[xj-s] Prior Abuse

["Kirbert" <palmk@mailer.gadcomm.net>]

I was cleaning up my B bank head today, and noticed that it had 
evidence that something once went through the 1B cylinder the hard 
way.  Lotsa little dings in the flat portion of the combustion 
chamber, and they appear to have been made by jagged objects; they're 
not just smooth dents but rather sharp gouges.  None serious enough 
to threaten the integrity of the head, though.

The valves, liner and piston appear to be undamaged.  This, combined 
with the fact that the 1B intake valve had a somewhat different size 
shim than any other in the car, leads me to the following conclusion: 
 Somebody crunched this thing before.  Probably dropped a valve seat, 
kept driving until it broke up, then had someone rebuild the engine 
with new seat, new valve, new piston and new liner but keeping the 
same head.

If true, my car might just qualify as a lemon.  With the current 
dropped valve seat fiasco, I am on my third major engine repair since 
getting the car (first was two burnt pistons that the car had when I 
got it, second was a spun rear main bearing, my fault).  From damage 
underneath the car when I got it, I have concluded that at one time 
the PO had the front left wheel leave the car at speed.  Add the new 
evidence that the PO also had the engine rebuilt at least once, and 
we're really pushing the envelope for a 90,000 mile car.

Sure glad it looks as good as it does!

BTW, I mentioned before that some of the studs are exposed to 
coolant, which means that the nut and washer at the top form a seal 
on the coolant circuit.  If all works as intended, this applies only 
to the 5 center pairs of 7/16" nuts -- the outer pairs of 7/16" nuts 
and ALL of the 3/8" studs are sealed by the head gasket, so they 
shouldn't be seeing any coolant.  This is the reason the 7/16" nuts 
are cap nuts and the 3/8" nuts are normal nuts; coolant can't leak 
through the threads of a cap nut.  And you thought it was because 
Jaguar wanted it to look pretty!

Which begs the question:  Why was my B head securely seized on a 3/8" 
stud?  I dunno what this crap is on the stud, but I had assumed it 
was Barr's Leaks.  If so, that means the head gasket was leaking from 
the cooling jacket to a stud hole.  Not the most serious of head 
gasket leaks, I suppose, but I wonder.  How much did it have to leak 
to get that much Barr's Leaks into the stud hole?  Does this indicate 
it had been seeping for a long time?  Especially interesting since I 
have NEVER put Barr's Leaks into the cooling system, so ALL of that 
crap had to accumulate between the time the PO had the 1B cylinder 
repaired and I bought the car.

 -- Kirbert      |     If anything is to be accomplished,
                 |     some rules must be broken.
                 |          - Palm's Postulate

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