LOL!!! Yes that is one of many on the list. Backwards threads on the rear of the crankshaft and an Oil Slinger Plate just aren’t the same as a Rear Crank Seal.
Even Rolls Royce up till 1980 had the Oil Slinger/backwards thread on the Rear Crank Shaft. After that they put a real seal there.
IIRC the Spitfire 1500 they placed the Fuel Pump directly above the Distributor. More than one burned to the ground due to the Fuel Pump going bad and leaking on the Distributor sparking with gas dripping on it.
Right up there with V-12 Jaguars with leaking Fuel Injector lines spraying on the Distributor in the center of the valley. Can you say Flash Fire Kitty ?
To be fair, that source of Jag V12 fire was caused by owner stupidity. The manual instructs the owner to have the fuel injection hoses replaced every five years due to the heat of the V12. Most owners didn’t read the manual and the resulting fire was blamed on poor engineering. Strangely, if you replace the hoses like the manual says, you don’t get a center-vee fire... That’s a “didn’t RTFM” issue, not an engineering issue, IMHO.
The Jag V12s were far from the only engines that did that. Even the Nissan 300ZX had issues with that in the 80s.
“Even Rolls Royce up till 1980 had the Oil Slinger/backwards thread on the Rear Crank Shaft. After that they put a real seal there.”
Rear Main Seals cost about $10 to replace. A heck of a lot of work to access (sometimes, depending on design), but that isn’t an issue in initial design.
Who the hell is making decisions for those clowns?
When Jaguar moved to switch from 3.8 liters to 4.2, they went cheap and used the same cylinder head. The new block was slightly longer, but they used the old head anyway. Every 4.2 has this defect.