Jaguar e type first start up

Description

The first start-up of the rebuilt engine in my 1964 3.8 E type coupe. The car was the proverbial "barn find"; it had lain, completely dismantled in a leaky shed from the late eighties until I acquired her in May 2007. It has taken the best part of 2000 hours to get to this stage, and only a little bit more in sterling The engine was turned over on the starter with the plugs removed to get oil pressure up before any attempt was made to start it. As you can hear, the idle screws were adjusted too far down, and when she first fired I nearly soiled my overalls (with something other than oil) as I didnt expect it to rev up so quickly, which is why I shut her off asap! The old girl certainly seemed keen to live again after spending 20 years in a coma. The idle screws were backed off for the next attempt, and after gingerly adding more choke she starts up and settles into a remarkably smooth fast tick-over. The whirring noise in the background, by the way, is the fully immersed fuel pump; pretty advanced for the early sixties, that was later changed for a more conventional external pump on the 4.2.

Keywords

Jaguar, 3.8, type, Coupe, XK, Engine, XKE

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