I have been to the Mopar nats back in the early 90's a couple of times and many times - including this summer to MoparFest up here and never came upon that attitude towards AMC products - we welcome the Kelvinators with open arms in the Mopar community. Now, show up with a small block chevy in a mopar and things are a bit different . . .
Awesome! The combo you've got there should be good, with the right parts you can get close to the 300 hp mark with that 318. I would suggest making sure you check the install height on the pistons to make sure you get the compression ratio you want, a lot of 318's ended up with the pistons further down in the bores than claimed and lower compression on account of it. If you get the compression ratio up to 9 or 9.5:1 you'll make much better power and still run pump gas with no issues. Not sure if you're sold on a cam, but Lunati makes great cams for mopars. The Voodoo series is excellent for street engines, a 60403 (Duration 268/276, Lift .494/.513) is very streetable and makes great power. Even the next step down (60402) would be a great choice if you're concerned with streetability. Lunati's take advantage of the wider lifter profile the mopes use (not all the other choices do) and so you can have a faster ramp up, gives a shorter duration for the lift so you make power and still idle. They sound pretty mean too. Also, if you don't have the heads already you can look for a set of "302" (casting #) heads. These came on 318's from I believe '88-91, give or take a year or so. They're closed chamber heads that use 318 sized ports, they flow as well as J heads on the intake side and better on the exhaust (W2 port design). Will keep you from shaving the heads too. They make great power for a 318 and maintain better port velocity than 360 heads, which is key with the 318's. As later smog heads they do have more of a tendency to crack between the valves, but this is usually a fairly easy fix on rebuild if your donor set is cracked. But they come with hardened seats already, which eliminates needing to have them installed on earlier heads. I would agree with the others on the carb, 750 will be far to big for even a well built 318. A 600 would be fine, I run a 625 cfm Carter on my mostly stock 318 and had to jet it down a couple steps, probably still on the rich side. Good luck with the build!
Well... if you're going to put anything in apart from AMC, then MoPar is the least offensive. Should be a screamer, that's for sure. My American has a mild AMC 290 in it and it has run a 14.4. A warmed over 318 should really make it haul.
360 trucks (and maybe some 318hd package) in the 70's and 340powered musclecars had Smallblock mopar boltpatterned 727's. I had a 904 with a low gearset planetary Just go to any real transmission shop and ask for the planetary from a 70's truck 904 and new frictions and seals. And a transgo kit. Mine held up under a high torque 415" (360based) mill pushing 4200 pounds to the edge of 12seconds, until extreme chassis flex took off the belhousing. smallblock Truck 727 will be a "set it and forget it" item.
The thing I was commenting on was the use of 904/727s by AMC. Those 904/727s have the AMC bell pattern instead of the Mopar bell pattern. And , yeah, I know there are big & small block Mopar 727s.
Well that's good to hear, maybe they've softened with time. This was back quite a few years ago. BTW I didn't mean to single out the "mopar" guys. I've seen it just as bad from the "AMC" guys as well. I'm glad to see the origional poster go HIS own way. It takes some thinking to make a nice swap - it's not for everyone.
make sure either it has shorter pushrods or shims installed under the rocker shaft mounts. when you mill chrysler heads you have to do that to keep geometry right. the easiest way to do that is get some shim stock from a metal supply shop. clamp a bunch of it together and drill a hole through it. it will proboally destroy the first few layers of shim stock but the rest will be A-okay. A hotroder i once knew used a Budweiser can for shim stock.
Hello all, Its been awhile since I have been able to get much work on the Rambler done but I took some time off work and was able get my Mopar 318 and 727 sitting in the car and started to fab motor mounts up to get it all sitting in place. Couple pics of the engine bay, motor in the car, and the pass side mount. Hope to have it all in the car and secured down by end of weekend.
Looking good, i put a sbc and powerglide in the wifes 64 rambler, you can see more pics of it in my profile
An AMC is as well a Mopar that it s been a Renault ..... We could consider it as a Nash or Hudson , but Mopar ..... Chrysler bought AMC , but no part from a Mopar fits a AMC . Nope from Ford also At least you don t plan to use a SBC There are maybe more Cadillac than Rambler . Who would use another engine in a Caddy instead of a Caddy ? A Jeep is the same engine as a 232 /258 , you can have power with it, supercharged , quite new and documented forums . I d keep an AMC engine . Anyway , with a 318 Mopar or a 390 you will have to deal the same pb about the torque tube, or are American open ? I have an Ambassador 1966 .... One of the most reliable car I ever had ... But it s your car , and at least this will be one more American saved , they are sweet . If you don t want the stock radio anymore , I ll looking for one
davelamboriginal, The pic is not showing up. As for Why I did a 318 was because it was cheap, available, and plain and simple it is what I wanted to put in the car. The Americans did not have a torque tube. They had a typical trans, driveshaft, and rear end. Granted the rear end was far too weak for the 318, which is why I went witha 8" ford that was given to me. Everything for this car has been acquired for free, or too good of a deal to pass up and the car itself was bought right. I thought about doing a small block chevy, but no offense to anyone running one but I want to use a different drivetrain than what is common.
Hi, Finally someone who is swapping a mopar sb in to a AMC car. I'm am just gathering info to start my project of putting a Dodge 360 magnum and a 727 into a 64 Rambler 220 wagon. Can you tell me what needs to be changed, and what you used to get the job done. not easy finding help on this topic. Thank you, Pete
SO What did you use for a front suspension in the Rambler with the 318, also what did you us ti mount the engine? Im starting a 64 Rambler 220 American wagon project soon, and was just wondering the questions I asked tks.
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