Gremlins... economy or fun????

[teddy1500]

My girlfriend bought me a book about the cars of the 70's, and I just can't get those gremlins out of my mind... so, myquestion is this, can the 6 banger and trans out of a jeep work in a 71 or 71 gremlin? I mean, are they the same motors????? that straight 6 from jeeps are cheap, gremlins are cheap, the jeep motors have more power, gremlins are light..... could this be fun?????

[TK]

well, i hope you find a amc nut, cause any time i ever messed with amc's, i ended up with a whole bunch of frusration. what bout a 390?? they are bad ass

[moparots]

Gremlins Cheap? I dont know... I didnt think you could find any more of those, and the ones you can find, belong to the "kitch" freaks. You know, the guys who watched "Waynes World" too many times ...LOL ... NO wait that was a Pacer wasnt it....OH well I didnt think gremlins were that common place any more....or am I just out of the loop.

Waynes World......out of the loop....

[racintracy]

Originally Posted by moparots

Gremlins Cheap? I dont know... I didnt think you could find any more of those, and the ones you can find, belong to the "kitch" freaks. You know, the guys who watched "Waynes World" too many times ...LOL ... NO wait that was a Pacer wasnt it....OH well I didnt think gremlins were that common place any more....or am I just out of the loop.

Waynes World......out of the loop....

I think Moparots is right. I travel alot for work and I have only seen one Gremlin in the past 5 yrs. And it was in pretty rough shape.

But to answer the original question. Yes the last 258 is still basically the same as the first. I took one out of a 70 Matador and put it right in a International 4wd. Yep the IH's used them too. It's a pretty decent engine too. My Dad bought a 87 Jeep Comanche new and ran the crap out of it for 170,000 mi. and when he passed on I sold it to a friend and he ran the crap out of it for over a yr. (don't know how many mi.) Still ran great and didn't use much any oil when he traded it off.

The trans. is different due to 4wd.

Another thing you have to think of is parts availability. Does anybody make parts for them anymore???

[Stoga]

One thing to remember with Gremlins, is the chopped off back end kind of acts like an air brake. This is why Wally Booth switched from Gremlins and went to Matador bodies in Pro Stock back in the day. I've also heard of this being a problem when someone tried to go from Pro to Super Pro with a Gremlin body.
Also, the short wheelbase tends to make them a lil skittish at best on the top end. Neat lil cars for sure, but if you're gonna be runnin 12 seconds or quicker, you may want to find a more stable platform to race with.
Having said that, I figure a Gremlin with a Jeep 6 would be a very sneaky street car, you could embaress a ton of Camarostangs and ricers with that one!

[TK]

Carefull, they explode in the microwave!

[teddy1500]

perhaps i posted in the wrong forum...... fuel econimy, is that not a part of performance??? heres the deal, I have access to a 74 gremlin, the motor is bad,body is good, the car is free, What I am wanting is a "peppy" economy car, those cherokees get good milage(for what they are) the gremlin wieghs about half the cherokee? If it is a bolt in deal, swap the fuel injection too, I could have 90's economy, and 70's styly(?).....the hp has gone up over the years, so it should be a little quicker than stock
the only other problem is getting comfortable in the seat, I am 6'3"
I already have two projects right now, I'm jusst thinking outloud with this idea...

[nhdriver]

Yes the 4.0 'Jeep" engine is a direct decendent of the AMC /Jeep 6 cyl of the past it started out as a 232 cu.in then was made bigger to 258 cubes (4.0 liter) You could easily put a newer Jeep 4.0 in one of these cars. But fuel injection and computer hook-ups would make it diffacult unless you are some kind of a computer/wireing geek. plus the fuel system needs an in-tank high pressure fuel pump to run the fuel injection. Not impossible, but not easy either.

[69CORONET440]

I remember in highschool this old guy coming out to play one weekend with a green gremlin x guessing 401/4sp cause he never stopped to talk or let us see what he had, but kicking the sh!te outta one of the "richboys" chevelle in front of all of us lol. Damn i haven't even seen one in years. would be fun!

[The Dartman]

One of the baddest Gremlins in the good ol' USA is the top contender for the Wheel Stand Nationals at Byron Dragway in Illinois every fall. This is the event recently that you may have seen on Speed Vision recently ... pure craziness to win $10,000. The money goes to the longest, highest, and most violent wheelstands. I know for fact this 9 second Gremlin was one of the few in past years to WIN all wheelstand categories (it's a red one if you've seen it). This is an all AMC car as well I believe.

I also went to the final in an all Mopar (and therefore AMC) race back in '97 against a 10 flat Gremlin called the "Nasty Nash". This one had a "Ranger Bass Boat" metalic black paint job that looked awesome, with huge metal flake. The car would pull mid 9's on the juice, and wasn't even tubbed!!

If I ever got a wild hair and built one of those, I would call it the "GREM REAPER"! I think thier cool in thier own way, and they definately has a slice of history....

Dartman

[The Dartman]

actually no one asked, but here's the link to the picture page on Byron's website:

http://www.byrondragway.com/pictures_2.htm

That's is bad assed! Check out the other AMC on page 1, who ended up winning a ton of awards as well.

Dartman

[LiveLarge]

I had a chance to buy a Gremlin with the Levi Strause (sp?) interior once and have been kicking myself over not doing it. Would have been the perfect car to build enough to beat that vega ( 350 + 671 blower ) up the street

[4406RR]

when I was in highschool there was 2 gremlins running around one had a 340 six pak the other had a 350 mouse both were very fast. I think it would be cool to put a 3.9 and a500 out of a dakota in one for a driver

[pishta]

Wow, I see daylight under both rear tires in a few of those pictures. We had a Gremlin with something like a 401 in or auto shop. No one wanted it back in 84, too ugly. I would go Pacer (originally designed around a Wankle motor, but got the AMC motor instead) just cause they are even more disliked.