Complete Rebuild Of An AMC 304 Including Adding Port Fuel Injection - Engine Power S8, E5

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with in the parking lot and on the chassis dyno where it made a staggering 130 horsepower as with any project plans sometimes change so instead of making a big horsepower combination they have decided to retain the stock engine which is a 304 cubic inch v8 that we will give a little bit of love and make them a nice street driver we have some parts here and some are on the way but we're not even sure if this engine has been cracked open yet so it's time for us to find out let's get started all right when i said let's get started that means you get started and i'll go find a box for the old parts all right sounds good even though this engine did not make a lot of power on the chassis dyno and we are getting a lot of new parts for it we're gonna be super careful taking apart because when you take an engine apart you can actually see what the life the engine was and if it had any failures and that's really important so that we can avoid that when we put it back together [Music] look at this nasty thing oh what even is that you really start learning about an engine once you crack open the top end although we knew this engine would show its age we were still surprised by what we found i got the hard part done yep almost ready for this thing to come off all right oh that was it's easy look at that holy moly we've been getting some doozies lately here the funny thing was i mean it'll clean up it'll clean up yeah but it ran yeah decent yep just get right into there oh oh yeah this uh this wins the award for the nastiest one we've done on yeah look at that look at all this this stuff is balled up there yeah build up i don't know if it's the quality oil but what makes it do something like that it's got to be the old oil in it but it's all it's all it's balled up or something yeah there wasn't a lot of oil left in the pan and what was there was cooked you see somebody tried to scrape the inside of this one look it was an attempt to do much health as an attempt at cleaning way back when all right [Music] the funny thing is even ones that look this nasty on the outside if there's no oil in the combustion chamber it means they were relatively sealed up well didn't smoke when it was on the dyno the cylinders looked decent with some cross hatch pattern remaining we noticed a ridge had developed near the top of each cylinder this block definitely needs honing the lifters came out pretty easy and other than some expected wear they looked okay [Music] the main bearings were shot say i've seen where it's got a little bit of copper what worries me is that transfer on the backside that's never good to see if you can see copper get a new set a little skirt yeah that's way better than i thought it was going to look like that is way better than i thought it would be considering the condition of the rest of everything yeah the pistons are in decent shape if we were just rebuilding the engine we could reuse them a little ridge on the top there yeah whoever owned this engine certainly got their money's worth from these bearings they've lived a long hard life yeah here you go it's just been overheated nasty the main housing has been a line honed instead of just cut with tooling we don't know if this was done at the factory but if so that's impressive the surface looks nice i mean look at that it's quite possible since we found amc stamping on the bearings up next after a complete rebuild and a couple of serious upgrades the 304 will be roadworthy again i'm here with team summit nhra funny car driver tim wilkerson now tim as well as a driver you're also an accomplished engine builder both for street and strip engines yeah frankie i think you're giving me a little bit of benefit of the doubt there i got a lot of folks that work for me that are really good at doing this but i put a lot of them together over the last 30 years yeah so would you say that when you're building an engine no matter whether it's for the street or the strip a low end to a high-end race build are the process is pretty much the same oh sure everything's based on measurements right we're we live and die on thousandths of an inch building engines from your old conventional torque wrench of just a click style now we have really sophisticated ones that have digital gauges in them because some things we have to do they'll they'll give you a torque spec and you have to go 90 degrees past that it's hard to do that with an old style torque wrench yeah so like a dial board gauge here we're going to use this to measure cylinders and this is like a very precise tool that's something we you know i'm kind of catching a theme here that precision is a very big part about this yeah there's no doubt about it i mean you know as well as i do this micrometer here you get this within a couple of tenths so we're measuring crankshafts we're measuring you know anything that's that you can get into a round area that's going to be a very crucial tool to use right we use these in our machine shop every day like these ring compressors you have two different styles here this is kind of an economy style this one here is made for just exactly this exact bore this 4155 bore so all these tools there's a lot of parameters in them for people that are building their own engines at home or the professionals so tim the guys at home can take cues from the pros in order to assemble their engine with the same attention to detail you sure can it really doesn't matter what you're working on with the amc 304 completely apart the rebuild begins first we'll get the stock crankshaft polished up even though the bearings were in a bad condition the journals were round and in decent shape we'll check the journals with the micrometer to make sure the crank is still