77 Gremlin X

I have a 77 gremlin X ( 258 2bbl, 4 spd) and I'm planning on doing the following to it and just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions or comments. First off I know I could just throw a v8 in it and be done with it but thats not my style, I want to keep the i6. I'm going to add an offenhouser duel plane 4bbl intake with holley 390cfm. Comp cam/lifters, and a clifford duel outlet header. I'm also completely rebuilding the motor with forged pistons, porting/polishing the head along with a 3 angle valve job, 180 or 160 degree thermastat, flex fan and maby a better radiator but I havnt really researched much yet on that. Any suggestions or tips would be great. I'm also redoing the interior. All plastic pannels and door pannels have been redied black and the metal along the top of the doors and in the back have been painted gunmetal silver. I am in the process of building a fiberglass dash/console (converted it to lever type e-brake insted of pedal type). I took out the backseat and everything in the back end and sprayed the floor with spray in bed liner. I have also intalled a lexan back glass, removed the bumpers, and made a mesh grill for the front. I plan on shaving the door handles, rain gutters, and antana soon when I do the rest of the body work before paint. It is Big Bad Orange and I am going to repaint it the same color. Thanks for any suggestions and comments, I hope to become an active member of this forum.

WOW This sounds like it will be a great car once it is done.

The offenhouser intake matched with a 390cfm carb is a good match.
I would go with at least a 2 row radiator, the car itself may already have a 2 row. The nice thing about these cars is that you can interchange parts from other AMCs fairly easy. Check out spirits, concords and hornets from around the same year if you stumble across that hard to find part.

If you are doing a gigantic power upgrade on this engine, it would probably be a good idea to go over your motor mounts, rear suspension and drivetrain. Replace things as needed. Its a lot easier to blow stuff up with a more powerful engine than the car is designed for.

I have the 160 degree thermostat on my 360 and have no problems with it. But if you wanna get creative and use the 180, switch to the next hotter spark plug for performance. This does make a difference when running a hotter engine.

My only concern would be making the headers with the intake fit into the small engine compartment.

JC Whitney has seatcovers and even replacement seats for these cars too. Check it out.

Well i finally got it on the road today after scrambling to get title/registartion stuff finished then the only inspection place still open said they would not inspect it because it needed "exhaust work" I'll try some more places tomorow. The radiator in it now is a two row that was recored about a year before it was stored for 10 years, but its in pretty good shape. I dont expect to have any probablems with the intake/header fitment other than routing the exhaust around the tranny linkage. I allready plan on doing work to the suspension/rearend/transmission. Trying to find some stouter motor mounts and all i come up with is ones made for offroading on jeeps, but I guess that will do. As for the seats, it has a custom dyed set of seats from a 3rd gen Trans Am.

That sounds like a good project, but reconsider the v8. The 6 is like boxing with one hand tied behind your back. Its heavy, and the undersquare bore (3.75x3.9") means it will not rev well and has relatively small valves and ports. No matter how much $$$ you throw at it, it will always be weak on performance.
Its designed for Jeeps and industrial applications (they used lots of them in farm equipment) where low end torque is important. Spring for the AMC v8. It'll bolt right in and the AMC engines are an excellent design for performance.

You have to think outside the box, a v8 has just as many disadvantages as an inline 6.

You have to think outside the box, a v8 has just as many disadvantages as an inline 6.

Well, the only disadvantages I can see is fuel economy and cost.
Sure its cheaper to build what you have, (rather than buying and swapping in an engine) and the 6 is quite fuel efficient.....but seriously, I have an AMC inline 6 in a Jeep and lots of v8s in other vehicles. Believe me, the only thing an AMC 6 is good for is to producing lots of low end torque. Its great.....for Jeeps where low end torque is useful for creeping over rocks and turning big tires.
Its a fine engine, but realistically, it is not a performance engine
A light car like your Gremlin just begs for a v8. It is a much better match than the 6 for producing satisfying performance.
If you want a challange or you really like the way the 6 runs, then your propsed modifications sound great. I am just saying, from my experience, it will not result in much performance.

heh as for cost being a disadvantage for a v8 I dont see how. Everything for i6's are three times as much as they are for v8's. I'v got half a mind to sell it right now anyway. I'm about tired of fixing stuff on it, and making my own parts to fix stuff. I'm looking for another 77 gremlin to build up with a 360 or 401 amc v8. Why not have the best of both worlds. My eventual plans are to supercharge the 258, but thats in the long and distant future.

Hey man (remember me?). Good to see you again.
Sorry to hear the Gremlin is causing so much trouble. It's always a pain in the a$@ when there are so many little probs to deal with.
I have a BMW V-12 that I converted to dual Chevy HEI. I fabbed up my own tunnel ram-styled intake to accept a 6 pack of Weber down drafts and made 12 exhaust plates to connect the headers to. It now runs (on a pallet), I need to figure out what trasnaxle to go with so I can put it in the back of my Fiero. I have thoughts of a Daytona Prototype-styled car, but I'm afraid it will be one of those really long projects.
A friend of mine just forwarded this clip to me, this is exactly what I had in mind.
http://www.ultimav12.ca/videos/mvi_0165.avi
I have crappy dial up, so I loaded it and saved it to my desktop.

My blown Biscayne is almost finished, it's been on the streets for a few years now. I just need to address some cosmetic issues. I have 2 spare blower cores (a 4-71 and another 6-71) for my future projects. I thought the 4-71 would be cool for the Hemi/Javeline project.
My prob is that I have too many ideas (and parts) and not enough time.
Hope you get the gremlins out of the Gremlin.

Later,
---TEX---

Yeah its the small things that are annoying. Anyway here are some pictures of my gremlin if anyone wants to take a look : http://www.geocities.com/tsc_kustomz/index.htm