I get what your saying, to many sbc's have been put into to many cars, the truth is sbc's are boring, to many people have already done to much with them, i just like keeping it interesting, of course i am also the same dumbass that would try to fit a 454 in a honda      

Pontiac_SS:
I get what your saying, to many sbc's have been put into to many cars, the truth is sbc's are boring, to many people have already done to much with them, i just like keeping it interesting, of course i am also the same dumbass that would try to fit a 454 in a honda    

Use an Olds Toronado Transaxle    

i cant tell the difference between 425s but Clevelands and Windsors are easy for me. Then again I'm a cookie cutter Ford guy

Hey, lets put an FE in the Rambler. Along with a straight axle up front to go with the new Cragars Glad!

Still not digging on the SBC idea, but hey, I understand. The AMC engines would be cooler to see in there, but its not my checkbook thats gotta pay for the parts.  

Ok. First Things First!
AMC Rambler project was/is COOl because it wasnt a Chevy/Mopar/Ford.. It is Different!
Its small light car that was built to haul As*, while looking innocent with steel wheels etc.
Its mostly build on the cheap.
And it is powered by AMC engine!

(I think it would of been OK even if it would of been using some Mopar tech in it too as AMC has links to them)

There is NO WAY it would of gotten this much applause and appraise if it would of been a Chevy2 or Dart. Those cars have been done over and over again, and all know them.. Lil Rambler just looks "new" and fresh compared to them!

(You magazine guys, check how AMC owners have "awaken" now that you had an AMC project. All those Readers Rides etc. Dont recall seeing an AMC car in them every month before, only after the Rambler project)

Engine: Chevy engine is Easy way out. Cheap, plentiful and parts everywhere. Also its done million times aka boring. Get an another project car for that stuff, it cant be too hard to find a Chevrolet over there, 80s caprice or something. And Do your chevy tech on that!
So Keep it AMC. 401 engines are getting rare so if you are fixated to using one then in mean time keep an eye on more available ones.. like the 360 before. You know that engine already and probably have some usable parts left in the junk engine too. Plus the experience you have got as you have already been working with it.

How about Making it low tech/junkyard build first.. with an twist.. Scrounge a junkyard for another 360 engine and while at it find a TuRBo (or two) from a Saab or Subaru etc (Good use for them, as spare parts that give out power to old engine).

Bolt it on and Do-It-Yourself How-To article, showing how to weld and design a exhaust system for turbo engine. With intercooler or without. ("Grenades are fun" like my old army seargeant said)  

Or more simple and preferable (imo) approach. Get a Supercharger from Thunderbird or something (eaton m90?) And bolt it on the (near) stock 360cid engine. And see what it does? And then bolt on parts that will help and are needed (heads cam etc).

Added bonus: the car would still look normal and easy pray for unsuspecting BMW drivers.. All fitted under the hood and all.

I think 360 with an junkyard turbos or supercharger could get you into 11s as the normally aspirated one got you close.
Also who wouldnt want a cheap 30-40% power increase? Anyone..?

Just as long as You dont cop out and add an easy bolt on charger, that also costs a ton of money, its fine. Keep it on the Cheap side of the track.

I like Ramblers, even if it would have a chevy mill. Mine might have one, one day. Althou the turbo and supercharger mod is in my mind first. My inline six would love that! hah.

(Crazy idea.. get a jeep 4.0 six and turbo that sucker on the Rambler.. Change v8 car into straight six! Hahh, only in Bizarro world.)

Red Wheels= i like em. mine are orange. and yes they are ugly. weird looks they get, make them worth every penny, also no one notices how bad the car looks, all focus on the wheels.
{{{bold_text}}}  

OK. I need to go pull a couple more 360s in the name of science and boost them. Next time I am going to use a steel 401 crank with a rod stroke and get it closer to a 401. Solid roller anyone? 7,500 rpm should sound sweet.
douglas  

I Agree with NonSenCe... keep the engine all AMC. Doing the chevy swap would be about as dull as watching paint dry. Sure it's lightweight, but it wouldn't really appeal to chevy guys or the AMC crowd. I agree a 360 is the way to go. How about going with a AMC bell turbo 400 case trans., instead of the  727? Why not try to upgrade the notoriously sketchy AMC 20 with something like a Ford 8.8 (add ranger axles to keep the AMC bolt pattern..)  

Hey it is called CarCraft not car purist. Glad should do what he wants . I see way too many people gripe and moan about having a BBC in a GTO. It usually seems to be after they get spanked by it .  

I am Happy that Glad is going to see another AMC engine between his Ramblers Fenders. Sure the AMC is tougher and more expensive yet ...the Cool factor is WAY higher a SBC in there would be just ho-hum and quickly become another me too switch . Lacking in imagination and maximizing the BORING meter.  

I have seen the word "boring" in no fewer than 5 responses to the idea of putting a SBC in the Rambler.  I have to say it would have been a lot less "boring" to have had a 350/th350 in my '65 Rambler the last 6 months, instead of it sitting on four jack stands while I have tirelessly searched for a new valvebody for the AMC (borg-warner)transmission.  

