Car Craft Project Cars

Hey AMXREX, CCMAG was not responsible for the reference to SCAT rods found on Maddog's e-bay site! If you will refer to discussion #'s 1139.85(85), 1139.86(86), 1139.88(88), and 1139.89(89) you'll see that Frank and I were the ones to point this little bit of info out to CCMAG. They chose to go the chevy rod route with lots of machine shop work and I just did not agree on the set-up being practical for the average engine builder. One note on the SCAT rods however, is they only make them for 290,304,343,360 applications with a rod length of 5.875". You may want to double check this with Maddog at http://www.fastengineparts.com. Of note, lately I've see a few used 390, 401 rods on e-bay of which I in fact bought a set, and I know you can buy new forged I beam 401 rods as well as the SCAT H beams and I Beams for the 290, 304, 343, and 360 from Andre Jacobs at http://southtexasamc.tripod.com/. Glad to see there are lots of AMC fans out there. Cheers, John  

Thanks for the input, and I checked out the site, excellent source. Thanks again . (I didnt mean to imply that the info on the rods came from CC, but from the FORUM , by the way. ) I was hoping the rods came in a 6 inch length, which would work well with KB hypereutectic pistons and the 343/290 crank in a 390 block. I am not going to do this if I have to use 6 inch chev rods. I am not comfortable with the side clearance. And I would prefer to use a stock steel rod, any make, that would give me a better rod length to stroke ratio while maintaining a decent side clearance WITHOUT welding. A big Ford six cylinder rod is too long, and a small block Chrysler rod big end is too big for the 343/290 crank, and may be too long as well without bushing to decrease the length. Thanks for all the replies, lets keep this up and maybe we too can have overpriced, not very useful cars just like the Chevy, Ford, and Mopar freaks.  

Check out 4.0L six pistons. They have a length of 6.125", and 4.2L six rods (258) are 5.875". I mention the 258 rods because they are the same casting as the 360 V-8. The big ends are wider on all the sixes, but can easily be milled down (and why you can't use the V-8 rod in the six -- to narrow). The 4.0L rod should be strong enough for up to 6500 rpm with no problems, but I'd shot peen them after smoothing the sides anyway. The 4.0L rod might be to long though. Of course custom pistons might cure that! I bet few have even considered using the 4.0L six rods... I know I'd have never thought much about it had I not known the 258 and 360 rods were the same. I'd have never thought about the Ford 300 six rod for sure!

I've talked with several drag racers about the Chevy rods. They are successfully running them with the extra side clearance. You lose a little oil pressure, I'm assuming, but the AMC V-8 isn't a Chevy -- it produces lots of pressure. The critical thing is getting oil back to the pan and making sure it gets to the rod bearings in the first place.

Trunnions aren't so bad, you just have know how to deal with them! They can be expensive, but not as expensive as ripping the whole suspension out and redesigning it. The lower arm is for all practical purposes the same as a Mustang II. I don't care much for the rubber isolated 64-69 American/Javelin/AMX trunnion either, but spend the money to have oilite (graphite impregnated bronze, I may have the name wrong) bushings put in. It will handle better and never wear out or break. It's a good idea to have them drilled for grease zerks too. Some of the AMC vendors sell poly bushing kits, which are cheaper and nearly as good as oilite bushings.

For a bit of history, the AMC trunnions came out in 1950, just four years before the ball joint. Most everyone else was still using king pins. AMC replaced the lower trunnion with a ball joint in 1962 (64 in the American), and the upper in 1970. A lot of money went into making the simple but functional trunnion (I'm not talking about the rubber bushed 64-69 small car trunnion, but the 50-57 Rambler and 58-69 big car upper trunnions -- 58-63 American had a solid design that's better than the 64-69, but not as nice as the big cars), so AMC had to get their money's worth. As long as it was doing the job well there was no need to spend the money to make all new suspension components. That rubber bushed thing wasn't the greatest of ideas, but it worked fine for the life of the car -- usually 100K miles or 10 years. When people talk about how bad they are they are usually discusssing a car that was 20+ years old and/or had lots of miles on it when they got it.

