I have not been blogging

From rear brakes

I started the rear suspension and it looked pretty bad. I cleaned it up, greased it up, and rebuilt the brakes.

From rear brakes

I also rebuilt the front brakes and have ordered a set of ball joints and bushings for the front suspension. It is at the point where I have driven it around the block! But it does feel like I am only firing on 4 cylinders. I have to figure that out. I keep running into injector problems. I am going to look for a local place that can actually clean my injectors and tell me if they are still good.

odds and ends

I have been fixing the little things that keep popping up. I had several loose hoses that needed to be tightened. The oil drain plug was leaking because it was very loose. The alternator was not charging because the small field wire was grounding out. The fuel injectors jammed/clogged up from sitting for over a year and I only barely got them working but they are only barely working. I am actually going to replace the injectors with multi-port injectors that I am getting really cheap. I checked the brakes, the rotors are beyond resurfacing and the hoses are dry/cracking, so I ordered new rotors, pads and hoses for the brakes.

I did a couple of little things today. First I confirmed that I have spark when the engine is cranked. This was not easy since I had to track down the reasons that I was not getting spark when I started. Second I replaced the low note of the horn. Mine didn't work for some reason. Third I washed the front windshield, well at least the driver half. There is a layer of dirt on the windshield. I think that it used to be dust, but when I didn't clean the car it built up until it became dirt.

proof that it turns over.

first turn over from Vincent Alvarez on Vimeo.

Turning it over!

It has been a while. I put everything on and put in fluids.

I have found a great diagram of the vacuum layout for the 1987 Series 3 Jaguar.

I honestly don't remember where I got this, but if anyone wants to claim it I would like to thank them. I usually get a lot of information from Captian Jaguars web site. I did down load a pdf that goes into detail about the 1985-1987 Series 3 Jaguar. The web site is hosting so much information in a easy to access way, I feel obligated to buy from him. I also feel obligated to send people his way so - Captian Jaguars Cat House

Well this is where I started this weekend. It is the intake manifold and let me tell you it has a LOT of hoses going everywhere. I cleaned it all and then painted it. I put it back together and it looks a lot better.

Did I mention the wiring? Almost all of the wiring goes to the intake assembly. Thank god I took a lot of pictures when I took it apart because it totally saved me when I was trying to put it back together. Don't get me wrong. There are still several wires that I have no idea where they go and I didn't get any pictures when I took them apart. I really don't know what to do with them so I am just going to keep going a hope that I figure it out eventually. Anyway, this is where I am at today.

I also put in several of the coolant hoses but they are in back and you can't see them in this picture. Coming up I need to get to a radiator shop to get the radiator and oil cooler cleaned.

The engine/transmission is in. I put in the transmission mount and hooked up everything except the transmission cooler which still has to be cleaned at the radiator shop.

Next will be the intake and exhaust manifolds.

Look at that! It fit back in! I have the 2 motor mounts attached, but I am still working on the transmission mount. Most cars have a transmission mount that consists of a bolt. My Jaguar's transmission mount has 24 parts which include 4 rubber bushings and a big spring. Like most of the rest of it, it is a little over engineered and taking longer than I thought.

Back to work. I spent the weekend getting the engine ready to put back in. I am only waiting on the alternator shop. I still have to do the intake and exhaust manifolds though so it is still a ways from running, but I did get the transmission lines all ran and the brackets fixed. I also cleaned and painted the starter.

I must pause

I have continued to make small advances, but it is now time to go hunting. I have a trip to Canada for a bear hunt and must stop for now. I will resume after returning. Here is where I am at right now. At least everything is closed up.

And yes that is my bow case in the background. I only have so much space.

I have stopped. For now. Here is the last look at under the oil pan since you have to pull the engine in order to take the oil pan off.

Here is a picture of where I stopped on the top end. The distributor is rebuilt. The power steering pump is rebuilt. The head is on and the dual cams are timed, correctly. Timing the cams took several hours. I really am lucky that I talked to Dave at Dave's Import Service because I would have left it incorrectly timed. Using his advice I was able to do it correctly. I also put on the breather and several of the brackets.

I still need to strip the cam covers, repaint them and put them on.

