Cost of V8 Conversion

[steveg]

David sent me these pics and OK'd my posting them:

 

[D Pfaff]

Hi guys, thanks for posting the pictures of my car. Let me clarify some things. My engine is the last version which has 290hp. There is enough torque you could easily use a 3spd transmission. The atlas family has its own bellowing and does not interchange with any other GM engine. I made my own adapter to a garden variety Chevy bellowing and a t-5 transmission. I suppose if you could find a Colorado 4 cylinder bellhousing and the 5 speed Aisin transmission that might work. The crankshaft flange is unique to the 6 cylinder and you need to make or find a flywheel. The engine is TALL. I had to section the cam cover, which is easy on the early motor (plastic) and harder on the later (aluminum). I also made a custom oil pan from two 5 cylinder Colorado pans. Baffle it well, I lost one engine because of oil sloshing away from the pickup! Split the stock cast iron exhaust manifold and you get the Healey sound. Oh yeah, if you notice in the pictures I took the throttle body off the manifold and moved it across the motor and turned it upside down at the same time for hood clearance. Find someone to hack the computer and modify the Trailblazer harness and your practically done. These engines are plentiful in the junkyards, they are durable and should be cheap. GM discontinued them because they couldn't get the mileage they wanted I bought my motor as a crate motor, still in the wrapper that a dealer wanted to get rid of, $800!!!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Dave

 

[HealeyRick]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for correcting any of my mistakes on your build. Your post points out that just putting the motor in place is only the beginning of an engine swap. There are so many issues to resolve getting it to actually work. There's nothing that just "drops in".

 

[HealeyPassion]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for correcting any of my mistakes on your build. Your post points out that just putting the motor in place is only the beginning of an engine swap. There are so many issues to resolve getting it to actually work. There's nothing that just "drops in".

Everything sounds easy if you say it fast.... "just dropped in a V8" ... "just converted it to EFI" .. etc.

Steve

 

[maxwedge5281]

while you are at it you might want to consider new gauges. i use speedhut guaranteed for life gauges. they are available in a myriad of colors, fonts, pointer, bezels, backlighting, etc. they fit the healey dash holes perfectly. you can purchase the gps speedometer with built in gas gauge which is programmable to the healey tank sender. the tach has the bright light and turn signal lights. i used the green dashlight to mount the alternator charging light. gauges are about 700 dollars. the pics are the last two v8 healeys that i built...almost the same gauges but not quite. i also use speedhut gauges in my in line chevy six conversion.

 

[Keoke]

Thanks Rick:

You are probably right it was a few years ago i had lost the links.

 

[ahealey1004]

Looks great Richard! Glad to see you got your L28-powered Healey back on the road. I've always wanted to paint my 240Z motor in my bn4 Healey green. Are you running the stock 240Z Hitachi SU 1 3/4" carbs, or are those the 2" HD8's? Also interesting to see the Rawles intake manifold is a similar design to the 240Z manifold!

 

[BoyRacer]

Those are HD8s. I made the manifold using intake runners from a 240Z manifold. Then I narrowed and modified a BJ8 log manifold and welded everything together.
FYI, this is what a stock 280Z engine compartment looks like so you can see why I like the look of carburetors.

 

[ahealey1004]

Thanks Richard- after closer examination, I see what you've done- so neat! I suppose that's the idea, at first glance it looks as the factory intended. And agreed, the stock 280Z engine compartment is a hornets nest. I've thought about putting some triple webers I have for a 240Z on my L24 but the stock SU's work well, and then I'd want to go down the path of cams and compression, etc.

 

[steveg]

Austin,
What's this fitting? Have you fitted this manifold yet to a Healey?

 

[steveg]

Richard,
Are you running stock Healey HD8 needles?

Very nice setup BTW.

 

[BoyRacer]

Steve, Thanks. Yes I am running the standard needles. It really runs well but I'm still curious. I'd like to get it on a dyno one of these days and see what, if any, additional power could be found. Dougie has an assortment of SU needles he said I could borrow some time for this purpose.
I am actually quite shocked at how well it does run. The motor had been sitting in the back of my garage for over 20 years after I removed it from "The Rat Healey" back in 1999. I put it in this car last summer. I took a pair of HD8s off the shelf where they had been sitting for at least 10 years or more. It fired right up but the jets started leaking. They were both so brittle they broke apart as I removed them. I put a new jets in and fired it up again. That's it. I have not even tried to adjust anything. It just runs fantastic.

