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Re: [Shop-talk] Engine swaps; 350 SBC donor cars.

To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Engine swaps; 350 SBC donor cars.
From: John Miller <jem@milleredp.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:42:32 -0800
> Yeah, I'd be on that side of the fence as well.
> 
> If you want to swap a motor, do it with a 240SX or a 280Z or M3, or 
> something like that.

Personally, I think a well-done GM LS2/LS3 installation would improve 
just about any car.

Not to say that all Jag swaps are well-done or that - even with a kit - 
an engine swap is necessarily going to be the smoothest of projects.

> If you're wanting to swap a motor for anything other than performance 
> reasons, I'd also take a hard 2nd look.

I guess I look at it this way: you don't do an engine swap like that 
with the expectation that in six weeks of evenings you'll have a 
perfectly sorted car, or because you think you're 'improving' it.   It 
happens, but it's not the rule.

You do it because you want to.  And you do it knowing you might be 
ironing out the cruise control or the transmission linkage or the 
exhaust clearance to the steering box for the next two years.  Hell, 
I've got a '65 Mustang with a 302 up on the lift right now with a set of 
beautifully made and far from cheap JBA headers that are supposed to be 
a bolt-in for that car, one of the most common project car combinations 
on Planet Earth, and those damn headers are less than 1/4in from 
EVERYTHING even with the taller '66 engine mounts.  At least I didn't 
pay anything for them (they're part of the pile of lightly-rusted parts 
that were with the car when I got the whole thing for $0, about $20K 
ago.)  Probably just sell 'em to someone with a '67-70 and buy some 
Hedmans or some such.

Now, as for the Jag V12 side of things - there's Jags I'd happily cut 
into and Jags I wouldn't.  One of the very few mid-'90s X300 XJ12s would 
be a rather nice car to have, and the old pre-bumper '69-72 cars are 
probably worth the pain of keeping a twelve-holer (though my thoughts 
lean toward a 7-liter with May heads and a decent aftermarket EFI.)  But 
most '80s Jags are...uh...junk.

John.
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