1974 Daimler Double-Six VDP (higher axle stands)

Yes, it does work but like already said, you have to stop it drying out. It changes the rust to something which can be removed by something like a toothbrush. If it's heavily pitted you may find some specks of rust in the pits, in which case you have to repeat until it's all shiny steel. Takes longer start to finish than mechanical removal, but less time actually working on it if you know what I mean!

Thanks for the update Foxy. I'm glad to hear you are still chipping away at those piston rings and other bits. I hope to see the V12 running one day

Yes. I saw that and am amazed it wasn't bought. Has been re-listed but thank fully I don't need it. Would be good to have it tho

Looking great.

Thanks for the comments guys

Patience? well yes I guess so but just now it's great to be working on it for hours and actually making some progress. Working on those studs again and again with zero progress was a true test but it's all downhill from here

Also the knowledge that all the bodywork was done years ago is a huge relief. Imagine I still had the sills etc to do

There are still repairs needed to doors and front wings but nothing that would stop it being used.

Anyway yesterday I spent another enjoyable 6 hours or so cleaning more parts to bolt to the block and sorting out the fasteners without just robbing suitable ones off the HE block. The HE block actually had no ancillaries fitted so it won't yield every missing fastener but it's still handy to have for the odd ones that have went astray.

So yesterday it was the timing cover, jackshaft cover, sandwich plate, sump baffle and sump that were dealt with.

I started with a tub of oily nuts/bolts/washers which had been 'carefully' placed in a pile as I was stripping the block down and were then moved to a storage tub but had since accumulated random fittings, like a ballast for a tube-light, so there could be anything in there.

I took the water pump off years ago and remember a couple of fasteners being seized almost solid and being cut so they would be an issue too. I reckon they were put back in position on the block for safe-keeping and would therefore have made it to the tub with their neighbours. Perhaps not tho.

I've got several parts lists for the Jag V12 range and the further down you go thru the years the more revisions there are so the series 3 book is about 3 times as thick as the series 1. It's quite tricky to follow the drawings for multiple fasteners and the dimensions are coded so the lengths aren't immediately obvious but all the info is there. I really need to print the data off and take it to barn with me lol.

Interestingly there were a couple of spacers/collars missing from the VDP pile which were on the HE block and, sure enough, the parts list covers this by saying 'not A/C' so my car having air-con won't have these spacers.

Anyway the approach yesterday was to use the HE block as a reference for bolt-lengths and compare with what I had in the box. Initially nothing on the HE block seemed to match what was in the box but with a bit of forensics got there in the end and only seem to have one mystery fastener



holes to be filled. where timing-cover attaches to block


same positions on timing cover. red arrow showing one of the water-pump to timing-cover bolts missing



HE block for guide with fasteners (probably) in correct positions



this box should have all the bits I need and def has some I don't



5/16 UNC tap ran thru all the threads on front of block



box contents laid out (minus imposters)



first 4 matches out of 8 needed. bolts for top holes and 2 upper RHS ones



bottom position on RHS needs slightly longer bolt as casting is thicker there



driver's side of block has bracket/adjusting-arm. HE (LHS) and VDP (RHS) parts pictured show conflicting bolt lengths



figured out I had them wrong way on HE. longer ones obv go at bottom and find another for bottom hole on RHS



some missing from jackshaft cover



jackshaft cover bolt (bottom) doesn't match any of the other screws left in box



suitable screws taken from HE block to fit jackshaft cover




odd bolt with damaged end and flats for spanner. may be pivot-bolt shown in parts list somewhere on front of timing-cover



another odd one which may actually be a spare 5/16th head-stud



bolt which was cut long time ago in dismantling and felt like it was welded into block. moves freely in threads now




turns out corresponding 'bores' in timing-cover were full of corrosion/salts



sump, baffle and jackshaft cover needed cleaned


quick clean with Daz and diluted ammonia



sandwich-plate and baffle fitted. some screws missing. mainly on rear edge


sump screws removed in right position



turns out this same-length bunch from box were the ones




sump-pan on and that'll do till next visit



nearly all the tub contents used. ones to left are from body. only one mystery engine screw left

.... Hmm, after bigends a 'mystery' tab washer

OVIMOR

I've not got a whole lot to post just now but am working on the engine most days and the Gaffer seems to have accepted am only working 2 days a week so will hopefully get into the groove and do an 8 or 9 hour shift 4 or 5 days a week.

I have loads to do and it's tempting to tinker with other things (like my bikes and the Hillman Imp) but basically I am continuing making the liner tools, cleaning all the pistons, cleaning the outside of the liners and glaze-busting/honing the liners.

When all that is done I will then hire or buy the sizing-tool spoken about before. I'd be happy to buy one and just use it when I'm ready but if I can only hire it it's best to get all the above work done first.

I finally got the last rings out of the pistons. It was #7 and #10 that proved hardest to budge. The middle (cast?) ring on both broke into several pieces as it would just not come out the groove, even when you got some movement. The top rings didn't break on these pistons but getting them out was ridiculous. I had about 80% of the ring free and it still wouldn't come out for hours. It was as if the piston was pinching it completely solid. Anyway they are out now and I want to do a close comparison of the new ring dimensions against the originals, just out of curiosity

I may have said before that I thought about using the spare crank I have instead of the sizing tool but asked about this on a (mainly American) Jag forum and am none the wiser.... Some say the tool is bigger than the crank to create a gap. Some say the opposite. Some say 'they all leak no matter what you do'. Some say the rear main seals NEVER leak but senders etc in that area do and the seal gets blamed. I'm thinking mb I should just bang it in with a tin of beans and if it leaks pull the engine back out again some day. It only takes a day or so. I've waited longer on the tool.

