I passed up on E-types when they were about $30K for one in average condition. Today is the first time I am getting back to seeing what they go for. I gather it's $60K on up. Now I am wondering, through the years I saw them with Chevy V8s (and even a SOHC 427 Ford with 616 hp. stock!) so I was wondering have they gone up so much now that one with an American V8 is worth buying to convert back to E-type drivetrain?

 

I just renewed my 6 cylinder engine in a E-Type S2. The engine just fits in between the frames and I doubt that a V8 engine, which is a lot larger fits into the front-frame.
For safety reasons it is impossible to change the frame and no technical government inspection in the world would accept any changes. In Europe we have very strong regulations regarding the safety of cars and any change needs to be approved by an instituion (TUEV). The approval for a major change costs between 10,000 and 15,000 EUROS.
I have seen an E-type with an Rover V8 3.5 l engine but this car was a fake. The car was build as a kit car with a total different frame.

Moreover it would be a sin, to modify a classic car in this way.

Cheers
Alfred

 

I would say so, yes.

Presumably a V8 car can be bought fairly cheaply, compared to an original, which leaves you the financial room to spend money converting it back to the 6-cylinder engine.

Cheers
DD

 

They fit! Well, some of them do.

A fair number of them a roaming around in the USA. Before values shot up it was a somewhat popular thing to do.




Well, let's not be too rash. As I say, they're fairly common in the USA. And I know a fellow who ran one in the UK for years.




Here in the USA most regulation of this type would be decided on a state-by-state basis....and I very seriously doubt that any are as demanding as the Euro regulations. Heck, in the 'States we've been swapping engine types from one car to another for decades. It's almost a tradition, like a rite of passage




I think most everyone would agree.

Now that values are high and the cars are so desirable I doubt anyone is doing V8 swaps.

Ages ago, though, in the 60s and 70s, it wasn't unusual. Back then E-types were "just another used car".

Cheers
DD

 

I've considered swapping a vette engine and tranny for my v12.

 

I know a guy who has a ls1 t56 in hus etype convertible and has loved it

 

If you do find one with a bodged up front frame and want to return it to original, the front frames are available in new metal (for a price):
E-Type Fabs - SUB FRAMES

 

The way the emissions testing goes is that the car woner's car at the smog test booth is hooked up right to Sacramento's computer. The computer there knows only E-type came with six or V-12. If you say "no this one has eight cylinders" you might have a problem. Has anybody with a converted car run across this? But it might not matter if it is pre-72. There is a cut off year there somewhere where cars older than that don't have to be smog tested.

All I can say about running non original engine is to point at Lincoln Cabraloff. When I met him in 1970 he was running a Chrysler slant six in his Ferrari Barchetta which he had probably bought for around $7000. He drove it for something like 14 years with that engine and probably sold the car for several hundred thousand so he had the fun of driving the car at all events for all those years, spent not a dime on the engine and sold it for a huge amount. That is the way I am thinking of going but I am sure some purists will say "why hack a stock car up? but I am thinking of buying it already customized.

 

1975 and older vehicles are exempt from CA smog testing. A couple of years ago, I transferred my 1974 Triumph Dolomite Sprint (a car that was never exported to the US and thus never met any US regulations) from myself in SC to my son in CA. The CA authorities did not give a flying fig about the car's specifications (except they did insist on collecting the sales tax).

 

I'm with doug on this one!

swapping another type of engine is an American thing,we still have some freedoms left!

I just cant imagine being told you cant change your personal property to suit your personal ideas!! things within reason.

SAFETY!! almost no modified cars are ever involved with accidents or crashes, stop and think about it,seriously!

and let me add; i have never owned a vehicle that did NOT make some change to, even my wifes car has a K&N air filter.

my name is English, but 230 odd years back some guy came over from England,he wore a RED coat, but he decided to stay in the colonies, just because it was free!

 

Different experience here. 1991 GMC 4.3L 90-degree V6 into 1984 Jeep 2.5L I4 Wagoneer (a Cherokee with few extra lockwashers for that year).

At time of conversion, my county did not yet require emissions testing.

Took it across the county line and had it tested anyway, as I had modded the TBI and ECM PROM, made-up tube headers and pieced-together exhaust, O2 sniffer, and cat and fiddle-integrated certain other sensors.

'Wish they were ALL like that!' comment as I was handed as clean a sheet as one could ask for.

