On the way home stopped to chack out a '66 Rambler American more-door, started just giving it the once over and started to walk away then noticed a V'd emblem on the rear quarter that got me curious. popped the hood and sure as hell there resides a V8. looks like a small block and if it helps IDing front distributor. So what is it and how strong were they?
I know some of them came with AMC's 290 v-8, parts can be scarce, not as scarce as their 327. 390's and 401's are the AMC engines of choice and will wake up a Rambler in a hurry...
If it's the stock motor, I think they only put 290s in the American........most Americans had six cylinders.
A sleeper wagon would be Kick Ass. I have 2 A.M.X. customers and both started with warmed up 401's and ran mid 10's in 1/4 mile. I don't know much about innerchange but it can't be any differant than a Chevy motor in a Shoe Box Ford. I'd go for it. The Wizzard
I used to have a 68 AMC Ambassador with the 343. Weak wasn't the word for it. I found out why when the oil pump went south and it spun a rod bearing. During the rebuild, I found that the exhaust ports were smaller than a quarter. Opening them up with a little homestyle porting made a world of difference. I scribed the port outlines from a Mr. Gasket exhaust gasket on them and matched the bottom of the ports to it. The top half I gave a "D" shape to, watching out not to break into the rocker area. After adding a stock 69 Rebel intake and a holley #3310, I had a hard time keeping motor mounts in it. Finally had to chain the exhaust manifolds down to the crossmember. Made a pretty good little screamer, then.
The V8 in "66 was a 327. The 290 didn't come out until '68 IIRC. I'm not aware of an American having a factory V8 until the Hurst SC/Rambler had a 390 stuffed in it in '69. You might want to look at the nameplate again - it may have been an Ambassador or Classic. Mutt
in 66 the only motors available were the 199 and the232 inlines...but in mid 66 the rogue cameout with the new290 v8 and t10 4 speed..the 2 barrel was rated @200, while the 4 was rated @ 225.... but if you do some research, you will find that approx.632 rogues got the 290 and around 500 more cars like the american and ambassador and classic... but by mid to late summer all americans were available with the 290....1967 was the first of the 343's..then 68...you then had the 290,343,and the 390...sounds to me like yours might be kinda rare.. still aint worth alot but to the right person it might be.. amcs have always been my favorite,, till i go to work on my 70..OUCH no more wallet.......so to answer your question...hell no they didnt have v8's in 66. and why sure they did you fool. i need to stop RAMBLIN on like this....im an idiot!!!! breeder
If it's a front distributor, it's a 290, 304, 343, 360, 390, or 401. They all look the same. The displacement is cast into the side of the bolck near the motor mount. The 327 had a rear mount distributor.
290,304,343,360,390,401 are all the same family and were used till the late 70's in jeep's (cherokee),also in some International travelalls. Sure their getting a little harder to come by but still a good motor. But I'm a little biased, I have a 66 American sitting in the shop,and a couple of 401's. Edelbrock and Indy both offer aluminum heads now and parts availability isn't bad at all.
my brother had a 64 "classic" with a 287 v-8, and a closed driveshaft, like the buicks and old fords. I've never seen a motor idle as slow as that one, we'd turn the carb down, and it would idle at about 300-400 rpm or less (guessing). It came from the factory without mufflers, as open pipes. The PO went to court to prove it, and had an exemption for when the cops pulled him over for being too loud. Funny enough, that guy later put glasspacks on it. The auto trans was a bitch, some parts from the ford FMX would fit, but not much. His had problems with the valve body, it was warped or something, you had to manually shift gears. Cute little car, not too bad.
The Jalopy Journal
