The Purple Pentastar, pride of Portland, Pulled home today a 74 Gremlin X. Perposed to soon be the Perfect Pro Street Perfomer. She's small, she's orange, she smells bad inside , kinda runs and allmost stops but I've already grown attached. Any others out there? Bruce Johnson

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

There's a guy who works at Salem Auto Body named Steve and he's THE AMC guy for the mid-valley. (Can't argue with a guy who has 2 Gremlin X's- one with Clifford dual 4 barrel 258 under the hood, 1 AMX, 1 Rebel Machine, and a couple hornets and pacers...)

The swap meet in Redmond this summer had a 1974 Pacer X with perfect Santa Fe interior, paint was faded but no chips or damage, a 258-2v, and was driveable and had the title for a whole whopping $500 obo....


good luck on your hunt, grab a couple these aren't easy to find in junkyards anymore....

-D.Idiot

Thanks for the tip D.I. on the guy at salem auto body also what I was hopeing to find out has anyone besides myself considered putting a slant and a A833 4spd in a gremlin I have most of that now,the car is original and restorable, small dings and rust free, no cracks on the dash and the plastic grill is prefect tho it does have a tired 258 and a (ugh!) 3spd. Truth is I cant wait to rip out the smelly carpet and shredded seats, put in a rollbar, plastic buckets and harnesses. I'm off to the inliners page for some more clues. Bruce J.

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

I wouldn't sneeze at the 3spd either....

My buddy ran a Gremlin X 304 3spd manual floor shift during one Demo Derby season in the 'compact' class... he won the barrel race, and it a was a good quick 'sprint' car in the pit if left in 2nd gear. For all the abuse the car took, the body held up fine, the tranny still shifted, the clutch survived, the 304 ran ok even after losing water twice...but the front suspension just couldn't take the pounding like any of the 'big three' front ends do....

Should make for an interesting car...

-D.Idiot

Why dump the 258? The Gremlin used to be the scrooge of SSCA racing. Find a Jeep with the 4.2 and grap the whole top end, EFI included. Should be a fun little car when done. If you really want to be tricky, use the Jeeps T-5 bellhousing and drop a 5 speed behind the 258. Should be better then the 3 speed.

Keep the 258. If I wasn't a dedicated Mopar guy, that's what I would have for an inline 6. As far as 60s-70s passenger car I6s, it has the most CI and may have the best head. Because of Jeep popularity, there is a lot of HiPo parts available. Below is a pic of what can be found for AMC 258 parts at swap meets, a triple Holley 2300 carbed intake.




Cecil

Thanks for the tips guys guess I'll be crossing compleatly over to AMC land with this one. it does look like a slant with a later truck pan would fit nicely but think I'll save my slant stuff for anouther project. Ripped out the interior to day, lots of gremlin droppings and aluminum pull tabs, the good news is a rust free floor pan the only body rust I can find is an 1/8" hole at the bottom of the drivers rear quarter window the front end is solid, diden't check to see if its got a sure grip yet and I'll be looking for front disk brakes, I'm having a blast ,its been too long seance I've torn into a new to me car Bruce J.

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

I have always liked Gremlins. It's that "Dare to be Different" thing and I'm partial to smaller cars. And it's sort of a Mopar.
When I was in grade school there was a guy with a purple Gremlin with a 401 and four speed (I think) that used to love to pull wheelies around town. I never saw it run top end, but I sure do remember those too cool wheelies!

I'm finding out that A guy could order a 305 V8 and the dealer would swap in a 401, I'm busy droping weight, tossed the factory seats those massive government mandated bumpers the side impact door beams weigh allot too, think I'll stick with a inline though, but a rather nasty one for sure Bruce J.

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

The 304 is a pretty 'spunky' baby V-8 in a lighter vehicle...the 343,360,390,401 was a good option I here too...My previous foreman had a Rebel he dropped 401 into, he said is was a good car until he cornered too fast and rolled over twice through a ditch....

Sounds like the project is coming together...

-D.Idiot

i used to own a gremlin with a 304 and it was alot of fun. i had bought another one for parts that had the 258 and it was no slouch either!