A friend of mine had a valve job done on the head of his XJ because the valves were stuck (long story). We put the head back on but could not start the car. New points, condenser, coil, resister, plugs. Distributor timed at 10 deg BTDC with rotor down to the right. As an experiment, he rotated the engine to 10 deg BTDC with rotor up to left (180 deg), rotated the spark plug wires 180 deg at the cap and blammo, the car started. Not much power but it runs. What is going on? Could the intake and exhaust cam shafts have been switched during the valve job? Would the car run if they had been? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Al Wiedie

Submitted by wljenkins@usa.net on Fri, 11/26/2004 - 04:37

Remember that #1 cylinder is the one at the BACK!!! I made the same mistake when I removed and replaced the head on my Series III XJ6. The problem can be fixed by doing exactly what you did, move the wires on the cap 180 degrees. I highly doubt the cams were interchanged.

Submitted by brianscats@sym… on Tue, 11/23/2004 - 00:33

First of all,when the camshafts were installed and the setting tool was
in position which way was the first lobe pionting? In or out.Do you know
anything about the distributor placement in the engine itself?I have done
at least a dozen head jobs myself.If you wish I can give you my phone number and you can call me.
Brian Scriven.

1957 XK 150 D.H.C.
1962 MK 10 4 manual o/drive
1965 3.8S

Submitted by awiedie@hotmail.com on Tue, 11/02/2004 - 19:11

When we installed the head to the engine, we first set the cams with the cam setting tool. The bolt holes in the sprockets lined up exactly with the holes in the cam flanges and after revolving the engine several times and stopping at TDC, the tool dropped onto the cams perfectly.

Alan