Hey,
 I'm in Ky myself.....does the old guy have any buick Skylarks ?  

great choice!! i have a 68 american im working on with a built 258, and wc t5 tranny Hoping to get the car into the 13 second range in a few months.  

Speaking of which, and hopefully some of ya'll have found out there are STILL a large number of orphan American Motors and Ramblers needing good homes and not end up as the main frame of Beijeng's Olympic Stadium. I changed the link on m ywebsite for the Cars For Sale whicle recently doing more maintainence, so the previous link don't work for the AMCs For Sale but here is the new link if you are looking for a classic American Motors vehicle to fix up like Doug & Crew:
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/Shut_Up_Files/amc_for_sale.htm

Should you be looking for a specifi AMC or Rambler, there are also a lot of cars for sale in the free AMC Classifieds, and don't be shy, feel free to place YOUR FREE AD on my site AMC related:
http://www.planethoustonamx.com/bodyMessageBoard.htm
(scroll down to view all the ads....the NEW ADS will appear at the BOTTOM of the list)

Thansk Doug for the great coverage in the current April 2006 issue, always neat to pick up a magazine and see American Motors vehicles in.
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston AMX
1902 Wycliffe
Houston, TX. 77043
713-464-8825 days
eddiestakes@planethoustonamx.com
www.planethoustonamx.com

Keep up the great work on the Rambler. Hope you guys enjoyed the 05 AMC Nationals at Cordova!!! There are actually way more AMC folks around than you imagine !! I emailed you several photos of my 72 Gremlin HOPING to get it in the readers rides??? Dark Green,Cragar S/S, 5" Cowl scop,9"with 3.70 gears...etc. Any possibility? The 401 is in the machine shop as i type.

Question about the AMC 360 that is being put into the Rambler. Is this the same 360 that was use in the Jeep trucks in the mid to late 70s? If it is I believe it is a Ford supplied engine of the FE series blocks. I could very well be mistaken. But if were correct that would really open up the availability of performance parts.  

Alot and I mean A LOT of people think that AMC 360s and 390 were ford motors but that is the farest thing from the truth. Its not hard to get very useable power out of AMCs  and like a few of you I am thrilled to see a AMC project in CC and thank you sooooooooooo much for keeping it AMC and not droping another makes motor in there, There were somethings in the 370 artical that could have been better but ohwell.  I am a die hard AMC JEEP guy, between my father and I we have 6 jeeps and 5 AMXs and I can't help but want more lol. And a 69 american 2dr hardtop or drop top is high on my list of to get soon cars but I'm more than happy with a 6cyl since I know how to make then very strong and fun.

AMC made their own engines. They used Motorcraft (Ford), Delco (GM), and even some Prestolite (Chrysler) electrical systems and carbs on the engines, but the block, heads and internals were their own design.

AMC has used other manufacturers engines -- one V-8 (1955-56 Packard; 320 in 55, 352 in 56), one V-6 (1984-86 GM 2.8L), and two fours (76-79 Audi 2.0L, 1980-83 GM 2.5L). That's it!! This list excludes Jeeps before 1972. Jeep was using the Buick 350 and building the Buick V-6 (Buick sold Kaiser Jeep the tooling in the mid 60s when Buick stopped production) when AMC bought Jeep out in 1970. Those engines continued in some Jeep models until supplies were exhausted near the end of 71.

AMC had three V-8 designs:
GEN-1 -- mid 1956-1966 250/287/327. A rather heavy built V-8 but near bullet proof. All three sizes used the same forged crank and rods with different bores. Blocks were cast with different bores, but same external dimensions. Bores were 3.50", 3.75", and 4.00". Bore is cast into top of the block just behind the right head. Hard to see with heads on and engine in car.

GEN-2 -- 1966-1969; 290 only for 1966, 1967 saw intro of 343, 1968 390. Rather than further development on the old block, an entriely new engine was designed. This was a modern light weight engine similar to the popular small blocks, but with bigger bore centers. The bore centers were kept the same as the GEN-1 so that the tooling could be reused. The bore centers are the same as Chrysler big blocks.

