Dear Pakwheeres,
We continue with the job at hand. I wrote away earlier for the Workshop manual and the Parts book. Both arrived and now we are all set to go. By profession I am a Mechanical Engineer who has taken early retirement. As part of my training they drilled it in us that all work must be done with great respect to the materials and specs. Manufacturer?s guidelines have to be followed with no short cuts. "jugars" are out of the question. Thus, both these books will be followed to the letter in doing the work. Factory specs have to be followed and original parts/materials must be used.
To speed things along I have obtained required parts earlier from UK/Australia/USA using the parts book for the correct part numbers. It is surprising that OEM and NOS (new old stock) is still available for this 65 year old car. However I have to admit that being the least powerful car the 1-1/2 Liter vehicle was never as popular as its bigger brothers. As such parts for it a harder to find as compared to the bigger cars. This 'baby' Jaguar only develops 65HP which has to propell a 1.3 ton car so you can imagine why it was not too popular.
As mentioned earlier, the engine was on top of the list. Foundation had collapsed and the engine had dropped in its bay by about 2 inches. This made it impossible to turn the engine for fear of causing more damage to the foundations to the point of having the engine drop on the garage floor!!
The car was raised and supported on stands and the engine jacked up to take the load off the foundations. Replacing the foundations was as easy as 123. Took all of one hour. With the new foundations in place I took the brave step in trying to turn the engine. Plugs were removed and the cylinders filled liberally with WD40 and new oil in the sump. The moment arrived the next day. This car is, as all cars of the period, equipped with a starting handle. I used the starting handle to turn the engine over. I was expecting that I may have to stand and jump on the handle to break the engine free but to my utter joy, the engine turned over with the lightest of effort. WOW!! It was not seized after all.
Next three days were spent in removing the bonnet, radiator, carb, air filter, inlet manifold, exhaust manifold, starter motor, dynamo, fuel pump and all other aluminum parts etc.
Upon removal of the inlet manifold I found heavy deposits of Aluminum oxide (white powder) clogging up the cooing system. You will see that in the pictures of the right side of the engine. This build up of white powder is the result of using tap water in the cooling system. It cannot be stressed enough that you absolutely have to use the correct grade of coolant for your car.
Cheers