Healey Sports Cars

Hi all, new to forum. Joined to ask questions about a car... looks like I'll need to do homework.

'74 Jensen Healey in Wisconsin, has a turbo buick V6, 5spd, dana 44 rear. Owner said the drivetrain conversion was from a company that used to build them as conversion kits - Bell Industries. Of course you can image what a google search turns up on bell industries, way too much on the other company. The rear is leaf spring, which I guess is a conversion from what I've read. Any help greatly appreciated, if you know the car even better. Any other websites I should look at?

Hi Erik,

You can check these out if you haven't seen them yet:

[www.modifiedhealeys.org]

[www.deca.eclipse.co.uk]

[www.modifiedhealeys.org]

Welcome Eric, Do you have specific questions ? It's great to hear of more JH interest. Perhaps you could post some pictures of your car. Mine is the "Hemi Healey", posted in this section. Cheers, roverman.

Hi thanks for the replies and links Rick and Art.

I'm currently considering a local car but there is little information..
Questions are - are stainless sills factory or an aftermarket repair?
has a circ 1980 carbed buick turbo v6.. did a bit of research and seems would be a hassle..
"borg warner" 5spd - guessing T5?
dana 44 rear end with leaf springs. This is one of my big questions, how hard is it to fit leaf springs? good for handling?
owner claims larger front and rear brakes, front brakes/suspension for interceptor (this doesn't seem correct based on the 4 lug wheels alone vs the 5 lug interceptor).
were there actually conversion kits/companies back in the day? Owner mentioned bell industries put the drivetrain together but nothing is coming up.
Other websites? I found the jensen healey preservation site but looks like $30 membership required or something. If I'm really serious.. then maybe but looking for no cost information right now.

actually, here is the link. Its been for sale a while locally. No worries if someone else wansts to jump on it. I'm more curious at this point.

[milwaukee.craigslist.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2013 11:05PM by xplitive.

Eric, IMHO, you can learn more about a car-underneath than on top. For this price, the car needs to be put on a lift and inspected by a professional. Stainless sills are standard. You need to check if turbo exhaust manifold has been touching frame rail,looks very close. Major inspection for rust, floors, wheel arches/etc. These cars usually get a Rover V8, for a swap, (search Jay Fowlers JH), in this forum. It is lighter and better suited. Why the huge drag car scoop ? I suspect it will be tough to sell this car, for $8,500. Good Luck, roverman.

Without the scoop a good looking car. Maybe it was Kenne-Bell not Bell Industries.

Kenne-Bell didn't do engine swaps. They sold parts and did a lot of racing. Sold all/most of the Buick operation to TA Performance. Likely a better way, is the oem supercharged V6. It would fly, in one of these, and the hood would fit. Cheers, roverman.

the hood already had a hole cut or a 'blister' to clear the carb or the turbo (I forget which the owner told me) when the current owner purchased. He did the hood scoop as a way to make it look cleaner.
- A few more details: turbo/manifold clears easily, pic makes it look like it doesn't.
-current owner did a bare metal repaint. The paint in the engine bay is original
-probably one previous family owner, had 40K on the clock (sounds like the lotus motors usually went before 50K)

it's a modified car so some people will like it, some won't. Seems like most won't since its been for sale for a while... and info is difficult to find on the conversion..

Looks to me like the air cleaner is sitting higher than it needs to... Might take some work like re-routing of the turbo tubing, maybe swapping the HEI distributor for one that uses a seperate coil/ignition control box to get a smaller distributor cap; and, possibly a lower intake manifold; but, if you did that it looks like an air cleaner with a drop base might clear the stock hood & the engine bay could be made way cleaner looking in the process. Getting back to stock hood & cleaning up the engine bay would transform the look of the car & make it a sleeper!

Roverman, is your '74 JH stock? do you have pics of it online? I'd like to know more of what a stock JH looks like so I can identify whats been changed on this one. I'm especially concerned on how the rear is set up. The owner has a lift, builds hotrods/chassis so I can look at it top to bottom, mentioned he also races a V8 MGB. wonder if he's on here? More than likely I will go look at it sometime in the near future (its winter here) just to look it over but the thing that still gets me is the lack of general information on these cars, even stock.

Eric, Just look here, in the JH section. Wikipedia and Jensen Healey Preservation Society,(most pic's). IMHO, the JH is underated as an lbc. They have a lot of potential, for a clever build. Good Luck, roverman.

Just to add my two cents, we are working on a Jensen Healey that the owner started installing a 3.4L V6 SFI engine on it when the engines were new. He lost time to work on it and didnt know anyone at that point who could do the wiring. We hope to fire it up later this year. Pictures and more on this car to follow in a month or so when time allows.

-BMC.