rang-a-stang's summer project/build

[rang-a-stang]

dang, !!!!
great progress !
nice improvements that you have planned.
old yellow will have a new lease on life after this !
dave in NC

Thanks, Dave! It's been a long time in the making. Looking forward to seeing it come back together.

Awesome to see you making quick progress! It's cool to take an engine apart isn't it? You know what's in there, and how it works, but touching it all takes the cake.
Glad your oil pump isn't trashed. Is that Bulltear plate a steel surface for the gears to ride on? If so, Buick's have the same fix for oil.

Exactly. This guy:

http://www.bulltear.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_35&products_id=217

[babywag]

A midplate won?t fix a cover that?s out of spec., the excessive end clearance will remain.
Like I mentioned before redoing cover and new pump is all you need.
Just my .02, but midplates, and oil line mods are for high rpm engines.

[CameraFinn]

Rang-A-Stang, that's cool they make those for AMC engines too. I know that the Buick guys recommend them for pretty much every rebuild, just because the gears are guaranteed to rub into the aluminum. They also recommend drilling lots of oil passages, which is kind of scary. Y'all's timing covers are still pretty expensive, like the Buicks. Shame nobody makes a ground steel sleeve for the covers. Something where you would mill out the material around the gears, and press in a sleeve so you could get a steel on steel pump. Unless the stock covers are hypereutectic, then they'd be good. You'd have less thermal expansion too.
Weird idea. Never know.
Don't worry about the transmission. If you think the engine was fun, then the tranny will be automagic. They're so cool.
Hope work doesn't kill ya.

[rang-a-stang]

A midplate won?t fix a cover that?s out of spec., the excessive end clearance will remain.
Like I mentioned before redoing cover and new pump is all you need.
Just my .02, but midplates, and oil line mods are for high rpm engines.

copy. The only reason I am installing it is because I have it and I think it will last longer. My hope is this engine goes 150K miles without having to crack a gasket open. I see this wear point as the only place that would require me to service during that interval but assume the harder midplate would prevent it. No oil line mods for me. I did drill the 3/16's inch lifter valley drain back holes like SC/397 did here, though:

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showpost.php?p=1688396&postcount=5

Other than that, my rebuild is mostly text book.

[babywag]

Just my .02 and I may be wrong?

So both ends(above & below pump gears) is aluminum, and they wear a small amount on both sides over time.
Adding a midplate to bottom, will this increase wear up top? It's still aluminum up there...
The reason IMHO that oil pressure lowers over time/miles is just due to this wear.

When I did my cover is was REALLY bad(end clearance), and oil pressure was low. After reworking the cover, and still today, oil pressure is fantastic.

[Ristow]

your cam bearings are more likely the ones killing the oil pressure. im sure you are gonna put new ones in.

id rather have the big chamber heads than the early heads everyone seems to want. especially with new pistons upping the compression.

i'd skip the midplate. you're just adding a place to leak oil.

i hope you aren't doing that stupid oil line under the intake manifold.

[rang-a-stang]

HHAHAHA!!! You're a fan of the oil line mod, eh? LOL!

nope, no oil line mod for me. Your extra place for an oil leak point and babywags point that the top wears are well taken. Hm. Guess it goes on ebay.

[Ristow]

yah,that little oil line mod has blown up more motors than it has "saved".

[rang-a-stang]

Engine went to the machinist on Saturday as expected. I brought my block, crank, rods, damper, and flexplate. We checked the block and it was at maximum spec to just hone but he said the honeing process would have removed enough material that it would be just beyond spec. He said it had probably been honed and re-ring'ed before.
Bummer.
Kind of. Cast pistons at stock bore would have been about $320 but forged at +.030 are only $410. so for about another $90 I end up with a completely forged bottom end. I really like the idea of not having to worry about my bottom end at all, ever. He said he bores/hones with torque plates, too.

Anyway, he is going to polish the crank, blueprint the rods, Install cam bearings, install ARP hardware on the rods, clean the block (he has
a 3 step process that makes them look pretty amazing, including in the coolant passages and jackets), bore/hone, balance the rotating assembly (including the damper and flexplate)
and install the rods on the pistons. He said it will take about 6 weeks because of his back log.

His shop was pretty amazing. He was building a big block Chevy that was going to have 14:1 compression. His dyno had an SCCA nostalgia class motor on it. I felt like I left my parts in good hands. I am excited to see them come back.

Check this out. I got a kick out of this. I am pretty sure I am the only person with an AMC V8 in a Mazdaspeed 3. haha!

[CameraFinn]

Glad to see you made it to the shop. Forged bottom end is nice. Are the 401's cranks forged too? Also, I love your license plate. That's real good.

[babywag]

What shop is doing work?
Are you having them assemble it as well?

[SOLSAKS]

good luck on the rebuild
ole' yeller is getting a new lease on life.

dave in NC

[rang-a-stang]

What shop is doing work?
Are you having them assemble it as well?

Jim Grubbs Motorsports in Valencia. Nope. I'll assemble. I can't really afford their labor to assemble it. Here is some of their other work:

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/amc-401-build/

There are lots of other builds they have done but this one really stuck out to me.

[rang-a-stang]

Only a little tinkering these days. Finished pulling the trans, Xfer case, steering box, and brake lines last weekend and then pushed it out of the garage cleaned the floor/pressure washed the chassis.

My trans has always leaked. Bad. I think I found the leak. Look at the clean shiney metal around the dipstick tube.

Look at this nasty turd. It'll get cleaned and I am going to replace the front pump seal, get a new dipstick tube and seal, and I have to put a vent on it (mine broke off a long time ago).

Also, when I pulled the plug to drain my Xfer case, there was a nice long metal shard stuck to the plug. I have a feeling i am going to find plenty of that (since 4WD didn't work).

Last night all I did was pound on the rear spring hangers to get them back into place and made the gusset for one of them. Tomorrow I plan to build the front reciever and weld the gussets to the rear spring perches and start painting the front of the chassis. I also hope to install my J20 springs tomorrow or this weekend.

This morning I got a call from my machinest and my block cleaned up super nice. He said .030 will be fine so I ordered Wiseco forged pistons/moly rings and all my bearings today. Wooo Hoo! Almost $600 for all those parts. ouch.

[SOLSAKS]

good progress,
you can really get to the nitty gritty
when you have total access to everything.

not being mechanically skilled myself,....
i admire your acorns.

dave in NC