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I've always loved teh "unreliable, lawn ornament, won't touch one with e 20 ft pole, money pit' comments. Makes some beautiful, great driving cars real cheap.
Especially since, with the exception of certain '70s and early '80s V12 models, they are rugged, robust, and if they need work, easy to work on (with the exception of the damn inboard rear parking brakes).
I've NEVER seen the stud failing in the warter jacket, on two coasts and 3 decades. I HAVE seen the XK 6 cyl engine have the tappet guides lift up and hit the cam, sending shards of metal all over (but only in the American emissions controlled models with catalytic converters). Luckily, as a preventative measure, it's a $35 fix that takes a half hour to solve with a stakedown kit.
As I said, I loved mine, and my wife used hers as a daily driver to commute 45 minutes each way every day to work:
The XK inline 6 used in the XK120/140/150, MK seres, XJ series, etc up to the late '80s is a solid, strong, simple design. Replacing it with a Chevy engine doesn't "fix" any of the typical problem areas of the car, which CAN be fixed cheaper (replace teh Lucas starter with a Bosch one, the Marchand alternator with a Delco one, and you're done). brakes are cheap and easy to work on in the front. Pads at least are easy at the rear. A proper alternator (like the aforementioned Delco) fixes almost all the bizzare British electrical issues that can crop up (I do the same thing for the MGs and other British sports cars). Considering that the newest of the pre Ford cars are already over 20 years old, and cars liekthe one I picutred are already 25 years old (and thus dirt cheap to buy) you have to consider the fact that many of the faults are simply owners not taking care of them. But they are easy to bring back to life and be reliable. Anything newer should be fine to start with.
Replacing the jag 6 with a chey v-8 gives it more ponies
If I didn't replace several engine studs I sure wouldn't know that happened myself. The key thing there is to not run old workn out coolant. That applies to 70's xke too. For all I know the studs don't pass thru the water jacket like they used too.
I never owned a Jag, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't. I got the chance to restore a xk 140 a real touring car once, that was so long agon now, it would have need for another restro I should think. The owner allowed me to take it on any Sundays i wanted, which was way cool. I just had to wash it off of any sand from Daytona Bch. I never drove that car on any damned beach.
My 96' XJ has 167,000 miles and still looks extra clean thanks to the, what, 8 coat paint they slapped on it. A few quirks and parts are a high as hell but it's still a nice whip. I've gotten numerous "nice car" comments specially after detailing.
I like the 2008's more than the recentmost more modern styling but it is interesting to hear people's comments on them at car shows and whatnot.
"Oh wow what car is this? Is this the new Aston?"
"No that's the new Jaguar."
"Oooooohhhhhhh niiicceeee."
Replacing the jag 6 with a chey v-8 gives it more ponies
(snip).
As well as a substantially lighter engine, which helped the overall handling when an appropriate set of suspension mods were installed. Not to mention much better starting, idling, and better fuel economy with well-sorted out domestic carbs ... or the benefits of the Delco ignition distributor and service items which gave far more reliable and durable service than the Lucas components of the original 6 cylinder. I'd rather put points in a window distributor cap, knowing they were good for a long time ... compared to the installation of the smaller points in the Lucas distributor which always seemed to wear pretty quickly. The domestic carbs could hold tune for quite a while ... the antique carbs on the Jag varied from day to day atmospheric pressure. I wore out a couple of Uni-Syns through the years, just trying to keep my client's cars in as much tune as could be obtained ... keeping the carbs lubed was a weekly chore due to the materials they made them and the linkages from ....
Additionally, a typical engine swap used a domestic radiator of far less weight and greater thermal efficiency than the OE Jag radiator, which lead to far fewer engine cooling issues. For you folk at sea level altitudes, that may not have been a problem on the OE radiators, but up here at close to 6,000' ... these cars were problematic, very close to not being able to keep the cars running at normal temps when driving at highway speeds and pulling the steep grades in the Rocky Mountains on a summer day ... even on non-airconditioned cars. The OE radiators simply didn't flow air or water very well.
The small block V-8's were also far less expensive to work on than the inline DOHC 6's .... especially when you needed to install stuff like a lower timing chain on the 6 when you were doing a valve job. I saw a lot of low mileage Jag 6 cylinder motors need valve jobs through the years ... far more frequently than small block V-8's.
I briefly owned a XKE V-12 2+2 ... found out why the seller wanted out of it so cheaply. While a pleasure to experience the smooth power ... it needed a water pump at less than 20,000 miles on the car. This had to be one of the worst designed motors/cars for access to what would be a routine replacement item. I bought the car for $5,000 and sold it for $6,000 at a loss after all the work it took to make the car presentable and drivable. And the build quality wasn't much better than the old Mark 10 I had with some very strange aluminum alloys that self destructed from electrolysis with the motor and the cooling system .....
Is that a tow truck in that second Jag photo? Usually its there somewhere.
No, it's my neighbor's truck that's part of his landscaping business. I had it in my yard as I was getting ready to repair and repaint the bottom of his passenger door where one of his crew hit a stump.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsprit
As well as a substantially lighter engine, which helped the overall handling when an appropriate set of suspension mods were installed. Not to mention much better starting, idling, and better fuel economy with well-sorted out domestic carbs ... or the benefits of the Delco ignition distributor and service items which gave far more reliable and durable service than the Lucas components of the original 6 cylinder. I'd rather put points in a window distributor cap, knowing they were good for a long time ... compared to the installation of the smaller points in the Lucas distributor which always seemed to wear pretty quickly. The domestic carbs could hold tune for quite a while ... the antique carbs on the Jag varied from day to day atmospheric pressure. I wore out a couple of Uni-Syns through the years, just trying to keep my client's cars in as much tune as could be obtained ... keeping the carbs lubed was a weekly chore due to the materials they made them and the linkages from ....
Hmm. My '86s pictured used Bosch injection and ignition. No lucas parts except for the starter, which I replaced with a Bosch gear reduction unit. The Bosch system was completely reliable. I take it you never saw or worked on cars of the '80s.
the 6s are easy to work on, and actually fairly cheap to get replacement parts for these days. But with the internet, that's the case for a lot of cars that "back in the day" were considered hard to get parts for and expensive to keep running. Too bad so many old school mechanics haven't worked on stuff like this for decades so don't realize that things have definitely changed for the better.
Quote:
I briefly owned a XKE V-12 2+2 ... found out why the seller wanted out of it so cheaply. While a pleasure to experience the smooth power ... it needed a water pump at less than 20,000 miles on the car. This had to be one of the worst designed motors/cars for access to what would be a routine replacement item. I bought the car for $5,000 and sold it for $6,000 at a loss after all the work it took to make the car presentable and drivable. And the build quality wasn't much better than the old Mark 10 I had with some very strange aluminum alloys that self destructed from electrolysis with the motor and the cooling system .....
Ahh, the early V12 cars. One of the best sources of the "Jags are unreliable" stories. In stock form, the V12 E Types and XJS models are complete nightmares. THOSE are the ones that swaps fix everything. And in the automatic equipped ones (most of them) the trans is already a GM TH400, so it's easy to upgrade.
Of course, these days, using a custom megasquirt injection/ignition setup, as well as an inexpensive street rod wiring harness solves most of the problems as well, and leaves you with the smooth power of a V12.
All that being said, I want a '75-77 XJ6-C coupe (not XJS) and put a Ford 460 in it, leaving the classic coupe form intact, but with all modern electricals and injection:
I wouldn't mind having an older coupe or roadster as long as it was reliable.
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