GEN-3 -- 1970-91; 304/360/390/401. 390 for 1970 only, 401 appeared in 1971 and was made through 1979, as was the 304. as of 1980 only the 360 was made, and it was only used in the big Jeep Wagoneers and pickups.

The deck height of the GEN-2 was raised 0.0625" (1/16" and the stroke increased accordingly to create the 304 from the 290, 360 from 343, and 401 from the 390. A special piston and rod was used to keep the 390 for 1970 only. The other major change was the heads. The exhaust port was enlarged by making a "dog leg" in one side of the lower end. This increased exhaust flow around 15%. Up through mid 1971 the heads had small combustion chambers and compression as high as 10:1. The casting numbers of these heads end with "319", so they are oftne called "319" heads. Mid 71 and later heads have larger chambers which lowers compression to around 8:1. Otherwise, the heads are practically the same. Build a later engine with the correct pistons for the desired compression, don't waste time and money searching out "319" heads. Note the 360 and 401 heads are identical. 304 heads have smaller valves. Same applies to GEN-2 heads -- 343/390 are identical, 290 smaller valves.

As I just bought a 1969 AMC Rambler 440 station wagon, complete with a 290 V8, I'm putting the project I never really started up on eBay, a very clean, rust-free, recently painted, 232-6 1966 Rambler 440 station wagon along with a complete 1978 AMC Concord hatchback donor car, complete with V8, appropriate crossmember and front disc brakes. It was my intent all along to build a quasi-Phantom SC/Rambler wagon but time will not cooperate.

All the details can be found at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AMC-AMC-Rambler-American-440-1966-AMC-Rambler-
American-6-w-1978-Concord-V8-Parts-Car_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ5357QQitemZ4
631949099QQrdZ1

If you prefer to look up by item number, the listing is number 4631949099.

High-resolution 6 MP images are available at:

http://imageevent.com/mmm_mag/1966rambleramericanwagon

I hope that you'll agree that this is quite possibly the  most complete listing for a car you'll ever see on eBay; I've outlined  everything.

This is so similar to Car Craft build-up that it's scary, but you won't have to hunt around for a V8 donor car for the drivetrain and disc brakes as I'm including the complete 1978 Concord.

Auction ends Apr-23-06 11:35:35 PDT  so if you're looking for a very cool, turnkey project, that you can get on  the road with a minimum of hunting for parts and build-up effort, here's you're  chance.

Cars are located in Yorba Linda, CA, 15  minutes from Anaheim. I'll be around all day Saturday if you'd like to come around and take a look or test drive. Just E-mail me at autotronic@aol.com and I'll E-mail you back my mobile number.

Have a great weekend,

Rich Truesdell

Douglas;

Glad to see you're doing a Rambler. I am the original owner of a '67 Rogue 343 4 speed. It's all stock and runs low 15's/ high 14's. Don't own a trailer, so it's driven to events. If your staff is interested, the local AMX club holds a drag race at Cecil County Dragway every year. We usually have 50+ AMC's there, and some run in the 9's. All cars MUST be AMC powered to compete.

This years date is June 24th. It's a fun time for us. Hope to see someone there from Car Craft.

If you have any questions about your '67 American, please feel free to ask. Is that car an original V8 car, or is it a six? There are drivetrain differences.

Thanks!

Larry Blatt, Phila., PA

I was happy when Car Craft gave some love for AMC. I'm the 3rd owner of a '73 AMX originally a 304 but the owner I purchesed it off of swapped in a 360. Everyday I work on it is a joy. I love owning cars that are unique, at least around here, and my AMX is just that. As far as I know unless there are some hiding in barns, there are only 4 Javelins or AMX's within 30 miles of here. Mine is the only Javelin/AMX. Keep up the good work and I look foreward to getting my Car Craft every month. AMC LIVES!!!!

too bad you guys couldnt find a 401 for the rambler.  It'd been a blast to have.
I scored a 401 out a cherokee this spring for my 72 gremlin. Its currently getting a .040 bore speed pro pistons, comp cam kit, 291 c heads, and an edelbrock air gap intake.