1987 XJ6 engine removal necessary?

[555ttg]

Hi, I recently acquired another 'project' this one seems to me, to be worth a little bit of extra effort.
The car is practically all original and well looked after. Original paint to the majority of the car, no rust, and the interior is wonderful. It is a 1987 XJ6 series III Sovereign model. Here's the problem;
The engine won't turn more than 270 degrees, before locking up! I suspect, a dropped cam follower, or valve stem, that has impeded the free travel of the piston, and hence the 'locking up'.
I have been advised to pull the head to investigate, which is what I plan to do, but I also have a 1986 car, that is mechanically functioning very well, but body is rusted out completely. I would like to temporarily substitute the good engine from the rusty car, in the good car, while I play with the head removal and internal examination of the bad motor from the '87; this way, I can enjoy the '87 as I tinker with the engine from the car, as my schedule is a bit hectic, what with regional launch here in Canada!
So, fellow members, can anybody out there point me in the right direction for the engine removal/replacement procedure, and also the head removal, internal inspection procedure? I have searched the pages of the Jag-lovers site, and they pointed me towards the Australian website of someone called Vaughn, who had all these tips set out, but the page is no longer available via the link provided by Jag-lovers. Does anyone know where I can get an understandable description of what I have to do, hopefully, with the benefit of our members' experiences, it will be a no-nonsense, easy to follow, procedural type of dialogue that even a 'numpty' like me can follow!
Hoping there is help at hand,
Phil in Canada

[mike020150]

Hi Phil,
There are far too many issues to an engine change to list them easily on a Forum response. Get yourself a copy of the Haynes XJ workshop manual. They are readily available on eBay and elsewhere for little money. It contains all you will need to know written in an easily understood style. Best of luck. Mike.

[almcl]

I wouldn't bother with the Haynes manual. The official Jaguar one is available (with parts catalogue thrown in free) on a CD from the JDHT. I don't know what the cost would be in Canada, but in UK it's under £16. The full procedure, specs, torque settings etc are all there and it doesn't suffer from trying to cover three different models with wildly different fittings, settings and systems.

It's still not simple and certainly not something to be attempted blind but at least you'll haveth correct info to hand.

[555ttg]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the replies, I have both the Haynes and the factory manuals(in print), to refer to, I was wondering if anybody had experience of the procedure, and could give me any tips to a smoother experience. Sometimes, having someone's input who has gone through the procedure, can point out any pitfalls that maybe the manuals don't.
Well, I guess I have to go,"by the book"!
Thanks anyway.
(I think I will try and make a photographic record of my experience, and post it for the benefit of other members).

[almcl]

If you've got the manuals, then it's not too bad. I got the engine out of my 6 cylinder last year in about 2 mornings. But I reckon when I was younger I could do it in 4 hours on a clean and not too corroded unit.

Getting the axle stands the right distance apart to admit the legs of the hoist was an issue once, and actually stripping down the block is much easier with an engine stand.

Some pictures (of a SII) here:




and of a SIII here:

http://www.jag-lovers.org/snaps/snap_vi ... 1238749459

[555ttg]

Brilliant!
Thanks for the pictures and the advice. As the old adage goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words!"
I am lucky to have a car hoist as well as an engine hoist, and an engine stand. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory, I remember someone once told me that it is easier to lift the car off the engine, than to pull the engine out the front. Is there any validity to this, or is it more applicable to E types??? My memory isn't as good as it used to be!
Thanks again
Phil

[almcl]

Well, they dropped the body onto the engine at the factory, right at the bottom of the assembly line, but then the engine was mounted on the transmission and the whole drive train was mated with the body in about 6 minutes by a team using big hammers. Except for the V12s, they were always fitted from above...

Be interested to hear how you get on, if you do go that way?

[555ttg]

Well I might try it that way, when getting the engine out of the rusty car, I think depending on how that goes, I may go the tried and trusted route, when fitting it into the good body!

[DEREK1951]

Brilliant!
Thanks for the pictures and the advice. As the old adage goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words!"
I am lucky to have a car hoist as well as an engine hoist, and an engine stand. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory, I remember someone once told me that it is easier to lift the car off the engine, than to pull the engine out the front. Is there any validity to this, or is it more applicable to E types??? My memory isn't as good as it used to be!
Thanks again
Phil

Just to confirm , sometimes it can be just as easy to lift the body , i did this with my mk2 over 30 years ago when as a young lad i had no equipment other than a trolley jack .

On the mk2 there is no room to separate the gearbox from the engine as the bell housing is so close to the bodywork you can't slide it back off the shaft , having the overdrive unit attached makes the whole thing so long that you have to lift the unit really high to remove it through the top .
I removed the front subframe [very simple] , then lowered the car on to a wooden form so that the engine and gearbox with the overdrive still attached was resting on it , i then undone all the bits and pieces holding it in and lifted the body .

The wooden form had an opening to enable my trolley jack to slide under , i only had to jack the body up enough to withdraw the engine , after sliding the engine out i brought the body down to a safer height , a few weeks later after re building the engine she went back in the same way





Derek..

[555ttg]

Derek,
Thanks for that, I think that was what I had heard about, it was lifting the body off the sub-frame, but I'm not sure if that's the way to do it, with the series 3 XJ6. I must study the manuals a bit more. It looks like I won't be able to get to it until after the launch of the JEC here in Canada, which is scheduled for the 19th September, after that, hopefully, I will have time to tackle it. I think I will first take the engine and gearbox out of the rusty car, as that way, if I make any mistakes, it won't matter so much on the car with a crappy body, what I don't want to happen, is any bashing on the good car, so I will see how it goes removing the good engine assy. from the crappy car, before tackling the good car/bad engine.
Thanks to everybody for their tips, I will try and make sure I photograph each step of the way,and maybe make an article for the newsletter out of it?
Phil