There are many opinions and popular stories about the Jaguar E-Type. Did Enzo Ferrari really call it the “most beautiful car ever built,” and is it really that difficult to maintain? Well, there’s no evidence that Enzo ever made a statement about the E-Type, at least not publicly. What we do know is that they can be costly to keep running. Well, this 1964 E-Type Roadster might be a bit cheaper to keep running than most, since it’s no longer powered by the Jaguar inline-6. Instead, a Ford 289 V8 sits under its extra bulbous hood. As far as value is concerned, it’s sure to hurt it, but if you actually plan to drive it, the V8 might be a big plus. You can find this Jag here on eBay in West Jefferson, North Carolina, with a current bid of $10,000 and a BIN of $40,000.
I’m actually a huge fan of the XK series of inline-6 engines. They are super smooth and offer impressive power for an engine designed in the 1940s. Depending on when in 1964 this one was built, it would have either had the 3.8- or the 4.2-liter version. Both engines produced about 265 horsepower, but the 4.2 produced more torque. Of course, the design comes with trade-offs, namely a far more complicated valvetrain than, say, a pushrod V8. Due to their high-strung nature, they tend to require more maintenance and are more expensive to fix if something goes wrong. A Mustang sourced 289 (4.7-liter) V8, on the other hand, is simple and doesn’t require much to keep running.
We’ve experienced a few E-Types over the years, including a V8-powered coupe. That car was terrifying for several reasons. For one, it had too much power and a sticky throttle. Secondly, someone had cut up the firewall and engine bay to fit it. The throttle issue could have been resolved, but you couldn’t easily fix the cut-up structure. Thankfully, this one was converted using a Logan Engineering kit, so no cutting was involved in fitting the V8. Other than the hood scoop, converting this back to a Jaguar engine would only require finding a drivetrain. If you plan on driving it, leaving the V8 and Ford automatic transmission would probably make the most sense. There’s no word on the 289’s tune, so power could be anywhere from 200 to 300 horsepower. It probably doesn’t make the car any faster, but it probably makes nice sounds and is a lot cheaper to service.
The interior looks fairly stock. Most of these cars left the factory with a manual transmission, but automatics were offered. While they look a bit pieced together, this one’s shifter is definitely not a Jaguar part. Also, the seats aren’t correct for this year. There’s no word on what they came from, but they look a bit like later Jaguar seats. The seller notes that the carpets are in good shape, the top was replaced a few years ago, and the fuel gauge isn’t working. Overall, the interior looks to be usable as is.
While the original drivetrain would be more appealing to purists, I can see why someone would want a V8 in their E-Type. You get similar power, the V8 weighs about the same, and it’s much cheaper to replace if it breaks. Honestly, my only complaint here is the hood scoop. The hood is already hard to see across in stock form, so it has to be interesting trying to navigate parking lots and tight turns with that scoop sitting so high. I’m not sure you could fix that easily, and of course, looks are subjective. At the end of the day, what matters is that you can drive this Jag hard without worrying about destroying the engine. Thoughts?
I do think the E-type is the most beautiful car ever built, but not in this color.
The hood scoop ruins the whole car for me.
The person who built this should be ashamed.
No working link to the ebay listing?
My apologies, the link should be there now!
This has a lot of cues of a 1990’s engine build, people may not like the engine swap, but it made a lot more sense back then. These are beautiful cars, like mentioned above, this color does it no favors. It seems like the seller knows the value will be diminished and factored it into their asking price. It will be interesting to see how the bidding goes.
Steve R
Boy that ugly hood scoop threw me off in the first two pictures. The first one taken on the drivers side, made the scoop look as if it was on the passenger side. Then the one taken on the passenger side, it looks as if it’s on the drivers side. Then when I saw the photo from the rear I could see it is in the center of the hood. It’s like an optical illusion. It must be the ugly yellow that does it.
How to destroy a Jaguar in one easy step.
It could be worse.
I had a friend, in the late 70s who had an e-type with a Chevy Vega driveline in it.
