David,
  If the mechanic says that the replacement of a seal is a couple of
hundred bucks, unless you need specialized equipment to get at the seal, you
are probably looking at $25-$50 to do the seal yourself.

   That being said, let me climb on to my soapbox a moment.

If you bought a 1982 Jaguar and you do not plan to do the work yourself --
sell it.  Period -- end of the discussion.  Even if you put in a conversion
engine, silly little things like wheel bearings are going to cost you a
fortune to repair using a mechanic.  It is a 23 year old car after all and
things WILL need to be continually repaired. If you give the car to some one
at this point you will come out financially ahead of where you will be in
two years having a mechanic do your work.  This would be true of ANY 23 year
old car  -- but especially true of Jags.  You say Jag to most mechanics and
you can see the fear in their eyes and the drawer of the cash register start
to open!!!  The best example I can give is my own.  I bought my '88 XJ6 and
did about $1000 worth of work in brakes, bearings, bulbs etc.  I gave the
list of what I had done to my local Jag dealer to quote and it came back
just shy of $7500.
   I have never understood why, unless a Jaguar XK engine is completely
blown, some one would want to replace it with a conversion engine.  In my
own case, I would even replace a blown engine with another XK engine.  The
XK engine went into production in the 1940s and remained as the premier
engine in the Jaguar line until it was replaced by the AJ6 engine in 1988.
It was race tested and time tested. It has won a NUMBER of awards and in
1985 was named as one of the all time best engines ever designed and built
by Car and Driver magazine.  This is an engine that is SO well designed that
you do not even have to remove the timing chain to remove the head for valve
work.  The chain simply unbolts from the cams and remains in position until
the head is returned and the chain is bolted back into position.  Remarkable
engineering.
   Then of course, you have the value of the car.  If you put a 350
conversion into the car you have created what is known as a lump.  Lumps do
sell to others that think the way to go is the 350 conversion.  But as time
goes on, there will be fewer and fewer people interested in a lumped car.
More and more people will want the car simply to put the rear end IRS into a
hot rod.  The resale value of the car will continue to drop as a result.  In
fact, as some one else mentioned, you will probably spend twice what the car
is worth to replace the engine and re-certify to California standards.
   Finally, I have 2 Jaguar saloons from the mid-sixties with the XK engine
in them. One of the saloons has over 150,000 miles on it,  and is my daily
driver,  the other I have no idea as to mileage. As I previously mentioned,
I have an '88 as well. The clock on the '88 just went over 200,000 miles.
Although it has the AJ6 engine, it is a very similar design to the XK
engine.
   Obviously, you are going to do as you like with the '82 XJ6 as well you
should.  If I were you, however, I would stop and think long and hard about
how you want to proceed.

Webserve

On 14/2/05 2:53 PM, in article
0f2a49686f579f80c8a927c9a46fdc31@localhost.talkaboutautos.com,

You'll need at least $1000 to fix a jaguar engine with those miles. It will
have major corrosion to the cool system and the head blots will have
snapped. You can drop a Chev in it but that'll cost you at least 5 grand
after the rusty cross members below the engine are replaced and then you'll
be stuck with a car that is no longer authentic and will be worthless.