I will be building a amc 360 in the near future so learning all I can about the tricks to improve the long term life of a amc motor great video the trick to learning by watching others instead of spending cash is how I afford my own projects please continue with many thanks
we did the same thing to our 401 we've just heard from too many forums that that part of the motor get starved for oil so we did it and after many hard miles of Street Racing this thing has had no issues.
I had a Cloyes roller chain with the oil passage "pocket" in the wrong location compared to stock gear drives. It was the cause of eating a Dist. gear. It was easy to mill the hole in the correct place. However without investigating the entire oil path it could have gone unnoticed. Also, lots of replacement Dist. gear and cam gear replacement parts fro Korea flooded the aftermarket parts chain in the late 1990s and caused lots of problems with supplies. The gears in the cars, as AMC factory built, never had this issue. For a time, a matched cam and dist. gear pair from a used motor in a wrecking yard was more dependable than those Korean junk parts slipped into the supply chain. Racing these cars in the 1970s (even at high rpms) never had these problems with the dist. gears. The biggest issue was sustained high RPMs where the oil couldn't drain back from the heads fast enough and the engine oil pump would suck air. Restricted pushrods and special aftermarket Hyd lifters could help plus "drainback lines on the valve cover to the pan below. if you improved the oil pump like so many of us did, you just made the pan run empty faster!
They used a high nickel cast iron on their Pontiac engines. The first AMC I ever saw get bored was done on a Sunnen CK10, and the Machinest was bitching about how long it took to make a cut because of how hard the block was. I asked about it and Pontiac were almost as hard, and Internationals were just as hard as AMC blocks. For a small company they sure went the extra mile. I just wish they used an oil pump that wasn't part of the timing cover.
It took some time, but I got a hold of my machinest from back in the day. We built a 402 for my boss's truck. He was only getting 8 mpg while towing his fifth wheel. By the time we got done he was getting 16 mpg on level ground, less on the climb up to sunset point, but during the climb he could maintain 65 mph. With the 350 he was lucky to get up to 45 at WOT. Anyway, on that engine we drilled out the same galley plug. But for Bog Block Chevy's it served another purpose. Drilling out that plug allowed the air to bleed out of the galley, providing oil to the top end more quickly. I wonder if it helps AMC's the same way. Ford 351C and M engines along with Olds engines used the same trick. There has to be something to it. Anthony does some great research on the oil bleeds where the cam gear bolts onto the cam and how oils feeds through several spots to keep the chain oiled. Check out his later videos on this. Then check with some of the other AMC builders like Barry Allen before you decide what to do.
Any aftermarket mods are usually to solve a problem as you said about the oil feed line in the valley...We know that friction is an engine's worst enemy so I'm thinking the previous guy had issues with chain ware or dizzy drive gears...If it was used with the pedal down a lot I could see a lack of oil leaching to the front of the engine..I'd like to see how it sprays before I replaced it...I'll bet the oil relief valve never left it's seat...Love the build observations.
AMC started contracting with Holmes foundry in Sarnia, Ontario in 1961and eventually bought took sole ownership of it in 1970. Holmes helped Ford catch up after a labor strike. Holmes blocks should have an H on them somewhere. Blocks marked CFD. (a division of General Motors) All AMC V8's till sometime in the mid 70's were cast by GM (Central Foundry Division).
