I see a ton of old-school dedication, which cannot be found in the modern, hasty generation. Very well done!

Original polished and refurbished bolts are exactly the level of attention that made this piece of eye candy complete.

Richard, you’ve reassembled that engine so beautifully and with such love, I’m positive that the motor engineer that originally assembled that engine 70 years ago would be really pleased with the absolute care and respect that you’ve shown. Well done sir! 🙏

@carlmason4153

Жыл бұрын

England Calling, didn't like the way he installed & deformed that Core Plug to the Block. (Freeze Plug) he dented the centre after installation , could have avoided that by using a tool around the outer edge of the plug. ????? Just my opinion.

@colinwest5294

Жыл бұрын

Les calling back! - No Ho he’s was right! The Idea is to stretch the core plug to get a circumferential seal if you push in from the sides you don’t get the pressure you need to push the dome in to kind of over centre it like a cam - that hods them in very well.

I’ve found myself watching this over and over. Can’t wait for updates on the project.

Looks absolutely marvellous. I know it's only a little detail but those copper washers underneath the acorn nuts really make the head pop.

Love the commitment, you do credit to the quality of the original Brit engineers

Hi Richard, must be very satisfying watching this XK engine fire up when completed.

I was fortunate to own a couple 120’s, one a 1953 XK 120 FHC for 45 years. Your remarkable attention to detail, personal knowledge, and respect for originality sets you apart from hobbyists such as myself. Back in the day (1965-75) these cars were not valued and could be had for as little as $450. Most owners were not prepared to perform the work necessary to keep a 20+ year old English luxury car in proper condition. My Father drove E Types as daily drivers, and encouraged me to learn and master the obscure secrets of XK Jaguar ownership and maintenance. I was able to have a Mark VII saloon as my own daily driver in High School, and earn college tuition servicing Jaguars for others. At the time few shops were interested in working on Jaguars of any vintage. I was installing XKE clutches for $600, valve adjustments $300, etc. The XK 120 Fixed Head Coupe was one of the most beautiful post war automobiles ever produced in quantity, 2672 or so built. Later XK 140 and 150 models benefitted from more comfortable interiors, better brakes, engine cooling, and stronger motors, but to my eye lost the purity of line evident in William Lyons’ original creative design. At 6”1’, the XK 120 FHC was pretty snug with the wheel in my chest, but the feeling obtained cruising at over 100 mph in that piece of rolling sculpture overruled more practical concerns.

Nicely engineered and well made engine. Great craftsmanship in the assembly. Great video.

That looks like a solid piece of engineering. Build for the eternety.

Wonderful workmanship knowledge what a treasure having your Father there this you will forever be Thankful for. I’m a fan been with you for a year or more just across the water Port Angeles Thanks for sharing

@RichardMichaelOwen

Жыл бұрын

Kevin, I'm traveling through Port Angeles on Monday July 3rd, if you want to meet up reach out supercars@gmail.com

Yay! I was just thinking yesterday you must have fallen off your perch.

Splendid job! It's satisfying to see all the quirks of the early cars retained for posterity. I look forward to more updates.

The American accent perfect for American viewers, l must admit it grates a little to my ears. Apart from the dialogue, a very professional rebuild.

This seriously one of the absolute best channels on KZread. It is utterly unfathomable to me that you don't have millions of subscribers. You're like this little secret channel of awesomeness that the car enthusiasts haven't discovered yet. Your laid back and informative style is mesmerising, no stupid clickbait, no manufactured drama, just knowledge and experience delivered in a very engaging and relaxing way, with magnificently restored Jaguars at the end. Long may it continue.

@RichardMichaelOwen

2 жыл бұрын

Great to have you along!

That was fascinating, thankyou! A friend of mine restored an XK about 20 years ago near here in Aberystwyth and it was simply the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen.

Very nice video of rebuilding a not so common engine! Thanks for posting!

I really enjoyed the video having finished rebuilding my1966 3.4 mark 2 in about 1987. Just like being in the garage again. It felt like I had communed with real engineering after the the engine rebuild and switching from auto to 4 speed manual all synchro boxwith overdrive. Yep. Thanks

Your Dad & you make a great team . I'm really impressed with the detail of your work , your knowledge is second to none . I wish both of you every success in the future . Exceptional video , first class really .

I love your attention to detail. It is really inspiring. In one episode you rescued a 1961 Lucas part from an E type that was made the same year I was born. You see the beauty and the provenance in old things. I like the way you rescue the original bolts and re plate them and put them back from where they came. Delightful.

Such attention to detail and care in finish and assembly, truly a labour of love, thank you for sharing this journey with us Richard.

There is no substitute for knowledge, experience and craftsmanship. A great watch. Thanks for sharing. From UK.

Great Video. I learned a lot and even though I am not a big gear head it kept me interested all the way through.