Not actually so easy or a single step, but point taken.
Agree
I used to run around up there a lot.
The scoop doesn’t matter because you’re always in a left or right hand curve.
Ok, let’s take one of the most beautiful cars ever designed and see just how many mistakes we can make.
1. Obviously, color.
2. Hood scoop
3. Color
4 Engine
5 Hood scoop
6.Transmission
7. Most importantly, COLOR.
Did I miss anything? I feel like I missed something.
Color.
Transmission.
How about “headrests”? An anachronism in this car. And oh yes, color…
Scoop.
Sooo-
Is there a link to the auction somewhere?
Yikes. I wonder if a Jag in-line six could be fitted back in, and a stock color affixed. The color reminds me of vanilla pudding. Great, now I’m hungry…
Butterscotch pudding.
Even better!
Butters your grounded!
Or baby poop.
Heck, keep it in the family and go with a modern AJ-6, AJ-16 or AJ-V8.
“They’re only original once.” This one isn’t anymore, and unlikely you’d ever find its original engine anyway, so IMO it’s fair game for (tasteful) restomodding.
Okay, I’m with just about everyone else on the color, it’s not attractive. But I disagree with most about the engine swap. The jag engines and drive train stink. Constantly needing repairs. So I guess someone finally got fed up with not being able to drive it. So I don’t blame them.
Mr. TRUTH: I will politely mention that you are totally WRONG about “the jag engines and drive train stink. Constantly needing repairs”. The stereotypical myths surrounding these cars in the United States have reached the point of surrealistic silliness. These are well-engineered cars with hemispherical combustion chambers and twin overhead cams, that gave the buyer lots of exotic car for a reasonable price…which caused many Americans who couldn’t afford to maintain them adequately, to poke about themselves in the dark or try to get corner gas station V-8 mechanics, who didn’t know an SU carb from a fruit fly, to mess around with them. When NOT COMPETENTLY MAINTAINED, exotic engines, be they by Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc, are UNFORGIVING. Just one small example out of many: just putting regular Prestone antifreeze of the day into a Jaguar motor was its kiss of death. The unwittingly poured-in Prestone, would cause electrolysis between the iron block and the alloy head, thus leading to rust clogging, that would cause the engine to overheat, triggering engine gasket leaks, whereby oil would start dripping… Had a Jaguar, factory-trained mechanic serviced the car, none of this would have happened. These cars require COMPETENT/KNOWLEDGABLE servicing…and according to the manual’s intervals. As Jay Leno says in one of his Jaguar videos–the one about the Suffolk SS 100–the Jaguar six is a “bulletproof” powerplant. If the owner of a Jaguar does not know how to maintain it, he/she should take it to an established Jaguar shop. After all, if one has an Aston Martin or a Ferrari, one does not usually entrust it to the nineteen-year-old gas station kid down the street… Jaguars were too good a deal in the U.S., leading many people to buy them who could not afford to have them serviced properly.
I agree with a lot of what you said, except the part about stereotypical reputation. Because as you can read by the comments, it is all based on real life experiences.
I do agree that at the time most mechanics did not know how to work on them.
And i think repair is over used. More like needing constant fiddling with, and adjustments. Except for the electrics which were just bad.
And as I tried to point out earlier the British logic of putting things together is odd to say the least.
Ken Paul: the real life experiences you talk about, including your unfortunate experience with an MGA, are with cars decades old already when owned by you and others with the same complaints. MGAs were good little sports cars with decent reputations in the ’50s, until the MBG in ’62. However, the young people, often college students, who owned them originally, were not the wealthiest or most mechanically savvy of people and often would cut maintenance corners. Also, as this article is supposed to be about E Type Jaguars and not MGAs, and you like to mention Italian cars, comparing an MGA to an E Type, is like comparing a Fiat 850 to a Maserati Mistral. I own an original survivor, low mileage (31 thou miles) ’69 E Type, that fortunately was ALWAYS serviced at its correct intervals by its two prior, mature owners, and it is a delight to drive. Not a single oil leak in the decade since I’ve owned it. All the wiring is original and all I have had to do in my years of ownership, besides routine maintenance, is change three bulbs, fix the clock and repair one wiper.
