is it missing the rear windscreen chromed trim?

 

It is & the rubber is pulling away at the lower corner so it won't fit without that being corrected. Rear window chrome is a sod, (One of the chaps at Jag Lovers calls it an "evil" job.) It hooks into a rubber groove glass side & hooks over the rubber body side. Needs to be glued in place. Glued mine down with Loctite 480. Front springs are also a little soft. RHF Wire hub seems to be rusting.

You know you're in Aus when a Jag is fitted with All Terrain Tyres ~ Scorpion STR's

 

The trim was in the Boot. I guess I know why now.
The island it’s on, Magnetic Is, is only 5klms by 3klms large. & the maximum speed limit is 60 kph for the entire island. It’s a $50 ferry ride back to the mainland, so it hasn’t been off the island much in the last 5 years, which was a concern for me. Not to mention the exposure to salt air.

 

When that chrome trim comes back from the platers after all the buffing etc. It is ill fitting. You have to hand shape it carefully until you achieve the best fit possible. Then apply your adhesive of choice. Contact adhesive does not cut it which is why I moved to Loctite 480. The Recommended Jaguar Bostik adhesive went out of production long ago. Stick it down correctly & tape it all over the place & especially on the corners to allow the adhesive to fully cure. Add a day for good measure. Then glue in the joint covers.

 

mine was removed and replaced at some point in the car's life and before I bought it. Wasn't done to perfection if you look closely but I can tell it was messed with.
And that is exactly one big reason why i refuse to mess with the front and rear glass of mv S type. My XJ6 is still like it was done by the factory and I am not touching it, it is perfect.

 

If you are going to fix your roof lining properly the windscreen will have to come out but the front chrome is conventionally held in the 2 rubber grooves & easy.

 

As a point of reference, this week I removed the timing cover and had the front crank seal out in an E Type 4.2 in a bit over 2 hours. That was on a fresh build though, no rust or seized fasteners. So 30 hours seems excessive to me.

The "professional" shop that rebuilt the engine on this restoration project used a 3.8 front timing cover on a 4.2 block. The internal water passages don't line up, so the coolant simply flows into the oil pan. I checked the dipstick as a final check before trying to start the engine for the first time and noticed the oil level was about 3" higher on the stick than when I filled it with oil. Opened up the sump plug and got about 6 litres of coolant out of the sump. Debating now if the whole engine needs to come out, or just clean up the pan and hope for the best after the timing cover is welded up to give a gasket surface.

 

I unfortunately made the same mistake on my rebuild but the other way round. I used a 4.2 front cover gasket instead of the one for the 3.4. The gasket sits between the front cover and the block. The front cover has the water pump bolted to the front and the timing chains running behind it.





When you offer the gasket up to the block they fit but if you offer them up to the back of the front plate you can see why they don't quite line up. We offered the gasket up to the block and then fitted front plate over the gasket. The pictures tell the story. I fired my car up for the first time and immediately had an oil leak around the seating of the oil filter so switched off. Removed the oil filter to reseat it and found the water in the oil which was very lucky. I had not run the engine for more than 10 to 15 seconds. Thought it was a head gasket at first so took the top of the engine off whilst it was now in the engine bay. 4 hours later we found nothing wrong so sat and pondered where else water and oil might be running close together. We decided to take the water pump then the front cover plate off. This meant radiator out and front of the engine stripped and we eventually found this gasket mismatch between the front cover the the engine block. Fitted the correct gasket and spent another 5 hours cleaning the sump which involved dropping the front subframe to remove it then rebuilding the engine back up from just the block in the engine bay. We had been so careful dropping the whole engine and gearbox in to the newly painted car and then spent a day stripping it back down to the block. So frustrating. There is no indication in the head gasket set, which is for both the 3.4 to 4.2 engine, which of these gaskets are for which engine. We were unlucky enough to have chosen the wrong one when building the engine up.
If your engine has not been started I would have thought that taking the sump off and giving it a good clean would suffice as the water would only have run down the inside of the timing chain runs into the sump and would not have circulated around the rest of the engine.




3.4/3.8 gasket on the top 4.2 gasket in the middle. Bottom is the back of the water pump housing.




This is the tiny gap that allows water to run in to the sump where the gasket does not quite fit.

 

This is a very useful warning to file away in the back of one's memory for the future. Not that I see myself rebuilding an XK engine any time soon. Mine runs like a Singer sewing machine at present & I hope it stays that way. Just need to finish running it in. And not the recommended Jaguar way.

I advise using mineral oil of max SF level to run-in/bed-in/break-in a newly rebuilt engine (first 1000 miles) or it will take forever with modern oils. Run-in should avoid long periods at constant throttle & very high RPM. Keep revs below 3-3500RPM for first 500 miles. Varying throttle draws oil into the ring belt which is desirable. After first 500 miles bursts at WOT are recommended. Watch the temperature gauge & back off if temperature climbs unduly. If your cooling system is healthy & temperature rises unduly you still have a tight engine. Some will prefer to change at 1000 miles & then do a further 1000 miles on an SF. Then move to premium synthetics. You can use premium mineral oils should you wish but then change them more often.

Don't Baby your XK engine under run in/break in on modern oils. This can lead to cylinder bore glazing & high oil consumption.

Modern synthetic engine oils will substantially increase the life of an XK engine & due to vastly better HTHS (High Temperature High Shear) performance of modern synthetics your cam & tappet area will be far better protected. XK engines due to long stroke have pretty high piston speeds & modern additive/base oil technology will reduce wear here by a large margin.

 

scatcat
I lived in Townsville for 14 years in the beachside suburb of Pallarenda which is opposite Magnetic Island. The tropical humidity and heat gave rust a real boost!
It was an ongoing battle with car rust (and galvanised iron roof gutters would only last 5 to 7 years.)
I would not even consider buying this car as its exposure to these conditions for 5 years will produce ongoing problems.
Bill Mac
MK1
MK2
S3XJ6
X300
Previous 15 Jags. MK5 to X308

 

Yep! My conclusion entirely
Anyway I’ve moved on
To one of these
The 68 Bonnie T120R, not the Dodge Ram!