Tag Archives: ray livingston

July 2007 – Compression ratio test, email humor from a vendor

Compression ratio test

I actually have the engine pretty much complete. The value covers are still off (more on that sometime later) and I need to get a crankshaft pulley (really, a matter of ordering it, but more on that below). I figured that I had some catching up to do, and the compression ratio tests seem a good place to start.

Figuring out the compression ratio. Top picture is the tool. The four large holes are for the studs, and the two small ones are for pouring in the liquid. The middle picture is the head measurement being taken. The red over aluminum is multipurpose grease I used to seal the plastic to the head. And the bottom picture is the measurement of the volume of the top one inch of the bore. For the head measurement, I used colored water; for the bore measurement I used motor oil.

Ray Livingston has developed an easy way to find out the actual compression ratio on XK engines. There are a few measurements that are required, and a little fabrication is necessary. That fabrication consists of making a plexiglas cover for the bore and hemispherical head space. I made mine with scrap plexiglas that we had laying around.

With a nice request, Ray will supply the spreadsheet that required to interpret the results of the measurements, and the very good instructions he sends with the spreadsheet include how to take the measurements with the head in place or not. So, it’s entirely possible to chase down the pinging problem of your XK-engined Jaguar with the head in place and Ray’s instructions in hand.

The plexiglass tool serves one purpose: it levels out and holds liquids that are poured into the bore and the hemispherical chamber in the head. You need to drill holes to allow the head studs to go through (if you haven’t taken them out), and you need two holes to manage the liquid you use to measure capacities. One of these is for liquid to go in, and the other is for air to come out. I made the piece by just cutting a square of roughly the right size and then laying it on the inverted cylinder head to locate the stud holes and the two liquid-related holes. The two small liquid-related holes should be at the edge of the bore or chamber. You can use the stud holes to affix the plexiglas when you’re doing the filling with liquid, but I found that a firm press with my fingers was just easier to manage — I figured I’d spend more time making the part than really was necessary.

The principle is to measure the unknown volumes by filling them with a liquid. Obviously, the volume of the cylinder head’s combustion chamber can be altered with machining. You shave your cylinder head to truth, and the effect is that the combustion chamber shrinks ever so little. You do the same to your block, and the bores get just a little smaller in volume.

The process for me was very simple, since I had the head off. Ray provides instructions for measuring with the head on, but pay close attention to his warnings and directions.

With the head off, you need the plexiglass tool, some grease (for sealing liquids in and the plexiglass tool on the surface of the head or block), a dial indicator to measure the space at the top of the bore at Top Dead Center and to set the piston at exactly (Ray’s emphasis) one inch from the deck of the block, a “telescoping gauge” to measure the width of the bore, a vernier caliper, and an accurate measure for the liquid. Ray suggests something called a “burette” with about a 100 ml capacity, but I didn’t have anything so fancy. Instead, I got a 100 ml graduated cylinder from my friend Laszlo, and that worked just fine, though I had to pour the liquid rather steadily. If I were doing this test frequently, I’d probably find a burette. Ray suggests using mineral spirits, too.

I started with the head, and I used colored water as the liquid. (I figured colored water would be easier to see.) I put some grease around the chamber and around the valves. A spark plug was installed, too. Once I pressed on the plexiglass tool, the grease acted as a glue almost. Lateral motion of the plexiglass was possible, but lifting it off the face of the head required some effort. As the chamber filled with water, I was careful to press the plexiglass tool down against the face of the head, so there wouldn’t be (that much) extra liquid to fill any space made by the float of the tool over the grease.

Measuring the bore is a little more complicated, since you need to measure the distance from the deck of the block to the top of the flat part of the piston at Top Dead Center. A dial indicator and a mount is needed. Then you bring the piston down one inch, wipe some grease to seal the piston and bore, and do the liquid trick. For the bore measurement, I used motor oil. That was a little challenging, since it is viscous and your measurement can be confounded by the fact that oil sticks to the side of the graduated cylinder. Also, the surface tension properties make it a little tougher to read the level of the oil. You have to take the bore width measurement, too.

At any rate, I ended up taking measurements at least twice, and in the case of the head, probably four or five times before I was satisfied. To get a result all you do it plug the numbers into Ray’s nifty spreadsheet and choose a head gasket thickness. I’m using the “Payen” composite gasket (0.035″ thick), and I came up with a compression of 8.31:1. Remember, I have the 8:1 pistons in this engine.