Many years ago I had a friend that did the Ford engine and transmission swap but he did it right. You have to notch, then reinforce the Jag frame so the Ford V8 sits lower, then make new mounts. When you do that you
don’t have to hack the interior to make the Ford tranny fit. But it is a lot of work to do it right. I’ll still take the Jag DOHC six myself.
I owned an MGA once. Cured me of ever wanting a British car again.
As for engine swap, anyone remember how many ww2 and early 50s jeeps were converted to 283s or 289s because the jeep engines were so bad? Yeah it is about the most beautiful car ever, and even that troublesome inline 6 was beautiful to look at.
Abomination of a hood scoop aside, the floors have been skinned over with flat sheet metal, so rust is likely hiding everywhere.
Those reliability comments remind me of the days as a teenager when I swapped my 62 MG Midget for a well worn 120 FHC. The 120 leaked oil, but I kept it full with gallon jugs of paraffin based oil. Word got around that I knew how to work on Jags and people began showing up at my shadetree. It was really a goldmine in those days because I could charge 40.00 (1965 dollars) for a tune up with points, plugs and condenser. It was good money for a half day’s work and customers were happy because the local Jag dealer charged 100.00 for the same job. I still have the Uni-Syn in my toolbox for balancing the SU carbs. The same tune up on a Chevy was about 15.00 and they had to struggle to get those plugs out while the Jags were right there on top. Soon I was doing valve adjustments, I got pretty good at pulling the cams one at a time and changing pads, even made a tool to hold the pads so I could grind them to exact thickness. Also still in my toolbox along with a few hundred of the pads. Progressed on to head gaskets, valve jobs and full engine rebuilds.
Paraffin-based oil….right, I remember using it too in the late 70s and early 80s. I believe the brand was LE. I was doing shadetree around that time too. 20 years later I still had people come up to me in a store or on the street to tell me that their cars never ran as well as when I tuned them. Most shops just did the ignition bits, but I always did a valve adjustment and carb tune.
As to the Jag engines, they have their quirks and getting the correct shim sizes was challenging, but they’re really strong engines. My issues were more with the electrics on the British and Italian makes. Joseph Lucas (PoD) and the Italian heavy use of relays with cheap wiring were my bugaboos. Lots of time chasing shorts and chewed wires. However, I still have the box of shims and the 2 tools for the Fiat 128s and 124s. I may see if they work on my 89 Alfa Romeo Spyder Veloce.
I’d like to personally apologize to our British cousins, do they still do the “Five Techniques” for a crime such as this? See, this is what happens when conventional wisdom goes down the Loo, and since money is no concern, this is the result. As unusual as it is, Jaguar actually had a couple yellows, none I’ve ever seen, but to turn such a glorious car into a Americanized hack is simply unacceptable. All that negativity aside, it sure is a cool car.
What else can you do? Face it folks, the British, French, or Italians couldn’t build a reliable car if their lives depended on it! At least that’s the view of a car guy from the Midwest where foreign cars were seldom seen and parts were unobtainable. All
we did back then was called Yankee ingenuity and we made it
work. The only choice you had back then was to swap it or scrap
it. And usually with foreign cars
in our town, the latter was sadly true. The only ones that got it right were Volkswagen. And with the beetle, they really thrived. I Chevy swapped a Jaguar sedan in ’71 or ’72 when I got the car given to me by a friend of Dad’s that wanted it off his lot. Other than the fire damage up front, the rest of the car was in near pristine condition and very complete– down to the picnic basket with a full set of china plates and fine English silver that I found in the trunk. The original
engine and running gear were toast so after talking it over with
Dad, I decided to do a Chevy swap based on an article in Rod & Custom Magazine I had recently seen around that time.
