mild 360 build

Patf10

Well i acquired a 360 out of a 85 waggy. Its goin in my cj5. I run 33in tires with 373 gears with my 258 and 3spd trans. I plan on running and edbrock performer intake and appropriate carb. Also plan on getting the engine balanced. And im doing the valley line mod. Id like to put in a new cam. Id like a cam with good low end the jeep is only DD and offroad so i need the low end grunt. I have searched around here and i originally liked the price of the summit cams but i have heard to many problems with them to feel safe. I looked at comp and they have the 252 and 260 i believe. Would those suffice? I noticed comp sells them in a complete timing kit that im considering being that im doing a rebuild. Any other companies with good kits in the low rpm ranges. Im new to the AMC V8 scene and want to do it right now so i have a reliable engine. I appreciate any and all suggestions.. Thanks Pat

AMX69PHATTY

Lunati makes good products also, and offers valve train kits. They are now owned by Holley. They can also grind a cam to specs that you specify if one in there listing doesnt fit your needs. They grind the cam after you order it, rather than keeping them in stock, I believe. They are located in Memphis Tennesse, (901) 635-0950. You can call'em, give all your specs, rpm, compression, wieght, etc, and they will recommend a cam.

Maddog Racing in Florida has some pretty good engine part pricing also.
Think they currently have a special on H-Beam Rods for AMC's.
If your looking for cast pistons, dont know if they still got'em now,
but I got a set of .030 over and a set of .040 Dished Top casts Zoellner 360 Pistons for $88 a set + shipping last year. They usally have items listed on eBay and have a lot of AMC stuff and some guys that run jeeps. O|||O

Somewhere in these forums is a thread that talks about QUENCH, it's a good read. Seems to suggest it's good to have minimal Piston to deck clearance and use dished top pistons to create "shock waves" at TDC which help eleviate detonation, rather than flat top pistons with a deck clearance, that is the piston down in the hole some when at TDC.

Also recommend that you buy a copy of "Performance American Style".
It is available from Kennedy American in Ohio at (614) 879-7283 and other places.

And of course there are many good products available from BullTear.
Nickel Plated Timing Cover, Lapped Oil Pump Gears, Oil Pump Mid-Plate,
Engine Priming Tool, just to mention a few.

I need to order a couple things from BullTear myself.

Be sure not to forget the little plastic button that goes in the bottom
of the Oil Pick-Up Tube before installing the oil pan.

There was a complete rebuilt 360 motor on eBay for $1600 with Free Shipping and a core last week.

Link is http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Remanufactured-71-91-AMC-360-Jeep-5-9-Long-Block-Engine_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33615QQihZ019QQitemZ290013007497QQrdZ1

Nothing like immediate gratification :mrgreen:

J4GRAND

I have a Summit K8600 in my built 360- bored .040 over, Edelbrock Peformer intake/1407 carb- that has almost 10K since rebuild and it hasn't skipped a beat. I installed this cam 2 years ago and was shocked when I started to hear of the bad luck some people had with them- I must have gotten lucky. I believe that there was a bad run of cams but that problem has been taken care of.

Patf10

yea im just looking for a basic build intake cam nothing radical. So would the summit cam need new valve springs or no. What are some good specs i can look for in a good low RPM cam. and any suggestions for good complete kits or am i better off getting all the parts seperate. I am trying to keep this on a minimum budget. not meaning cutting corners but a good engine if you know what i mean. Thanks again Pat

Patf10

no little tips guys. id be so greatful if i could get some more pointers. thanks Pat

AMX69PHATTY

I would get new valve springs, they have a tough life in a motor, many many compression cycles and heat cycles. Besides the old ones have lived a life at whatever existing lift distance, and wouldn't now expect'em to perform well at some new lift distance. Everytime valves get floated the valve springs looses tension. Not sure what max lift before coil bind is for stock springs. I'd get new valve springs.

BullTear sells Comp Cams, maybe email'em and see if they have kits ?

Heres a Comp Cams 256 Kit on eBay, Maddog Racing, they have others:
says it's good for Strong torque thru low end and mid-range. good idle.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Comp-K-cam-kit-AMC-Jeep-Xtreme-360-390-401-XE256H-d2l_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33614QQihZ019QQitemZ8022929939

This is thier eBay AMC Store:

http://stores.ebay.com/Maddog-Racing-and-Fastengineparts_AMC-JEEP-Hudson-Studebaker_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ12QQftidZ2QQpZ2QQtZkm

what other kinda of pointers ya lookin' for ?

Make sure you get the oiling system right, especially the Timing Chain and Distributor Gear Area. See other thread on BullTear page

Patf10

yea my biggest concers are with the oiling system. i really dont want to go through gears like i have read some people have. so i am thinking get a quality timing gear set( suggestion there), matched dizzy gears. and make sure my timing cover specs out for the oil pump. Also i have read and i have the oil bypass. is that something i want to plug or what is the deal with that. thanks Pat

AMX69PHATTY

I've used Cloyes True Roller Timing chain and gears with no problems, but it's been quite a while. In the thread about Distibutor Gears they talk about and seem to like Edelbrock's Timing Chain and Gear sets. The point is like they talk about is to make sure all those little passages line up properly. I think the Lifter Valley Oil line is a good idea myself, but if I understand correctly it's mainly needed for high RPM operation since the crazy AMC oiling systems is kinda backwards. Oil Pump is in front cover, goes up front of block to feed lifters first which bleed oil off up the pushrods to the rockers and heads, then oil comes down off the passenger side lifter feed hole and is diverted off sideways over the cam bearings, and then whats left is fed down to the crank mains, and from the crank mains to the rod bearings. If there is any shortage in oil delivery the first thing to run out of oil is the back end of the crank because it is the last thing at the end of this long journey the oil must take. The lifter valley oil line attempts to remedy this by bypassing many of the lifters along the way that are consuming oil, mostly at higher rpms. Other motors, like Chevy and Ford have the oil pump on the bottom of the block inside the pan, and the first thing that gets oil output from the pump is the crank mains and rods. Makes good sense. You may consider the custom Push Rods that BullTear offers for sale that have slightly smaller oil holes in them to limit the amount of oil sent up to the heads. As RPM's go up, one ends up with too much oil up on top of the head which has trouble running back down to the pan fast enough and motor ends up starving for oil. But ya'know, there are stock AMC motors out there that have ran for over 100,000 miles with stock parts, no modifications, and have survived. It's kinda like analysis to paralysis. Just don't spin the snot out of it and they hold together, which is true for any motor. Said thing is there are no guarentees, but if you buy a motor done by a company and pay the company price, the usally at least have some kind of warrenty, like the long block on eBay for $1600 with free shipping from a Shop in New Jersey. It's like insurance, money one must spend / pay and get nothing in return for it, if your lucky........

AMX69PHATTY

Have you ever heard of or looked at PAW for cam kits ?
PAW is Performance Automotive Warehouse.
They always had a catalog that looked like a big phone book.
They have a web page also.
http://www.pawinc.com/
They used to have stuff for AMC's / Jeeps, and offered complete cam kits
with Cam, Lifters, Valve Springs, Rockers, etc
They have a good selection and some pretty reasonable prices,
especially on non-big-brand-name items, but also brand names.
Like a non-discript Chrome 14" drop base open element Air Cleaner for under $20.
They used to have Chrome AMC Valve covers for like $20 also.