1982 AMC Sprit Challenge Build

In reply to The_Jed:

Your front brake set up looks awesome. I'll have to see if we'll have the budget to upgrade our. Also we want to run a Ford 8.8 with 3.73 and a LSD and narrow it just like you did and its great seeing all the step by step pictures in your build thread.

Since we are running a turbo setup we are going go with used $50 Megasquirt MS1 and cut up a 1997 Wrangler engine harness that came with the free 4.0L. Expensinve part will be finding big injectors and building a fuel system to support our power goals.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Honestly I have no idea what else we need right now. The car is currently buried under a few feet of snow. For now our only plan is to continue to bench racing till spring but if we dig it out or think of anything i'll let you know.

In reply to PseudoSport: Right on, if the engine's out of the '97 Wrangler it probably has a returnless fuel rail on it, there's a cheap way around that of you decide to get it running n/a for a while. If you decide to run a viscous fan the Grand and the Wrangler engines have center drive fans, which is great for older pass car swaps. I'm real jealous about the Spirit build, I'd be happy to help out any time, at least in spirit, ha!

So I had no good reason to buy it and it's not budget friendly but I wanted it. I think the rear spoiler just makes the car. Guy even tossed in the AMX badge and latch solenoid. Maybe we can make a mold of it and make our own challenge friendly version.

NICE!

Picked up a spare 4.2L short block from Craigslist and pulled out the crank and rods. Bearings were trashed but none of them had spun and I think we can get away with just polishing the crank. If we can use these then hopefully we can sell the complete 4.2L that’s in the car. Also does anyone need a 4.2L CJ oil pan with the built in skid plate?

Watching with much glee

bluej wrote: PLEASE keep it beige 8)

AGREED!!!

Awesome project!

Might have come up with a solution that does not involve cutting up the body. There are 2 or 3 GM ball joints that are taller that are close enough they might work. Just need to see if the AMC ones have a 7 or 10 degree taper and measure how the new ones will effect the camber angle.

I'll need to drill new holed and maybe weld up the old ones.

I also picked up a replacement fender since the drivers side has rusted through in a bunch of spots.

Hey, that fender looks familiar! Hi Greg!

What a score. I absolutely love this build. Plus one on keeping the original colour. If you guys were not so much younger than me, I'd ask you to adopt me. :)

Looking forward to seeing the car at The Show.

In reply to imacarfan2:

Hey Brian, thanks again for the fender! I really didn't want to try and patch up the other one since it's so rotted from the inside out.

Some more crappy cell phone pictures. Sorry they are kind of blurry, it was cold out and I was shivering which didn’t help.

Worst spot on the car is the A pillar. It’s defiantly been cut out and replaced but I’m not sure if I want to dig into it. Might just clean it up for now and call it good.

Interior is very…brown. Drives seat frame is broken but other then that it’s not too bad. I wish it was black but I think we might just fix the seat frame and clean it up. Obvious solution would be to gut it but we’re thinking of keeping it more of at street car and maybe driving it down to FL. Might even try to keep the A/C and make it work.

No tach so I’m curious to see if I can swap in one of the few clusters from a Cherokee I have kicking around.

We have some work ahead of us in order to clean this mess up. As for the missing head bolt a quick check with a screw driver shows that it broke off in the block. Looks like we might have to part out the engine and recoup less money instead of trying to sell it complete

Larry cut the clock out of one of his Eagle wagons and put an aftermarket tach in its place.

Please keep the seats in the car.

So yellow with brown stripes or yellow with AMX stripes?

In reply to PseudoSport:
Moar Yellow AMX!!!

I honestly think your car's original colours look much better than that AMX. Though I would likely remove the chrome trim for weight savings, and possible sell off. Oh, I would paint the bottom blackish to give the look of the trim.

I vote for the original stripe package. Either way, it will be too much awesome to handle.

Are we keeping the suicide knob to mess with the pro drivers?

Another vote for the original paint scheme, that's just too awesome to let go.

I vote 100% period correct restoration inside and out, except for under the hood

Harkins wrote: I vote 100% period correct restoration inside and out, except for under the hood

This guy knows what he is talking about.

Harkins wrote: I vote 100% period correct restoration inside and out, except for under the hood

Me as well

The Spirit was moved to the back burner while we worked on our Chump 280Z. Car has now been moved to South Shore MA and the project is back on. Decided against building the stroker engine. The cost to switch pistons around and poor quench/compression ratio made us decided against it. Instead the new plan is to freshen up the free 4.0L and install that in place of the 4.2L. I hope to start honing and cleaning the block this weekend while Harkins works on pulling the 4.2L.

Anyone know where I can find a cheap set of 42 lbs or bigger injectors?

Cylinders are cleaning up nicely.

check out turbo-mopar.com and turbododge.com. Mopar Performance sold +20% injectors for turbo dodges, which were rated at 42 lbs @ 55 psi static fuel pressure. A set only has 4 (obviously) but they're usually pretty cheap.