Oh boy, this topic is going to be huge ...
I'm up to my elbows in a HE upgrade as we speak, so have been considering the implications for a long time now ....
At least 3 subtopics:
For how much longer will will be able to drive our cars?
What effect will upgrade reduce the value?
Will upgrade make noticeable difference?
Subtopic #1:
Here in oz people are tired of climate change impacts in the same way u r tired of carbs. The arable belt around the perimeter of the country is inexorably shrinking, increasing number of inland communities are on life-support; water trucked in, massive social issues as livelihoods are lost. Bushfire season hasn't even started and we've already lost more than 2 million hectares, e.g. bigger than Wales in Britain. People have being burned to death trying to defend what they'd battled their whole life to build, others have been roasted alive in their cars, unable to flee fast enough. This is really, really bad shit (feel the emotion, go easy on the quips). All assessments are that its going to get steadily worse until it rains which is not predicted this year at the earliest. Youthful passion may be entertaining or irritating, but when the prol gets emotional, rapid change becomes the political imperative, rationality is the early casualty. So short answer is, from this side of the world, maybe not very long at all.
Initially there may be dispensation for classic cars but this may be highly qualified, i.e. only for car club events and only if original design (unmodified). I'm depending on there being some remnant of rationality that extends dispensation to modified classic cars that are demonstrably cleaner and more efficient than original, this is unlikely. So smart money would be on keeping it original. Clearly I'm not smart.
I floated the idea of making it electric. Wife and daughters thought that it was a great idea. Son said he would disown me, that an e-type would be nothing without it's V12 (sorry crippled cousins).
Subtopic #2:
Compared to modern cars, an e-type is a tractor. Relatively: hard to use (get in/out of), hot, noisy, scary, crude, inconvenient, inefficient, smelly, slow, expensive and unsafe.
Simplistically, prospective buyers come in two flavours; those who are satisfied just to own their classic car, and those who need to drive them. The former value immaculate originality, even the above "quirkiness". The latter (e.g. me) also want driving convenience. Trouble is it is the former that set the price.
The argument, keep the old engine, is not a simple solution. The HE doesn't just drop in, block is different (bellhousing) and you need a lot of the original bits (sump, oil filter and cooler) exhausts, etc. So u end up using bits of both and are left with a large crate of parts, maybe enough to support the argument that the mod can be reverted, but difficult to attribute any value in this, considering the cost of reversion while there are immaculate original alternatives.
So yes, modding yr car will improve it but will also reduce it's value, no question, live with it. Otherwise, if resale value is important to you, sell immediately.
Subtopic #3:
Per the question, the desire (as with me) is for improved driving (ownership) convenience. Depending on yr views about Topic #1, there may be interest in this including emissions (cleanliness) improvement. This was my justification for changing what was an utterly original car. I imagine others have had the same goal however I have not heard of any standout successes.
The HE is the only way to achieve significant efficiency and cleanliness improvement. HE's are lean-burn engines, able to run on air-fuel ratios better than "stoic" (14.7). Enables 30% better fuel efficiency in addition to loads more useful torque. Its an upgrade no-brainer. To improve cleanliness requires catalytic converters, despite that these have limited effectiveness at air-fuel ratios greater than stoic.
I started out intending a conversion of my matching numbers car to HE by fitting pistons, liners, heads, ecu, efi and ignition bits off my HE donor car. Very quickly learned that it would be more improvement, less expensive and much more effective to instead adopt the very latest (not 30 yo) technology, so that's what I'm doing, i expect to have the cleanest most efficient e-type on the planet.
