Project CJ-7  
AMC 360 Engine Install

Back to Project Index

One of the lucky finds that I came across though a friend from my home town was an AMC 360 that started life as a crate engine installed in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.  The 360 was in the Grand Cherokee only long enough to rack up about 14k miles before the Cherokee itself expired around the engine.  The 360 was yanked out and I ended up buying it for a fraction of what a new crate engine 360 would have cost.  Along with the engine itself I also acquired all of the accessories including the alternator, power steering pump, the air conditioning compressor that will be converted to an air compressor and the carburetor (will be replaced by a Holley fuel injection system now living up on my shelf).  Other items I acquired for the engine were the flywheel that was machined prior to installation, a stock AMC 258/304 bell housing, a new CenterForce II clutch, pressure plate and pilot bearing, a V8 clutch type fan scored at a swap meet, a started (also @ a swap meet) and some other stuff.

If you have an AMC 258 much of the parts are interchangeable from the 304 and in this case the 360 with the exception of a motor mount frame horn.  For that I had purchased a set of 304 V8 frame horns from Northfield 4x4.  The bell housing was a 258 bell housing.  From what I learned, some of the 258 bell  housings had multiple bolt patterns on the transmission side. The engine side had the correct bolt pattern for my 360.  I found one that had multiple bolt patterns that worked with my T-18A.  Adapting the 360 to the T-18A required more work to the T-18A than the engine or the bell housing.  For more on that go here.  

One modification that I learned from Mike at JeepFan.com was to notch the the clutch fork to prevent binding on a stud installed on the bell housing.  This is more specific to the T-18A than the engine but regardless it's an important tip.  For info on modifying the clutch fork read this.

Also for my purposes I needed to get a replacement for my driver side exhaust manifold.  The 360's manifold dropped down right on top of my clutch linkage and a 304's manifold exits more forward as to clear the linkage.  A thanks goes out to Mike again for graciously giving me the much needed 304 manifold.  Thanks Mike.   I suspect that if you have an automatic, you may not need a 304 and the stock 360 manifold will work but that I don't know for sure.

Prior to installing the 360, I cleaned and painted the engine.  I had removed the accessories and took pictures of how everything bolted up including the brackets and belts.  Having a digital camera made this easier.  I later printed out the images for reference since I knew I'll probably forget something.  For cleaning the engine I used a process of spraying Simple Green and water followed by suction with the shop vac where the water pooled in the engine.  I then let it dry.  I had no rust on the block itself so I painted it with an engine enamel.

All of the accessories were also painted, one by one using a aluminum casting color and re-installed onto the engine after it was mounted on the frame.