Looking for powertrain ideas

Hey everyone, new to the site. Im just looking for some ideas on what to put into my project.

I recently purchased a 1955 Jaguar Mark VII M. Its not in the best shape but I guess thats the whole point of a project. The main goals for the car are to just cruise around town (so automatic transmission is preffered), take it to car shows from time to time. I was also thinking of renting it out for wedding photo shoots. 

The car came without an engine or transmission. So I figured Id swap in something with a little more juice. The car originally came with a 3.4L Inline 6 with 160Hp. Im looking to get somewhere around 300HP since this thing is a Yacht and I like my cars to get out of their own way. 

Im not looking to do anything crazy. I dont need to put a Train engine in there or some massive Inline 6 Cummins Turbo Diesel. Looking for simple and easy. I figured the car is Unique enough to not need to slam a crazy engine in there. The main problem you will notice though is how narrow the engine bay is and how the frame rails curve in like an shiny happy person. So Ill post some photos and Im hoping you guys can give me some ideas.

Im not too new to the car resto game but I am definitely new to the engine swap game. Im trying to keep this more towards the cheap end of things. More just to get this thing moving and to keep the project going somewhere instead of it just sitting there.

Feel free to ask any questions, I know I probably missed something.
Thanks in advance,

Austin

Here are some photos showing how the frame rails narrow inwards from where the motor mount is to the grill.

And here is a photos from the top of the frame rails to where the hood sits. The hood itself has a curve to it which gives it a few more inches. 

First off, welcome to the insane asylum.  

I think one of the Toyota straight sixes would be a good fit.

Personally, I'd try to get a SBF in there, because they sound AWESOME

How about the Chevy 4.2 Inline 6 that was in the trailblazers? 

IIRC  the day before Ford bought Jaguar way back when, GM bought the rights to copy/produce the Jag 4.2 Inline 6.

That would make it somewhat related to the original. I think they were in the 270 - 290 hp range .

Supercharged inline 6 from an early xjr.

Toyota  Cheap. Bombproof and comes with an automatic stuck on the end.

I might be tempted to steal more of the lexus sheetmetal for the swap, but thats just me.

Straight-eight. 

Slightly later Jag 6s are around inexpensively. Common with an automatic. A 4.2 will bolt in and tuned right will have the gobs of torque this car needs to motivate. So few of these cars have survived if at all possible you should keep it Jag. Also convert to power steering, it really needs it!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that its either going to be an Inline 6 or a V8. Im just not sure which are good or at least reliable/easy to work on. But since the car is a 55, I wont have to worry about smog so thats a bonus haha.

I might as well make this into a Poll type situation:
So Im seeing a mix of V8 and Inline 6 for Toyota.

A mix of keeping it Jaguar. Which is pretty funny about Evan suggesting the Inline 6 XJR since my daily is a 2000 Supercharged V8 XJR. I wouldnt mind putting one of those V8s in but they are pretty hard to come by around here. Especially in the Inline 6 version. On top of them being pretty expensive to deal with. 

The Chevy Inline 6 is a pretty new suggestion. Thats thinking outside the box.

That Straight eight is just a no... haha. 

LS. LS all the things.

Toyota 2JZ and automatic out of a SC300.

mike said:

How about the Chevy 4.2 Inline 6 that was in the trailblazers? 

IIRC  the day before Ford bought Jaguar way back when, GM bought the rights to copy/produce the Jag 4.2 Inline 6.

That would make it somewhat related to the original. I think they were in the 270 - 290 hp range .

 

I've yet to find any evidence that the GM Atlas engines are in any way related to the jaguar engines. Other than Frenchy saying he saw it in some random trade publication 20 years ago while taking a E36 M3 in a public library. 

Either way, I think an Atlas would be too big dimensionally. 

I vote a 1uz 

In reply to ozzie831 :

Fellow x308 xjr owner here. Welcome! 