The amusement of buying used parts

The XJ6 has different pulley styles from what I originally had. (Pages on differences of the 1963 3.8 liter engine and the 1979 XJ6 4.2 liter engine are available for the cylinder head and block.) My 1963 E-type had “double groove” pulleys, and the crankshaft pulley was entirely different, both in bolt holes and in fit. The crankshaft vibration dampners are different from E-type to XJ6. So, I was off in search of a new crankshaft pulley. People the the Jag Lovers forum suggested Classic Jaguar as a source for new, and indeed that was the case. But I wanted to check out used part sources. I have exchanged emails with “Marius” at Marguar Jag parts (an Ebay vendor), and he’s been responsive though hasn’t had the parts I’ve needed. Since he didn’t have the correct pulley, he suggested I contact Geoffrey Reis at Jag Connection. That ended up generating an amusing email exchange that I publish here in entirety.

From: geoffrey@jagconnection.com
Subject: RE: 4.2 crank pulley, E-Type, "double grooved"
Date: July 17, 2007 10:24:26 PM EDT
To: Mark R DeLong
Mark. If a phony reproduction pulley is selling for (and worth?) $95, why would the real thing, which is unreproduceable accurately, be worth less than that? It makes no sense, and actually shows me that I've underpriced my pulley. So, if you want it, take it now. The price goes up to $130 on Friday. Thank you, Geoffrey
-----Original Message-----
> From: Mark R DeLong
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 8:28 PM
> To: Geoffrey
> Subject: Re: 4.2 crank pulley, E-Type, "double grooved"
>
> Thanks for the reply, Geoffrey. I found a new aluminum pulley from Classic
> Jaguar (http://www.classicjaguar.com/per9.jpg) for $95 plus shipping. I'd
> be willing to pay you $70 plus ground UPS. Let me know if that's OK, and I
> can Paypal or whatever.
>
> m
>
>> On Jul 17, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Geoffrey wrote:
>>
>> Hello Mark,
>> Yes, we have a pulley with two grooves. $100 plus shipping would do
>> it. Call if you'd like; tonight is best. Thank you, Geoffrey Reis at
>> Jag Connection.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Mark R DeLong
>>> Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 9:04 PM
>>> To: geoffrey@jagconnection.com
>>> Subject: 4.2 crank pulley, E-Type, "double grooved"
>>>
>>> Marius from Marguar Jags said you might have some parts, he didn't
>>> have what I needed and forwarded me to you. Do you have a crankshaft
>>> pulley that fits the 4.2 dampner and has a double groove? I have an
>>> XJ6 (1979) pulley, but it's not the double grooved variety. I need it
>>> for an E-type.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> m

Well, Geoffrey didn’t get my business, but I do believe others can find a pulley from him for $130. Two weeks from now, it very likely will cost more, so it would be good to hurry. Me? I’ll be happy to get a pulley from Classic Jaguar, an item which is hardly phony and a good replacement for something that is, after all, accurately reproducable.

April 2004 – Cylinder head paint, small plating, bushes installed

Cylinder head gold paint

When my dad was here, we inspected the tappets that accept pressure from the cams. One of these appears to have been damaged either by dirt or by corrosion. The surface of the plate where the cam touches has been pitted. This will probably have to be replaced, since a roughened surface like that will certainly wear the cam and also be significantly weakened itself. The other tappets show almost no wear at all. My dad says that the cams bear the most pressure of any parts in an engine. They look to me to be models of precision and efficiency.

A previous owner of the car seemed very happy with gold paint on the cylinder head and sprayed the entire outside. From what I can tell, only the area between the value covers and behind the cover over the timing chain sprockets was painted gold, the rest either left aluminum or polished. I removed the gold paint from the timing chain sprocket area, and prepped the rest by removing as much as possible of the gold paint. No chemical strippers were used, since I didn’t want to have to worry about unfortunate reactions with aluminum.

The gold paint I used was the “Oldsmobile Gold” engine paint from POR-15. From what I could tell, there was no difference in color from the paint in place on the head when I took possession of the car, which is certainly not to say that it was an original color. While I was removing paint I did notice (with some momentary excitement) that a “pumpkin orange” color lurked beneath the grime, but I’m assuming now that this was discoloration due to age or heat or both. The reason for the excitement? There are rumors, denied by Jaguar, that at least some early 3.8 liter engines were fitted with cylinder heads sporting a pumpkin orange paint.

