The best repair is still a repair and if it is better than factory it means the designers made a mistake in the area.
Any chance of putting a dehumidifier into the paint booth tent? They work wonders.
I hadn’t thought of one, it is so hot here any metal surface can cause severe burns if you are not careful, but at the same time sometimes you may need to concentrate the heat. Hehehe if it last 15 years, then it may just outlast me, then it won’t be my problem.
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If you can and it’s not a dry climate (with all the rain!) it‘d help with the sweating and then you just pick a morning that’s not too hot
Hi there, I am just starting to get into the try it and see phase. I have the old windsor sitting roughly where I want it to be, I will have to continue tomorrow as I put on a pair of head and try the exhaust positions, and see what needs to be modified.
While it appears to ave a lot of room in there, put on the heads and that room will very quickly be filled, and then comes the exhaust. When we get those all in place we will find out just how much room I actually have.
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You do know that the XJ40 bay was expressly designed to make the installation of V engines difficult: Jaguar wanted to avoid getting the Rover V8 in there. The XJ81 has a very much redesigned bay to accomodate the V12, which is in case memory serves, a narrow angle 60, rather than the usual 90° V8… I think you are in for fun.
Although, adimittedly, it can be done 
Can you tell me what the changes were, I have had a bit of a challenge trying to find out what was actually changed.
Not exactly, but this is something you will find of interest (see Rover V8 engine and V12 paragraphs):
PS: don’t get me wrong though, there are plenty of XJ40’s with V8, but I did find it funny that Jaguar explicitly wanted to avoid the Rover V8 being installed
I have done a lot of research trying to find the differences between the 2 cars, I have had a mountain of people advising me that there were changes the did not permit the V8 engine to be fitted to the XJ40, but no one could tell me what they were, and trying to enlighten me with the history of the car. I figured the narrowest of the V8 engines I could think of was the 302 Windsor engine, I would do a trial fit to see if I needed to make the changes to the chassis rails to fulfill my wishes to install a V8 engine into my car. Now it is my turn to enlighten some of you about the changes that were made.
This was my engine bay just before it was all cleaned up, the areas I would like to point out to you. 1 look carefully at the hole on the left of the picture, zoom in if you like. There is a rail welded to the top of the chassis rail, it goes from the shock tower to the firewall. 2 look carefully at the chassis rail itself, it is a straight up and down, box type of chassis rail. 3 look at where the heater hoses come out of the firewall, you will find the very same thing here, I stumbled on this from another thread in this forum. As you can see from the fairly recent pics I have cleaned them up a bit. Now for the changes that were made by Jaguar to allow the V12 to be fitted to the new body.
On both sides you will find the reinforcing on top of the chassis rail is not there, then look at the chassis rail itself, it also has an angled face going very close to the pedal box hole. Then look at where the heater hoses are compared to where they are in my car. and if you look carefully enough, you will notice a huge amount of space that has been created just by these simple modifications, I have purchased a pair of chassis rails to perform this modification without putting the vehicle in the dangerous position of illegal modifications, I am also a boilermaker by trade so I am aware of structural components, and it will be a bit stronger than either of these two cars ever were. I have to also say if it was not for this forum, I would probably still be trying to find out what the differences were. I do hope my stumble helps others who wish to do something similar, and now we have seen what the differences are if we want to push on ahead as I will be doing. Cheers guys.
There was 1 more picture I wanted to show you all it is the chassis rail from a slightly different angle, and you can see in detail the changes, and the room they created.
Once again thanks everyone.
Not really, I think it was mentioned that British Leyland wanted to close Jaguars 6 cylinder engine plant, and have Jaguars power instead by the Rover V8 engines, but Jaguar had invested quite a bit of money on their new engine, and were somewhat reluctant to have their pride and joy of the new 6 cylinder squashed so early in the peace, Believe me I have watched hours of film footage trying to get more information, I think there are 3 stories about the XJ40 and all of it development, and I found it very interesting, but I just never got to find the differences between the 2 cars, then I accidently stumbled on another project where another chap was fitting the supercharged V8 engine into his XJ40, and it looked so at home I figured it would be one of the XJ81’s.