I know a lot of "engineers" that should look at this but probably won't! Excellent job damn close to blueprinting it!

@russcooke5671

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Alan could you please explain to me the difference between this rebuild and. Blueprinted. Cheers. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👌👌👌

@alangraham4526

2 жыл бұрын

@@russcooke5671 "Blueprinting" is getting every component to it's finest reliable tolerance and is EXPENSIVE. This would be done by a race dept or specialist tuning place. The Jag rebuild is top shelf but Blueprinting would probably involve judicious drilling for weight reduction and balance, "ready to race'! "Ordinary Blueprinting" would be trying to source all the factory minimal tolerance components something of a task unless you are a component factors!

Wonderful work and superb video. Thanks, Richard.

Nice job. Due care and attention to the little points. Gives enough info to do the job yourself. Cheers Richard, keep them coming.

Unbelievable. I had to watch it twice. So entertaining.

You know, even in it's nasty state shown here, it's still a magnificent piece of working art, plus it sets in another magnificent piece of artwork - the body. This is CLASS & STYLE and deserves to be restore properly. Outstanding build. Gorgeous.

@craigpennington1251

2 жыл бұрын

You are very welcome on both Richard. You guys do phenomenal work to these Jags. I do know that they are a real treat to get to drive one.

Watched every moment with attention. I am delighted that you do everything "right," no shortcuts, no "good enoughs." I rebuilt my 1954 XK120DHC from the ground up in the early 1960s. It was pretty much a wreck when I got it and I did all of the good things to it including a complete engine rebuild with new valves, guides and seats. I did not have the luxury of a Moss valve adjusting pad kit ( :-) ) and had to hand sand the pads to the right thickness. I had the very good fortune of the friendship of Wacky Arnolt (of Arnolt Bristol fame) who was able to get parts from England for me. I was just 21 years old and still wet behind the ears. I noticed a few differences between the 1952 engine and the 1954. Of course the cam covers had studs, but there were difference in the crank, oil pump and a number of other areas. Thanks very much for this excellent video, filled with information.

That was just absolutely fascinating to see the work you did no this Jaguar engine! I cannot wait to hear it running let alone seeing the whole car restored! What a great experience for you both!

Richard, thanks for producing this journey of reassembly for the XK 120 coupe engine. It made me a bit sad to think that I had one of these 3 1/2 litre engines complete with it's Moss gearbox, that someone had given me because I had several Jaguars. It sat under our house for 20 years and when we eventually moved house it went to scrap. Back in the early 1970's nobody wanted it. Love your work Richard.

what a beautiful looking thing. We'll never see anything like this again. Well done. Can't wait for the car build.

Just as I was thinking "that roll pin on the oil pump looks like it will come adrift"... you reached for the lockwire :-) Ever since I found a seized XJ6 (Series 3) motor dumped in a paddock, and then rebuilt it, I have just loved these engines. They are superb! I could watch your rebuild videos all day long, great work!

Lovely to watch! How pleasant it is to build up everything with clean parts, new washers and nuts, new gaskets, restored parts,….. no more cleaning, just the niciest part of the job! It is a nice and I guess heavy engine, but it is absolutely old school.

nice! I had a 1954 XK-120 roadster back in 1968. I had no shop so I rebuilt the gearbox on the kitchen table. wonderful to see what you are doing with this old girl!!!

Richard. As always: excellent video, excellent work. Enjoyed every single minute. Funny to see, that you work with Bosch and Würth equipment. Greatings from Germany anf looking forward for the next episode. Chris

HI RICHARD GOOD TO SEE YOU AND DAD STILL AT IT TURNING OUT BEAUTIFUL CARS OF THE PAST . ⚘⚘⚘⚘

It seems to me my 1953ish XK120 had a rope seal like the one you’re installing. I had mine bored to accept JE 3.8 pistons that came out of a D-Type that raced and placed at Sebring 1962ish. The block was not sleeved per OEM, but there was never any problem with the large overbore. After the stock XK120 water pump repeatedly failed, I scored a pump from a XK140. It was designed like contemporary American water pumps, not like the 1920s era water pumps. After all that work, the best time I ever ran at a drag strip was 16.42, 85.71 mph on June 11, 1961. 61 years ago.

Definitely 'Beer o'clock' after that fine work Richard !.

(Knowing from experience how contaminated the aluminium becomes around the cylinder head water galleries) I was seriously impressed with the purity of the welded repairs that your local cylinder head refurbishing company did for you. I also noticed that they made a very smooth job of shaping over the valve seats….- Beautiful work! 👍

@theegwana2103

2 жыл бұрын

yep had those struggles before normally crappy alloy… I noticed the cracks/ splits in exhaust ports from too much interference when guides were fitted…. also I noticed valves numbers were written wrong or in wrong hole jags number 1 cylinder is rear of engine

If you offset the ends of the rope seal from the parting line of the cap you can avoid squishing the ends.

