1974 Jensen Healey. 80K miles on the clock. The engine was rebuilt 5 years ago, broken in, then sat in a barn for 5 years. It's got a 4 speed and a 2.0 DOHC Lotus engine with twin Dell'orto carbs. It has crazy HLA ticking, just like the Miata. This car will be a restoration project and daily driver for my youngest brother. Just thought I'd share.

The brakes barely work, and the steering wheel is more like a "suggestion" wheel. It's cool to have yet another convertible sports car in the family.

 

Very odd looking motor. How far do you plan to go on the resto?

 

Yeah, it's a lazy motor.

We'll be replacing rocker panels, the soft top, dashboard, the gastank (It was running off a hose siphoning fuel out of a 2 gallon container in the videos), all of the suspension joints,and a few other little things in the interior.

After that it will be completely stripped and repainted the original color. In the pictures you can see the original yellow showing through the red.

 

Cool.

This is probably the only time in my life I'll ever say this, but that thing needs more SR20 swap.

 

I love smaller cars like this, but yeah the mechanicals are pretty special. I was on the ground in tears laughing at some of the Top Gear shows making fun of 70s and 80s Brit cars.

I still entertain the stupid notion of doing a swap into a BMW 2002 at some point.

That thing looks pretty good to me personally, repainting the original color will be sweet. Plus it has eyeball vents, meaning that it was meant to boost from the factory

 

I was thinking LS1 swap.

 

LOL if the the miata I just bought fell through I was going to buy the exact Jensen. You got a good price. Is the exterior as clean as it looks in the pictures?

 

Suggestion wheel! LOL. Amazing how many of the old "sports" cars steer like trucks. Lets you know how far suspensions and steering have come in the last 40 years.

 

I've still got a couple of parts for one of those...


The slant four was designed to reduce overall height with the overhead cam configuration. Lotus wanted to keep the hoods and center of gravity low on their cars. It has an aluminium block, head, and oil pan.



That is the same engine used in the Lotus Esprit
and some of those had terboz. I sold my Jensen Healey engine to a guy with an Esprit.

Useful link:
http://www.jensenhealey.com/html/eng.html

 

Having worked on a few of those, you sir have my deepest sympathy...


Have fun adjusting the points and timing...

Seriously though, J-H's aren't bad cars, just a lot of early 70's Brit build quality and oddness to deal with. The Lotus 907 engine made good power for the time period (~140hp).

 

It kind of reminds me of the days when I was sporting an MGB in highschool. Good times.

 

I really want to megasquirt this thing. It would be too easy. Acquire crank trigger, mount miata coils, HAVE FUN!

 

Sweet find.

 

Oh Snap!


By bryce9000, shot with NIKON D40 at 2010-04-22


By bryce9000, shot with NIKON D40 at 2010-04-22





Can't say I wouldn't expect that when the top looks like this though.

 

I know exactly how you feel, I want to buy one of these:

and throw in my 5.3 LS V-8 and make it into a donut / tire melting machine!

 

Why does that have 300ZX wheels on it? Did someone do some serious swap work or do they just happen to fit?