In reply to ozzie831 :

Well the engine is going to be the cheapest easiest part.  The tough part is the interior.  Plan on shopping every swap meet,  car show, junk yard,   back yard, and car shop in the country if you want the nice wood, classy instruments, leather seats with the little wooden picnic tables. 

The drum brakes will also be a nightmare. They will fade, fail, and drive you crazy. Upgrades are possible but you’ll need to do some mixing and matching to get a good working system.  

The power steering parts don’t exist anymore.  Nope you can’t Armstrong it!!! Again there are work arounds. 

Good news, the suspension pieces are still around.  You might have to wait a bit but XK’s unlimited and Welsch Jaguar are your best bet for those parts.  

As far as the engine goes grab one from an XJ6 they made them through about 1987. Carbs or fuel injection, they will both cone with an automatic and bolt right in solving  several of those issues I warned you about.  Going price is right around $300.  Buy the whole car,  grab the engine and all the stuff you’ll need.  

Want a newer engine with more power, great reliability, and won’t get you blacklisted with the Jaguar club?  By the way you will need those guys on your side.  That’s who’s going to have some of the parts you’ll need.  

Use the 4.0 liter all aluminum 4 valve per cylinder, in line 6 cylinder Jaguar.  There is even an optional supercharged one available.  

Want excitement? A V12 will fit in!! Then you can get some more solutions to some of those problems I spoke about.  The later 4.0 & 5.0 V8 can also be made to fit.  But that can get to over 500 horsepower.

 With regard to finding good prices on Jaguar engines, Don’t!  Don’t buy a Jaguar engine,  buy the whole car!  

The wrecked car auctions sell plenty of damaged cars but they were running right up to the point of the accident.  Craigslist is another source of Cheap Jaguars. Especially from California.  Reregistering a car that has been off the road for a while is often too expensive but the parts don’t care.  

The nice thing about having the whole car there is you can get the whole wire loam or bracket,  plus maybe the seats will work etc.   once you’ve stripped all the parts you need, sell it to the scrap yard and recover a few bucks.  

I vote trailblazer as well. Donor should be dirt cheap and by the time you make a decent exhaust and put a cone filter on it it'll be 300hp. 

In reply to Vigo :

The engine is fine but the transmission is on the weak side in the GM Trailblazer, Envoy, etc. 

did they ever make a 2 wheel drive version?  

In reply to frenchyd :

They did but they aren't as common. Not necessarily rare but it seems like most are 4wd. The trans is just a 4l60e though. Separate bellhousing like an LS style trans. I don't know if the input shaft is different or anything else would stop you from using a standard 2wd truck 4l60e if needed.

Ford 300 I6 and a C6 or... a Slant 6 and a Torqueflite!

AMC 258 and a Torquefilte? Jeep 4.0 and a AW4

If 300hp is what you are after, I don't see how it gets any simpler than any truck LS motor.

Ideally I would go for an inline 6 there just for simplicity of maintenance/repairs, but I don't know of a 300hp inline six that is common, reliable, and cheap.

Daylan C said:

In reply to frenchyd :

They did but they aren't as common. Not necessarily rare but it seems like most are 4wd. The trans is just a 4l60e though. Separate bellhousing like an LS style trans. I don't know if the input shaft is different or anything else would stop you from using a standard 2wd truck 4l60e if needed.

Thank you, up here in the frozen Tundra I’ve never seen a 2Wheel Drive version.  

In reply to frenchyd :

Even down here in Kentucky the 4wd is way more common.

In reply to ProDarwin :

The Trailblazer, Envoy, etc. 290 horsepower should be close enough to the required  300 hp. If Not the supercharged XJR will 

Thanks again everyone for your inputs.

Yupididit:
Nice to meet another owner haha. Theres not too many here where I live.


Frenchy:

When i bought the car, it came with a buuunch of spare parts. Including a ton of new rubber.
The car actually had pretty good interior.The wood definitely needs some love and half the dash's plywood split apart. But I also work at a cabinet shop and know a lot of wood workers. Maybe they can help me make some custom stuff haha.

