CH>Re: AMC Engines...
CH>-> Well, it's a shame the AMC dealership did not know that when I was tr
CH>-> replace a cracked carb base plate.  I don't claim to have the detail
CH>-> you do, but the employees at the parts counter of the AMC dealership
CH>-> (and various mechanics from time to time) said the reason it took
CH>-> forever to get non-stocked engine parts was the dealership had to
CH>-> order the parts from American Motors, which in turn had to order the
CH>-> parts from Chevrolet.
CH>That's truly odd.  AMC did buy a fair amount of things from other
CH>auto manufacturers, but not engines.  There were three types of
CH>V8 AMC engines.  The first was quite rare in the mid-fifties.  A
CH>Packard engine, actually.  The second was the 287/327 type you
CH>mentioned, but made by AMC. The third was the 290-343-360-390-401
CH>used in later cars. Not a bad engine, actually. It looked a lot
CH>like a small-block Chevy, but had a front mounted distributor.
CH>It's *possible* that a certain carb part was the same as a Chevy,
CH>and therefore "back-door" ordered by the parts guy from a Chevy
CH>dealer.  I can't remember that much about the specific carb type.
You mention carbs., I was surprised that on my 1971 AMC Javelin, it
had a 2-BBL Autolite on it. I later replaced it with a Holley 2-BBL.
The Distributor to a certain extent was replaced with a Dual-point
setup from an older Corvette. The connecting rods were the same
length and the journals were the same size so if one wished they
could inprove on that part of the engine. I was using it as a street
car that I used for racing on the weekends so I couldn't get too
carried away with modifications.
Keith Scudder
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 * OLX 2.1 TD * E-mail address:  kas@juno.com
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