3rd generation AMC V8 Engine family 304, 360, 390, 401 

Helmet unsung,maybe if not a similar riff ,I realize that Chrysler was selling 2 different 360s from 87 to 91 dodge truck and grand wagoner

AMC is in my opinion vastly underrated. They were the last of the "Independents," the car manufacturers other than the big 3. Studebaker went out in the mid-60s. Glad AMC lasted as long as they did and that they were bought out by Chrysler, and didn't just shut down like Stude.

The 390/340hp was found only in the 1970 Rebal Machine. It was a one year only build for both engine and car.

High school days,360 ambassador 4 door sweet ride

I bought a new 1975 Jeep CJ5 Renegade White with blue Levi seats and top with alloy wheels and a 304 v8. loved it .

3rd gen AMC v8s were very competitive in Pro Stock Wally Booth driving...imo

304, my old 70 Ambassador DPL hardtop, in good condition. 401, absolutely that 72 Ambassador Brougham wagon!

Bobby Allison also had some success racing AMCs in NASCAR. His team could make a 360 run with just about anything out there. I imagine that they were using the same four bolt main blocks. I have seen and driven quite a few different AMC products in my time. Jeeps, Hornets Gremlins, etc. Knew a guy when I was just a teen in the 80s that had an AMX 390 four speed. After he wrecked it he ended up putting the engine and transmission in a Gremlin. Think he might have also installed the rear differential from the AMX as well but I don't recall. What I do remember is that with 60s on the back you couldn't hardly hold it straight under acceleration. What a ride, lol. For number 1 I would choose the CJ5, and for number 2 I would say the Javelin but I had a 72 Javelin SST which I always thought was cooler, lol. So I would take the Travelall.

WYR: 1975 CJ5 and 1971 AMX, which are frankly two of my favorite vehicles. Great coverage as always. Thank you so much for all of your hard work ~ Chuck

Interesting! I had assumed that after Chrysler took over Jeep that the 360 ci engine was Chrysler's 360. Learn something new every day.

The Tubes- "Talk to ya' later" These cars and engines along with music from the eighties takes me back to a time in my life from 1980 to 88 when it seemed like I ruled the world. Life was a party, cars were fast, every junk yard had parts for your Javelin, Gremlin, Charger, Camaro, Mustang, Nova or Chevelle and VW Beetles were parked in almost every field with weeds around them. Fridays were payday, Saturday and Sundays were total magic with good friends, great cars and no worries until the Monday morning start of work, and even that wasn't bad. I lived in a small town in PA that Hot Rod magazine called "The best cruising spot East of the Mississippi" or something like that? It was a two mile two lane loop that easily took 40 minutes to complete on a busy weekend night. Classic cars were a dime a dozen with everything from 2 four barrels,to 3 deuces or blowers stuck through the hoods. Wheel tubs were fairly common. There was even a guy with a Gremlin that pulled wheelies once and awhile. But, times change, people change and do things like get married, have babies and families. I met my wife, three kids came along and it was downhill from there (just kidding, honest! Lol).

I had a CJ-5 with the 304 back in the early 2000s. The only mods I made to the engine was a DUI GM-style HEI distributor and a junkyard GM TBI system that I hand-wired to be a stand-alone system. It ended up being one of the most reliable classic vehicles I have ever owned.

The 360 was an excellent engine.

Gremlin X Javelin I had a '79 CJ 7 with a 304, with a Edelbrock Performer cam and intake and a 750 Holley 4 bbl, it made 298 at the rear wheels. Very tough engines.

Never owned any AMC products, & that's with some regrets. I'd take the 70 Hornet SST 1st, & of course the 73 AMX Javelin in the 2nd group. Thanks for the video on America's last great independent automobile manufacture.

My daily driver is '77 CJ5 with the 304. It's a great engine with plenty of power as long as you let it breathe. It's pretty suffocated in stock trim. Some minor "bolt-ons" like carb/intake/headers really liven this engine up more than you would expect.

AMC has been underrated for as long as I've been a car enthusiast. Their successes in TransAm and Pro Stock racing in the 70's is hardly remembered. It blew my mind that Maskin-Kanners and Wally Booth won in Pro Stock in their Hornets. They were doing ultra-trick stuff with the AMC heads, but it was working and they were competitive.

