Wordless Outtake: Reinforcing Stereotypes, Twice
– Posted on March 14, 2011
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mmmmm Thats odd the usual cure for the top pic is the bottom pic
My old boss had one of these back in the malaise days. It was a very nice car, but not a good one. Myriad oil leaks, many no start days, seemed like something was always broken. (Kind of like a Harley back in those days…) In fact I thought he owned two of them, as I usually saw him in two different colored ones. It turns out his actual car was at the shop so often, they consistently gave him the same loaner, so he had some continuity. To add insult to injury, he gave up on the Jag and bought a 2nd generation Cadillac Seville bustleback. Unfortunately, this one had issues, too. He kept that car for a few years and was one of the first in our area to buy a Lexus, which seemed to serve him well.
This swap was so popular there was even a company to sell instructions and provides support called… “Jaguars That Run.” (They also specialized in V8 Volvo conversions.)
They did a lot of V-8 S-10 swaps too. Also a V8 Toyota…was it a Chev-ota? Or a Toy-let?
Seriously…I think it was an old Supra.
JTR helped me out of a bind back in 1996, thanks to their book “Chevrolet TPI/TBI Engine Swapping”.
My Olds 307/TH200-4R equipped ’89 Caprice Wagon…a car that would never go up any hill in overdrive…also it was GM’s last car with a Quadra-Jet…finally crapped out. and I laid out the plan to my wife.
A couple weeks later the donor powertrain was tracked down…an wrecked ’87 Firebird Formula 350 gave up its TPI engine and TH700-R4. It took six months, two Helm manuals (one for the wagon and one for the donor car), several calls to JTR and prayer…but when it was said and done my Caprice had gained about 100HP and 2 MPG.
Drive a steady 55 and get 25 MPG.
The TPI wiring was actually simpler than the 307. GM had to jump thru so many hoops to get that mill to work in a 4200-lb station wagon with 2:93 gears.
JTR’s eternal nugget of wisdom – THE secret to making these kinds of swaps work – is…drum roll please!
“Make the engine think it’s still in the vehicle it came out of.”
When I finally scrapped the car – Northeastern rust issues – I’d put 132,000 miles over six years on the TPI. The engine now sits in a corner of the garage. Someday I’ll put it on Ebay or sell outright. Next swap will be a 5.3 into a ’68 Chevy C-10.
Thanks JTR.
A co-worker and I have a game. He finds an old car or truck and asks me what motor I would swap into it. The answer is almost always a small block Chevy. It’s a running joke with us now.
It amazes me just how many kits there are available to swap a SBC into almost anything else.
Check out http://www.johnscars.com – I’m not a Jag guy but if I were I’d deal with him, just from reading his blurbs in the Jaguar parts section of HMN for quite a few years.
speaking of re-enforcing stereotypes…