Getting ready to pull the V12

I have considered my options for what to do now that the V12 is too damaged to use. I don't have the money to properly fix the Jag engine but I still want to compete at Nationals this year. A generous donor has offered me a modified Ford 5.0 V8 which will fit without too much trouble. It will bolt right up to the transmission I have, weighs 250 lbs less than the V12 and make similar power levels. But before I can install it, I have to remove the V12. When funding permits, I'll rebuild the V12.

All the things that get in the way of removing the engine have been removed

And the transmission tunnel was removed to allow access to the bolts holding it to the engine.

Taking out the V12

I went out before work today and started getting the car ready to remove the V12. I bolted the bearing caps and oil pan back on so I don't lose any of it. Down the road I can rebuild this engine and make it into a real screamer with high compression pistons and good camshafts. I removed the exhaust,bumper, spoiler, splitter and fenders today. I'm glad I made all this stuff fairly easy to remove.

It's ugly

I removed the oil pan to check the bearings and that half-moon shaped piece of metal was staring up at me. It's a thrust washer, which is used to adjust the amount of endplay in the crankshaft.

This is what the crank looks like when it has been pushed forward too much.  The crank got pushed into the bearing support so hard that the crank now has a groove where there's isn't supposed to be one. See that little bit of metal sticking out where the crank meets the support? That's what's left of a metal washer.

And here's a fuzzy picture of a main bearing-it's cooked. The connecting rod bearings look the same. What caused all this destruction is a transmssion shaft that is slightly too long and forced the cranshaft forward. This caused friction between the crank and bearing support. This may have caused the overheating and power loss.

Failure :(

I have bad news: I have done everything I can to cure the power and overheating problem with this V12. I have done all the recommended things to keep it cool and have tested or replaced all the things I can afford to do to make the power I need it to make. But after testing today, I realized that I have failed at both things. It still does not have the acceleration that 290 hp in a 2300 lb car should have and it reached 220 degrees on a cold morning and wouldn't cool off even with water sprayed on the rad. If it was powerful, I would invest in an oversized custom radiator and hopefully cure the problem. If it ran cool, I might invest in new cams/valve springs to get more power out of it. But as it is, throwing money at one problem to still have the other is more than I am willing to do right now.
So, I know there are thousands of people that follow the progress of this car, and many of you really want to see the Pink Panther at Nationals. To do this, I am going to need help. If anybody has a suitable replacement engine that they are willing to donate, lend or sell at a rock bottom price, I am willing to offer a co-drive at the 2011 Solo Nationals in exchange. A suitable engine would be another V12 (carbs or EFI), GM or Ford V8 that is known to be healthy and strong. I don't want to fabricate new mounts and exhaust, purchase a bellhousing, clutch and pressure plate just to find that an engine can barely wheeze out 200 hp at the wheels. A generous fan of the car has already offered a mildly modified Ford 5.0 for no cost, but I have my doubts that it will make the power I need. Nobody is more disappointed than I am that I can't run this engine in the car. I have been wanting to do something great with it for the last 26 years but that is just not going to happen.
If you are willing to help me get to Nationals, e-mail me marksawatsky at gmail dot com

 

Where the car will stay until a new engine can be found

 

Cooling system mods

The engine has been running a little warmer than I would like, even with the addition of an oil cooler and dual pass radiator. A Jaguar technician named Norman Lutz figured out that that coolant inside the V12's was not evenly distributed. He found a way of altering the flow using restrictors in the external coolant manifolds. I made the mods last night and now the temperature, at least when the car is idling, seems to stay under control. I can't say for sure if the mods are what did it because I also found an airlock in the cooling system and was able to add more coolant.

Here are the drivers side manifolds before the restrictors are put in place.

Here are the passenger side manifolds after the restrictors are pressed in place. The #1 restrictor is 1/8", #2 and #3 are 1/2" and there is no restrictor and the #4 coolant passage. The restrictors are made of aluminum and I drilled the appropriate size hole in some aluminum, cut out the rough size with a jigsaw and used a hand file to get the size and shape right. They are held in with friction.

Here are the passenger side manifolds with blue silicone hose between them. The car definitely runs cooler now (at idle) but when refilling the cooling system, I discovered an airlock and was able to add more coolant than I had before. I don't know for sure how what affect that had on the engines ability to stay cool.

Power problem solved

At the last autocross, I was very disappointed with the power of the car. The dyno said 290 hp and 288 ft/lbs but my butt dyno said it was a lot less than that. I even called the dyno guy and questioned the accuracy of the equipment. Well, anybody familiar with Stromberg or SU carbs will look at the pictures below and know immediately what the problem was-a torn diaphram. The diaphram raises and lowers a sleeve inside the carb, allowing more or less air in. This diaphram was ripped and so the sleeve wouldn't allow any more than a trickle of air into the 3 cylinders fed by this carb.

I also discovered a big ignition timing problem. I had purchased a new cap and rotor from a "Top Seller" on E-Bay and I should have known the quality of the parts was poor when the rotor just snapped in half when I tried to install it. Well, the cap recently failed as well so I went back to the original Lucas distributor cap. I'm guessing that the knock-off cap and factory cap didn't share the exact orientation on the distributor because the timing was suddenly 20 degrees too advanced. This now makes me question the quality of the thermostats I purchased from the same seller because even with the oil cooler hooked up, the coolant temperature is too high.

Autocross event #2

Things went well for the second event. The didn't leak any oil or coolant, had slightly more power than last time and behaved better under braking. It did land up running too hot by my fourth run and stalled under braking but I'll get an oil cooler on it this week and hopefully that clears up. I definitely need to find more horsepower and improve the downshifting before I will be fighting for fastest time of the day. The video camera in the first 4 videos shakes pretty badly because it's attached to a polycarbonate windshield, and I forgot to attach a microphone again-oops! The last video is with a different camera and is much better quality.

First run-sorry about the poor quality

Second run-my quickest but I clipped a cone

Third run-clean but a second slower

Fourth run-was going very well until the car stalled under braking

Third run with much better video quality