Sure, I could’ve gone with another
original 6, but after checking with
a Jaguar dealer in Chicago, I found out there was a 5-year waiting list to get the parts to make it happen and it wasn’t gonna be cheap. It was gonna be
a thousand dollars or more for a
rebuilt engine (1971 money) and
another thousand dollars or more
for the Jaguar specific metric tools I’d need to restore the car. Well, that did it for me. I sent away to Crown Engineering in Lost Angeles for a V-8 conversion
kit that cost me maybe $300 or so and got started. Before I went
on tour that summer, I had the car
towed to Wherry Welding in Bloomington to have all the fabrication done so that I could start working on the swap after
school started that fall. And when I got home, the car was waiting for me to finish it. I used a 350 V-8 and auto tranny from a
T boned ’70 Impala sedan with only 29K miles on it. And all that
school year, (when I could, and with help from my Dad) I worked to get the car done and running.
We took everything we knew we were gonna need to do it right. Even the A/C stuff as I wanted the car to have air to keep us all
comfy on long trips. Even my mentally challenged cousin got in
on the act! I’d go play poker with
him and my Aunt on Fridays, and
he’d come over on Saturdays to hand us the tools we needed and to do simple tasks that I gave him
to do. And to him, it meant everything! I don’t think I ever saw him as happy as he was that
spring. The car was finally finished in May of ’72 with a few
weeks to spare. In all, I probably
had $1500 (1972 money) in it when we got it done. I didn’t get to enjoy the car that long as one
day, me, my cousin, and some of my friends went out for pizza 🍕
and a movie 🍿. And when we came out of the theater, we saw this gentleman standing by my car. I asked him what he wanted
and he said that he wanted to buy
my car. So I told him $4K cash or
check takes it. He reached for his checkbook and wrote me a check for my car as if it were nothing! Turns out he was a prominent local doctor who’d been looking for a car like mine
for quite awhile and we both walked away happy. He even gave us cab fare for the ride back to my house! And when he came
to collect the title for the car, my
parents were beaming ear to ear!
So yeah, I saved an old Jaguar from the crusher by swapping it.
After all, all swappers aren’t butchers and I had the proof!
My compliant wasn’t about the drivetrain. There was a lot E-type 2+2 roller for sale near me for reasonable money and I thought a GM 4200 24v straight 6 would be an interesting swap. I’m V6 swapping my ’72 MGB-GT and I know a few people in the B community that have a disability that makes driving a stick difficult who want to keep driving their cars. My original comment was about that carbunkle on the bonnet..
Must have been around the time of Tom Wherry’s accident?. Used their spring shop alot in the 90’s
Would only disagree with Italian cars, well at least just alfas. Had a ’65 spider that was very reliable. Both mechanical and electrics. Only issues were oil leaks and interior material quality. But otherwise always started and ran great. Not to mention way ahead of the competition at the time, like fully syncro 5 speed tranny, dohc motor, flow through head, etc.
Had a neighbor that spent 2-3 years totally restoring a 64 mgb. Beautiful when done, but every outing he took it in, some sort of breakdown!.
Had a few VWs. Yes very reliable, everybody had parts, and could pull the engine in less than a 1/2 hour. Even quicker on the old buses. Didn’t even have to jack up the rear end
I owned a TR4 back in the day. My father never stopped cussing at that car, especially once he volunteered to go and round up the parts which required trips to Topeka, Wichita, and Lawrence, KS just after the purchase to get it back to roadworthy condition. Not too many places in rural KS carried Triumph parts in the late 70’s
And that says nothing about losing all of the lights on the way back to the home place from my “townie” job 11:30 one night. Thankfully, that was the last of the travails of my TR4 which served me well for a couple of years afterwards. BTW, who runs the wiring between the headlights along the front of the lower radiator frame, anyway. I’m hoping that was some shadetree genius’s idea of a brilliant fix and not a Triumph factory innovation.
