Oil Dripper

After my moonlight ride the night before our first big snow storm, the 120 got parked in the garage for the salt season. After letting it sit for a couple of weeks until after the Thanksgiving holiday, I finally removed the newspapaers and cardboard from underneath and swept and mopped the floor. I then put it up on jack stands in the front and two unsplit logs in the rear to prepare it for the rear spring work. The rear is a few inches higher than the back and it looks a bit like a wingless aircraft just about to touch down on the garage floor. A few days after I got the car in this position, I started looking through the manual and parts book trying to find out where the oil dripper is so I can shut it off and maybe even disable it. I know there must be one on the car somewhere because the car had not been started for several weeks and it is still dripping oil. I tried disconnecting the battery but the dripper just keeps on working regardless of what I do. It apparently has its own independent power supply. Who knows how to shut this thing off? I can't even locate it. The drips are in a pretty much random pattern underneath. Reminds me of the question: Why don't the British make televisions sets? Answer: They couldn't figure out how to make them drip oil. Some day I'm going to take the engine out and see if I can reduce the dripping before I put it back in. Maybe it will be easier to locate that pesky dripper when I get the engine out of the way. Did you hear about the British conversion kit for a Miata. Includes a plastic replica of an oil puddle to put under the car when you park it. Also included is a computer which randomly selects one component in the electrical system and disables it when the car is started up. I honestly don't think I would love this car as much without its quirks. The new springs arrived today. It's going to be a long time before I'll be able to test drive them. The good news is I have plenty of time to play with the gaiter fabrication. - Bruce Cunningham, '53 XK120 OTS

Bruce: I think you may have been misled about the oil dripper. They were tried in early prototype models at Brown's Lane, and were discarded in favor of oil magnets. This item was discussed several months ago on this medium.. It seems that Jaguars contain an oil magnet that attracts oil out of the earth and allows it to be deposited on the floor or ground under the cars. This concept was implemented not by designing a separate part, but by putting every engine/transmission unit through a patented process called "petrolmagnetization". Thus, the only way to stop the oil from dripping is to remove the oil magnet, which, in the case of the Jaguars, is the engine and transmission. Do this, and I think you will find you have fixed the oil drip. - Tom Taylor, 52 XK120 FHC

I could relate to this, and not all of my oil drippers have been British. !!!START RANT !!! Come to think of it the Mazda RX-3 I had was the worst. I had rebuilt the motor, and I left out a o-ring (on a internal engine oil passage). Leaked a quart every 50 miles ( through the side of the block).What is even more amazing is that it was probably 10000 miles before I fixed it. Used this BLACK oil from ARCO - graphited oil, thought it would do wonders for the rotary. Never had any rust problems or stuck bolts with the car after that, even long after the leak was fixed. This of course leads me to the !!!END RANT !!! Theory of British Oil Leaks or TOBOL for short. The Purpose of the dripper is the preservation of the automobile, hell why not use some of the oil for undercoating, you're going to get rid of it anyways. Besides they kept the oil away from most rubber components. What they didn't perfect was the timing, can't have THAT dripping in the garage. These days with environmental concerns guess that would mean we couldn't use lead in the journals, so no more rust preventing drippers. The sane would say the XK was designed to leak. For every vice there is a virtue. - Yours John Currey. P.S. My overdrive leaks more than anything less I with Ale consumption. Ok I'll conform.... really must I? I am not Catholic, so confessions aren't normally required... 57 XK140 FHC

Hey guys, this is closer to the truth than you think! My wife's granfather owned a magnificent 3.5l Mk V Saloon in Beige that I always wanted to buy from him when he gave up griving (at the age of 88) but didn't have the cash at the time. It was used as our wedding car ...... He supplanted the standard factory fit dripper with one of his own which was very effective in keeping the tin worm at bay here in this inclement climate (but not as inclement as Seattle or thereabouts). It was available almost anywhere and consisted of a bristle collection fastened to a manipulator device/holding appendage. Every year (he only did about 3000 miles/year) he'd have the car serviced and ask for the drained oil to be retained for him. When he got the car home, he put it up on four axle stands, took the aforementioned dripper and liberally coated the ENTIRE underneath of the car with the old oil after he had dried it off and brushed off any loose mud. As you can guess, more oil ended up on the floor and himself after this, but there sure wasn't any rust underneath, either! Incase you haven't guessed this "superior" Oil Dripper is a human being wielding a paintbrush ..... beats everything, even a Jaguar. JVC 96 ...... where are you now? - Dick Clements

If you have any questions or comments send e-mail to: ted@jag-lovers.org
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