Car Craft Project Cars

Oh but they did show people something.  The waggy, hopefully it pays off and some one finaly buys mine.  I would hate to know it became a motor donor as it is in such great shape but some of the FSJ guys are actually giving away free jeeps so it's difficult to even sell at a loss these days.  It's hard to think a nice v8 and four wheel drive can't even fetch 600.  With so many cool options yet a plastic hood scoup is worth 500 WTF?  

On a topic unrelated to the Rambler , what ever happened to that beat up Cuda that got painted B5 Blue and was never seen again, you guys have quite a few dissappearing Mopars  

This sounds like me, I have an 84 Ranger that I'm helping my grandson build, small world! My project is a 67 Fairlane that I'm building a 400 inch Windsor for. I have had it for several years and am building a custom air suspension and rack and pinion steering for it. Lots of work but it should be a real corner carver and get down the street quite respecfully. All it takes is time, money and lots of sweat. Good luck on your project. I'd love to see it when its finished (are they ever done?)  

Another "PUT A *** IN IT" idiot. When will you guys wake up to the fact that there are other engines than that GM junk?

I'm sick of hearing of another good car ruined by a crappy engine swap!

well I cant belive my eyes your building a rambler and a 1967  at that

I have built 4.   all with 400 chevys one had a 5 speed in her the last one ended up being tubbed I purchaced the first one in 1987  for $50.00 (canadian) drove it with the 6cyl  and the 3 speed on the tree for a year with dents and all    delivering pizza   someone even spray painted MR Magoo on it.    nice light car I suggest you cut her bottom off and start with a custom frame and suspention then it  handles like a car insted of a wash board and put any cool  motor in it after all its a AMC  cheers cam vancouver island canada

I prefer not to see a Chevy engine in a Rambler/AMC either, but sometimes it's the better choice. AMC engines, and especially people who really know them, aren't easy to find in some areas, and some don't have the budget to ship one in. I'm a real AMC fan, but realize that some people just prefer other engines because that's what they know. SBCs are easy to find and easy to get some help because they are so well known. If "cookie cutter" is okay, drop one in. It's cheap and relatively easy. Yeah, I'm a true AMC guy defending swaps -- how ironic! But it's better than seeing the cars crushed and forgotten.

I gave Brian Anderson some advice on putting one in his car years ago, who knew he'd end up in Hot Rod as one of the top 10 street cars in his Rambler! If an AMC 327 had been available locally it may have been a different story. That was a long time ago -- I swear he was originally thinking of putting a Ford engine he had in (a 351?), but I could be wrong. Swaps have their place, and people have their reasons. In the end, a person who knows AMCs won't spend much more to build one equal to an SBC. What they spend over will come back in less trouble to put everything in, so it's really a wash. Plus you have to remember that AMC 360 heads flow so much better than stock SBC heads that mid level aftermarket heads or LS-1 or newer stock heads are needed. Once that's done, cost comes up to what it takes to build the AMC engine.

It was mentioned by someone that the Chevy rods were needed to get the desired compression since the stock AMC rods wouldn't be strong enough for what CC has planned on doing with the engine. There are at least two companies making nice AMC rods -- SCAT is one of them. Custom forged pistons were ordered anyway, so compression shouldn't have been an issue. SCAT rods and custom pistons wouldn't give the extra 10 cubes, but would be easily repeatable. Finding someone to weld rods for clearance isn't to easy.

Some of the AMC racers are running engines with Chevy rods WITHOUT welding -- just leaving the extra clearance. They've reported no problems -- just a little more oil slung around inside the block. That might cause some foaming or parasitic drag, but not enough on the strip to hurt anything. I wouldn't recommend trying that on a street car -- it could cause an engine failure over longer running times.

You just need to know how to treat the AMC suspension to get good results from it. A worn out suspension is going to handle poorly no matter what the make! Most older Ramblers and AMCs have been run through the cheap used car circuits a couple times, and those get poor maintenance, if any. It's not hard to get a Rambler to handle using the stock suspension. Look at it -- it's practically a Mustang II setup except for the high mounted spring, which handles better than a low mount. High mount doesn't allow a low hood though, that's why it's no longer used.

All cars prior to the mid sixties were softly sprung because there were few places you could travel at sustained high speeds and roads were rougher in most areas. By the mid sixties there were more roads and the Interstate system was developed enough to put stiffer springs in, so cars in general started handling a bit better. With asoftly sprung high mount car, the best thing you can do is get springs ~20% stiffer than stock. Any coil spring supplier will custom wind them for the same price as their normal coils, you just have to wait a couple weeks. The stiffer springs will have more effect than a thick sway bar -- this I know from experience! I put a way bar on my 63 Classic and you can only tell it's there on the hardest of turns. Add stiffer springs and you don't get the "floaty" feel going down the highway at 70+, and you notice the better tracking and less roll on all turns. The ride is a bit stiffer, but it was really soft to begin with.