 

[ahealey1004]

hi Steve- nope I don't have one of these manifolds, just a pic I found on the Rawles website- but was commenting that it's interesting how similar the design is to the Datsun 240Z intake manifold. Regarding that fitting- perhaps it's for a brake booster for a BJ8 fitment? Manifold pressure gauge port? Nitrous port (haha)!

 

[HealeyPassion]

Those are HD8s. I made the manifold using intake runners from a 240Z manifold. Then I narrowed and modified a BJ8 log manifold and welded everything together.
FYI, this is what a stock 280Z engine compartment looks like so you can see why I like the look of carburetors.

View attachment 64423

Richard, very nice installation ... congrats!

Steve

 

[steveg]

Those are HD8s. I made the manifold using intake runners from a 240Z manifold. Then I narrowed and modified a BJ8 log manifold and welded everything together....

View attachment 64423

Since Healeys are basically Performance Art, IMO this is very appropriate as an engine swap.

 

[Gearloose]

Hi guys, thanks for posting the pictures of my car. Let me clarify some things. My engine is the last version which has 290hp. There is enough torque you could easily use a 3spd transmission. The atlas family has its own bellowing and does not interchange with any other GM engine. I made my own adapter to a garden variety Chevy bellowing and a t-5 transmission. I suppose if you could find a Colorado 4 cylinder bellhousing and the 5 speed Aisin transmission that might work. The crankshaft flange is unique to the 6 cylinder and you need to make or find a flywheel. The engine is TALL. I had to section the cam cover, which is easy on the early motor (plastic) and harder on the later (aluminum). I also made a custom oil pan from two 5 cylinder Colorado pans. Baffle it well, I lost one engine because of oil sloshing away from the pickup! Split the stock cast iron exhaust manifold and you get the Healey sound. Oh yeah, if you notice in the pictures I took the throttle body off the manifold and moved it across the motor and turned it upside down at the same time for hood clearance. Find someone to hack the computer and modify the Trailblazer harness and your practically done. These engines are plentiful in the junkyards, they are durable and should be cheap. GM discontinued them because they couldn't get the mileage they wanted I bought my motor as a crate motor, still in the wrapper that a dealer wanted to get rid of, $800!!!
If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Dave

 

[Gearloose]

Hi Dave, I have a lot of questions but I will start with two. What did you do about the differential. Did you have to replace that also or will the stock Healy rear end handle all that horsepower? Why did you decide to Route the intake over the top of the engine instead of relocating it to the driver side? It is a very interesting build and makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for your input.
Chuck

 

[Patrick67BJ8]

while you are at it you might want to consider new gauges. i use speedhut guaranteed for life gauges. they are available in a myriad of colors, fonts, pointer, bezels, backlighting, etc. they fit the healey dash holes perfectly. you can purchase the gps speedometer with built in gas gauge which is programmable to the healey tank sender. the tach has the bright light and turn signal lights. i used the green dashlight to mount the alternator charging light. gauges are about 700 dollars. the pics are the last two v8 healeys that i built...almost the same gauges but not quite. i also use speedhut gauges in my in line chevy six conversion.

I just installed a Fuel gauge from SpeedHut and I am very satisfied with it. I chose a full sweep gauge with their “Z” series. I added a custom modification to the double lines of the dial to make it look similar to the other gages in my BJ8. The up charge was $30. Feel free to use my gage face modification since it’s already paid for. The gage comes with LED lighting and is programmable with a Low Fuel warning light that you can set to when you want it to come “on”.. I set mine at a third of a tank. You can use the original fuel sending unit.

 

[Guido36]

One of the most interesting ‘Nasty boy’ conversions I have seen was neither a V8 nor a 6 cylinder. It is Dave Thomas’s Honds VTEC powered all brushed aluminium 1955 BN1 - yes a 4 cylinder in a 4 cylinder Healey but wait….240 bhp and a 9000 rpm redline. The engine came from a Honda S2000 (F20C) complete with a 6 speed manual transmission. His happens to have custom EFI on it - TWM/Borla I think. I took these photos in Big Bear, CA in May 2021 and to this day the sheer ingenuity of this build has never left me. Imagine blasting up the twisties to Big Bear (7000 ft above sea level) pulling 8000 to 9000 rpm in the gears and yes, you have a half dozen of them to play tunes with!

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Imagine how well it'd run if he took the tennis balls out of the carb stacks!