Rant session..

[racerkilla]

So I have a 79 amx which had a 304 that ran great but started to use oil, smoke, leak etc so I decided to yank it and put in a 360 amc engine in its place.

Did a rebuild on it, new crank, rings, bearings, cam, intake, timing chain yada yada. Didn't have it balanced figuring only going to be a stock driver with pretty much small cam and intake

First thing with in 20 mins of the cam break in it stripped off my dist gear, Come to find out my new timing chain set had the oil hole machined wrong. Something I had no idea with amc engines. Had to take motor all back apart and pull it all apart to clean the metal out. GREAT

Now the motor is broke in and it does nothing but vibrate between 1500-2500. I have tried like 3 different flywheels, 2 balancers, 3 pressure plates, run the motor with no clutch and pressure plate, Different carbs and ignition set ups. I find out every amc engine was balanced individual. Every engine had its own balancer, crank, pressure plate/flexplate

Just so fed up with it, Been nothing but a headache when trying to do good. I rather cut my loses with it and tried to blow the thing up tonight. Didn't see nothing but wide open in gear and neutral.


Any of you guy ever just get this fed up with a car?

 

[Revhendo]

So I have a 79 amx which had a 304 that ran great but started to use oil, smoke, leak etc so I decided to yank it and put in a 360 amc engine in its place.

Did a rebuild on it, new crank, rings, bearings, cam, intake, timing chain yada yada. Didn't have it balanced figuring only going to be a stock driver with pretty much small cam and intake

First thing with in 20 mins of the cam break in it stripped off my dist gear, Come to find out my new timing chain set had the oil hole machined wrong. Something I had no idea with amc engines. Had to take motor all back apart and pull it all apart to clean the metal out. GREAT

Now the motor is broke in and it does nothing but vibrate between 1500-2500. I have tried like 3 different flywheels, 2 balancers, 3 pressure plates, run the motor with no clutch and pressure plate, Different carbs and ignition set ups. I find out every amc engine was balanced individual. Every engine had its own balancer, crank, pressure plate/flexplate

Just so fed up with it, Been nothing but a headache when trying to do good. I rather cut my loses with it and tried to blow the thing up tonight. Didn't see nothing but wide open in gear and neutral.


Any of you guy ever just get this fed up with a car?

I own a Wagoneer, could've warned you about the cam gear and that whole timing gear thing. Wanna guess how I learned?

I'm pretty sure whoever told you about the individual balance thing may have been slightly mistaken. After my adventures in cam and distributor gearland, I had to replace my balancer with a aftermarket piece. It suffered no ills because of it. Have you checked out an online place called Bulltear?
http://www.bulltear.com/

 

[racerkilla]

Yea the cam timing gear was a good lesson.. I had another motor here to get a matched set out of that were clean.

AMC was the only manufacturer to balance and blueprint every engine it build. The full engine was balance by a machine from flex plate to vibration damper on the factory assembly line. AMC called all there engine high performance engines, because they were only engine manufacturer to go this high level of balance and blueprint. Chevy and Ford to my knowledge never balanced or blue printed there engine from the factory , that gave shorter engine life , but as they engine were not a finely balance more leeway on replacement parts.

I have read a lot that they say keep the balancer, crank and flywheel together. Some amc guys have a vibration going from flex plate just to a flywheel with out getting the flywheel balanced the same as a flex plate.

Problem was the crank was pretty beat in my 360 so I changed it with a new cut one. All the rods/pistons weighed the same and are original to the motor. Cylinders didn't need a bore. Balancer and flywheel are original to motor. So I am thinking the crank is out balance or 304 crank since 304 crank is same as 360 minus the balance.