I've finished welding all the tubes onto the flat strips for the 10 JD41s I'm making. The 2 tubes I bought gave me almost exactly the amount I needed. Just a few inches left spare . Was £15.40 for the tubes so very little spent in comparison to cost of buying a set. I'm now cutting out all the curved bits whhich allow the pistons to get by the clamps. Doing it with angle-grinder and half-round file. It's going to take ages to do them all.

Going back to the liners & honing... I thought I'd practise first on the one I cracked at the bottom (#3). I have also tried it on the donor one I have and that is much more corroded than my original. I thought I could perhaps take a lot of it out and am under the impression that my As were originally a slightly larger bore than Bs so could perhaps get it out to the right size by removing the damage.

However my cheapo tool is worn out already. At this rate I'd need to buy a tool for every liner perhaps. Wonder if you can get better quality ones or if the flexible ball type are better .

I actually lost a lot of time last week worrying about having a few liners unmarked. The manuals always say keep everything in its original location when rebuilding but am not sure why this would matter if I am replacing all the rings. The pistons and liners don't touch each other so why do they need to be refitted in same orientations?

Anyway I'm still doing what I'm told and for whatever reason I had 3 that were not identifiable and I also wasn't sure if I started with #1 on the right or left of at the back or front.

So.... I had a close look at them all and the block(s) and could see there are slight variations on the casting at the areas where the bottoms of the liners sit. This means part of the liners are exposed to crankcase fumes etc and parts are covered by the casting.

I could therefore identify front & back of the liners easily as the castings are quite different fore and aft but it was a bit more tricky working out locations as the differences in the machining are quite small, like the part of circumference covered is gradually reducing.

I was using the spare HE block to do my forensics as it is bare and .'. easier to examine but some of my findings were not convincing so I moved the examination over to the empty bores in the original block and sure enough the castings differ - same same but different -. Suffice to say I am now 100% sure what went where and also looked back on this thread to see that I mentioned odd numbers coming out first and the earlier photos show this was on the LH bank. This makes sense as the cylinders on that side are set a little further fwd than the RH so #1 was obv on LH bank

Lastly a thing I enjoy is looking as casting numbers etc and there is plenty info inside the pistons. They are AE/Hepolite/AM and I thought perhaps with the numbers shown I could find some cheap ones online that the seller didn't know were for the Jag V12

Interestingly that could potentially happen with the liners as they have no ID on them whatsoever but I see a listing for one B liner in USA ($49) and it says it's marked with green paint. The A liners would have been some other colour I guess. It also says the part number is etched on to it but I can't see any etchings on any I have handled

Despite the bores of my original liners (so far) being in better nick than the donor one mine are very corroded at the top outer (which sit in the water-jacket) but this isn't really a working part so it doesn't matter. I am however trying to clean them up as good as I can



#10 piston was last to surrender its rings



A liner has a lot of damage. if it could be removed might take it out to size of a B liner



my #3 liner after some honing. better condition than donor liner but appears to have wear-ring at top



one stone on honing tool worn out ahead of others



making reliefs on liner hold-down tools



top outer part of original liners quite corroded compared to donor but cleaning up ok




witness-marks on skirts of liners help identify location and orientation of liners in original positions in block




there are difference in machining/casting of block between cylinders which will match witness-marks on liners



Hepolite 18557A?



AE M536B



AM 41B



not sure what the arrows mean but this was made Sept 1973

So not much progress this week unfortunately. Been working every day apart from Monday where I spent most of the day sorting out the old rings as I want to make detailed comparisons with the old rings, new rings and later rings. Why? I've no idea but I did notice how tight the original rings are in the grooves even when they are fully cleaned-out

I say I wasn't working Monday but the Gaffer seemed to think I did as he tried to pay me for Monday when I was getting paid for this week's 2-days. What I did on Monday was put 4 inner-tubes in some perished tyres on a caravan he is trying to sell then helped him drag it out of the undergrowth it has sat in for about 8 years.

Anyway to the point of this post....

I've been banging on about rope-seals but not sure if I mentioned that the bottom-end gasket set I bought didn't include the 'hockey-stick' seal for the rear-main cap. They are available from Jag specialists but seem to be about £14-£17 each, before P&P, and you need two

Well they are pretty vital I guess so I was going to pay up when I saw some on Ebay, in Russia of all places. They were only $10 (about £8) each and postage was another $12 so (after getting the seller to amend listing so I wouldn't be paying $24 for shipping) I bought a pair. There was a few $s tax on top of this so $32 became $36

Total cost to me was £27.30 and despite the listing saying they would take ages to arrive they were here in a fortnight and I saved like a whole £10 or so .

Well when I opened the packet and found 4 seals I thought the guy had made a mistake but checking the original listing it was £8 a pair. Whatever way I look at it the listing seemed like good value for £4 each instead of £17.

I doubt I'll ever need to extra 2 so should really sell them and make the transaction almost zero.

I've also got some replacement stones for my glazebuster. Not sure how long they'll last but they were just under a fiver all-in so worth a go. Hopefully I'll have 12 'within tolerances' liners next time I post.



my 1st package from Russia. only took 2 weeks to arrive



4 seals instead of 2. cost from Jag dealer could have been £68 before P&P



pukka



expensive little bit of rubber



bottom-end gasket set didn't include the hockey-sticks




rope seals will be 1st parts to fit in engine rebuild