New addition ... Cherokee Z28 ... "The Lowredo Project"

[Wesdog]

On my stroker 304, the grooves were done by hand. On the 385 SBC Stroker, I have started them by hand, but have picked up a mini dremel tool from Harbor Freight and a variety of bits, to put them into the SBC heads. More to come on that in a few weeks, when I can get back into the project again.

A few important details:

The STOCK AMC DISHED pistons will NOT work with head grooves. The groove has to be placed over a FLAT portion of the piston (D-dish are OK, as are Flat-Tops). On my 304 stroker, it was built to a zero-deck and uses a 0.048" thick (I think) Felpro 304 head gasket. This results in a 0.048" quench gap for the head grooves, which worked OK on the engine. FWIW, Somender Singh recommends about a 0.070" quench for the grooves. On my 385 SBC Stroker, I will have about 0.040" quench for the grooves.

Great info! I suspected that might be the case with dished pistons and that was one of the things I wanted to ask about.

[Greg Taylor]

Tonight I finished up the grooves in one cylinder head, while powdercoating some door panels. I started the groove with a small handheld hacksaw, then enlarged it with a triangular file. Next, I carefully used a metal sawzall blade to cut the groove in. I followed up with a 3mm round file and knocked off any sharp edges with the triangular file (to prevent hot spots) and finished up with a small die grinder sanding cone and buffing.

I plan on doing the 2nd cylinder head this weekend and to begin the reassembly process. I am also going to build my own starting stand to break it in and get it tuned properly, before installing it into the Lowrider.

Here is a shot of the cylinder head with completed grooves.

[Zorm]

Not bad, not bad, kinda like Men in Black's avatar, always like that...Thoughts, toss the bumpers, roll pans front and rear. Toss the door handles....also wonder if AMC cars ever had any cool side mirrors, something not so boxie. A slight lowering of the roof and you can tub the heck out of the rear and toss some FAT meats back there.

yea, its cool to see one of our "50 year old Jeeps, happy b-day wagoneer" look a little "south"

[twisted frame]

Are the grooves supposed to direct the burn towards the plugs? I did a quick reading of http://www.somender-singh.com/ as I'm not an engine builder and wasn't familiar with the groove concept. Have you done this before? This is obviously meant to improve combustion, correct?

[Greg Taylor]

IT'S UP FOR SALE

Hey Everyone,
It's executive decision time and I have decided to sell the Lowrider project. Lack of time and a true need to focus on family, since my dad passed away 1.5 years ago, I need to let this one go to someone who can put it all back together and get it on the road.

I will soon post up a for sale add on the forum, but for starters here are the basic details (pics in the earliest posts on this forum thread).

$1500 - Lowrider rolling chassis ... still has 350/TH400 in it (needs to be replaced)

$2800 - FRESH 'Built' roller cam 385 SB Chevy (in the process of putting last of it together) with ported World Product heads ... 10.5:1 compression

$500 - FRESH TH400 tranny ... was originally built for a 502 BB Chevy going overseas.

$150 - NEW Ceramic-coated SBC Shorty Headers w/02 sensor bung (for EFI)

If someone wants to buy the whole package, I will make it a package deal ... let's talk.

[Greg Taylor]

SALE PENDING

Hi Everyone,
I have a sale pending for the Lowrider rollling chassis.

The 385 Stroker and TH400 are still available, for anyone interested. I'll be posting them up at work at GM soon, for anyone who might be interested here, also. Thanks.

[blazentrout]

Well, the lowrado project now has a new home on the west side of the state now. I ended up getting it from from greg sat. I hope to give it a good home. the plan is to make it a nice weather daily driver out of it. the goal is to have it on the road by may 2014 and then start taking care of the paint and body work from there.
Greg did a great job describing the truck (and i was not disappointed) and for being a 30yrs old michigan truck, it is solid. He is an A1 seller in my book. Thank you for working with me. I'll try to keep people informed on the rebuild as i go along. Trout

[aratman]

Please keep us updated on this.

I would like to see what this look like then it is "done"

[Greg Taylor]

Well, the lowrado project now has a new home on the west side of the state now. I ended up getting it from from greg sat. I hope to give it a good home. the plan is to make it a nice weather daily driver out of it. the goal is to have it on the road by may 2014 and then start taking care of the paint and body work from there.

Greg did a great job describing the truck (and i was not disappointed) and for being a 30yrs old michigan truck, it is solid. He is an A1 seller in my book. Thank you for working with me. I'll try to keep people informed on the rebuild as i go along. Trout

Trout is the perfect guy to end up with the Lowredo ... he loves FSJs and Lowriders and knows them both well. He has some cool plans for the lowrider ... I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for it.

Thanks for your kind words, Trout ... it was great to finally meet you in person and shoot the breeze while loading it up.

[blazentrout]

Quick update,

Not a whole lot has been to the truck. I made a comand decision to keep the sbc and not to put a ls motor in. I hope in the next few weeks to have a nice 355 and 700r4 back in the truck.
Me and a friend autopsed the sick 350 that was in it(we were going to put it in a mud/dune truck for sgg) and went then and then started on what we found. it would not of lived long and explained the low oil pressure and slight smoke on start up.

Once its back up running im going to tackle the body. I am thinking on putting narrow track fenders on the front along with a 'pig nose' grill and replacing the dash with a '66 waggy one i have. I'll do my best to keep you guys updated, Trout

[Ghinmi]

This truck is so cool! Glad it's still in the hands of one of our members. Any more recent pictures?

[blazentrout]

Wow how time flies. I did not do any thing really over the summer but now its getting cold out(29" of snow in the last week) it time to hide in the barn again. I built a nice 355 chevy for it but i need to clean up and fix a couple of issues under the hood before i can put the motor back in. the biggest is redoing the steering shaft between the column and the box so the steering column is not off set towards the door a couple inches. i have also started de rat nesting the under dash wiring and i found date code's on the gauges ranging from july '92 to jan'93. as she sits right now


Some from when i got her last fall,




The only major rust spot, but there is a lot of peeling paint and some surface rust

[blazentrout]

From this summer seeing how the anasens and 295/50's fit (not so well lol) out back and 185/60's up front