It is amazing that the only guys who really want Glad to stick a Chevy in the Rambler are Chevy guys. The rest of us non Bowties are saying keep the AMC with one exception. Even other GM guys , Olds, Buick, think he should. Heck if Flatties are coming back for Street Rods that should tell you about the me-too factor in buying a ...snooze..350 crate motor. Not unique , not different not exciting , boring .  

Let the poor man alone. He can do what he wants and what he knows. Although it seems he wants to expand his horizons a bit. A Rambler has a pretty strict learning curve. Example: finding compatible distributors, distributor gears, oil pump drive gears, cam chain sprockets and timing covers. Not only are offshore parts likely to bite you in the rear, but unknowledgable domestic ( or maybe domestic parent companies that still make the parts offshore )companies that don't know how to make critical parts that have to be compatible.
  Those that are pushing the Chevy angle under the guise of ease- yes- it's the easy approach. To me throwing a Chevy mill at a project equates to mental laziness. Jeezuz build something, anything that doesn't go that tired route. And if you buy a Rambler, Studebaker, Morgan, Trabant, Citroen, ad nauseum- expect that going that road is a challenge and do not complain when you have to look for parts and it's not as dirt dumb easy as finding ubiquitous Chevy monopoly money. Tough. Then build a Chevy in the first place. You aren't "adventurous" nor a rebel in whatever marque crowd you choose because you toss a Chevy drivetrain in there. You've simply tossed in the towel.








Steve  

By Chevy mill I mean any small block variation. Now, if someone took that tasty DOHC inline six and applied it to a project that would be interesting AND different. Back it up with a drivetrain that complements the natural torque tendency of this powerplant- and nods towards good efficiency and long legged touring ( a CVT comes to mind )and an interesting rear-end  (independent Dana 44)and that would really perk some gearheads.

Steve  

Swapping a belly-button SBC (or now Jeff Smith's dream powerplant, the LSx) into a Rambler is the essence of laziness.

It exudes a fundamental lack of creativity. It also homogenizes Car Crafting to near-boredom levels of banality.  

That being said, there are simply some so-called Car Crafters who lack the drive, intelligence and skill to do anything but plug in an SBC to whatever they see with wheels (Ramblers, Morgans, golf carts, etc.) and then slather on the same old cheap bolt-ons out of the Summit catalog.  

These lazy lemmings exist in substantial numbers, as a trip to any NSRA or Goodguys event will prove.  

They are the cro-Magnons among us. They are the ones evidencing arrested development.  

They should be pitied, for they will never ascend to anywhere near the apogee of Car Crafting.

Nor will they ever experience the satisfaction of "doing the job correctly" and with supple, respectful fealty to the historical antecedents which establish the artistic context for any legitimate expression of the Car Crafter's vision and skill on the "canvas" of an orphan core.

They fancy themselves as "preserving" a fragment of our diverse automotive heritage as they gut the essence of it.  They are not, however, preservers as much as they are ham-fisted Visigoths, selfishly vandalizing the few remaining artifacts of vanishing era.

Thankfully, Douglas Glad has traveled the steep, challenging road less taken, by building his Rambler with the SOUL of a Rambler.  

His Rambler is not essentially another doggerel Chevrolet, disguised in a dead, defiled carcass assembled long ago by one of GM's arch competitors. Instead, his Rambler exudes the Heart of Kenosha and thereby demonstrates, in the Car Crafter's idiom,  what a REAL Rambler truly can be in the purified form of a performance car -- a perfomance car which which recognizes and profoundly respects its OEM genesis and essence.  

To sully and dishonor all of this by creating another Chevrolet-powered mongrel would strip this surviving car of any semblance of a Rambler and transmogrify it into a hoary, chapfallen counterfeit that is endemic of Car Crafting's declivity into little more than an acerebrial "monkey see, monkey do" cookie-cutter monotony. It would be profound evidence of the deconstructor’s vainglorious triteness, absence of aesthetic judgment, and lack of engineering acumen. It would be a slack-jawed, slovenly  surrender to prevailing convention of the lowest order.  

And it would scream "I'm just a boring cheapskate with no appreciation whatsoever of AMC's proud and defiant heritage."  

I agree:  Build an AMC (former SCrambler owner).  Chevy motors belong in Chevy cars.  Period.  If you want to have some fun, Tell people at a car show you have a split window Corvette Sting Ray, and you are putting a 460 Ford in it.  Listen to the screams of protest!!  Yet...people oooh and aaah over some ho-hum 350 Chevy in a 32 Ford.  Rambler V8's have plenty of power, good potential, good oiling and reliability.  No, there aren't the wide variety of parts, but there are enough parts to built a nice street or street/strip car.  Just ask the "Mopar Only" drag people how much fun it is to get pummelled by a 390 Gremiln at their own events!  

Then....put in another transmission!  How many "Chevy" racers have that nice Ford 9" rear in the back?  90%?  GTO even used Ford transmissions for a couple of years.  I don't think your 65 will take a torqueflite as a bolt-in, but AMC's did use them, so check out the differences and get-or build- an adapter.  Adapting one thing to the other is Car Craft tradition.  Anyway, do you want your distributor jammed back in the firewall, out right out front where you can adjust it?