I have a 88 Wrangler that I pulled the 258 and put in a 360. When closing the timing cover I left out the oil slinger ring that goes on the crank in front of the chain (oops). Within 500 miles both dizzy gears were toast. Opened it back up put in new dizzy gears and timing gears/chain (slop wasn't worst but on the high side) reassembled and forgot to put that damned slinger ring in AGAIN! Luckily, it went in through the seal hole and I didn't have to take the cover off again just wasted a good front seal. Going on 15000 miles now and no problem. The cam to timing gear oiler ports don't get the dizzy gears enough oil, these motors need that slinger ring also, or the timing cover mod that puts a squirter right on the dizzy gears. I was thinking maybe the drilled plug can do the same thing. The dizzy shaft is in that general area, and the punch maybe to fine tune the direction onto the dizzy shaft. Cheers, Toad
My brother's '73 Ambassador with the 360 engine had a problem where the chain and distributor gear did not get any oil. If you look on the front of the cam, there is a hole. This lines up with a slot on the cam gear. The oil hole got plugged, and it chewed up the cam gear, distributor gear, and timing chain. I ran a piece of wire in the oiling hole on the cam, then turned the cam until the wire went through the oiling hole in the cam bearing. I replaced all of the damaged parts, crossed my fingers, and drove it from Chicago to San Diego. I heard that this is a problem with these engines, I would add an oil line from the oil pressure sender and drill a hole in the timing chain cover, tap the hole, then screw in a pipe from the oil line. You will have to put a restrictor in the line, or at the end of the line in the cover so that it just gets a spray of oil. My friend's Rambler 6 had a problem with the oil passage to the rocker arms clogging, and wearing out the rocker arms. There was an oiler made for this problem that ran from the oil pressure sender to a hollow bolt that was installed in the rocker arm shaft. It had an adjustment for the proper amount of oiling. Watch those oil problems!! Find an old fart like me that has worked on them.
There is a vid someone made that showed an assembled TC and then primed the pump with drill to cause oil flow. The cover was half cut away and observation the TC Top gear And cam gear both got plenty of oil. This little oil hole in the plug, is completely unnecessary.
This external oil line in this video solves the problem of lubrication on the timing chain and distributor gear. It takes oil from a Tee-fitting attached to the oil pressure sender. th-cam.com/video/diFiZXV8V08/w-d-xo.html You mentioned this in the video, but didn't show how it was installed. The video I link to shows the process of installation. Since this setup is easily seen from the outside, you can't get a perfect restoration of these cars, but who cares when you just want to have fun with a classic car?
I will be building a amc 360 in the near future so learning all I can about the tricks to improve the long term life of a amc motor great video the trick to learning by watching others instead of spending cash is how I afford my own projects please continue with many thanks
we did the same thing to our 401 we've just heard from too many forums that that part of the motor get starved for oil so we did it and after many hard miles of Street Racing this thing has had no issues.
I had a Cloyes roller chain with the oil passage "pocket" in the wrong location compared to stock gear drives. It was the cause of eating a Dist. gear. It was easy to mill the hole in the correct place. However without investigating the entire oil path it could have gone unnoticed. Also, lots of replacement Dist. gear and cam gear replacement parts fro Korea flooded the aftermarket parts chain in the late 1990s and caused lots of problems with supplies.
The gears in the cars, as AMC factory built, never had this issue. For a time, a matched cam and dist. gear pair from a used motor in a wrecking yard was more dependable than those Korean junk parts slipped into the supply chain.
Racing these cars in the 1970s (even at high rpms) never had these problems with the dist. gears. The biggest issue was sustained high RPMs where the oil couldn't drain back from the heads fast enough and the engine oil pump would suck air. Restricted pushrods and special aftermarket Hyd lifters could help plus "drainback lines on the valve cover to the pan below. if you improved the oil pump like so many of us did, you just made the pan run empty faster!
They used a high nickel cast iron on their Pontiac engines. The first AMC I ever saw get bored was done on a Sunnen CK10, and the Machinest was bitching about how long it took to make a cut because of how hard the block was. I asked about it and Pontiac were almost as hard, and Internationals were just as hard as AMC blocks. For a small company they sure went the extra mile. I just wish they used an oil pump that wasn't part of the timing cover.
It took some time, but I got a hold of my machinest from back in the day. We built a 402 for my boss's truck. He was only getting 8 mpg while towing his fifth wheel. By the time we got done he was getting 16 mpg on level ground, less on the climb up to sunset point, but during the climb he could maintain 65 mph. With the 350 he was lucky to get up to 45 at WOT. Anyway, on that engine we drilled out the same galley plug. But for Bog Block Chevy's it served another purpose. Drilling out that plug allowed the air to bleed out of the galley, providing oil to the top end more quickly. I wonder if it helps AMC's the same way. Ford 351C and M engines along with Olds engines used the same trick. There has to be something to it. Anthony does some great research on the oil bleeds where the cam gear bolts onto the cam and how oils feeds through several spots to keep the chain oiled. Check out his later videos on this. Then check with some of the other AMC builders like Barry Allen before you decide what to do.