So the power steering pump was taken apart. Some parts were painted

new o-rings were added

and the thing was put back together

It did take a tool I did not have, a pully puller. Luckily my friend Mike has a good one and the knowledge of how to use it.

I am currently working on the power steering pump. I had to get a new socket (18mm deep) and a new allen wrench (10mm) in order to get it apart. I have all new o-rings and once I get it painted and put back together I will get some more pictures.

♦

I was on call this weekend and didn't get much done. I hope to get a lot done on this upcoming Friday when I find the true Top Dead Center and put on the head. Here is where I am at right now. You can expect the next post to have pictures of the engine with the head.

Head Studs

I went to a new Jaguar place today called Dave's Import Service. I talked with Dave and let me tell you I now a new place to go for questions! That guy knows his shit. I started with a question about my distributor shaft and was there about another half hour with so much stuff to remember I think that I forgot some. To begin...

Some of the studs have an un-threaded section at one end.

From assembly

This is the bottom. There is an indention/hole for this in the bottom of the block. This will set into the hole when the stud is fully threaded into the block.

There is a definite order to where the studs go. Let me tell you I have four books on assembly and none of them cover this. They say there is a dowel stud and it needs to... WHATEVER that means. I have two engines that I have disassembled and they not only had the studs in upside down but not in the correct order. After speaking with Dave I moved the studs around and when they were in correctly they were all exactly the same height (except the four that need to be a little taller) They go in like this

From assembly

This places the longer studs on the passenger side in the 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th position from the front. The reason for this placement is to place the longer studs where the engine lift hooks will be as they are thicker than the normal washers and will have to support the engine while it is dangling from the hoist.

From assembly

What can I say. Thank God I found out now. There are several other things Dave told me to do that I will do and report here.

From assembly

And so it begins...
When they gave it back to me it was just the block and pistons. I was so excited I forgot to take a picture. I painted it and cleaned and installed the timing chains. I just put the oil pan on for show, I still need to do something with it I think. And the head is still in the wrapper!

From assembly

missing pics

Here is the pic of the Transmission!

From assembly

This is the picture of the $100 brass gear. The picture is of the entire shaft and the arrow is pointing to the chipped teeth.

From assembly

I have spoken with the machine shop and I need another part. The gear at the bottom of the distributer shaft had chipped teeth. I figured that I could just go and get my spare ( from the other engine ). Guess what. It had chipped teeth as well. I looked up a new one (C-2152) it is $100 at least.

The machine shop ordered the part and will put it in and they will be done and I can have it back.

I have gotten the transmission back. It is all clean with a freshly painted and rebuilt torque converter. It looks good. Now I just have to wait for the block and head.

It went away

I forgot to take a picture, but I took everything off of the block. Then I took the block, the head, the oil pan and the timing cover to the machine shop. Kelley's Machine Shop at 1706 West Hatcher Road, Phoenix Arizona. This is a great place. It is a little Mom and Pop place. I went to check the place out about a week ago and the guys there were great. One of the head guys used to work in a Jaguar machine/repair shop. When I dropped of the parts I was talking to them and they had just gotten in another Jag engine 2 days before.

Then I took the transmission to the transmission place. State to State Transmissions at 2540 East Bell Road, Phoenix Arizona. I went to this place based on the recommendations of a friend of mine who had just had some transmission work done and was really impressed by this guy. He is going to rebuild the transmission.

Both of them should be done within a week or so. They both asked if I wanted it done sooner, but I am not in a rush so a week should be fine. Besides the next week day that I have off to go and pick them up is 6/24 so it is really not a rush.

The head is FREE (like a bird)

It took 3 weeks I think. Off and on, but the head is off. Unlike the first engine this engine did not want to give up the head. I was able to move it maybe a quarter of an inch.

I backed out as many bolts as I could but I was still unable to get the head off so I started searching the web I found several ideas that included everything from wooden shims to filling the cylinders with rice. I settled on using a rope placed in through the spark plug hole. You loosen the overhead cams. Then rotate the crankshaft until the piston is at the bottom of it's stroke and take out the spark plug. Start putting in the rope. I used a 1/4" nylon rope that I had laying around. Once you have the cylinder filled with rope just turn the crankshaft and the rope pushes the head off. This pushed the head up about an inch but it was still binding on one of the head bolts. I got the head back down by putting a longer head bolt in next to it with some washers. Then more WD-40 and more rope. Eventually I got it up about 2 inches. I took a pair of vicegrips to the bolt between the head and the block and was finally able to back it out and remove the head.

