www.jec.org.uk

Does anyone have experience of supporting the 4.2 XK engine across the wings thus allowing the engine mounts to be replaced. As the car is will be on a scissor lift putting a trolley jack or axle stand underneath won't work as they will not be high enough. Many thanks for any help.

I would suggest you do not support across the wings. The engine is very heavy indeed and I have seen 'dented' wings as a result. I have used an 'A' frame of two scaffold poles either side of the car and then a pole (s) across the engine bay and supported from that. However That was in my early years and I did this with a Ventora engine years ago and it worked very well and was a cheap solution but now I know how risky that was! As the Jaguar engine is so heavy I would suggest supporting from underneath by using sleeper sections under the engine area if you cannot use an engine crane or similar, depends how far you are off the ground though.

The engine (6 or 12 cylinder) can be supported using a beam across the top at the rear of the engine bay. The trick is to use the strongest area along the line of fixing bolts and to spread the load as far as possible (min 6" each side) along that line. That's how the official Jaguar tool was designed. I have used the original JEC tool this way many times without causing a problem. Mike.

I went to a local steel stockholder and bought about 6' of 2" square section tube about 1/8" thick, and cut 6" off the end, and then cut that the diagonals to make two 6" lengths of angle iron. Then some holes and big bolts and washers to stand the remainder of the tube above the angle iron to make to 6" tails that drop into the wing gutters, protecting the edges with some slit water hose slid over the tail.

I did check with an old copy of the Machinery's Handbook that the results could support the engine and gearbox, which is heavy. (I phoned Jaguar customer service, and was very impressed when the lady answering my call knew the weight off the top of her head; this was about 1990, when they were only recently out of production. I afraid don't remember the answer. I do remember that using actual angle iron across the bay, instead of box section, I calculated something like 5"x2" cross-section.)

Thanks guys.
Some interesting thoughts, I will try other methods of support if I can, definitely don't want to dent the wings.