You're forgetting that in 63 AMC did just that! They controlled oil flow to the head through the first cam bearing, and ran a line from the main galley straight to the filter. Apparently the T controlled flow to the head somewhat. The way the T is in the head there should be roughly a 50/50 split in oil delivery, assuming a good flow through the filter. As You noted, once the filter is clogged, or rather once it gets dirty enough to affect flow (50% clogged?) more oil would go to the head. The engineers did decide that a line straight to the head provided too much oil. The front cam bearing journal on a 63+ has a groove or flat in it (don't recall which) that only allows oil to pass through when that specific area uncovers a hole in the side of the block. An earlier block can possibly be made to work with the later cam -- simply drill through the side into the front cam bearing cavity at the appropriate position (check a cam for that!) then tap it for a line. The catch is you need to use the later cam, and it probably won't fit. AMC monkeyed around with cam bearing sizes starting in 63 also. The safest bet would be to modify an early cam to meter oil by grinding a flat on the first journal, making sure the edges are rounded. You could cut a groove, but that would require more precise location of the hole in the side of the block. The first bearing isn't a problem -- install it then drill through the hole and through the bearing, use a piece of fine emery cloth to dress the hole before installing the cam. Alternately, you could devise some other way to meter the amount of oil. Pinching the line about half closed should do the trick since the old way (T to filter) roughly cut oil delivery in half. A smaller line would work, but I don't think you can get one. Some other restriction in the line (a piece of stiff wire about 3" long -- it can't push through the 90 in the head or to the galley) would work also. But how much? I'd shoot for 50%, but there's no way to know for sure. The cam bearing groove covers roughly 1/3 of the bearing, so reducing flow to 30-33% of max may be what's needed. ------------ Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:00:05 -0700 From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx> It just occurred to me -- I see no reason to replumb the oil filter on this motor to filter all of the oil going to the head (valves). Instead of teeing it, with half to the filter and half to the head. (Well who knows what the proportion actually is; there's no control over it. Clean filter: low flow to valves. Plugged filter: all oil to the valves.) All I can think of, was back in that day oil filters were new-fangled things for sissies, and Nash assumed that it would occasionally be fully plugged, and bypass is good enough anyways. But who today doesn't change the oil and filter often on an antique motor?! Can anyone come up with a reason I shouldn't run ALL the valve oil through the filter?! Another R.M. hack -- cost is about 3 feet of 1/8" brake line! And I get to sell the brass tee on eBay to recover my cost :-) -- Frank Swygert Publisher, "American Motors Cars" Magazine (AMC) For all AMC enthusiasts http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html (free download available!) _______________________________________________ Amc-list mailing list Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list