360 Front cover

[tyrodtom]

I got a front cover off of E-Bay a while back but I can't tell who made it, there are no part # on it nor have any been ground off, it is new, never been installed, the only mark on it is on the block mounting surface, a 5 pointed star with &R in it, but I can't make out the letter before the &. Does anyone know who might have made this timing cover and if it's reputation is good or bad?

[jeepsr4ever]

does it appear to be new? If so its a Crown.....grab bag type cover if you dont have measuring equipment

[tyrodtom]

The box it came in says Engine Quest, there are no marks on it where a bolt being tightened would have left a mark. what does Crown's trademark look like? The only paperwork with it says to not take the oil pump cover off, says it will void the warrenty. I guess I'd better do it anyhow to check the oil pump cavity, I remember how to check the clearances from when I overhauled my J10 2 years ago. The cover is new, I just have no idea how long the guy had this cover before he sold it to me.

[tyrodtom]

Who made the front cover for the 360 after Chrysler took over Amc?How long has Crown been making front covers? I've got 5 360's, 1 304 and 8 front covers, and looking at them I see 4 different styles. 6 of them have factory part # on them, 2 have no part # but they're different from each other. Those last 2 are aftermarket but one is about 10 years old, has Crown been making covers that long?

[jeepsr4ever]

We have cataloged 6 different covers over the years. The originals have AMC part numbers in the front and/or a "DJ" cast in them. Some early crowns had the part numbers cast in the front as well

[tyrodtom]

The reason i'm so interested in the front cover is the engine i'm building for my circle track car has to use a stock appearing oil system, I can't use a external system. I can use a oil cooler or remote filter and probably the steel midplate might be good. I rebuilt my J10's 360 2yrs ago and i've noticed if I keep the RPM over about 3600 the oil pressure starts to drop, either I left too much clearance in the rod and main bearings and it is slinging out at high rpm or the oil is not returning from the topside of the engine, or maybe a little bit of both. I t has new cam bearings. I have to do something different from my J10 cause though it's a fine engine for towing plenty of torque and power for towing but it would scatter it's guts if I kept it at 6000 rpm for 30 seconds. During a race the engine is going to have to be able to take going from 4000 to 6500 rpm twice a lap for 35 laps.

[Dusty]

I thought you could get away with the nickle plated timing covers on roundy round cars. the other thing i have seen was polishing the internals of the engine to increase drain back and polishing the drian back grooves in the heads, deepening them so oil wouldnt pool. good luck.

[tyrodtom]

At the track that I will do most of my racing they do frequently tear down the top 5 finishers, and I mean sometimes all the way down to taking off heads and oil pans. The engine has to be stock, they are used to tearing down Chevys and every now and then a Ford all they are going to know about AMC is what they see in the specs. The rules say you can't paint the inside of the block and they notice if I polished insde the block, but I think I could get rid of any casting flash and enlarge some of the drainback holes. Some of the Chevys dyno at around 340hp in this class we have to run a Edelbrock 2100 series intake with a Holley 350cfm 2bbl on it, 15/8 headers, .450 valve lift. All I want to start the year with is a good dependable engine that will stay together while I figure out the handling.

[Dusty]

.450 lift and lots of duration wide lobe seperation? kinda choke you off like they used to the old hemi's

id do the nickle timing cover harder than the aluminium and the oil gear set from MC add a HEI distributor. also MC has a few oil mods via moving the cam bearings and redrilling that makes a difference and boring out oil passages you got some options talk to MC though he probably will have a few suggestions for building a racer within the allowed specs and getting the HP to be competitive.

email him or look around on the Inet, Herman lewis is still out there and is always fun to call.