove not more then 100 km's )
It looks like water is coming in a couple of the cylinders, maybe some oil in the coolant but no coolant in the oil. And some over pressure in the engine, steam from the breather pipe.
Also there is steam coming from the right tailpipe when started warm, not from the left pipe.

Any ideas??? Thanks

[cactusman]

I would tend to agree....sounds like the head gasket. When running there will always be a bit of vapour from the breather....that is normal. Water is not. There should definitely not be steam out of the spark plug holes. Has the coolant level dropped? If there is "mayonnaise" at the oil filler cap this too suggests a gasket failure. The only way to find out is to remove the head? Hope you get to the bottom of the issue. If the engine has just been rebuilt the gasket should not have failed unless the cylinder head bolts were not tightened correctly or there was an issue with either the head or block. Julian

[cactusman]

Another thing you could try is a compression test on each cylinder. However if there is water then this may actually lead to a higher compression pressure and not prove much.. I would be looking for consistency from one to the next. My 3.8 with an engine that has not been rebuilt for a while shows between 185 and 190 psi across all six pots with a warm engine. Very consistent.
Either way if the gasket has failed then don't run the engine. Get the water out of the bores asap before any corrosion sets in. J

[trondvo]

Take a look at the engine oil as well, pending on the kind of gasket failure you can get water in oil and it turn gray-ish. With that little km on the engine you should have clean engine oil.

Just check the dipstick, anything grayish and you may have water entering the oil.

EDIT: Sorry, did not see that you already checked the oil, it can take a little time for the oil to turn grayish though. Suppose you have clean oil then.

If you have (oil) foam on the cap it could be from the rebuild but more often it is engine oil coming into the cooling.

[r.ludeke]

Thanks for your ideas, there was some mayo on the radiator cap. Very little but the engine only has 100 km.
I think the first thing i will try is checking the head bolts.Releasing a quarter of turn and then tighten them the correct way.
What bothers me is that at the first start up 2 months ago she fired up in a second, and with time it got worse

[PeterCrespin]

Hello, my e-type is finished after a complete restoration :D . At first everything was ok, she started within a second of turning the key. But now it is very difficult starting the car, i drove not more then 100 km's.
Today i had a better look at he car, tried to adjust the su's and improve the starting. No luck but a strange thing occured when idling. There was a lot of damp coming from the breather pipe. I put my thumb on the breather pipe, pressure was building up and when i released it a splash of water was coming out of the breather pipe.
I then removed the spark plugs one by one and when started steam was coming out of them for a couple of seconds except for the front cylinder.

Any ideas??? Thanks

Goedendag meneer

I think everything is probably fine.

I do not read anything unusual in your not-very-technical description. From your description I think you may be mistaking mixture for 'steam' from the plug holes and you do not seem familiar with very large cast-iron block engine because the breather behaviour sounds normal.

Drive it more and watch your levels and gauges. I suspect the hard starting may be due to whatever you did to the carbs, but you will know better than me the sequence of events.

More diagnosis required before you worry much more. Go ahead and drive the thing. Find a nice mountain in Germany and give it some work. Veel succes met uw auto.

[David Oslo]

Another check is to crank the engine over when cold with the plugs out and see if you get the same "steam" that you described in your first post. Catch the steam between your fingers and give it a taste. If it tastes like petrol, well, you're maybe fine. The reason of cranking from cold is that there should anyhow not be any water-steam, since everything is cold.

[r.ludeke]

Thanks for your answers (bedankt voor je antwoord ;) )I must admit this is my first cast iron block but when i got a splash of water out of the breather pipe after closing it with my thumb for a couple of seconds i got a little worried. This together with the white smoke from the right exhaust and a smear of mayo after 100km,s of driving and the starting getting worse in 2 months gave me the idea something is wrong.
Driving is ok but to start her up now takes a lot of time.
There was some coolant gone after 100km's.

I hope you are right and it is only me but a splash of water out of the breather pipe scared me a bit

[r.ludeke]

PS i will try cranking her with the plugs removed and see what happens.

[PeterCrespin]

The big engine produces a lot of crankcase vapours and water. If you plug the breather it will condense and splash. Obviously not 50 mL but enough to wet your fingers. The exhaust condenses the same (one litre of water for each litre of fuel and it is not unusual for the two pipes to run slightly differently, although after a good long run up the Dutch Alps with the exhaust fully hot, it should take some time for visible water valour (it's not steam) to start comi g out again, delending on weather. If you lost a bit of coolant and then stopped losing after the level we t down a bit, that's normal too if you overfill slightly.

Of course, if you see water in the cylinder below the removed plug, or smell exhaust in the coolant things are more serious, but a gasket leak shouldn't normally cause hard starting unless there are several cylinders getting pretty wet. You can pressure test the cooling system easily enough.

Ik hoop dat alles goed gaat..

[r.ludeke]

I will let you know, bedankt.

[r.ludeke]

We are now sure it is the head gasket, when we pressure tested the cooling system a hiss was coming from allmost all of the cylinders (spark plugs removed). When i removed the gasket there were signs of leking between all off the cylinders. I think i messed things up when putting the head on. The guy who did the work on the head, suspected the nuts and studs.
I tried them and indeed they were not going as they should.
I'm going to put everything together with a nice new composite gasket 8) and clean and lubricate the threads .
We checked the head and block surface but they are as straight as they can be.

[christopher storey]

If you have used new domed nuts that are not Jaguar originals, you must check carefully that the nuts have sufficient depth to allow the nuts to fully tighten the head down before the top of the stud reaches the inner roof of the nut. There are a lot of replacement nuts which have insufficient depth, and when you think you have torqued the head down, in fact all you have done is to tighten the nut down on the top of the stud

[cactusman]

Sorry to hear it was the gasket. Good tip about the nuts from Christopher.
I am not an expert but I have read that re using old stud can be unwise. Also the studs screw into blind holes in the block. Make sure there is no crud and rust at the bottom of the holes or the studs will not go far enough in. There is a good chapter in Chris Rookes book " E type a kind of loving" all about head gasket fitting. Might be worth a read. Very important to tighten the head nuts up in the correct order and to the correct tightness too.

Good luck and I hope you get the issue sorted. I would change the oil too!

[PeterCrespin]

If you have used new domed nuts that are not Jaguar originals, you must check carefully that the nuts have sufficient depth to allow the nuts to fully tighten the head down before the top of the stud reaches the inner roof of the nut. There are a lot of replacement nuts which have insufficient depth, and when you think you have torqued the head down, in fact all you have done is to tighten the nut down on the top of the stud

This is very good advice and an essential check for all studs given that thry vary in free length depending on washers, lifting brackets, conduits etc. However, there are two lengths of Jaguar acorn nut - it's not an issue of lousy repros (although there might be those as well).

PFrom memory the later long stud nuts are deeper but usually not chromed. The quick check is to spin the nuts down by hand with no washers. If they touch the head or nip a 10 thou feeler gauge then they'll be fine with washers.

[r.ludeke]

Thanks for your replies, the studs are new and i will check if the studs are in deep enough.

[r.ludeke]

And after some time we started the engine today , everything looks fine. No more steam coming from the spark plug holes, some vapor coming from the ventalation , but not water so normal i understood.
Happy again :D