its also more fun to take a sawsall to a stock rickity unislush  body and use those trunun suports for cricket playing hell when I had the first rambler I almost put a 440 mopar in it but my nextdoor nabour wanted  it for his dart. he talked me out of it with cash.   I did rebuild the suspension on the first one it handled ok  but drum brakes and old tech dont stop you too well   and to me this is "car craft" not amc craft or ford craft or chevy craft or dodge craft or factory craft this is CAR CRAFT  and a amc rambler is not a collector car yes yes there are those hurst sc scramblers  for the amount of time money effort I thinks its cheaper to buy a frame with all the goodys set for any power plant you want and  now you have a car that can tail gate a porcha and stop better that a viper  and if you like playing with sawsalls and torches check out my freinds web site www.durocco.com  it reminds us that cars are fun not bone stock   

Please show me the combination of the Maddog (Ebay) rods and a piston that produces 10.5:1 with a zero deck. I talked to them and it is a low compression setup. I believe they also have a high compression series (more than 11.0:1) but that really isn't a pump gas ratio.

douglas

I am still trying to make sense out of the 360 build up article.  Way too much money and "slick stuff" for the average AMCer to deal with.  What about a Frieburger build-up?  Clean up a stocker, throw a big cam, headers, Air Gap and a 750 double pumper at it and see what it will do.  That would grab the attention of the Blue Oval and Bow Tie circles as well as the Red-White and Blue bunch.

Hi Douglas,

My point was that I would have just rather seen you use a rod built for AMC use, such as the SCAT rods found on MADDOG's site, rather than a Chevy rod that needs all the complex machine shop work done on it, and since you had custom pistons made you could have easily achieved your desired compression height for a zero deck clearance and and 10.5 to 1 compression ratio. I realize you would not have achieved the same CID without the offset grind of the crank/rod combo, but I think the build would have been a little more realistic for some of the amateur engine builders out there such as myself.

John

I was reading some of the old comments and noticed a guy building a rambler with an LT1 and a 4L60E.  What can I say but yuck!  I'm all about being different but that kind of cop-out makes him look like a *** Was building a Jeep motor too hard?  I know I'm ranting but I absolutely hate,  I mean HATE when people put freaking chevy motors in EVERYTHING! Fords, AMCs, Caddies, Pontiacs, they all made some good motors but generic street rodder guy has to have a chevy cause he can order parts for it or the whole motor and have it off the shelf and installed in a week.  BTW, thanks Car Craft for not butchering the Rambler so far, but as far as the gastank goes fix it and sump it for good measure.

                                                                             Brainsip

Hey I bought a 67 rambler american and a 472 caddy for 300 bucks. Yes I am going to marry the two. Hey theres a guy here in louisville KY that has ramblers, nashs, amc, close to forty in his yard, from the 40's to the 70's, lots of 360s 304s etc, he will sell anything and is a really cool elderly guy. Anyone ever down this way get a hold of me  

i was 7 when my dad got a 66 rambler american. took him 5 years to build it. AND WOW!!! 401 out of his dads ambassator souped it up, build the trans upa 727 and put 4.10 in the rear end.  painted the body candy apple red with some peals and the hood black with purple pearl it to be different, said the contrast in color makes yopu look at the car.   and the memories at the local drag strips are priceless.  wooped on the THE BIG 3.  people couldnt beleave they got there doors blown off by grams grocery getter. the super car show down at quaker (when it has held there) was a blast, bracket racing, king of the hill, he would always make it to the final race, he would blow the doors the chevy in the other lane  and then beat his own time and every time.  lol as i little kid i remember sittin in the back seat and smiling ear to ear asking him to floor it, being young and pinned in the back seat not being able to move i fell in love with amc muscle. the 1st time i drove it was senior prom, yea so i and a hot girl in the seat next to me so what, the best time ever was the drive there and back.  i went with a newer  camcrapo and a roadrunner. guess who was leader of the pack. pulled in the parking lot and everyone was out side so i ask he if she wanted to make an entrance.  hit the line lock and did a nice burn out(till smoke entered the car) and parked. now this was at a very fine 4star establishment. and this golf cart came zipping up to me and i thought *** i just messed up the fresh pavement and was getting kicked out. NO the security manager said that was awesome... know i have a good bodied 73 javelin amx w/ 390 from a rebel, t10 4speed and a bunch of goodies... THIS SUMMER GONNA BE A BLAST...........

Thanks for doing the AMC . Please consider doing some serious front suspension modification, replacing the EXPENSIVE, archaic , trunnion setup with those new fangled things,  oh, what are they called ? ball joints ? I am desperate to spend lots of money on something like this, or God forbid, something I might actually be able to do myself, as in " CAR CRAFTING" ? Thanks for all the USEFUL info I have seen in the mag and in the forum. ( I was particularly grateful for the information on the connecting rods for AMCs from SCAT. I will check this out, hopefully it isnt a load of "scat".) After building up the engine, it would be nice to put the Richmond 6 gear in, and not worry about the front end failing at more than a slow walk. I just hate it when the wheels go one way and the car another, but perhaps I am being unreasonable about this ? Maybe CARCRAFT could convince Pete Mungo (HOTROD, January '99) to share some(all?) of his wisdom with the Corvette front brakes on his AMX? Maybe even toss a few coins his way ? Hmmmm? Call me lazy, but I really don't want to have to re-engineer this myself. Thanks anyways, it was just a thought....