@einfelder8262

Жыл бұрын

Yes, and the inevitable oil leaks :)

Wow that head looks insanely nice for what it needed.. Especially with it being something weird/rare/old and unless they're a specialist in these heads, they definitely did a great job it looks like.. Most places don't even like touching anything they don't do all day everyday, like every shop around here when I being in a Honda and see nothing but old V8s in the shop and you can tell they want nothing to do with it

That was an excellent piece of work. The variation in engine details was educational. Great work by your machining shop to fix the block and head. Overall quite impressive.

Richard, just found your channel and very much enjoyed this episode. It brought back memories when I rebuilt an engine for my 1964 XKE Roadster. Loved that car. Interesting thing was that when I had the head worked on, it also had a warp. I instructed the shop not to plane it but they did anyway. It had a terrible effect on the cam journals. You didn't mention anything about that. Not having a line boring machine, I had a heck of a time getting the cams to spin freely, but was successful in the end. Maybe you know this but what I found works great for the cam cover nuts is aircraft washers which have rubber O-rings molded to the inside hole. Helped a lot for oil leakage. Also, did a polish similar to you but a few heat cycles later and it no longer looked as good. My car was a daily driver. The one improvement I did that made the car a pure joy to drive(and start) was that I installed a Delta CD ignition module. I don't know if anything like that's still available. But when you pushed the start button, there was literally no cranking. It just exploded into running as smooth as any car I've owned.

Thanks for the vid. I swapped cylinder heads and clutch on my 420 a few weeks ago and referenced your vids several times. Priceless info thanks for uploading.

Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

Very nice, thanks for taking the considerable amount of extra time to document and share it with us.

Totally Love it all. You're a professional Richard Michael Owen !!!. Professionals have confidence; they're organised; they know what they're doing, and they make it look easy. You do all of these; and you're inspiring !!!

I’m 1968 I purchased a 1957 XK140 for cigarette money $750 bucks! I had stopped smoking. I knew nothing about the car! With the way you teach and show I would be confident to rebuild that car. If I hadn’t sold it because of the draft!

Wow! The fascinating hour spent watching this video went by in a flash. Great work and attention to detail, as always!

Absolutely fascinating. What a brilliant piece of work.

One small tip: Sometimes the cam covers seep a little oil up around the copper washers that go under the chrome hold-down nuts. I use my punch set to make thick paper gaskets to go between the copper washers and the cam covers. They are totally invisible and eliminate any residual oil seepage.

48:56-49:46 (Snoopy/Danceing Music) "mandatory for a victorious conclusion"! I'm only a viewer & this video wood make Even Char'Lee Brown smile. Beautiful production.

Congratulations Michael - a truly remarkable achievement!

Richard, Here are some free tips from a fellow re-conditioner. Plateau honing with a Sunnen Brush hone after final stone honing the bores. Expensive tool! Makes the engine virtually “Run In”. You will feel the difference turning the engine as you add pistons to bores. You will see the bores look like an engine that has hours on it. Next, brake cleaner for the bores, like kerosene, petrol or degreaser is not good enough. Pure Fatty soap. Velvet laundry soap or whatever brand you can get. NOT detergent. The dissolved sticky fatty soap on a brush will pull fine swarf trapped in the pores of the cast bores that causes damage to the piston skirts if not properly removed. Other than that, very nice work indeed. R

A master of the game, makes you wonder how many crap rebuilt Jag engines are out there

Richard, what beautiful (and important!) work, preserving these engines and jaguars so faithfully to the original... You inspire me to my retirement project, just have to source that elusive XK150! All the best from Brisbane, Australia...

It’s a joy to see you doing such a thorough well thought through job. Had a roadster of this vintage, chrome sidelights, makes me realise a result like this can only be achieved with knowledge gained by experience and the best working conditions and tools.

An excellent video as always Richard. Thanks so much for sharing. Looking forward to seeing the build progress. Cheers.

Awesome work!

Lovely work!

A joy to watch you putting that great engine back together. Very nice work.

What a fantastic video, thank you for this engine rebuild video. Videos like this keep the classic car world going forward!

That really was a joy to watch👍

Gifted at your job, my friend first class work on a classic engine

Looking forward to hearing it crank over for the first time.

I,ve taken your tip and watched pt. one first(head came off nice),so here i go with pt two. Cheers.

Brilliant job.

Best hour of Jaguar TV ever. Your knowledge is spectacular. Thx

Absolutely brilliant

Hello Richard . That was a lesson in proper engine assembly and the engineers who did the machine work and welding deserve a lot of credit indeed . Thanks Richard .

absolutely beautiful

Great walk-through. I enjoyed it very much

So happy to watch a new video! As always, a learning experience.