For WYR, I'd take the Jeep, and the AMX. The story of AMC in its last decade is indeed a sad one. I was watching a video on that topic the other night 😢

My best friend wrecked his dad's 1971 Ambassador 360 one night when he was drunk. He set it on fire and reported it stolen. Of course he got caught so he didn't go home that night. The next night he showed up at my house with a black eye his dad gave him when he kicked him out of the house. Good times. I'd choose the 1970 Hornet SST and the 1971 Javelin AMX.

Ambassador wagon !

First choice, the 70 Hornet SST, second International Travelall. great follow up to the first AMC engine video. Watching again the 56 Hudson Rambler, and 59 Rambler wagon videos, look forward to the coming up 59 Rambler video. Wish you can run across one with the factory AC and heat.

Mate the engine colors are sooooo awesome my ford 302 in my town car sand blasted valve coveres put ford blue on it looks absolutely amazing then redid the upper intake in dark metallic gray and the cover that says 5.0 on it black but left the 5.0 metallic gray too.

Good content. The 390 was also available in the Ambassador, Rebel and Matador. You did correctly suggest the 401 was available in these models. Keep it up.

Love all the cars ,

1) Give the Bore dize in actual rather than approximation 2) The 290 and 304 had an extremely generous over bore allowance. Safe overbore allowance is .125". Likely a hold over from the Gen 1 design. Maximum overbore of a 304 to 3.875 opens it up to 325 cid. 3) If opened up to 3.875 this allows the use of the pistons for 4.0s. And possibly Chevy 283 pistons 4) All 304s were choked down smog motors. There was a lot of potential left on the table. That potential lay in different cam grinds.

The 390 was available 69 and 70.. it was introduced in 69 in the amx and hurst sc/rambler

The 70 340hp was only available in the Machine. AMX and Javelin had 315hp

great video, i am glad to see this come out. it came out sooner than I thought, and i am very glad about that. on question #1 I would take any of the three, all three are great cars i had a 1971 hornet station wagon it was a very good car.

I'm not feeling the Travelall, but any of others will do. I had a 76 Renegade with the 304 and a 77 J10 with the 360. No complaints with AMC V8. Thanks 👍

WYR: All of them, but the CJ5 would see the most use because of its off-road capabilities.

I would rather the cj-5 and for the second one, I want my old pickup back. 1980 j-10 with a 401 interceptor from an embbassidor

Alot of people don't know it but the Reason Donahue won 1971 was the AMC team Was the only Team that had corporate backing! If Ford Bud Moore team had full Ford backing, like 1970, the 1971 season would have been a different story.. The Penski team used AMC cash. Bud Moore used his own pocket money. But a title is a title.

AMC supplied 360 engines to Bricklin Motor Co. in 74, but couldn't manufacture enough for 75 forcing Bricklin to change to Ford 351.

Replaced my 304 3 speed with a 390 4 speed from a 68 Javelin into my 72 Grem X , it was a short nice ride till a friend totaled it

Gremlin X (Though I'd love the 401 version boutique-built by a dealership out west), Javelin AMX

You mentioned Penske! George Costanza was assigned the Penske file. You might say he did a transfer of it. 😊

Corrections: The 343 was available BEFORE 1968, up into 1969 with the 4-barrel Typhoon having 10.2:1 compression. The 390 was available from 68 1/2 into 1970 and had a compression ratio of 10.2:1. It became available when the AMX was introduced halfway in 1968. I've owned my pre-AMX, top-optioned 343 Javelin since 1979 and have turned EVERY last nut and bolt on it at least once. It's beautiful, and others agree. I KNOW MY AMC's!!!!

