1966 rambler pro street build

Hey there car friends. Not really sure how to start this, as this is my first project and first time documenting a build from start to "finish". Been wanting to build a pro street car for years and life has finally settled enough for me to start. However, it took me forever to find a car I wanted to do this with. I currently drive a 2014 Camaro ZL1 and I knew with the plethora of Camaros, Corvettes, Mustangs, etc out there, I wanted to do something completely different. So I hit up the ole CL for months and finally found the car - this 1966 Rambler American someone was about to scrap. I immediately fell in love with it. Managed to get a hold of the guy and a few emails, $600 in cash and a uhaul rental later I picked it up this weird car I'm oddly obsessed with. However I have to warn all the AMC purists out there, you may not want to follow this build! ;)

About the build and what I've already done -

Powertrain is and will be a built LM7 with a single Garret GT4294, upgraded Gen 4 rods, mild cam, ls7 lifters, ls6 heads, etc. I'd like to make around 400ish NA before throwing some boost at it.

Transmission will be a built 4l80e.

Read end is a Ford 8.8 which I have installed but will be coming out again to be shortened and a fabricated 4 link setup.

It will be sort of a mid range budget build. I can't leave anything alone, so everything will be built or rebuilt as I go along.

Anyways that's a long enough introduction. Glad to be here sharing this build with you all, and I'll be sure to update as regularly as I can.

This is relevant to my interests. Pictures? We need pictures.

In reply to mazdeuce:

I'm on my phone and trying to figure out the picture thing while a few beers in lol. Bare with me one moment.

Drinking and posting! Perfect! You're going to fit in great.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Haha, I feel right at home now! I updated with some pictures! Adding a few more.

By the way, I have to admit you gave me inspiration to post my build here!

First thing I did was strip out the old interior and wash out 300lbs worth of rat crap.

To my surprise, this car has survived well in the Northeast. These floors are completely solid. The only rust I've seen so far is on the driver back panel. We'll see how bad she is once she's sanded down though..

Rodent poop, the bane of my existence. Looks like a solid car.

After I got the body cleaned out, I jacked the car up and removed the engine cross member (by the way, I love that AMC did this, dropping the motor out of the car will be so nice).

I had some left over steel around and some LS engine blocks already made up, so I tacked together some solid mounts to get some dimensions. This week I'll build a completely new cross member for the car.

Forgive my mess! I actually spent the day organizing everything today.

Speaking of the engine. Here's what I've done so far with the LS 5.3 iron block...

I picked up a complete engine with ECU out of a truck with 109k for $325. At first, my thought process was to just throw in it in the car and run it. I was like eh, $325 LS motor, if it goes no big deal. So I started tearing the engine down until I saw this... it was clear this engine needed a little TLC to even begin thinking about running it.

So I got the block cleaned and painted up, which was a huge pain in the ass. I spent hours with some red scrotchbrite and WD40 trying to get this thing spotless (just to decide to have it hot tanked and honed anyways...) However, somehow, during all of this I managed to convince myself again (probably because the block was looking good at this point), that the bottom end is probably in good shape to run, so I was going to start rebuilding from this point.

Then I figured, since I have it apart this far, I might as well swap the cam right? Well after hours of research and assessing my power wants and street ability, I went with a 219/228 525 lift 112 LSA camshaft and new springs. I also went ahead and bought a pair of LS6 heads which received a new valve job, pressure checked and cleaned.

LS6 heads before.. After...

I pulled the timing cover off to swap out the camshaft, and discovered this.. I don't know if this guy ever changed his oil.. but this thing was a disaster. So much for leaving the bottom end alone now!

Bottom of oil pan... so much sludge

Most of it apart. The oil pump and pickup tube were so clogged.

Crank and bearings were dirty but in good shape. I decided to replace the bearings anyways though.

Starting to clean things up... I let a lot of these parts sit in engine degreaser for a few days just to break this stuff up

The engine is a Gen 3 with the smaller rods. So I picked up a set of the bigger Gen 4 since I'm rebuilding it. These should hold a little more boost.

Good friend of mine had this GT4294 laying around off a firetruck, which I picked up for a hell of a deal. It may not be the ideal turbo for this build, but it should spool well and get me near the 700-800hp mark. It has an internal wastegate, so I'll remove it, weld up the port and run an external one. Need to be able to control boost.

Yikes. Love where this is heading. Interested to hear what the head work cost. I need to go thru the heads in my V as I've got a bit more valvetrain noise than I'm comfortable with.

In reply to 84FSP:

The NAPA near me has a machine shop. They do a lot work for the guys at track. Hot tank, valve job and pressure check cost me $350. I got the heads for $300. The LS6 heads are a good upgrade for these engines.

Foe what its worth, a fast ratio jeep grand Cherokee steering box bolts in.

Nice to see another AMC here.

Painted Blue toe nails for the win !

There are several AMC builds around here and the majority of them are, or are being swapped.

My 68 wagon is getting a 2JZ.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Foe what its worth, a fast ratio jeep grand Cherokee steering box bolts in. Nice to see another AMC here.

That reminds me. If you need budget relief bad enough, I still have that manual box. IIRC, you have a decent chunk in the power steering.

Wver got about 60 in the power steering. Ill keep it in mind, but going manual would be a big job due to serpentine belt.

Crackers wrote: There are several AMC builds around here and the majority of them are, or are being swapped. My 68 wagon is getting a 2JZ.

I dont think we are swapped. Amc used plenty of ford parts.....

Just never an entire ford drivetrain.

Looks like you saved that engine from a certain death! It'll be much happier now.

ruhltodd, in your first ever post you mentioned the purposed bullet as a LM7...I liked to fell outa my chair!!!!....The hive is gonna have a bonafied diesel,rambler,prostreet MASHUP!!!! hell yeah!!! but alas me thinks a beer might have made a miscue with the keyboard. Welcome aboard, maybe this will be incentive for Crackers to jump back on his '68 wagon.

Didn't get much time to work on the car as I'm moving back to my other house. I did however mock up my big tires... Lots of work ahead of me! Plan on getting some 2x3 after work tomorrow to start fabricating a cross member for the subframe which my 4 link (and unibody) will connect to. This should allow me to narrow the rear enough to fit these massive round slabs of rubber.

Turbo ls amc with 15 inch wide mickeys. Im in lust.

We have huge meat too. Just outside the body.

Im seeing rebuilt turrets, poly bushings, smoothed firewall, etc in the pics. Somebody dumped a ton of money and time into this before you got it.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

They certainly did and to think the guy I bought it off of was about to scrap it. Working with a solid car will definitely save me a lot of time. Money well spent!

In reply to Indy-Guy:

Haha thanks. Provides an extra layer of protection for when I drop heavy objects on my toes :P