Unabashed hotrodder from Florence, KY
October 24th, 2016, 3:28 PM
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Location: Florence, KY
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Unabashed hotrodder from Florence, KY
I'm new to the forums here, but I've been helping in the mission to Chevy swap the world since age 16. My ride is a 1985 Jaguar XJ6 that's been upgraded with a 383 Stroker coupled with a 200-4R transmission.
Some backstory with the car - I was 16 and looking to purchase a ride, and stumbled upon an old Jag in good condition by accident that some deviant in SC had swapped a 350 into. It was the complete opposite of what I'd been looking at (cheap, fast, decent-looking import cars) because I honestly didn't think it would be within my reach to get a V8 with that many style points with how muscle cars had been climbing in price. It was cheap because half of the Jag enthusiasts are purists and the other half had already swapped motors.
About a year later it was puffing a bit of blue smoke, but still completely drive-able. At that point a friend of mine was doing a 383 crate motor swap into a another vehicle and had the engine blow on him. He simply got another crate motor and put it in. He ended up just giving me the motor because I was the only one he knew that might be able to use it. I tore it down and found out the issue was that it had blown a piston, which was a cheap $80 fix, and threw in the 383 for a grand total of <$200. That was a great weekend.
However, despite specifically asking the place I purchased the piston from to make sure to match its weight with what I specified, they didn't. Because of that I've got a minor balance issue on this engine, but it was enough to keep the car running and it gave a good power increase. Now that I'm finally in a position to spend a little more money than just maintenance on the car, I'm looking to put in a full new set of pistons and get rid of that balance issue.
I'm going to post about that problem however, in a more appropriate area of the forum.
Some backstory with the car - I was 16 and looking to purchase a ride, and stumbled upon an old Jag in good condition by accident that some deviant in SC had swapped a 350 into. It was the complete opposite of what I'd been looking at (cheap, fast, decent-looking import cars) because I honestly didn't think it would be within my reach to get a V8 with that many style points with how muscle cars had been climbing in price. It was cheap because half of the Jag enthusiasts are purists and the other half had already swapped motors.
About a year later it was puffing a bit of blue smoke, but still completely drive-able. At that point a friend of mine was doing a 383 crate motor swap into a another vehicle and had the engine blow on him. He simply got another crate motor and put it in. He ended up just giving me the motor because I was the only one he knew that might be able to use it. I tore it down and found out the issue was that it had blown a piston, which was a cheap $80 fix, and threw in the 383 for a grand total of <$200. That was a great weekend.
However, despite specifically asking the place I purchased the piston from to make sure to match its weight with what I specified, they didn't. Because of that I've got a minor balance issue on this engine, but it was enough to keep the car running and it gave a good power increase. Now that I'm finally in a position to spend a little more money than just maintenance on the car, I'm looking to put in a full new set of pistons and get rid of that balance issue.
I'm going to post about that problem however, in a more appropriate area of the forum.
