Okay Gurus... I'm officially at my wit's end and seeking advice.
My 1967 Series "2" OTS, 4.2 with dual Strombergs,is in good general tune, starts right up when cold and runs well. The fly in the ointment here is that once warmed up and subequently shut down, she absolutely will not re-start and I must wait 2-3 hours for everything to cool down then she again cranks right up. Just to be clear, when hot she cranks over and over very well (brand new Optima battery)but there is just no light-off. I've tried all variations of throttle when hot: none, pump then none, pump the whole time, choke, no choke, hold it on the floor, all to no avail. Also, I,ve checked the input voltage at the coil and it's around 11.5 volts with key on but not running, and the voltage is the same whether the dual radiator fans are running or not.

Any ideas guys? Thank you, Eric.

Submitted by jklekas@aol.com on Wed, 05/25/2011 - 00:09

OK McFadden,

Here's a picture of the 63 I sold to my cousin Phill Floor in 1985, and his wife Robin. The picture was taken on September 12, 1987 in southern Utah on the way to a Zion Tribe Concert. Phill said "If you look carefully, you can see the steam coming off of both car and rider".

Submitted by dale@ls.net on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 09:34

Lot of good posts on this thread, however, for what it,s worth, Jaguar is not the only automobile that has these types of problems. Most of the posts are concerning fuel problems, but no hot crank can
also be electrical, as Pat Duffy points out. My old XJ6C would not crank when hot because the coil
was on the distributor next to the engine. One bottle of cold water on the coil, and I was back on
the road. One good test to eliminate all electrical as a problem is to simply put a timming light onto
one of your spark plug wires and have someone crank the engine while you watch for the flash of
the light. If you are not getting any spark, then work yourself back from their. Dale Conrad

Submitted by NW61-43367CJ on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 02:16

Eric I posted this yesterday but it dosn't seem to appear, so forgive me for trying a second time. You need to check the voltage at the coil when you are cranking the car. My '68 had a similar problem. It was caused by dirty contacts in the ignition switch. Check to see if you ignition swich get hot - like quite hot after you've been running the car. That's an indication of corrosion inside. Because of the method of wiring, when the contacts are dirty there can be adequate voltage at the coil while running, but not when cranking.

Submitted by nysrunner@aol.com on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 13:01

I had the same problem on my 73xke. In my case it turned out to be a diode in the voltage reg. Try putting ice cubes in a plastic bag and the next time u have the prob. wrap the ice around the regulater to see if it cools down sooner and try starting the car.

Submitted by DavidBarnes71@… on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 08:57

Some times on hot days after driving for awhile the fuel pump on my '68 FHC would start clicking very loudly like it was still pumping but cavitatiing or vapor lock. It would then die and not start again until coolled off. The glass filter bowl would not be full like normal. My theory is that since the fuel pump is mounted higher than the tank it has to work too hard to draw the fuel up to that level and gets hot and vapor locks. I bought a small after market soild state pump and spliced it into the clear plastic fuel line in the trunk but made a bracket where it is postitioned down low next to the spare tire at the same level of the tank. I just did this not too long ago but so far no more problems. I left the original pump in place so in case my theory turns out to be wrong long term I can easily put it back to original configuration and start trouble shooting again.

David Barnes
'68 FHC

Submitted by SE98-32482CJ on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 23:40

Eric we all know the 1968 car. You said you have volts at the coil when it is HOT but you did not say if the coil is providing spark--check that. Second while Stew is confused do check your fuel pump-it should be an SU pump (not Lucas)but Lucas did make the rotary pump for the 61 to 64 E types. You should have good flow and about 3 psi. Now since you have MODed the intake do you have the proper spacers between the manifolds and carbs? If you are getting vapor lock you need to check your float levels. The last question is did this just start or has it been a problem for years? You need to first make sure you have spark then the carbs/fuel system can be sorted.

Submitted by BwanaE@aol.com on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 22:40

Me again... Holy Cow! I can't get anything right...make that small turn signals ABOVE the bumpers. Sheeessshh, some people!

Thanks for the above ideas. I'll pop out to my hanger tomorrow where I keep the beastie and check: fuel filter, carb insulators, Lucas metal fuel pump.

Vapor lock sure sounds right, I've dealt with this more than once on my old Landrover when off-roading in the summer, but I didn't think it could occur with an electric fuel pump.

Eric.

Submitted by BwanaE@aol.com on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 22:30

Sorry guys... I typed my post after only one coffee. The thorn in my side is my 1968 Jaguar E-Type, OTS. This particular version is often called the Series 1 1/2 (with tongue in cheek) because it has the regular Series 1 body with small turn signals below the bumper, but the Series 2 interior with plastic rocker switches etc. In addition it was the odd "smog control" model with that awkward, cast aluminimum, cross-over induction thingy which has long ago been removed, so it's basically 2 Strombergs feeding straight into a regular induction manifold on a 4.2. Sorry for any confusion... the older I get the higher my caffein requirement.

Eric.

Submitted by cleavefamily@c… on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 22:29

Eric,
Check to see that the fuel pump is in fact a Lucas Pump made of metal. I had an MGB about 15 years ago that drove me nuts 'cuase I was always told that a Lucas fuel pump either works or it doesn't - there's no in between. After months of replaceing/cleaning everything but the fuel pump I found that the pump was a plastic Lucas look alike that woud destort when hot and quit pumping even though it was making that familiar click click click pumping noise. Generally speeking I thought that it was near impossible to get vapor lock with an electric fuel pump, unless someone rerouted fuel lines too close to something hot, like an exhaust pipe - not to cool!!!!

Submitted by SE98-32482CJ on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 19:55

Guys all good stuff but if you read the post we are not sure of what the car is! It is a 67? 68? Series 2? The 68 and 69 have slightly different issues and the 67 different carbs. Why do we not let Eric come back on and tell us what he actually has.

Submitted by jklekas@aol.com on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 18:43

I have a 68 Series 1.5 now and haven't had that type of problem YET, but years ago on my 63 3.8 Series 1, it would vapor lock on warm days and I'd have to wait forever for the blockage to clear. It had a clear fuel line near the fuel filter and you could see the bubbles in the line. I sold the car to a cousin and have a great picture of his hot wive (more ways than one) leaning on the side of the car which had the "bonnet up". He said they were both cooling off. How hot is the car running, is the fuel filter clean, and is the fuel pump pressure as high as it should be? Just ideas. Any comments from others about my question, or other ideas?

Jim Klekas
Salt Lake City, UT

Submitted by SE57-14317J on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 10:57

Hi Eric,
I had a similsar problem with a car other than an E-type. What it turned out to be was that I had filled the car up at the end of winter. The gas station still had winter blend. So as the weather warmed the fuel would boil out of the float bowl and gas lines near the engine, i.e. engine vapor lock. When everything cooled down everything was fine. So I drained 1/2 the gas out of the tank and mixed in summer blend fuel. The car ran fine after that.