What they looked at then - and still-yet, as we came under the rules about two years later - is the emissions specs for the 1991 GMC the engine had come FROM, not the '84 Jeep it went INTO.

That said, I was also told that had I put an OLDER motor in, they would have used the specs for the NEWER chassis. IOW generally measure to the stricter of possible choices - you are not meant to degrade the emissions performance.

The applicable regs are Federal, but the State has some leeway as to how they do the tests, so YMMV.

... and if in Californicyah, vary by a great deal...


NB: meeting and beating the specs THEN and still having right-nice performance was easy. No longer so easy - even for the factory.

 

I've always enjoyed modifying my cars....including several engine swaps over the years.

I also enjoy being able to breathe :-) .

As a result I have no philosophic objection to emissions testing. However, I have objections to the way testing is administrated.

In my perfect world all emissions testing would be "tailpipe test only". No visual inspections.

For the last 19 years I've lived in a county with no testing at all. The 29 years I spent in Southern California and the emission testing hassles are but a dim memory now :-)

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Fellow Jagnuts,

If your thinking about this you fall into this category. I own a 1964 OTS that was converted to a small chevy ( some things seen cannot be unseen) V8. It consisted of the following mods that require attention in reverse. The sub frame, a serial numbered bit was altered to accommodate the V8 and while done fairly well is ruined for re-use as engine mount and side rails, well all 4 parts of the sub frame were butchered. Usually unseen corrections to fit are massive hacking in transmission tunnel. Costly to set right. Purchase of non correct engine /transmission and prop shaft. Wiring harness splicing and correcting to spec, not inexpensive. Torsion bars and reaction plate usually hacked up to fit in new bits. Pedal box alterations for new V8 clutch system.

Are you starting to get an idea where this is going? I got all the old bits but still had to have a new sub frame and do lots of corrective action to make my find back into a proper Jaguar. Even so I went for an ultimate combination of the best parts from all 3 series. Better brakes and uprights, Better cooling, 4.2 bell housing, EJ syncro box and starter, later wider wires, so you get the picture.

Traded a Trans Am worth nothing for it and now its a fire breather that goes, stops and get great mileage. Hands down much faster and better balanced than it was as a V8. AND done is a time when it didn't cost anything to do it.

If you're in Cali, they hate all car and especially altered ones, so give it some serious thought.

You may have a neat car but one you'll never use on the road.

Use it as a donor car and get a new body from Martin Robey in primer, pick your colors and build a really valuable effort that will always return your cash.

Cheers Robert

 

I owned an E-Type for several years, recently. In 1957, I converted 1952 XK120 FHC to a Corvette V8. It was a very fast street car for the era. I have thought that a nice update for the E-type now, would be one of the supercharged 6 cylinder jag motors used by Jaguar in the 1990,s. A reliable and much more powerful motor, retaining the look and sound of the original. I recently saw a very professionally done 502 ci Chevy V8 in a former V12 E-type. The owner had many thousands of miles on this conversation and had just recently driven it across the USA

 

just joined and am waiting for my replacement 3.8 block to transit from new york.

 

I'm unlumping my 62 ots back to a 3.8 as mentioned elsewhere and this crossed my mind.

that aj16 with the supercharger is a fantastic engine but after discussing with a guy in england who did this conversion he said it was a bear to make run.

he noted that due to the supercharger positioning on the left side hitting the steering and other ancillaries, that it would mean a subframe redesign with structural consideration would need to be done. his was hard enough to do without having the interference issue on his right hand drive car.....and given his experience he would not consider this viable or even worthwhile given the potential of a high revving "modernized" 3.8 drivetrain.

 

In the 70's (and probably to this day) John's Cars made a kit to put a smallblock ford v8 into a 6cyl etype without modifications to the car.
For the series 1 fhc and roadsters I considered this to be heresy! And still do for that matter. But otherwise, I am a big fan of transplants, and an LSx in a v12 car would be killer! I made a hard decision back in the '80's, to put an sbc in my '75 xj6c which had a seriously overheated motor. Money being an issue and sbc's I could deal with. It actually made the car into a fast streetable car, what it should have been in the first place! Recently I thought about changing it back to a dohc with triples and a 5spd manual. But after driving my daughters '86 xj, which I put a 700r4 trans into (great improvement), I realize that the car is so heavy it won't matter what I do to the 6cyl, it won't be as much fun as the sbc. So I have to think it over...
Bill