AMC VS IH (engines)

["Jason and Maria Colavecchia" <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided>]

Just to refute my arguement against the AMC stuff:
1/ The 258 (and the v8s) use a timing chain....
2/ Every 258 I've owned (ie 2 vehicles) wore out fast (ie burning oil with
only 100,000 miles) , leaked badly around the valve covers constantly
despited repeated efforts to stave this off
3/ In a Scout, there was no significant fuel mileage advantage, despite
Marketing statements at the time

As for the 360/401's....These are better, and offer alot more power, but
still have timing chains, wear out faster than IH engines, and (especially
the 401) get marginal fuel economy, even compared to an IH v-8

Just so you know I'm not totally naive here, here's my list of thing I
don't like about the IH engines:

I-196:
-Very heavy for its power output
-Well built, but underpowered
-Use hard-to-find parts, and next to no aftermarket support
-Hard to find Knowledgeable mechanics that can reliably work on them
(excluding ourselves, of course)

V-304-392:
-Solid engines, but suffer from lack of aftermarket support for many items
-suffer from similar problem of poor service availablilty as the I-196

Also, some reasons to like the AMC stuff:

-Higher power-to-weight ratio, especially for the v-8's
-much, much greater aftermarket support for custom parts
-parts and service can be found most anywhere (ie more mechanics out there
know how to work on the AMC stuff than IH)

I suppose alot of this depends on what you were brought up on, but I
couldn't ask for a more dependable engine like the IH V-8's.  I'm glad I
have them in my trucks.

Oh yes...another reason to like the IH engines...EASY to find, and Cheap to
buy when you need a replacement, since most junkyards that have these
things lying around have had them for YEARS....one IH'er up here has over
50 units in his yard, and in the last 10 years has only sold 2 engines
(both were upgrades, incidentally, from the 196 to a 345, and a 304 to 345
conversion.)
Body parts, though, have done much better....