I'd take the CJ-5 and the AMX javelin great vids man TOODALOO!!!😂

I first used the terms "Gen-1, Gen-2, and Gen-3" to describe AMC V-8s in a little "fanzine" I published for AMC back in 1998. It was in two articles I edited (authored by others) in "American Independent Magazine", Volume 1 Number 3. I defined them in three generations due to differences in the block and head castings. Of course the differences between Gen1 and Gen2 are obvious, but minor between 2 and 3 -- the port change in the head and the slight deck height increase to allow a slightly longer stroke. I received a lot of flack at the time for using these designations. Most referred to the Gen1 AMC V-8 as the "Rambler V-8" or (more accurately) the "Nash V-8" and the Gen2 and 3 as the "AMC V-8", dismissing the differences between them as minor -- which I suppose they are. But it caught on, eventually! There are still a few who insist on calling the Gen1 the "Rambler V-8" though (while it was mostly used in Ramblers, it was first used in a Nash... Nash was just discontinued a couple years later). The main reason I received a good bit of flack was that GM identified their small blocks as "Gen I, Gen II, etc.". I was told I was using GM designations for AMC engines, and that wasn't good! Apparently there was some fear they would be confused, but only a small one. Most just didn't like it because GM used the same words. I simply pointed out that: 1) I always designated them AMC Gen1, etc., and 2) "Gen" (or "GEN", as GM most often uses) is just short for "generation", and it made perfectly good sense to use the word. As you can see, it has eventually caught on with just a few hold-outs. As I said, it just makes perfectly logical sense. I wrote an extensive article tracing the AMC I-6 back to the very first Nash I-6 (AIM Vol. 7 No. 1 -- issue 27). Now that wasn't such a straight forward path! 85 years (at the time - 2003) of Nash-AMC sixes, with two distinct designs being manufactured simultaneously in several instances made "generations" difficult to use, so I used a "Series" designation starting with "Series 1A" for the first Nash designed six (1918-25 248.9 cid) and changed series number for each subsequent design. I used a letter to designate the initial design then any relatively minor changes (i.e. Series 2A and 2B). Five of the Eight total Series of Nash/AMC sixes have more than one version. A letter version had a casting change, but not a major one -- major parts will still interchange between versions. If applied to the V-8s there would be Series 1 (Gen1) and Series 2A (Gen2) and Series 2B (Gen3). It was harder to trace the six back! When I thought I was done I had another amateur AMC historian go over my work to make sure I was on track! If you'd like a copy of the two mentioned magazines drop me a DM. Some more info (including an index of all 60 issues of AIM/AMC) can be found at www.amc-mag.com or www.ramblerguy.com.

Thank you. It was the smog that ruined them, in the mid70s when floored, they would kick down to 2nd, and not much happened. Cali cars were worse. 77 360AMC and 74 Chevy 350, both 4V, GUTLESS. On the up side, with no power, and therefore less force on the wear areas, they last a really long time.

General Motors Holden Australia had a 304 ci V8 as well from 1988 to 1998 sequential injection EFI.

on question #2 I would take the first one and the third one, but, i would prefer the 1974 model of number 3, it is one it is the best looking compared to the 1973 model is the second best looking of that model. still a great video.

I'll take the Hornet SST and the Javelin AMX!

I had several Gremlins 😂 👍 great little car ran good 👍 Bad Transmissions 😲. Gremlin Xs were pretty decent and Zippy 😊. I had a 1977 Hornet AMX white and black 😝 pure 70s styling 😂🤦 Give it a look .... VW Bugs could beat it !!!!😱🤦 Love to have a good 1973 Gremlin X again 👍 Great Episode 👏👏👏 Happy Motoring ✌️🤠

The jeep and the travel all

Great vid!! 🤜🤛

HOWdy W-I-L, ... Thank YOU for the AMC V-8 Content COOP the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA ...

Helmet unsung one my favorite bands

The song was Elton John Saturday nights

The Hornets, most American, unless you were to find a military surplus jeep. Hornet 304.

That’s Helmet Betty

Ya like that?!

Gremlin and javelin

Kenosha WI made 🇺🇸

............for any one out there , look for Pete's Patriot .........SS / C ......car always wheels up !!!!!!!

Can you stroke/destroke a 304 cause my dads scout has one and I wanna give it a beefy powerplant?

Helmut, Unsung

Gremlin, Javelin... I have no clue... Did I win?

Pantera-5 minutes alone

SC360 Hornet..

Gremlin X Javelin AMX

Gremlin X! AMX (Please)

What about the 343

I have a1976 Jeep Cherokee cheif s model 304 with 401 heads i would like the specs for Penske 304 please reply

Unsung by helmet

1971 hornet the river 1971 hornet

I don’t think the Cj came factory with a 360, I know they came with a 304 but a factory Cj Jeep with a 360 I never heard of that I know the the j10 and the Cherokee had the 360 and some 401 but a Cj Jeep with a 360 idk about that ?

American motors ok not metric motors and CJ5 , Matador wagon mate oh and gotta be Ode to Joy

You said 373 grew to 360... should 343

Cut the metric jaber, let them read it.

Pantera Walk

The bore on the 390 and 401 was 4.165 not 4.20. get your facts straight

You had 360 likes, but I just ruined it LOL

Marilyn Manson --Beautiful People ?

Helmet

Not rounded FUBARed

......don't want to hear about fig newton meters, so I guess I don't need to hear about you.....unsubscribed and gone.....RU-vid is rapidly becoming NotMe Tube anyway.....

Ya like that?!

Unsung by helmet