John's Cars in Texas has been making bolt in conversions for Chevy big and
small blocks into Jags for many, many years. No cutting required and
everything is supplied.
A guy I worked with in the early 80s put a stroked Chevy small block in his
V12 E convertible after having nothing but overheating problems with the car
since the day he bought it new.
After the conversion he never had that problem.
One of the major probems with E types in the US was that they tend to run
very hot and if you got stuck in traffic you were dead. My uncle owned a 64
and had that problem as well as a host of electrical problems. To try to
resolve the problems the grill opening was enlarged ever larger with each
series of E types. Unfortunately the installation of the V12 only made the
problem worse.
The Jag 6s are great engines and very reliable but expensive to rebuild.
The problem with Es and other Jags was that they were relatively cheap to
buy but very expensive to maintain. Early E types had the performance of
Ferraris at half the price and of course the "look." Many people who bought
them didn't realize how maintainance intensive they were and often didn't
perform the scheduleded work.
Additionally, in the US people brought them to Joe Blow mechanic down the
block, and they knew jack about the cars and only compounded a bad
situation. Lucas also didn't help.
And lets not get started on those inboard disc brakes in the rear.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: <RoadsterGB@aol.com>
To: <csp311@telia.com>; <rrees@digitex.net>
Cc: <datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 8:24 AM
Subject: Re: OT- I ALMOST DIED TONIGHT!!!!!
> Hi
>
> Not that it matters who fits which engine where, the wonderful Jag
straight 6
> and V12 engines were around long before Ford came on the scene - Jag was
part
> of British Leyland (scary thought) from '68 to ''85 although the XJ6's XK
> engine had been around for years before, powering all manner of great
> machinery. The V12 came out in '72, when William Lyons retired at 71.
Jaguar
> regained independence in '85 just before William Lyons died and Ford took
> over in '89. They haven't done a bad job since but they've yet to produce
> anything approaching the class of the E-Type/XKE (IMHO).
>
> Just climbing down from my soapbox but I just love old Jag engines.
>
> Rob
> www.fairlady.org
>
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