Junk yard 360 what do I do to it

Counting and breathing. Almost every manufacturer had oiling issues with wet sumps and it was not the engine or the engineers - it was the driver. The extra quart of oil is just cheap insurance for someone who may be having "fun"!

amcenthusiast wrote: Oh what a tangled web is weaved when at first people are deceived by what they are misled to believe... OK... so the entire world can hear us, everybody shout together on the count of three: ...one, two, three... THE '66-'91 AM V8 DOES NOT HAVE 'OILING ISSUES' ! The oil system issue myth is related to a very real phenomena I have identified and named 'AMC Underdog Complex'. -in short, this is where a certain portion of people become obsessed with discussing real or unreal perceived negative features about the cars (many many examples of these myths in AMC folklore) Even more basic than that there is the German proverb which states: 'Fear makes the wolf seem bigger than he really is.' (people tend to exaggerate things they don't truly understand: eg: 'sea monsters' will kill you if you try to sail across the ocean) Be sensible about it. Just properly rebuild* the engine and add a few well proven bolt on parts. It'll look great, run great and you'll have a blast with the vehicle. *Get a Chilton's Repair Manual and an AMC Technical Service Manual for your vehicle; these are the basic essential books needed by every AMCer to better enjoy their car. ---------------------------------------------------------- IF you intend to build a 'real' race engine... good advice gets a lot more complicated, and is beyond the scope of this original question. The first place to start if you are interested in making any modifications to your AM V8 is buy and read your own copy of AM's book named "Performance American Style". For the money, the excellent advice as expressed by the AM engineers who wrote it is a treasure-trove of top shelf high performance know-how and information. Reading 'The Book' is prerequisite to asking any more intelligent questions on the matter of hopping up the engine. (by doing so, you will prevent your own embarrassment for not asking 'stupid' questions in ignorance ...I know you are not stupid, but perhaps new to AMC methodology)

AMEN - and ten years of posts about oiling mods supports Ross's and others' positions. Ain't necessary at all. And no high-vol pump will increase "PRESSURE" if the rest of the engine is built to SPECS.
You build pressure when a fluid is pumped against a resistance. If a stock pump tops out at 70 psi due to the relieve spring, and a high-vol pump uses the same spring - it's going to stop at 70
I built more engines than I care to count - likely I'm behind Ross on AMC's specifically, but well over that if you include other makes. I started out working in a shop that had been part of an AMC dealership. We had the proper tools (and I now have many of them thanks to my former boss) and most of our customers were still AMC/Rambler people while I worked there as they had bought their cars from Dana Charter and Andy, Dana's shop guy, worked on them. Andy hired me - so I started my auto experience with AMCs of all types, from the late 50's Ramblers to AMX, which my boss, Andy, still referred to as RAMBLERS ("Bill, go get that green Rambler our front and check the valve seals"- that green Rambler was a 4 speed Forest Green AMX with a 390 HAHAHA)
As long as you build them to specs and IMO, keep to the lower side of clearances, etc. - no troubles. 
The ONLY time I've seen them starving for oil is when they are low (A quart low, a long highway drive then a sudden stop or turn). In my experience, even bearing issues were rare.
My 70 390 I rebuilt ten years ago and it still pulls 70 psi on the Interstate and is sitting pretty nice at hot idle too.
Ross really nailed it-  CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Scrub the cylinders and finish up with a white cloth. Leave no lint. Don't trust that anyone else cleaned things "good enough". I use white pipe cleaners on all oil passages and I scrub cylinders with hot soapy water, rinse well and oil 'em up and then bag 'em. I have my wife save all her quilt batting bags because those are heavy plastic and the perfect size for a V8 engine short block. 
Once I get caught back up on the starters, alternators and wiper motors on the shelves - I have several AMC engines sitting to build and I'll do them like I have always done and oil pressure will be great. 
My 73 has a built 360 and it runs scary fast, NO oil mods, dyno roughly 400 hp and I beat on it a bit. 

304-dude - exactly why AMC'ers got the bad rap, way too much fun dude. You would have blown up any make with that much lead in your foot. Just too many of us having "fun" with our cars because we can. Did they ever find a way to take a little bit of lead out of that foot???

Don't plan to have this any where near wide open much. Like I said my days of going 100 miles an hour down the highway are pretty much over. Flipping and rolling a car will take that right out of you. Lol. But I would still like a V-8 that can Handel taking off fast from a red light. Or lay some rubber if I feel the need to. So no reason to argue guys.

So no oil pressure problem to worry about. Good thing to know. So basically port and polish things. Replace all the wear parts. Clean the heck out of it. That parts easy. My uncle has a hot bath to put every thing in and soak. So no major upgrades needed unless I want to drag race it.

I tend to run electric fuel pumps. The AMX probably will have one as well. So no arm to worry about breaking off. I'm also going to add electric Taurus fans to it and a four core radiator for a full sized jeep so cooling shouldn't be a problem.

As for finding a tranny for it. That isn't a huge problem. Yes an AMC T-5 us a rare beast. Ford ones are not. So unfortunately ish This will be the trans I will be using In the car. This is going to be my only concession on putting another makes part in the car. I already have everything I need for the conversion to put it in. So is all I need to do is get one and rebuild it to go in. Ford used them in almost everything from the mid 70's to the early 2000's. The car Was originally 360 3 speed car. So I'm at least getting closer to being right equipment. But I really want the extra gears for highway driving. Which I do a lot of. I'm sure I'll get a three speed for it some day and squirel it away for the day I go all restoration on it.

Edited by raser13 - Nov/06/2017 at 5:34pm