Building an AMC Brute

The main oil-galley boss needs to be tapped at the front of the liftervalley using an AN-6 and a 1/4-inch NPT or AN-8 with a 3/8-inch NTP andrun to the rear of the valley.

The main oil-galley boss needs to be tapped at the front of the liftervalley using an AN-6

"I bought the car from JT (Payton) when I was 17 and drove it dailythrough five years of college. Then I joined Holley in 1994 and drove itfor a year until I was able to afford a more dependable car (with A/C,fuel injection, and better gas mileage). I have been driving the caras-is as a toy since marriage, a home, and kids took all my income. Nowafter 10 years at Holley I am able to really start working on it. Thebodywork has just been finished and the engine compartment is painted.It is going to be Pepper Grey Metallic with black Go Pack stripes. OnceI put everything back in the engine compartment, it's going back forpaint. I have a TorqueFlite 727 that I got with the 401 out of the donor'73 International Travel-all, but I am not sure if I will build it orsomething else at this point. I still need to build the rearend tohandle the power as well. I know I want 3:55 gears and probably a 2,500stall since the torque comes on immediately from this motor. The car wasoriginally a 390-cid car. I bought it with a 290 and then put ahigh-compression 360 in it during college. Now it has the 401. I amgoing with the multipoint EFI so the factory hood will be able to close.You can't get this kind of power out of an AMC and keep it under thestock hood with a carb."

Tips and Tricks

It's no secret that the AMC V-8 has a failing in its lubrication system.Oil from the pickup travels through a passage on the oil-pan rail into apump with an aluminum housing that tends to wear, then to the filter,and finally to the main oil galley. It's nowhere near good enough foreven a stocker, in our opinion. The solution is the Milodon single ordual pickup that bolts directly (and conveniently) to a Milodondeep-sump oil pan. It bypasses the stock restriction and nearly doublesoil flow to the filter and mains. Payton's adds a filter before the oilreaches the pump gear in conjunction with a direct-oil feed from themain galley in the lifter valley to the rear main bearings, because on astock AMC, they're the last in line and tend to fail during high-rpmuse.

Stock AMC oil-filter adapters are made of aluminum, and the pump-gearface rides directly on the housing and wears it down. Fortunately SpeedPro sells a replacement kit for the oil-pump gear assembly and pressurespring, and we've seen the 340/360 Mopar service replacement housingbeing used for 390/401 performance applications, so look to Jeeps forthis part.

By Bill Tichner

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