AMC 360 build- with lots of pics

[SIUADOG]

I love my wagoneer, but even after much tuning and tweaking, the lack of power has been the biggest disappointment. So, a buddy and I took on a overhaul of the 360, a mild build for a daily driver. A small block Chevy might have been easier and more cost effective, but it was decided to keep the truck as original as possible, so we started with a good running engine pulled from a donor truck.
Much to his credit, my buddy is obsessively meticulous, and extremely knowledgeable when it comes to AMCs. Because of the quirks, idiosyncrasy and lack of aftermarket support, this undertaking has proven to be far more challenging than building a SBC or Ferd. (More on that later).

The basics, with the engine disassembled, cleaned, and block pressure tested.








The engine looked really good and the cylinders cleaned up at .040 over. We'll be using stock type pistons, they were either Badger or Sealed Power.








Polished crank....






We are using the stock heads, with stock valves, the valve seats were re-cut and valves refaced.









The shoulders of the head bolt bosses have been chamfered for better oil flow.

[SIUADOG]

More to come later, looking forward to any input that you guys have. Thanks!

[SIUADOG]

The block at the beginning of assembly...






Crankshaft in place....

[SIUADOG]

Fitting rings....

[rherndon]

really cool. thanks for sharing.

[SIUADOG]

The pistons are assembled and ready to go.







Checking rod clearance.




Checking piston clearance. The deck was milled 0.020, and we believe that it may have been milled in a previous rebuild. The clearance is 0.0015 to the top of the deck.




All 8 are in...

[SIUADOG]

Checking the rear main.



Camshaft installation. We chose a RV cam for the low end grunt...I've misplaced the specs though.









Moving on to the oil pump and timing cover. We did lots of deburring and chamfering oil passages. The gear clearance looked good, the cover showed very little wear, so no midplate will be needed.

[sonoraed]

I would highly recommend the oiling mod, you can google "360 oiling mod" to find it I built a 360 in the early 2000's after destroying the original engine in my 79 J10, tore down 6 "good used engines" from a wrecking yard and everyone I looked at the rear main bearing and # 7 and 8 rod bearings were in various states of failure,not knowing any better I spent $2500 bucks to have a machine shop to bore cylinders/balance/line bore cam crank,valve job etc, I have built engines thru the 70's and 80's for a living without many problems, this engine was fuel injected with a RV cam and thou it ran good never was a powerhouse,couple of year later while replacing the rope rear main seal which of course allowed me to look at the rear main bearing was surprised to find the bearing was slightly galled, now this engine always had 3000 mile oil changes,never ran out of oil,oil pressure was well within spec's,and never abused, I give up! spent a lot of money and time on this 360 and always wished I would have know about the various mods that can be done to the 360, currently in the middle of a J10 restomod and went like so many others with a LM7 Vortec didn't really want too but money and effort to build a really powerful reliable smog legal 360 engine was more than could be justified to me, good luck and do your homework before you button up your engine. Cheers

[uncletiffy]

Great thread!!!

Thanks so much for putting this up.

Great pictures too.

[wewillsurvive]

lol i'll bet there's a story behind that sticker on your cart

[Charles Kline]

Looking forward to seeing more of this!

[SIUADOG]

We discussed doing the oiling mod, and decided not to proceed with it. This engine will not see high rpms very often, just an occasional blast. Hopefully that decision will not come back to bite us later.
A few things we discovered that could contribute to oiling failures were addressed such as chamfering the bosses for the head bolts, cleaning all the passages thoroughly, blueprinting the oil pump, and chamfering all the passages for better oil flow.

Another issues we discovered, which is one of the quirks I alluded to previously, was an incorrectly manufactured cam gear.
It is a brand new SA gear and timing chain, the groove is cut in the wrong location, the wrong length, the wrong angle, and is probably 5 times wider than it really needs to be. This error would have caused the front cover to flood with oil and starve the rest of the engine.

 



Additionally the internal groove with machined wrong, in this most likely would have starved the distributor gear of oil.

 

[SIUADOG]

Degreeing the cam...

 


Checking several sets of retainers to get the right spring height..

 

 

[shimniok]

So what brand is that timing sprocket and should we avoid that brand, do you think?

sent from my MotoX

[SIUADOG]

If I'm not mistaken we went with another S A brand. There must have been a bad batch because the one that we used was practically identical to the original AMC gear.

[sonoraed]

http://www.powerblocktv.com/episode/HP2 ... lZF6Zd3MnI , I know it's prolly too late but this is interesting