392 Gladiator V8 Hemi confirmed by Jeep CEO!

[Stan H]

I looked into it and getting it to pass smog is the issue. One shop says they can do it, others say smog it in another County, some say it will never fly. So my assumption is no hemi swap in Cali until the gladiator comes from the factory that way. Someone please prove me wrong I'd love some more HP to play with.

Leave Cali hemi swap available . Problem solved .

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[Stan H]

Damn, my Javelin's 360 has better HP and torque than that! (although the MPG is admittedly worse)
I have more HP and a fraction of the weight at about 3200 pounds.

360 is that an AMC motor or was it a Chrysler motor , I seen a CJ7 with a 360 before I thought it was a transplant.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

360 is that an AMC motor or was it a Chrysler motor , I seen a CJ7 with a 360 before I thought it was a transplant.

AMC

 

[Stan H]

AMC

Well, now that I think back , I remeber my brother had a Jeep Comanche truck and it had a big V8 ..

 

[RudeJeepin]

360 is that an AMC motor or was it a Chrysler motor , I seen a CJ7 with a 360 before I thought it was a transplant.

The CJs never came with the 360. The AMC 304 was the only v8 available. But the 360 was pretty much a direct swap, minus a few little things.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The CJs never came with the 360. The AMC 304 was the only v8 available. But the 360 was pretty much a direct swap, minus a few little things.

Right, the 304 and the I6 were it. The 360 and 401 were in the full size Jeeps.

The 304 and 360 would be a 100% direct swap. They are identical blocks and even accessory arrangements. You can't tell the difference unless you look at the blocks - the size is case into the area by the motor mount. Everything interchanges.
You might come into trouble because they changed the rear end of the crankshaft for 1972 to use the TF transmissions instead of Borg Warner.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Well, now that I think back , I remeber my brother had a Jeep Comanche truck and it had a big V8 ..

Depends on year as far as engine but the Comanche never had a V8 from the factory.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Right, the 304 and the I6 were it. The 360 and 401 were in the full size Jeeps.

The 304 and 360 would be a 100% direct swap. They are identical blocks and even accessory arrangements. You can't tell the difference unless you look at the blocks - the size is case into the area by the motor mount. Everything interchanges.
You might come into trouble because they changed the rear end of the crankshaft for 1972 to use the TF transmissions instead of Borg Warner.

Don't forget the 4cyl, GM Iron Duke, that was in the CJs in 80s.
Manual vs automatic makes a difference. But that's why I said minus a few little things and almost a direct swap.

AMC might of been more or less the last to come out with a V8, but in a lot of ways, it might of been the best V8 at the time. My 360 had serious stump pulling power down low. Way over powered the CJ5 it was in.

Depends on year as far as engine but the Comanche never had a V8 from the factory.

Yep, the pickup version of the XJ Cherokee, 1984 to 2001, also known as an MJ.
I wonder how much of a dog the 2.1 diesel was. I've only ever driven 4.0 versions of the XJ and MJ. Although I did drive a CJ5 with Iron Duke, it wasn't bad all in all. Definitely not a freeway cruiser, but then again, CJ5 wasn't really a highway cruiser anyways.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

AMC might of been more or less the last to come out with a V8

If 1956 was the last, then yes........... (the 190 HP 250 cid V8) There was supposed to be an EFI version in the Rebel in 1957 but that fell through.

 

[RudeJeepin]

If 1956 was the last, then yes........... (the 190 HP 250 cid V8) There was supposed to be an EFI version in the Rebel in 1957 but that fell through.

Obviously I wasn't around back then, born in 74. But my understanding was the engineers for AMC basically studied the big manufacturers' V8s and took what they thought were the best of each and designed their V8.
Most of my research was around the 360, and that generation, so I could be off. They did miss the make on the oiling a bit, but that mostly comes into play at higher rpms than most spin.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Obviously I wasn't around back then, born in 74. But my understanding was the engineers for AMC basically studied the big manufacturers' V8s and took what they thought were the best of each and designed their V8.
Most of my research was around the 360, and that generation, so I could be off. They did miss the make on the oiling a bit, but that mostly comes into play at higher rpms than most spin.

Meh, mostly old wives tales, and debunked stuff.
The oiling is myth. Proven on a dyno, the oil pressure, and thus volume, is the same end-to-end at performance RPM (an engineer in Canada who does flow bench testing entered a contest and built an AMC V8 and during the dyno run, use it to prove the oiling stuff to be bunk)

No, their engines were all their own - nothing was used by others. Their own engineers, their own people, their own designs.. The GenII V8s had high nickel content block and heads, forged rods, forged crankshafts.
The Romney years was all focused on comfort, economy, and so on - no interest in racing or performance (yet the 57 Rebel was a contradiction to that). Later years - things changed and they decided they had to jump into the performance game.
There's nothing all they share in design or materials with any other engines. It's all their own.