I had a MK1 Range Rover with that small Buick(?) V8. Quite a thirsty little motor!
I have seen quite a few mistakes made on engine choices, most engines are used simply because a deal had been made by CEO’s of different companies, some of these choices turned out to be a bad choice and it had to work because of the money spent making a vehicle around a particular engine. For me I am rebuilding my last car, I have done a few now, my biggest project was an old Toyota 4 Runner, the first of them with a 2 door body and a removeable canopy on the rear, powered by a mighty 2 litre engine, and I dropped a 5.7 litre engine in its place and did a lot of things everyone tried to tell me could not be done, one of the worse was an exhaust shop was telling me, and getting very agressive about a set of headers he was so sure they could not fit, yet there they were in this vehicle. I realise that some people are trying to be helpful with their advise, I willingly admit that some things I do overlook and it becomes a pain in the arse to rectify, but this one I have tried to find the differences, so many are so sure it is not going to work, and others that are going to make it happen even if it kills them, my project is this one, and one of my favourite loves is the sound of a V8 engine. so in my last rebuild I was going to put one in that body, one way or another, the other massive thing in my favour is the fact I am not in any hurry to do it. The other thing is I want to register this vehicle, and so I need to adhere to a few rules about engines and the vehicles they are going in. Here in Queensland, we have 2 way of addressing this matter, and it is about the age of the engine compared to the vehicle. If the car is younger than the engine, then the engine must be modified to meet the regulations of that particular vehicle. or if the engine for the vehicle is younger than the car, then the car has to be brought up to the specs of the engine, I hope I am not waffleing on too much, sorry if that is the case, I just feel very passionate about what I am trying to acheive.
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Fair enough. This is the polar opposite of my needs in a car. I look for plenty of oomph in an almost silent, luxurious environment.
This is what I have in my 94 VDP.
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Oh I am also a great lover of power, I don’t want it to deafen people, however the 302 is plenty big enough for me these days. In Australia the 302 was called a 4.9 litre, that was until they started using them in the age of EFI, they they got the title of 5.0 litre maybe just a ford thing, they had a 351 they called a 5.8 litre where Chev had there 350 known as a 5.7 litre.
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Does your vehicle need approval from a Licensed Automotive Engineer to be registered in QLD ?
Such an engine change would certainly need this in NSW and WA
( I have seen many 4wd vehicles lifted, and the first question I ask is “Does it have an Engineering Certificate” if the answer is No, thats as far as the conversation goes
Are you painting it in solid 2 pack urethane, or COB ?
Yes. In any modification needs to get an approval from an automotive engineer, in fact it is more often advisable to get a permit to modify a vehicle before you start, and once the approval has been given then it needs to be inspected, and a compliance plate will be fitted if the vehicle’s modifications are according to specs.
Sometimes it is hard to believe, but here in Qld, we do have very similar laws, legally speaking a great many vehicles have been modified and have not been inspected, and some other mods have been done and simply fitted and then driven.
Yes it will all be painted in 2 pack, having the Jaguar Racing Green in the 2022 colour, I believe it has a paint code HIM, not 100% sure about that though. I am waiting on some things to arrive, then I can get stuck into finishing the bodywork and painting, then the re assembly of the vehicle.
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Hi everyone, today I had a short blast of energy, I was looking for an automatic transmission to put behind the windsor engine. I figured it was not going to work out well if I didn’t have one to make up the mounts for the engine and the transmission. Well it seemed the gods have favoured me this morning, I found one that needs rebuilding. That did not matter because I really just wanted a blank so I could get some mounts made.
Well here it is, I will be using one of these to put behind my engine, so as a blank it will be great for my needs for now, and if I feel like it. I can probably rebuild it as well.
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What flavor of automatic tranny is that?