dayton sleeves.com told me, sometimes people install liners so they protude about .002 - .003 thousandths above the block deck to help seal the fire ring, and much more than that will create gasket sealing problems in areas of water jackets etc.

DOES ANYONE ELSE have this configuration?
i purchased this block minus cylinder head because 10 years ago they claim the head cracked due to overheating...so i picked it up for $100 bucks

the block appears flawless, like it only has 100 miles on it, the bearings (rod) are almost new.
i noticed the casting number on the piison rod says "C7917 / 3 "
does anyone know if these are the right application?
thanks

 

The many, too many, I have rebuilt, have been fitted, by me, with the Stepped Liner Upgrade, and the black face machined WITH the liners in situ. NO protrusion.

The V12, very different, and has protrusion.

 

The V12 has an open deck block like the much later Austin Rover K-series engine and the liners protrude by a small amount, (2-4 thou is the requirement). The lipped liner modification is the only real way of overcoming the block cracking between the bores on the XK engine. Expensive, of course !
I was lucky with my cracked block in meeting up with a chap who told me all about it, and who supplied me with an uncracked block. Apparently 7 out of 10 7L blocks crack, and 8 out of 19 8L. The later slotted blocks dont crack but do eventually blow headgaskets around 80-90k miles.

 

so in choosing the 1972 block with cracks down the center of the deck between sleeves that protrude .003...or the 1987 slotted block with water in the pistons and the broken flywheel bolt..???
which is the one to put money into to make this 1964 3.8S run?

im already considering either fabricating an intake manifold from 1/4 inch and 1/8 inch steel plate and the handy plasma torch...or adapting the fuel injection maniford by cutting off the plenum and shortening the runners with a new plenum and a center mounted 2 barrel weber ogg a jeep 4.2 liter 6 cyl engine.

my goal might be to mount two of these if i can find old ones for cheap to rebuild...maybe even a scoop cut into the bonnet on the passenger side ?
sheesh i only paid 200 bucks for the car.....rat rod jaguar anyone?

 

I would go with the 1972 block, stepped liners, and forget the thing. None of mine ever had gasket, or anything else for that matter, issues, once I did the liner conversion.

The only S3 we ever had always had head gasket weepage, so it left the fleet.

Simply my 2c worth.

 

the 1972 block has thin wall non top hat liners where about 3/32 thick protrusions of the walls are .003 above the deck...not a top hat style that covers the center cracks.

i read on this forum that you can discard the factory liners and have top hat liners installed by machining of course, and this covers the cracks along the center of the deck to provide more fire ring sealing..im using a fuel injected 1987 head that i believe has larger intake valves..with a custom fabricated carbureted dual weber intake..and my own top return water pipe straight from head to hose mounted thermostat housing also custom...because the water pipe in the fuel injected manifold is missing the thermostat housing pieces....so
maybe simplify the water return path....only using the water pump lower hose to draw cooled water from radiator...thru block and only additional hoses for heater core...

i wonder if modifying the block off plate at the back of the engine (at firewall) with an extra water return path and maybe an aux. electric pump would improve circulation around cylinders?..some believe that the firewall end of the block gets very little circulation by the time the coolant gets there if ever...
any thoughts on these?

 

Over too many years my OPINION is;

The damage to these XK engines, and mainly the ";ong stud" engines, is SLACK (and tats being polite) maintaiong by many previous people, both owners and "experts".

NO ONE wanted (and most still do not) to spend the money to do whatever was needed, so a patch up was the path taken.

With the "real" S Type cooling system in OE spec, and CLEAN, and the CORRECT "slide style" thermostat, my 3.4 never ever ran hot, and that car had Air Con. When I rescued it, OH DEAR, what a basket case the engine bay was, and I told the seller exactly what I thought, as he had owned the car for 14 years. We have not spoken since.

Way back, before computers and Forums, I looked at altering this and altering that. I decided to go "AS MADE in the UK", with my own A/C system, and have never regretted it. These engines are tough, and yes, they have issues, as I mentioned above, being 99% the root cause of ALL the evil we enthusiasts are trying to get sorted.

Altering the cooling system, dunno, maybe it will work, maybe it wont. The rear is low flow, due to all the mud and crud built up over the years. Cleaned out and maintained, I doubt there is a problem.

My Series cars, once I machined the block (I had access and the knowledge) those engines were more reliable than Toyota, fact.

The V12's, even worse care given, but once returned to spec, MORE reliable than any car.

The original S type engine was a "short stud" block, and never had the issues the later "long stud" block had. If you want 4.2??, then the S2 era would be my chaise, machine and fit the stepped liners, face the top deck, WITH the timing cover installed, and move on.
Cooling system dunno, you are stepping a long way outside the capacity of that radiator and air flow in MY opinion.

BUT, people did fit a 6ltr V12 into one of them, and it all worked out just fine. Details, NO IDEA, I only saw the completed unit, VERY tidy indeed, and a TRUE sleeper.

 

ok, hot tank the 87 block..looking forward to checking the crank on that one, still has the oil pan and pistons frozen in bores..the guy left it out in the rain......hoping to get a good standard size crank cause my other one is already at .030 R & M.

so yeah...you have helped a lot, thanks...maybe ill get the slotted block rebuilt, and save up the bucks to put tophat liners in the 72 block.
we shall see

 

BTW...would you use the oil pan with both sides protruding or the half pan that was modified for the cat converter?

also my repco aftermarket pistons have a lot of wear on the skirts, almost as if there were not enough oil splash on the bore...

i noticed the older original pistons had slots in 4 places equally spaced under the oil wiper rings for lubrication...can after market pistons be modified and cut oiling slots in the skirts like the original factory units?

my repcos have long skirts..not short ones like the cheap aftermarkets

 

Sump I will leave to your market. We never had cats on that engine, so all the sumps, I have seen, are the double bubble style.

I would not cut slots.

Look at the conrods, and see if there is a "squirter" hole on the top half of the rod. Some had them, some did not.

The wear is possibly from crap oil, and lousy intervals, and then the usual over heating Domino. Racing the engine, and I mean stupid racing, when still cold will also do that.

When you get to take the liners out, run a good arc weld up the inside, 180deg apart, and mostly they will drop out.

Good luck.

 

Cheers everyone...the second motor i broke apart is a 1987 model 4.2 liter with the vertical cooling slots, no liners..and the good news?
i was able to clean off the minimal surface rust and push the pistons out...
they are original 3.622 bore
the crank and block have never been cut...other than a little water damage, the journals look pretty good
might get away with a good boil out, a crank polish and a cylinder hone...

any preferences on rods?
the 1972 engine had long skirt pistons with rods designed with an oil passage up the center to the wrist pin
the 1987 engine has no such oil passage in the rods, maybe because of the shorter skirts on the factory pistons?

should i use the rods with the oil holes on the 87 engine build if they are the same length?

thanks for helping a chevy block builder with his first Jaguar rebuild in a long time.