Well it is a British car, so the wiring thing does not surprise me. How about positive ground, or two 6 volt batteries to make a 13 volt system. Or to remove the engine having to completely remove the seats, floorboards and tranny tunnel and unbolt the driveshaft from the differential a slide engine, tranny and shaft in one piece. If and don’t forget the dash mounted timer switch for the turn signals?? All of the above just for starters in a 58 MGA
always wonder why a 6 cylender motor could scare off people,not much to go wrong,frist one i bought had the motor in pieces ,shop manual and a bit of time it was on the road
289 Ford v8 was actually common years ago. The AC Cobra/Sunbeam Tiger got it right. The SBF was common, reliable and indestructible.
Thank goodness The Nostril Look never really caught on.
“The Nostril” would be a good nickname for this car. 😄
Have to laugh at all the ‘unreliable English car’ crap – just admit you don’t know what you’re doing on car more technical than a SBC. These are actually easy to work on with even a slight degree of skill and an open mind. The only saving grace on this one is they didn’t hack the front frames to fit the ford motor. And no, automatics were never fitted to short wheelbase cars.
Hmmm… let’s see. Lets go down the devaluation check list for one of the most classic and cherished vintage sports cars ever produced…
– Horrendous choice of color… check.
– Wrong engine (scrapping one of the most iconic engines of the 20th century)… check.
– Wrong transmission, and an automatic no less… check, check.
– Hood scoop brutally grafted on to one of the most classic and attractive designs of he mid 20th century… check.
Well done… (that was sarcasm… just in case it wasn’t obvious to some)
He’s running that stupid ugly hood scoop for the Edelbrock Torquer 4 barrel intake – which is more stupid when the factory 4 barrel manifold sets much lower & Holly EFI Sniper set up eliminates it 100% & you can run a stock hood.
Which is what I’d do Holly EFI & Remove the scoop – that’s a 5k$ penalty RED FLAG on that jag
COLOR – Mist Metallic Blue OR Classic Dark Jade Green Metallic – interior is ok It’d match up nicely w/Dark Green OR Deep Wine Red Burgandy
Some would want BLACK but their always to hard to keep clean.
It’s a convertible so Blue Mist Metallic like Sky Blue
Why should someone spend nearly $2,000, Edelbrock performer $329, Holley sniper $1,349, ancillary supplies on replacing the current induction system with what you suggest? Just because you say you would, doesn’t mean everyone else should.
Steve R
Can I just say, “Ughhh”?
Back 20 years ago I was in love with XJ-S Jags. Loved everything about them. However some owners didn’t care to learn the eccentricities of the V12, so they “lumped” them with small block Chevy motors.
Ughhh!
IDK, I think a well done V8 swap makes an XJ-S a much better car, especially if you use an all aluminum LS.
I still have a Petersen Publications Special laying around somewhere about engine swaps that featured the XKE/Ford smallblock swap. I might have to go and dig that out.
The only thing I don’t like about this car is the color other than that this is a perfect combination of a sweet looking European body with an American V8 lurking under the hood. This car, Aston Martin DB5,and the Ferrari 250 GTO are some of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen.
Disappointed that the owner didn’t put on gold spoke wheels. In fact all the chrome should be gold. Checker Cab Yellow + gold is a real color crime. Maybe source some SuperFly headlights? Needs a hood ornament…in gold too. Fly that freak flag.
To each his own, I like it color and all…
Wow, I liked the color also. Maybe because I had a Ford pickup about that color! Not sure why all the hate for it here!
I bid on a Challenger E-Type replica in dark green (look it up) a few years ago to get a driveable “E” with an automatic transmission. I didn’t get it, and now I have bid on this one. Thanks Barn Finds! Hideous hood scoop aside, I think that this one could be a lot of fun, and still a beautiful car from some angles. Wish me luck!
First of all color ! ! ! And the person that repainted it . over spray on the inside of the tire and bottom of the floor pan . That takes some extra special talent.
Any other color would make it Werth more. I can handle the Ford drive drain , even the modified hood. The color has to go . Over all it could be a fun car to drive , but it is Werth about $12000 as is . I question that as well .
A lot of money wasted on putting this one together .