within spec and then we'll use a 600 grit belt first we're only removing a couple ten thousands worth of material here so it doesn't affect the sizing much at all next we'll apply some polishing compound to a cork belt and finish off the journals to a better than oem finish after setting up the block and the sun and sv15 cylinder hone we rough out the cylinders within one thousandth of their final bore size this takes care of the ridges we found on the cylinder walls and gets the bores sized correctly for the new pistons for the most part the technology of this machine is so advanced you could almost hone their cylinders to the exact size unattended but of course it's always a good idea to stay close to the machine and check its progress periodically for final sizing we switch to an 800 grit diamond abrasive the cylinders are finished right to size with ease while also giving them the appropriate cross hatch angle and surface finish after thoroughly cleaning the block we'll install new cam bearings that are gently tapped into place if you don't have a cam bearing installation tool your local machine shop can do this for a reasonable price [Music] next up the new main bearings are laid into the saddle so we can check bearing clearance after torquing down the main caps vertical oil clearance is checked they come out between 27 and 31 10 000 across the board rod bearing clearance checks at 24 to 27 ten thousands the main bearings are lewd with permatex ultra slick assembly lube and the crankshaft goes gently into place the arp main bolts are torqued to 90 pound feet and crankshaft end play is checked with a dial indicator it's in spec at 4 000 valve train motion is provided by a billet hydraulic roller from comp cams duration at 50 000 lift is 224 degrees on the intake and 230 degrees on the exhaust lobe separation angle is 110 degrees and lift at both valves is 513 thousands a new double row timing chain from comp finishes it out the rings for the amc 304 are from total seal both the top and second rings are 1 16 thick and the oil ring pack is 3 16 top range gap is 20 thousandths and the second ring gap is 22 000 all right when filing rings why is it a good idea when you set up to initially do all of your second ring groove rings first i have a guess but monsters tell me we'll see if i'm right well well the reason is when you get your machine set up if you mess up one of these it's not as important as messing up a top one the top gap is way more important than the second gap the second basically compression ring is an oil scraper as well so if you missed it a little bit big on the gap no big deal but it gets you familiar with the use of the machine if you're grinding rings eight hours a day for five days a week you're probably going to be a little bit more savvy at it but when you do it each individual engine is different different bore size different ring packs so it's always a good idea to get your uh get your groove on first with the second ring and then do the top ring so your gaps right yes basically get your setup done on the second ring so that when you get to the top ring which is the important one it's all good to go right and make sure they are deep bird the biggest thing when it when it messes up the cylinder is the edge of the ring you just gotta basically break it i use an india stone for that and if you just break that edge it won't nash up the uh the cylinder yep it will not scrape the cylinder the oem replacement pistons are 37 thousandths in the hole static compression is a meager 8.3 to 1. we degree the cam next the intake center line comes in at 106 degrees which is four degrees advanced up next if the cylinder heads you want to run will not fit make them fit the amc 304 is almost ready for the dyno cell we've just got a few more things to take care of starting with the oil pump one of the unique features of the amc that we are working on is that the oil pump is contained in the timing cover a few other engines have the same design but what makes it unique is you don't have a complete oil pump to replace if one is bad you have to replace the cover if this thing is junk fortunately ours was in good shape so we chose to rebuild it we picked up a rebuild kit from summit racing and it contains a few parts like a new set of gears a new relief valve a new pressure spring and a new gasket it is as simple as taking the old parts out and putting the new parts in to get it back together we'll use high viscosity assembly grease during the rebuild it's important that the relief valve slides freely in the filter housing make sure the housing is clean and free of burrs after installing the gasket the housing is torqued to 18 pound feet our pistons receive a coating of total seal assembly lube and then are gently tapped into the block using a tapered ring compressor [Music] how are you clocking the rings on that um top one on the pin second compression on the other side of the pin and then the oil rings next to it very nice do you know what causes the rings all the line up because like if you pull one apart and the rings are all lined up uh yeah that should be the boards out around because they all want to center in the spot where it's open correct bore geometry is what the problem is if you pull out rings and they're all lined up someone didn't install them that way yeah they stopped at that place [Music] after torquing down the rod caps rod bolt stretch is checked it's all good at 57 10 000 the old steel core plugs had rotted out so we're replacing them with brass ones from summit racing you've got the oil i knew i was forgetting something i'm like what am i forgetting after giving the timing cover a fresh paint job and making sure the oil slinger is put back in it's bolted into place [Music] the oil pickup assembly is unusual because it threads into the block instead of the oil pump itself