I do plan on updating the breaks and the steering.
The previous owner actually put in some new suspension so Ill leave it for the time being. Ill see how it handles a different engine.
Oh I already know about just buying the full car haha. It makes life a lot easier and its usually a 1000x cheaper.

ProDarwin:
Ive thought about slapping in a LQ4. The only problem is that I dont know if itll fit haha. According the the dimensions ive seen, it should. I just dont have the knowledge to just pull the trigger on anything. So I try and get as much info as possible before I regret something.



But Im seeing a lot of love for this Trailblazer engine. Ive never even heard of it until this post. I need to keep reminding myself that I really dont need a lot of power. Im just used to my XJR and its supercharged V8. Like the 160HP that the car originally came with was a looot for back then. Ive posted on my local "Cars and Coffee" facebook page in the past and most of the people just kept saying stupid stuff that is just way out of the scope of reality. So its nice to see some actual down to earth suggestions. 

In reply to ozzie831 :

Maybe a big six from an early 90s BMW. 5-series from that era are practically given away on CL, and pretty compact (inline) and bulletproof. Plus most of them have automatic transmissions.  Or you could look at the 5/7 series with the bigger 8-cylinder

In reply to ozzie831 :

Congratulations having all those bits and pieces will really save you money and time.  I hope you have them all because finding replacements will be a challenge. 

 Well don’t be confused.  The 160 horsepower in that old 3.4 liter engine is gross horsepower, not the Net today’s engines are rated at.  If tested today it barely would make 100 hp.  

The 4.2 Jaguar engine ( found in XJ6’s up to about 1987) that was developed from that 3.4 has a few real advantages to it. 

First it will fit like it’s made for it.  Well because it really was!  Basically it’s as close to a bolt in as you’ll get.

 Now in Net horsepower you can get as close as 230 horsepower.  Plus it has the long stroke (4.17 )  that makes cruising at a slow speed seem so effortless.  

In addition you can use the earlier valve covers and few will even notice any difference.  I’ve stumbled on several relatively low mile ones that were embarrassedly   cheap in rusty crusty sedans.   

Finally, resale value won’t be hurt too much by that swap.  While the real premium will be paid for a virtually new unmodified original, This could be a driver quality that would sell well. 

Second place would be the newer 4.0 Jaguar inline Six.  It’s pretty close to a bolt in and won’t earn any real rath  by the purists since it could be considered an upgrade.  It’s remarkably reliable and cheap to own.  

Yes the Jaguar V8 will fit and you could go that way without too much grumbling by the priests.  

TheTrailblazer engine might have a issue with finding a suitable transmission. Most ( to my knowledge) were 4WD and if another transmission adapts ( very possible given GM’s interchangeability) there is some serious horsepower in those. The later ones  had 290 horsepower but were a little “cammy” While they pulled a SUV and a heavy enclosed trailer very well once up to about 3500 they really flew. 

The worst choice I believe would be a LS truck motor.  Don’t get me wrong, they are a fine simple motor that is common as dirt.  But demand is high for them and thus prices for good ones are likely to be more than what you can buy the less in demand Jaguar engines for.  

Not only that but in an emergency where do you go to have someone else work on it?  The Jaguar dealer won’t because it’s got a Chevy engine and the Chevy dealer won’t because it’s a Jaguar.  Sure someone will but they have you at their mercy.  I’ve already mentioned resale. Yes I know you don’t build something like this to make money but it’s nice to get as much back as possible. Plus you never know what events can happen. Ask yourself how many premium buyers are there out there looking for that combination?  

mike said:

How about the Chevy 4.2 Inline 6 that was in the trailblazers? 

IIRC  the day before Ford bought Jaguar way back when, GM bought the rights to copy/produce the Jag 4.2 Inline 6.

That would make it somewhat related to the original. I think they were in the 270 - 290 hp range .

 

Came here to say this, left satisfied. A great engine, esp for tall skinny engine bays.