As If I Needed Another Project.... 68 Amx Pro Touring/track Car

We finally have seats!
The seats are Procar Rally XL in leather. The leather quality seems to be pretty darn good too. I'll have to disassemble them to install seat heaters.
I am already thinking of having the headliner recovered in imitation leather and stitched in the same pattern as the seats!

 

Those look comfy! Just curious, what did that cost you?

 

Roughly $900 each. The leather is about 2x the cost of vinyl upholstery in the same seat.
The seats are really comfy, sporty and supporting enough for track day use, but comfy enough for a weekend road trip.
I think they will look great in the car too!

 

Man that's a lot of cheese, but worth it I'd say..

 

Nice seats. Very popular with the vintage Mustang crowd too.

 

They were expensive, everything on this car is more expensive than anticipated
All said and done I will have a car that could win Optima Ultimate Street Car Challenge with the right driver behind the wheel......
I am hoping to race the Silver State Challenge once the car is completely sorted out....... I just have to find a passenger with no children or family to leave behind in the event of a catastrophe.
Definitely worth it!

 

Let us know if you find someone foolish...uh I mean adventuresome enough to ride with you. Maybe Vegas will offer attractive odds.

 

Just about the time this project stalls out...... More parts finally show up!
Edelbrock aluminum cylinder heads. These won't be sitting around here for long, they are heading to Knowltons Thunder heads in Minnesota for a CNC port job and larger intake valves!
The intake manifold is along for the ride as well to get flow/port matched to the cylinder heads!

 

They're beautiful!

 

Edelbrock does not make RPM heads?

 

They only have the performer offering for AMC heads.
No biggie tho.... these heads will flow 300 cfm at 0.50 lift when Knowltons gets done with em.

 

Cylinder heads finally came back from CNC porting and valve enlargement.
2.100 intake valves and 1.7 exhaust valves.
The intake manifold got a healthy dose of port/flow matching as well.
The intake runner porting actually interferes with the push rod bores. The push rod bores have been sleeved.
443" of AMC power is going to breathe easy now!

 

beautiful!!

 

What, no flow numbers?

 

308 intake
236 exhaust

 

Nice! Plenty good for 500+ naturally aspirated horsepower.

 

Yup.
The build we are somewhat copying dyno'd 517 hp and 589 tq @5400 RPM. That build is 440" getting choked unported heads and 1-5/8" headers....... way too small for engine size.....
With ported intake, ported heads, port matching and high quality scavenging 1-7/8" headers..... I expect to be a bit closer to 550 HP based off of other builds on the AMC forum.

 

I put a very similar seat in my 65 Corsa, you will like them.

 

Somewhat of a project update.
RIP the factory 390 engine......
A while back there was a car show in town that hosts a fairly rowdy burnout competition in the middle of Main St.
The street is lined with spectators and vendors, easily a couple thousand people crammed in there.
Highway Patrol gave up trying to police the crowd.... they instead just set up a DUI check point about 2 miles down the road.
Anyhow I did a burnout that started from a standstill and went into a sideways tire smoker for a set of black streaks that extended for a full town block.
It was a real crowd pleaser to say the least!
Well on the way home I noticed we were down on power a bit and it sounded like the left engine bank had an exhaust leak. Upon pulling the spark plugs I found the electrode bent over on cylinder #3. I knew the engine in the car wasn't real healthy...... AMC engines suffer from poor oil drain back issues, the sustained 5500 RPM likley starved that rod bearing.

We are still waiting on some components before the 440" stroker can be assembled, and that engine install will be part of a much bigger project that I do not have time for right now.
My engine builder has a warmed up 368" AMC engine that he built for a previous project of mine, but never completed. It is 10.5:1 compression, bored to fit chevy 400 pistons, .500"ish lift cam, dogleg heads..... That's really all I remember about it.
At some point over this winter that engine will get installed in the car for the time being. It will probably make more HP than the 390 did when it was new.

 

I’m curious what “priority oiling” you end up fabbing. I drill into the oil passage in the front valley, then run a solid or flex line to the right rear main galley. This (or similar), plus opening up the drainback passeges around the lifter bores is necessary on AMC V8s.
-Donny