New member 304 upgrades ????

[still liven]

Hello all.I am hopeing for a better response here than from other site. We will see. I am in the process of tradeing my uncle for a jeep, its not in my grubby little hands yet. It is registerd as a 65 willys. The gentleman he purchased it from had a flyer with all the major components listed.It is a 65 frame a 1975 tub with a 1980 AMC 304 .
Question 1 is why he picked an 80 motor ? My research has concluded that this could be the worst year for the motor. Im hopeing somebody can tell me why im wronge. It has a mild cam and sounds good to my inexperienced ears. My parts pile consists of maxis 37/15/15 tires performance air gap intake and a holley 670 truck avenger carb.I was told changing the distributer is a bad idea on an AMC motor but think if im going to use the new fueling system I should get better spark am I wronge and if so what do you suggest for ignition. The cj has been sitting at uncles ranch for 10 years and runs good but I am assuming that every critter in the area has chewed on the wireing. I do not want to use a wireing kit but I plan on changing 1 wire at a time with a new fuse block. First 4x project that I don't have to drive to work on Monday so it can be down as longe as needed..Anyhow I cant seem to find a water tite block designed for a vehicle with flashers and 10-20 fuses.
Many more questions for you guys but ill wait to see what kinda response I get. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Any tips or tricks that you no about starting a project like this is also more than welcome. Thank you.

 

[CJ]

:ww:

I have to be honest here - I cannot tell what you are asking because I cannot tell in that huge paragraph of words what you want.

Can you break down your questions? Maybe a question per line? Thanks!

 

[gert]

Welcome aboard One reason you have heard not to change ignitions is because the cheap chinese distributors are chewing up the cam gear. you can upgrade your stock ignition with an MSD 6AL box or similar and have a great ignition system using the stock distributor

 

[still liven]

Sorry.
What is the best ignition system for the AMC 304 .
Were can I find a fuse block that is water tite no harness with flashers.

 

[still liven]

bulltear has a distributor reasonably price would something like that be ok and not chew the gears up ?

 

[gert]

HEI is a very simple and easy ignition system to use/work on. I would get his gear set as well

 

[DHugg]

Still Liven: Your query about a 1980 AMC 304 AMC is worth some sort of response. I have that engine (a reman with about 8K on it) in my 1980 CJ7 .

The engine I have APPEARS to my untrained eye to have had an air injection system. It has been stripped and the injector ports plugged. The vacuum system was a nightmare; it has been stripped out, partly by PO's and finally and completely by me. So I am left with a Motorcraft 2100, vacuum advance, vacuum-actuated power brake booster, and precious little else. The ignition system is sound, simple, but is being converted to MSD 6 (look in these pages for emails authored by JeepHammer).

I will not beat out anyone on a dragstrip, but for pulling through deep sand and keeping the 35inch swampers churning, I like the engine quite well. I am getting about 14MPG now, before I rebuild the carb and convert the distributor and plugs to MSD.

Re: your engine....... if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[csuengr]

A 1980 AMC 304 isn't any better or worse than any other year AMC 304 . The only thing I can think of is that in factory tune, a 1980 AMC 304 made 125 hp. Has nothing to do with quality, just tuning. And the 670 Holley is way too big for a AMC 304 . You will get better performance with a smaller carb.

You can use the stock distributor and just get a MSD box and coil, Or go with a good quality HEI unit.

Unless you plan on repeatedly submerging our CJ, you don't need a water tight fuse block