" From: Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx> " " " You're right about the 304. I wonder why they put those heavy things in " Scouts instead of the much lighter AMC engines. They used the 258 and " their own four cylinder (which was half the small V-8), then used the " heavy V-8 instead of a lighter one! Maybe AMC didn't feel they had the " capacity to provide 304s or 360s (hmmm... a 360 Scout!!), but needed " the added sales to keep the volume of 401s up. I don't think the Scout " competed with Jeeps that much -- it was more or less between a CJ and " FSJ. i've heard that the little ih trucks were always loss leaders, meant to grease the sales of the big rigs. in line with that, the 345 [for example] is the same mill used in 2t and 5t trucks, complete with nitrided crank and forged rods. [i was told in the early '80s that a new 345 cost $4500!] this sort of overbuilding is why their scouts and pickups got such a rep for toughness. in only started using amc sixes after they stopped using their own mid-200s-cube mill, perhaps for emissions reasons. this was about '68. ________________________________________________________________________ Andrew Hay the genius nature internet rambler is to see what all have seen adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and think what none thought _______________________________________________ AMC-List mailing list AMC-List@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list or go to http://www.amc-list.com