Now I can get the head ready for the machine shop!

I started here

and then I took it totally apart, honed the cylinder, sandblasted the outside. painted it, replaced all of the gaskets and plastic parts.

I think it turned out OK.

Here is the plan for the next couple of steps at least,
1 - install power steering pump and hoses
2 - install brake booster
3 - rebuild and then install brake master cylinder
4 - recover 1 more wire loom
5 - disassemble the engine
6 - take engine to the machine shop
after that it gets fuzzy. I need to make sure the transmission is ok before I put it in and I need to start putting the engine back together...
more thoughts later...

♦

I know it doesn't look like much, but if you compare it to the picture from December 1st, I think it is awesome!

I have been painting the engine bay. I am using a product called POR-15. I will post a picture once it has dried and I get a chance to clean and paint the heat shields.

I have been stripping the paint and rust from the engine bay. Then I covered the bare metal with a product called POR-15. Right now I am considering painint the whole engine bay with this stuff.

I am back

I have been away for a while, what with the holidays and all. Today I did get some work done on the Jag. I got an air compressor for Christmas and I am starting to put it to good use. It is going to take some time, but I have begun work on the rust in the engine bay.

I really have been working...

I doesn't look like it, but I have been working. I have also been slowly ordering parts. It is just that with the holidays coming I am finding less and less time to work on the car.

I have managed to remove almost everything from the inner fenders. I am going to sand and then re-paint them. Once I finish the sanding I will begin the REBUILD stage.

It was a long 2 days. First it was there.

and then it wasn't...

I have taken the engine out of the car with the bad body/interior. Now I have to get it up to snuff before I put the engine into the car with the good body/interior.

Another weekend and I did nothing. Well not nothing, I did go to Texas. I had to go visit my Family. Now I have to catch up on housework and yardwork then I can do some work on the car this weekend.

No news this week. I was on call at work and ended up putting in a lot of hours.

I am finished with the old engine

and I figured out what went wrong

I should have taken a picture of the imprint of the head on the top of the piston, oh well, the rod says it all. My next part of the project is to start cleaning up the engine bay. I see a lot of de-greaser in my future and some black paint.

Jaguars are fun! The way they are built is awesome! In order to remove the timing chain I have to pull the head, pull the harmonic balancer, drop the oil pan, and then I can remove the timing chain cover before I remove the two different chains.

From Jaguar

From intake maifold and throtle body

Another day, a little bit closer.

I have started to take pieces off of the engine. First is the transmission. I dont think that I am going to use it in the finished car, but I will have to see what the other transmission looks like first. It is good to know that the cleaner really can make it look good.

From transmission

by the way it is a Borg Warner Model 66. I did eventually get it off of the engine, but it was too dark and I was too hot to take any more pictures.

It is still pretty hot (it is Phoenix), but I am slowly getting stuff done. Today I had a big milestone. The engine is out.

From disassembly

there is rust under the battery plate and the paint is gone from under the brake master cylinder. It is dirty as sin. The next step is to clean the engine bay and take a couple of more pieces off of the engine (like the transmission)

From disassembly

From disassembly

I got a little more work done. The big problem, as always, was the heat. I know that I should be able to pull this thing in a day, but I am also taking hunderds of pics, labeling them and adding notes so I can put it back in some day. According to the manual I am on step 21 of 27 for removing the engine.

From Jaguar

I got a little bit done before the temp hit 111 degrees. I got the bonnet off and the radiator out. I need to have my buddy discharge the A/C so I can remove the condenser next. Here is where it stands

From Jaguar

The Fuel Rail

The fuel rail is ready!

From Fuel Rail

The rail is clean with new hose and cleaned and matched injectors. All new isolator bushings etc. It looks good. This is some of the paperwork from http://www.jaguarfuelinjectorservice.com/

From Fuel Rail