Waggy Build-up: Good News and Bad News

[Blinkinlights]

Well the bad news first...the old 360 seemed to lose all oil pressure just as we were replacing the stock two barrel manifold with a 4 barrel and Qadrajet carb...all just days before the new 401 was to be out of the machine shop...needless to say, we missed that wheelin trip.

So we had to break out a couple of specialized tools to remove the old 360 from the Waggy...the first being one small boy for those nasty exhaust manifold bolts in the back.



Next, we had the ever popular 4x4 pillow for that hard concrete floor.



Finally, we got the 360 out, but we still need to remove the old 727 as well, but that is for another day...we wanted to get to the 401.



BTW...that big fellow in the picture is Craig, also known as Hardcore Pacer1 and our local AMC guru...I mean what better place to deal with old AMC motors that a 40 x 40 garage with a couple of old AMC race cars.



Now, the good news...it was time to break out the rubber gloves and check out what the engine shop gave us to work with.





Well, they did the oil mod, the lack of which was the reason that the original owner of this motor sold it to us in the first place, and we started with the ARP studs and installed the heads.





We are putting this thing back together with parts that were supplied to us after the motor was taken apart so we suddenly noticed that our fun came to an abrupt halt because of $8 missing ARP washers. This motor has some goodies with it like a roller valve train, MSD distributor and ignition and Holley Projection and should be running around 400hp at just under 10:1 compression so we are looking forward to getting it done. We should be back at it this week so we'll post some more then.

Greg

[jeepsr4ever]

Great pics! Looks like a fun Father/Son project! Whats the scoup on the AMCs in the background?

[Bob Davis '80 Chero]

Great pics! Excellent shop! The thing I learned in the post:
PILLOW! What a novel idea! Believe me I'm going to try it.

[Blinkinlights]

Craig is somewhat of an AMC nut so he and his wife used to race those cars. He took his 500hp 401 out of the black AMX and stuck it in this:



It's on a bobbed Cherokee frame and sports a D60, GM 14 Bolt and 46x22 Ag tires on 16.1x14 swather wheels. It's really fun to watch him wheel that thing.

We hope to install this 401 in the Waggy with a just rebuilt 727 beefed up to be strong enough for a big block Dodge and installed into an AMC case, rockwells and the same tires. We hope to mainly scout out new trails for our club as few people could keep up with us. Because of the tire size, we are expecting that the actual PSI footprint will be less than a grown man on a quad...let's hear it for Tread Lightly.

Greg

[scantar]

Nice! Great story

Love that muddin' Pacer!

[HARDCORE PACER1]

the black one is a 78 amx orig 304 car and the red/white/blue one is a 78 concord dL orig 304 car as well. Both cars have extensive mods but are street legal.

[Blinkinlights]

That's cool but what are the specs on that paisley pillow?


Greg

[HARDCORE PACER1]

10"x18"x3" with a medium pile filling

[Blinkinlights]

So Scott & I finally got back to Craig's place to work on the Jeep and we actually got some work done. We managed to get on the Edelbrock aluminum valve covers that I pilfered from the J20 as well as the Cloyes True Roller Double Roller timing gear and chain. When we installed the original chain that Al gave us with the motor, the chain seemed very close to the 1/2" play limit so we thought it was better to replace it now than later with all the other parts that would be required. Here's the new one.





Then it was time to install the oil slinger, which was nowhere to be found so we looked through Craig's extensive used parts supply and made the now all to common comment that we could just rip it off the Pacer. Then we realized that we had the old 360 sitting there and decided to rip it off that. It's then that we discovered how close to a trail disaster we had come when we saw the condition of the timing chain on the old motor.





It worked and we found some more bolts to replace the missing timing cover and water pump bolts, without going to the Pacer again, and installed them without incident.



Then it was time to turn over the motor and install the deep sump Milodon oil pan...again with found bolts (maybe Al missed sending us one box of parts), that is after we installed the harmonic balancer.



So now we need only install the flex plate and it's ready to go back into the Waggy. The fuel injection will go on while it's in the Jeep. Craig wanted to put in the distributor, just to get a better feel for what it will look like.



While we were finishing this up, we need to fulfill our stringent child labour requirements so we gave the boy a mission to remove the old radiator. I'll take this into a rad shop and get them to build me a 4 core high efficiency rad to keep the heat down.



While I'm at it, I'll go for new hoses, belts and heater core. I have to get the tranny back from Brad again as we are now going with the unimog diffs. That means that we'll go from the NP208 transfer case to a driver's side drop ford divorced NP205. This will allow us to place the t-case wherever we want as well as mount a hydraulic motor to the PTO for the Milemarker hydraulic winch.

Here's a video from the garage...

Greg

[Mack_T]

Awesome pics, sounds like a cool project Building engines is always fun!

Can't wait to build my own AMC motor. Sadly, here in CA with strict smog laws, I must wait a while before I can mod my engine, like at all.

[Murphy]

Blinkinlights, I just replaced a timing chain exactly like yours. That snorkle tube looks familiar, what did you make it from? I'm thinking of putting something like that on mine at some point. It seems like your fenders would rub the top of those wide tires, is there anything special about the 6" lift you're running? Good luck on the build up.

[Blinkinlights]

Most of the snorkel tube was made from mandrel bent 3" pipe, some welded together and some rubber 90's, etc .

The 6" list is a stock BJ's lift, althought it sits a little low in the back due to the 1" shackles we had to use to get it to stop diving in certain instances, due to the springs being a little long...but thanks to the guys at BJ's because they recognized the problem and solved it for me. I have some 2" blocks for the rear, but I might not install them if I go right to the unimog diffs and one-link suspension.

The top of these tires will rub terribly and I'll need to install some serious bump stops if I want to go wheeling a bit when the motor is installed. I just don't know if i want to take the chance on wrecking anything with the larger tires, the 450hp and the dana 44's. We'll see...

Greg

[Murphy]

Most of the snorkel tube was made from mandrel bent 3" pipe, some welded together and some rubber 90's, etc .

Oh, it looked plastic to me. Good job. I was thinking of doing a git-r-done snorkle out of plastic house rain gutter down spout (pause for laughter) and sealing the joints with silicone or something and paint it black. It would just be square instead of round.

The 6" list is a stock BJ's lift, althought it sits a little low in the back due to the 1" shackles we had to use to get it to stop diving in certain instances, due to the springs being a little long...but thanks to the guys at BJ's because they recognized the problem and solved it for me. I have some 2" blocks for the rear, but I might not install them if I go right to the unimog diffs and one-link suspension.

The top of these tires will rub terribly and I'll need to install some serious bump stops if I want to go wheeling a bit when the motor is installed. I just don't know if i want to take the chance on wrecking anything with the larger tires, the 450hp and the dana 44's. We'll see...

Maybe a 3" body lift from BJ's would help instead of bumper stops killing your wheel travel. If you have the bucks maybe a SOA front and shackle flip on the rear plus your 6" springs would be the ticket. 12"-13" would be quite a bit, but ... .