Any aftermarket mods are usually to solve a problem as you said about the oil feed line in the valley...We know that friction is an engine's worst enemy so I'm thinking the previous guy had issues with chain ware or dizzy drive gears...If it was used with the pedal down a lot I could see a lack of oil leaching to the front of the engine..I'd like to see how it sprays before I replaced it...I'll bet the oil relief valve never left it's seat...Love the build observations.
AMC started contracting with Holmes foundry in Sarnia, Ontario in 1961and eventually bought took sole ownership of it in 1970.
Holmes helped Ford catch up after a labor strike.
Holmes blocks should have an H on them somewhere.
Blocks marked CFD. (a division of General Motors)
All AMC V8's till sometime in the mid 70's were
cast by GM (Central Foundry Division).
I have a 88 Wrangler that I pulled the 258 and put in a 360. When closing the timing cover I left out the oil slinger ring that goes on the crank in front of the chain (oops). Within 500 miles both dizzy gears were toast. Opened it back up put in new dizzy gears and timing gears/chain (slop wasn't worst but on the high side) reassembled and forgot to put that damned slinger ring in AGAIN! Luckily, it went in through the seal hole and I didn't have to take the cover off again just wasted a good front seal. Going on 15000 miles now and no problem. The cam to timing gear oiler ports don't get the dizzy gears enough oil, these motors need that slinger ring also, or the timing cover mod that puts a squirter right on the dizzy gears. I was thinking maybe the drilled plug can do the same thing. The dizzy shaft is in that general area, and the punch maybe to fine tune the direction onto the dizzy shaft. Cheers, Toad
My brother's '73 Ambassador with the 360 engine had a problem where the chain and distributor gear did not get any oil. If you look on the front of the cam, there is a hole. This lines up with a slot on the cam gear. The oil hole got plugged, and it chewed up the cam gear, distributor gear, and timing chain. I ran a piece of wire in the oiling hole on the cam, then turned the cam until the wire went through the oiling hole in the cam bearing. I replaced all of the damaged parts, crossed my fingers, and drove it from Chicago to San Diego. I heard that this is a problem with these engines, I would add an oil line from the oil pressure sender and drill a hole in the timing chain cover, tap the hole, then screw in a pipe from the oil line. You will have to put a restrictor in the line, or at the end of the line in the cover so that it just gets a spray of oil. My friend's Rambler 6 had a problem with the oil passage to the rocker arms clogging, and wearing out the rocker arms. There was an oiler made for this problem that ran from the oil pressure sender to a hollow bolt that was installed in the rocker arm shaft. It had an adjustment for the proper amount of oiling. Watch those oil problems!! Find an old fart like me that has worked on them.
Working on an AMC 360 right now with a chewed up "steel" cam gear didn't even faze the distributor gear.
That oil plug on the left can block off the oil flow if it’s to long
There is a vid someone made that showed an assembled TC and then primed the pump with drill to cause oil flow. The cover was half cut away and observation the TC Top gear And cam gear both got plenty of oil. This little oil hole in the plug, is completely unnecessary.
Would it be possible to drill extra feed lines to the main bearings from the left side oil galley.
Geeze Anthony, another wierd trick Don to this monster!
Intresting can always learn something new from you
I wonder if anyone has tried to put piston oil squirters on the 401's. It would be nice to known the best way and type to use.
This external oil line in this video solves the problem of lubrication on the timing chain and distributor gear. It takes oil from a Tee-fitting attached to the oil pressure sender.
th-cam.com/video/diFiZXV8V08/w-d-xo.html
You mentioned this in the video, but didn't show how it was installed. The video I link to shows the process of installation.
Since this setup is easily seen from the outside, you can't get a perfect restoration of these cars, but who cares when you just want to have fun with a classic car?
Interesting
well said
Can u do a video we're u add the oil line all the way back of the motor
I`m sorry i don`t have any AMC`s apart at this time to show you
Do you happen to know were I can get a video so my mechanic can watch it so he can do it on mine
Not sure...
Are you a member of the “AMC Forum” if not join someone on the site should be able to direct you
Gm guy's are fools