ive looked online for days now tryign to find more info on v8 swaps in these jags. i have a few parts/ blocks sitting around from my past camaro engine builds and have enough for a complete v8/trans combo. Has anyone seen or done the engine swap of a small block chevy into a xj40?

 

Here ya go

http://www.jaguarspecialties.com/XJ40-V8.asp

Cheers
DD

 

yeah BRANDON Earlfilter did 1 on his old Jag, and I used to know a Guy that sold kits in Pasadena Texas in the 80's and his wife had a 454 in a series III ac and all. Matter of fact it looked like the facotry installed it

 

I believe AJ6 engines are bullet proof so why bother such a conversion ? lol . I would like to have more powerful engine though

 

my aj6 isnt so bulletproof. smokes on start up and serious valve noise. Needs a new head. but for the price im thinking i can just put soemhtign with more power in the jag.

 

You dont need a new hed just adjust the valve clearance and change the oilseals on thevalves then youre probably sorted.

You diont even need to remove the heds to do this job if you got the right equipment

 

well what do i need for the head work then? lol

 

Why would you want to replace such a wonderful engine with a gm v8? Just do the valve job and be done with it.

 

my aj6 is tapping pretty bad. and our engines are getting older and parts are more and more exspensive. A SBC would just be cool, and a little more feasible.

 

not to mention you could put something in like this



or this

 

Your Badness,

I haven't seen one, but I'm pretty sure there is a guy who sells the V8changeover goods. If you search around for the guy in California that sells brake vacuum booster conversions for early XJ40, I think you will have found him.

As for your engine, valve noise isn't normal. Provided the engine doesn't have a miss, i.e. it has good compression, a valve tap is probably just from a badly worn valve shim. Even this problem is rare, but if the inside of the tappets gets enough sludge built up, oil doesn't get slung onto the adjustment shim and the tip of the valve...the valve stemstarts trying to eat a hole in the shim, and so the clearance gets wider (and noisier).

The oil clouds is another story, '93-'94 in particular need new valve stem seals on intake and exhaust valves. jagga also mentionedreplacing the valve stem seals with the head still on the engine, you need an air compressor and the factory dummy camshaft cap blocks to do it. I personally would choose to pull the head, grind the valves and seats, install new valve seals, set the clearances and have at it.

John's Cars in Texas is the big dude for V8 swap kitsinto Series III XJ6 and XJS, maybe that's what BRUTAL was referring to . I don't know if they do any XJ40 stuff, might be another lead to follow. Please post a supplier if you find one, it's a subject that is bound to come up in the future. Not often though, 200K on one of the stock XJ6 engines is not out of the ordinary at all.

 

John's Cars seems to be the way to go from what research I've done. His order form asks what Jag you have - XJ6, XJ6C, XJ6L, XJS, XJSC, XJ12C, XJ12L. Not specifically XJ40, but I'll bet if you called him he could help you out (214-426-4100). I already have a conversion book from jagsthatrun.com, but I don't think I have the time to custom make all the parts required. Johns cars will send you everything you need for about $1500. He'll even credit me $100 off my conversion kit for sending him my "other" conversion book (book cost $40).

I know this is an offensive topic to purists, but I come from the SBC world and am planning a conversion for my XJ6 as well. I'm just not comfortable driving around the country with the present Lucas/Bosch electrical system. I have no doubts that the engine will last forever though. I've already been beat up by the '48 Chevy truck purists for wanting to pull the I6 out of my one ton and put in a 350, so I might as well let the Jag guys beat me up as well!

It would be nice if this forum had a separate lounge for conversion questions, answers and builds for documenting the process. We're all Jag lovers, why not open it up a bit more? There's a lot of converted Jags out there, would be nice to hear from them too.