Nickel plating small parts

Since I want to install the front subframes fairly soon, I decided I would go ahead and get a nickel plating kit from Caswell Plating and do the front suspension mounting brackets. The brackets fit into the subframe and really need to be installed at the time when the subframe is fitted. The pieces have surface area below the 16-square-inch per ampere of current that nickel requires. I was able to cobble together DC power sources to make about an amp, so 16-18 square inches was about the limit. Plating nickel is indeed easier than plating zinc. The electrical charge doesn’t have to be quite as precise, I think, for nickel. And, perhaps, experience counts a bit in plating. I was very pleased with the results.

Although Caswell suggests plating nickel for 60 minutes to get a plate that is for automotive applications, I went ahead and increased plating times to between 80 and 90 minutes. As with zinc plating, surface preparation really counts. I had already sand-blasted the suspension pieces, but just to make sure that I cleaned up all rust and old plate, I submerged the pieces in a “pickle” containing one part muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) to two parts tap water. Then I attached the negative lead from a AC-DC converter to a sacrificial piece of steel (in my case an old drill bit) and the positive lead to the piece I wanted to clean.

The process of completely cleaning takes several minutes and I imagine that really rusty pieces would take longer. I wouldn’t leave the piece in the acid with electrical charge unattended or you might dissolve the piece. I generally took the piece out, buffed the faces with a wire wheel, and returned the piece for a short bath in the acid mixture to remove whatever flash rust might have appeared during the buffing. Then it was a matter of following the Caswell instructions, and of course adding some time to their recommended plating session. I did notice that the acid bath sometimes made the surface of the pieces rough, and so the buffing smoothed things out.

Bushes installed (with the Ray Livingston method, modified)

In a recent discussion on the Jag-Lovers E-type forum about bush installation, Ray Livingston provided a sensible way of doing the job. (As a matter of fact, Ray seems to be full of sensible solutions to problems one encounters with Jags!) His solution involved a pipe with an inner dimension slightly larger than the outer dimension of the bush, a threaded rod, nuts, and washers. Basically the Ray Livingston Method was simple: you fit the bush to the open side of the mounting bracket, slide the threaded rod through the pipe, then the bracket, and finally through the hole in the bush. Put washers on both ends of the rod, followed by nuts, and then tighten the nuts to squeeze the bush (sprayed with silicone as a lubricant) into the bracket and finally slightly into the pipe on the other side of the bracket.

Simple, elegant, and cheap.

Of course, if you have a big honker bench vise, you won’t need to use the threading bits. But Ray surmised that pulling the bush through with more pressure on the centermost parts of the bush would probably make the process easier. I discovered that he was right. Also, the Ray Livingston Method could probably be used with mounting brackets still on the car — while hauling a car to a vise or vice versa would be a bit more difficult.

My approach to bush installation was the Ray Livingston Method, Modified. Instead of pipe, I used holes drilled into a stout piece of wood and instead of threaded rod, I scrounged up a nice long carriage bolt that I had previously used in a press.

The holes that I drilled were 1 1/2 inches (for the larger brackets) and 1 1/4 inches (for the smaller). Two of the smaller brackets — I can’t remember now if they’re the for the upper or lower fulcrum shaft — are attached to the frame with three bolts that go into a fitting attached to the frame, sometimes slightly spaced with shims. These three-bolt brackets won’t lie flat on the surface of the wood, so I made a slight indent with the drill bit so that the piece would lie flush to the wood at the point where the bush was inserted.

I found that the bushes went into the larger brackets quite easily. The smaller brackets were a bit more of a challenge, since the bracket tended to slip into the hole in the wood, setting the pulling force a bit awry. This was a rather minor challenge, though. Once things were set, the bush slipped right in. You do have to fiddle a bit to get the bush to go in so that about the same amount of rubber appears on each side of the steel bracket. This sometimes means pulling too far and having to remove the piece, turn it upside down and pulling the bush back a bit.

The shop manuals seem to suggest that a man with a firm hand can install bushes. That is not the case, even with the soap-water mixture that Jaguar then recommended to lubricate the bushes. You need a device. And use silicone instead of soap. Silicone doesn’t harm the bush (at least the ones I got), and it won’t promote rust on the bracket.

The bushes I got are apparently “Metalastic.” At least they’re labelled as such.