AMC V8 engine rebuild Q's

I have another question on my V8 rebuild.

I plan on replacing the timing cover on the 360 and I've seen some with nickel plating. Does anyone have any comments on whether it's worth it to get one with nickel plate, or just stay with the stock solid aluminum?

 

There are 2 kinds of nickel plating hard nickel which looks like chrome, not good it flakes and will ruin a motor, the 2nd, soft nickel is light yellow, that whats underneath of chrome on a bumper. I would stick with a stock cover. There is one rule I tell anybody building a motor, make the shop your building it in make your wifes kitchen look like a dump. You can never have the shop to clean!!!!!!!!
When done working on the motor slip a large plastic garbage bag over the motor until your next work session. Do not leave this bag where it can fall on the floor. Use thread sealer where water will be on the bolts. Reusing old headbolts and such is ok so long as you inspect them for flaws.

 

The only problem I raninto when rebuilding my 304 was oiling the distributer. The new timing chain gear at the cam didn't have enought cut away for the oil to flow trough and out to lube the distributer gear. I talked to a guy on the north side of Atlanta that raced AMCs and he told me my problem and said that was common in rebuild kit for these motors. Just make sure that your new timing gear has good oil clearance out to the other parts. All it was on mine was the casting left a ridge in the channel not allowing oil to flow out past it.

 

The aluminum timing cover can be a problem, but there are plenty of AMC V8s out there with well over 100,000 miles on the original cover. Even if I bought a new cover, I'd be sure to measure the clearances when I put it together, to make sure you are at the low side of the clearance spec.

If you want to do something special for your timing cover, you could use Bulltear's steel midplate, which goes between the timing cover and the oil filter adapter. This would remove a major source of wear, sp. the gears wearing into the oil filter adapter and causing leakage due to end play. You could also reuse your oil filter adapter then without having to lap it or such.

Otherwise, unless you're building a race motor, I'd rebuild it to OEM specs and be proud.