diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
index f7d3ea4c6ce..05333e47740 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
@@ -687,8 +687,7 @@ class ClusterFormationTasks {
     static Task configureExecTask(String name, Project project, Task setup, NodeInfo node, Object[] execArgs) {
         return project.tasks.create(name: name, type: LoggedExec, dependsOn: setup) { Exec exec ->
             exec.workingDir node.cwd
-            // TODO: this must change to 7.0.0 after bundling java has been backported
-            if (project.isRuntimeJavaHomeSet || node.nodeVersion.before(Version.fromString("8.0.0")) ||
+            if (project.isRuntimeJavaHomeSet || node.nodeVersion.before(Version.fromString("7.0.0")) ||
                 node.config.distribution == 'integ-test-zip') {
                 exec.environment.put('JAVA_HOME', project.runtimeJavaHome)
             } else {
@@ -714,7 +713,7 @@ class ClusterFormationTasks {
             ant.exec(executable: node.executable, spawn: node.config.daemonize, newenvironment: true,
                      dir: node.cwd, taskname: 'elasticsearch') {
                 node.env.each { key, value -> env(key: key, value: value) }
-                if (project.isRuntimeJavaHomeSet || node.nodeVersion.before(Version.fromString("8.0.0")) ||
+                if (project.isRuntimeJavaHomeSet || node.nodeVersion.before(Version.fromString("7.0.0")) ||
                     node.config.distribution == 'integ-test-zip') {
                     env(key: 'JAVA_HOME', value: project.runtimeJavaHome)
                 }