Beautiful work Richard.

Absolutely elegant craftsmanship

She is a beauty. Thank you

Spectacular!

Beautiful engine ! You must be very proud ! Thanks for the video .

Beautiful wok Michael!

Thanks a lot, it's a masterpiece

Nice job RICH.

Comfortable, competent and confident assembly - great videos Richard.

Beautiful job, as usual. Kudos. As a previous XK120 owner, I’m looking forward to watching the rebuild. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

good workmen super xk engine build

like your work and to see the transformation from barn quality to RMO quality.

Great to see progress on this engine! I missed some new footage from your work. I was worried you forgot the rug in the frost plug hole for a moment! Great job - makes appetite for more!

@russcooke5671

2 жыл бұрын

The rust I think you meant. 👌👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

What a riveting episode, I had to rewatch Part 1 afterwards as it was a year ago. 😊 It was amazing to refresh my mind on what you started with. This car is especially interesting to me as I was made in 1952 too!

A beautiful job Richard, congratulations. Kind regards, Richard.

had to subscribe after that work of art video. top class

Fantastic!

Formidable remontage du moteur de cette grande marque !! Je suis Fan !!...

Nice build ! It brings back memories of the build I did with my late friend in the early 80's.. Our engine was slightly earlier than yours as it had the short sprung tensioner which was well past it's best and no one could supply one so we upgraded to the longer on. The car was an early alloy alley bodied roadster which had been raced all over continent and the U K. It had been blessed with factory support and had a wide angled head fitted and raised compression. With the octane of petrol falling over the years we chose to reduce it by using two head gaskets and made a copper spacer of 1/8 of an inch if my memory serves me. We replaced all the guides and the valve seats with hardened one and not having access to modern cutting tools we borrowed a manual cutting tool which worked perfectly and then ground the valves in by hand. Shimming was a nightmare as it was a factory modified head we had to make shims and then using plate glass and fine wet and dry paper make them to size. We rebuilt the water pump from spare parts as a new one was not available and we kept being told use one off a 4.2 engine. The gearbox was rebuilt as was the rear axle and the braking system (drums all round) . The drums were slightly wider than standard and brake shoes were unobtainable , it was then that we found that a friends husband owned a brake remanfacturing company we gave him the shoes and a week later they arrived back with the thicker wider linings replaced. A new wiring loom was obtained as was a voltage regulator for the dynamo. All the instruments still worked. The fuel tank was massive for long distance racing as was the flip filler. All the ash wood rear frame was replaced which seemed to take forever as we had to make jigs for the frame from the aluminium body to set the ash laminates then shape them to fit the body ! Being a hand built car the sides were a different size and shape to each other, only marginally but enough. When finished it did look right. The leather interior although faded and cracked was bought back to life with leather cream etc and looked right and was perfectly serviceable. I am glad I found your channel and will watch with interest. One thing I would advise is to liberally coat the cams with oil and fill the oil filter (like yours ours was felt !) It did take a bit of cranking to get the oil through and up to the top end. If you've already done it , my apologies.

Thank you

Nice job, and not over restored. 2x👍

AWESOME !!!!!!

Dear Richard, I will never own or even probably drive an XK120, but it is one of three or four favourite cars ever! Other are the Alvis Speed 25 [1930s], Volvo Amazon, and Bentley Mark Six [standard steel body]. Also I like the Morris Minor 1000 Traveler [woody body station wagon of compact size], but any Minor would do for me! I might even be able to run one! I do have a 2004 Mini One [1600cc poverty spec] that is the second best car I ever had, after a 1989 Volvo 240 DL [2.3 litre red block with Regina Bendix fuel injection and did over forty English mpg on a tour of Norway in year 2000]. I ran that car for eleven years, and at twenty-one years [the car] old sold it for scrap value with NO rust, and sewing machine quiet engine ... Love you vids! Keep the Jag stuff coming. I cannot but admire your hygienic approach to engine rebuilds ... Best wishes from George in UK

I did watch to the end. A beautiful piece of engineering, I have to chuckle a bit at all the mods and references to oil leaks, unfortunately no matter what you do an oil leak is inevitable, I guess it wouldn't be a Jag if it didn't leak. Our fuel cost here in Australia has sky rocketed due to the war in Ukraine and other things, it's $2.40 per Ltr AU, I can see this would not end up being a daily drive. very interested in the carburetors and what rebuild they received. As I run an automotive business here in Australia, things like this interest me very much and I congratulate you on your commitment to restoring something for future generations to admire. Regards Tony

Richard you are a filmstar of engine builders !, loved your vids from start to finish, so detailed and such a beautiful engine. Thank you 🙂

Great video. Great engine. Really enjoyed it. (Collets not cotters)