The only exceptions - Motorola alternators until the mid 1970s, then Delco furnished those, Autolite starters until ford screwed with autolite and moved the designs and manufacturing to a spin-off - Motorcraft, and carburetors.
In the cases of small items like that, cheaper to buy than to come up with a new version of the wheel that can be bought so cheaply.
But the engines - all from their own designers.
When the dogleg heads came along, they blew past some of the other companies.

When Chrysler came along, the people I met with years ago, who were from AMC and still alive, said that MOPAR took some of the designs AMC had and used them in their "Magnum" engines. AMC couldn't afford to put them into production, Chrysler could.

 

[Jeeper44mag]

The CJs never came with the 360. The AMC 304 was the only v8 available. But the 360 was pretty much a direct swap, minus a few little things.

Yeah, like the fact that it was going to break everything it was attached to.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah, like the fact that it was going to break everything it was attached to.

When I first got my 73 Javelin back in about 2018 or so, I was converting the front brakes to disk and needed to put a combo valve in (bolts to frame rail), in place of the pressure differential switch bolted on the firewall. I saw that the brake lines had been messed with, a combination of new and old lines, flare fittings, all the way from the switch to the rear end. I jacked up the car and pulled all of the old brake lines and found - they were not where the factory put them...........
Apparently, at some point in the past, the car had broken the drive shaft, which whipped around under there beating the crap out of the bottom of the floor, and ripping all of the brake lines out from under it - you could see where the original lines and clamps had been, the screws torn out of the floor, the pattern of the original lines still in the sound deadening material AMC sprayed the floor with back then.
The damage was pretty severe. But then, it's a 360, built a little bit, and you could mash the throttle on the highway and still break the tires loose. I have a feeling the prior owner/builder of the car was messing around and found out how scary the thing could be - especially after talking to my brother who picked the car up and went for a ride with the prior owner. Scot said the guy scared the shit out of him taking it for one last drive before letting it go.
The rear leaf springs were rather twisted and in really bad shape.............

 

[Jeeper44mag]

it's a 360, built a little bit, and you could mash the throttle on the highway and still break the tires loose.

In ~'85 I bought a '70 Javelin from a guy who was into drag racing. It had a "mildly built" (his words) 360, and IIRC 4.10 rear gearing. 5 point harness. LOL It topped out at ~130 mph but DAMN it got there fast. It was an absolute BLAST to drive & only got 8-10 mpg (the way I drove it anyways). A couple years later, I bought a very nice '76 CJ7 (304V8, 3 speed).

A friend of a friend who built cars offered to swap the engines for ~$1000 if I was interested. The offer intrigued me and I asked him what the downside was..... he replied, "Well, your Javelin won't be as fast. Still fairly quick, but not *as* fast. And that 360 is going to break everything it's attached to on your CJ. But you'll have a lot of fun until it does!" LOL. I declined the offer.

 

[RudeJeepin]

Meh, mostly old wives tales, and debunked stuff.
The oiling is myth.
No, their engines were all their own - nothing was used by others. Their own engineers, their own people, their own designs..

So the supposed issue of the rear valley needing extra oil was junk? The one where people were drilling holes and making an oil line that ran in the valley and added oil to rear???
I did pull my oil pump apart and honed the plate and sides of gears, etc. That added something like 5psi at idle. Seems like maybe I did something to the pressure relief valve also.
I'd dug into the AMC stuff when I first got my CJ5 and converted the AMC 360 over to FI and HEI big cap dizzy. After that I didn't pay as much attention anymore.
I read in an old magazine, Hot Rod or Motor Trend or something similar, an interview with an original AMC engine designer. He claimed that they looked at the other V8s out at the time and figured what work and what didn't work on those. Then when they designed the AMC V8, they used that info to help shape their design. Didn't copy any one thing, just used the info as a valuable tool so to speak.

My 79 CJ5 had, I believe a 72 AMC360. Too long ago to remember for sure, I know it had the dog leg heads. Anyways, it had ford ignition system when I got it. Can't remember if it had ford stampings or if it was just the same stuff ford used. Could of been another manufacturers parts, just the same manufacturer that ford used. Again too long go and I yanked it out, probably in the first or second year of ownership.
All this was half a life ago.

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