Thread: motor kit.

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My husband has found a 88 jaguar. It has a burnt valve. He was wondering if they make a kit to convert the Jag motor to a chevy motor.

Here is one source Barb:


http://www.jaguarspecialties.com/v8_kit.asp


Don

I dont know about a conversion kit available. But if you have a cut off wheel, a sawzall and a welder, you can do about anything. It would probably be easier to swap to the V8 then to repair the worn jag motor.

Thanks don for the link. I agree with you Moon. and probably a lot less expensive.

the 350 fits in good .a jag engine do not make even good boat anchor so the sbc is the way to go i built headers for one over 4 years ago the steering shaft was in the way so custom header were needed i think it was a 90? jag but maybe the same as a 88 . some one may make headers for them now?

thanks pat i will keep that in mind

This is actually a pretty popular swap, probably because people like the looks and all of the car, but when the engine needs repaired they find out how expensive it can be. I've seen quite a few of these swaps over the years and they seem to be pretty efficient. Plus you can go to any parts store and pickup parts cheap.

It does seem to devalue the car somewhat as I have seen some of these for sale for cheap money, but that is not the reason people build one in the first place. I bet it handles better too because I would suspect the sbc weighs less.

Don

thanks Denny

Since Ford owned Jag, it would have been damb decentof them to put a 302 or 351 in there to begin with. I bet they kept Lucus electronics too!

Posted by mooneye:
"But if you have a cut off wheel, a sawzall and a welder, you can do about anything."

Makes all your parts a "bolt-on"

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

the 350 fits in good .a jag engine do not make even good boat anchor so the sbc is the way to go i built headers for one over 4 years ago the steering shaft was in the way so custom header were needed i think it was a 90? jag but maybe the same as a 88 . some one may make headers for them now?

Jag V12 ( Twin six ) arn't bad, specially the pre '75 carb'd engines, the early FI they used was horrible.. I'v seen a few in hotrods, get rid of the crap and the aluminum polishes up nice... given that, a SBC would be more cost effective

Also check out the venerable V8 conversion manuals, parts for V8 S10, Datzun Z, Jaguar, Chevy TPI & TBI, Colorado, Astro Van V8, Volvo 200 & 700

kitz

thanks kitz. now i only have to wait for the stimulus check

I've done two. The first was an XKE coupe years ago (they were not worth a fortune then) and more recently an XJS coupe for my wife to drive. The first from scratch with a 350, 4 speed and the second with a kit from John's Cars out of Texas. The second one was Goodwrench 350 300hp crate coupled to a 700R4. Johns's supplied a lot of little parts that would take time to scrounge. He even recalibrated the speedometer. The kit saved a lot of time. It is a neat swap but you are still stuck with all of the other Jaguar problems. Both cars were a constant electrical battle even though I had replaced every part and wire I could think of. They both looked good though!

May as well use a 350 trans also and save the hassle when the limey one goes south later. Most definitely get rid of all the limey electrical components.