Valve Cover Adaptor

The backstory

A local Brisbane car enthusiast is having a rare Jensen Interceptor mechanically overhauled in Melbourne by a specialist in the Jensen marque.

They have decided to modernise the engine and gearbox in this particular car, and are currently converting the car from it’s original Chrysler Big Block V8 and three speed automatic transmission to a brand new LS Chevrolet V8 mated to a modern 4 speed automatic transmission. This will give them a clean, efficient and powerful drivetrain, while being sympathetic to the car and keeping the modifications reversable at any time.

The owner of the car wanted to try and preserve the appearance of the engine bay, which had very distinctive “Jensen” branded, cast alloy valve covers fitted to the original motor. We were approached to design and manufacture an adaptor to mate to the new LS motor and enable fitment of the original Jensen valve covers. The market is already well serviced for similar adaptors for original specification Ford and Chevrolet valve covers to be fitted to this type of modern engine conversion, however no such adaptor existed for this particular application.

There were several challenges that needed to be dealt with in the design phase, due to the complexities of the Jensen parts, as such we produced several mockups for test fit. We used a sample head from the new motor here at our production facility to refine the design and once we were happy with the basic design we sent the first mockup for a test fit on the actual car in Melbourne. This lead to further refinements and additional mockups being sent to Melbourne before the final design sign off.

The customer ordered a set of these custom adaptors but asked if we could significantly reduce our quoted lead time to assist with the logistics of the build. We prioritised the work, and delivered in full, three weeks ahead of schedule