oil pickup to oil pan clearance is checked to make sure it is between one quarter and three-eighths of an inch the myelodun stock replacement pan is secured by stainless arp fasteners we are to the point where we are installing the induction site on our 304 project we wanted to run a set of big valve aluminum heads so we picked up a set of edelbrock performer rpm 401 cylinder heads they feature a 2020 intake valve one 600 exhaust and a 54 cc combustion chamber they also have a 185 cc intake runner the problem with them are they only are supposed to fit on something that is 4080 bore or larger obviously our bore size is three eight ten sixty thousands over stock they will physically bolt on the engine so with some careful measurement and clearancing for the intake valve side they will work if this is something you are not comfortable doing yourself this is something you should take to a machine shop to have done edelbrock's instructions call for sealant around the oil drain backs to prevent an external leak [Music] with new fel pro gaskets in place the heads get cinched down no sealant is required on the bolts because they do not go into the water jacket [Music] we torque our arp fasteners in three steps to a final torque value of a hundred pound feet even for an engine as unique as this we easily found everything we needed at summit racing equipment after taping off the engine it receives a coat of primer followed by gloss red engine enamel [Music] the comp hydraulic roller lifters drop into place followed by their new push rods harlan sharp 1.6 ratio rocker arms round out the valve train they are adjusted to one half turn past zero lash [Music] the intake is an edelbrock pro flow 4 port fuel injection system this adds modern drivability and tunability to this classic engine [Music] finally it's topped off with our sandblasted and painted valve covers [Music] the proflow 4 system comes with a touch screen tablet it connects the ecu via bluetooth and has an intuitive setup wizard so our initial startup is very easy up next we promised the detroit muscle crew big power gains on their 304. today we deliver if it sounds that killer there oh it's gonna be a mate with the efi system taken care of we'll break in the engine and make some dyno runs oh my goodness this is fine i can't get over how like how easy it was i mean we will just that was super easy went through the setup real quick it fired right up set the timing and then said iac and that's a lot of nice engineering perhaps something like that yeah that easy to set up and true port fuel injection right yeah throttle bodies are nice you know throttle body injections they program nice but uh this is a different animal you know this is this is this is true you know multi-port fuel injection on a 70s engine yeah oh it's still cold in here the engine is checked for any leaks or loose connections everything looks good we'll top it off on oil here we go oh that's clean right there well me good oil pressure [Music] oh oh all right look at that first out of the box 328 horsepower at 5400 and 329 pound-feet of torque at 47.48 surprise i honestly thought it was gonna be a little bit lower like somewhere around 300. this thing only has eight point three four to one compression yeah that's what was that was what was worrying me but apparently those heads are well those heads are working what did it have for timing that whole thing 34 total so we can stick some in it do you want to what's the fuel fuel is 12.8 the entire time okay here's what we're going to do we're going to do fuel first i know that's counter-intuitive but let's lean the fuel out to 13 3 13 4 at wide open throughout our timing is nice i think we're going to leave it there we'll keep this thing safe but i think we can maybe fetch her with the fuel a little bit and see if we can do something a little bit more with it so all right yeah i'll try that first okay so we're 329 at 5500 um so it made a little bit more power higher let's not make any change to any of that and let's just turn it six thousand we'll turn higher yeah [Music] oh that was clean nice that was super clean wow 334 horse at 5500 dang that is sweet and 331 pound-feet of torque at 4 800. the power is not cratering off no it had the oil pressure goes up the whole time the manifold vacuum is almost none yeah i don't know if there's much more we can do with it tommy's playing it cool but we know that he's excited to hear this engine run well what do you think man that thing sounds healthy for a 304 i know i know it's a little baby cubic inch but it doesn't sound baby it's uh it's got as much chop as a 304 can have [Music] oh look at that stuff right there 337 horrors at 5500 it actually uh made nice torque as well made made 333 at 4 700. man that's that's really good for that little bitty cubic inch that it is well uh now in 74 i think these were rated at 210 horsepower and we know exactly what it made on the chassis i think we could uh safely say we probably doubled it at the tire so uh this thing's a runner now that's a runner now so i can't wait to get it in the car you know we're gonna probably do some pretty cool exhaust stuff under it so if it sounds that killer there oh it's going to be amazing this is a hell of a nice running engine i know last time you done like a one-wheel peel but now maybe with this bigger motor we can get both of them i think so i'm going to let you do the torture testing on it so all right buddy all right man see y'all to find out more about anything you've seen today check out powernationtv.com

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 309,719

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, powerblock, engine power, engine build, amc javelin, amc, fuel injection, port fuel injection

Id: O-xeB-m9wB8

Length: 21min 48sec (1308 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2021