i've got a Gray Marine 327 Engine 225hp, snaged it for $100, runs well.. i was wondering if any of you have used one in your rods or know's any one that has? any tips? i know i'll have to make a plate to mate it to anything so i don't care if it's hard to work with, i just like it because it's diffrent. i figure i'm going to have to have one big bitch of a radiator to keep it cool, i don't think they make anything but marine heads for it.. so.. gonna have to make that work.
If I'm not mistaken that's just a 327 AMC/Rambler engine with a GrayMarine conversion.....the water jacketed manifold just unbolt, and can be replaced with appropriate year AMC manifolds or headers. The block will accept any period AMC bellhousing/transmission... Marine engines usually drive off of what we would call the "front", as it appears yours does. The one thing you need to determine is, is this a standard rotation or counter rotation engine. If counter-rotating, the cam and maybe the distributor will need to be changed. If standard rotation, you are good to go. Ray
i didn't pay attention to the direction it was running, i'll start her up tonight and check it out.. still learning about her.
Okay, you may realize this already, but.....just in case.....as viewed from the end where the starter is, (water pump, distributor) it should be turning COUNTER-CLOCKWISE if it's standard rotation.... viewed from the other end it would be the same as looking at the engine as installed in a car and the rotation is clockwise. If it is opposite the above...it is a counter-rotation engine. Generally, I believe, counter-rotating engines were used in twin engine installations. Single engine, typically are standard rotation. Ray
haha, thanks.. . first thing i was going to check was if it did "run from the front" then i was going to check the rotation acordingly.
ok.. just looked and i feel retarded.. yea it's ran from the front.. why didn't i look at the starter from the begining? i do need more coffee.
As the guys have mentioned already, most marine gas engines started life as a car motor that some company (in this case Gray Marine) "marinized" with special parts to make it work in a boat. The basic engine assembly isn't too different from a car motor, except for things like brass freeze plugs and maybe a cam profile that tops out at about 4600-5000 rpms. Sometimes they will slip in a reverse rotation cam, especially if it is being used in a twin motor application. If you pull the exhaust manifolds, intake manifold, raw water pump, motor mounts, and stuff like that, you will find you have pretty much an AMC 327 engine to start out with and you can probably bolt up parts from an AMC car to make it usable on the street. The engine in my 23 came out of a boat and I simply rebuilt it and put on the correct car type parts to make it work. And yes, you will first need to determine if this one is standard rotation or counter rotating, but that is easy to do. Don
Another thing is that some marine engines were 4 bolt,... I bought a 302 from a boat salvage place, and it was a 4 bolt block..... Worth looking into.... 4TTRUK
HAHAHAH, you know, i wouldn't have thought of that... hahah.. "i've got spark, i've got fuel, i've got compression... WHY WONT IT RUN?" thanks for saving me from that stupidity.
Reminded me of when I did commercial vehicle road service.. Farmer called... He had a tractor with old Continental engine. Starter went bad so he took it in for rebuild. Starter shop traded for a rebuild off the shelf. This guy had been cranking on the engine for weeks and had all his buddy "experts" working trying to start the thing.. No start.. All I did was crank the engine. Saw the fan rotating the wrong way and told him he had gotten the wrong starter.. A Continental marine starter.. Of course he had never heard of such a thing.. Then he tried to stiff me on the service call..
IF you need automotive exhaust manifolds let me know, maybe we can swap. I have other Rambler 327 parts to help if you need. The Gray Marine engines are all the same internally as Rambler car and Jeep engines. Outside is of couse, not.
Oh--the ONLY transmissions that will bolt to it are from the era of the engine--the later AMC engines have no interchange and the bell housing mounting are all different. You can find a BW 3-speed or auto for it with out too much issue. Will be torq tube drive however. Good Luck.
Jeep used a TH400 behind the GEN-1 AMC V-8, but it's a Nailhead version Th400. If you find one Jeep used an adapter between engine and trans about 2" thick. The trick is you need the flexplate and spacer too. Most people don't realize that and get the adapter only. The BW trannys are fine for cruising and playing a little. They have been used in 10 second AMXs, but those are relatively light cars (around 3K). The torque-tube drive isn't a problem. The TT cars use the same seal and trans yoke that the open drive cars used. So you'll have a big flange on the end of the output shaft housing... big deal! Of course you can cut it down, but I'd leave it. Consider it a stone shield for the u-joint...
I don't believe there is any difference between boat motor and auto heads. Or at least not enough to look for car heads.
There's not. AMC only made one casting for the 327 heads. Cam and manifolds were supplied by Grey, not AMC. Basically Grey Marine bought long blocks from AMC.
The carbs are commonly called "dynamite sticks", probably less of a problem in a hoodless roadster than the gas-fume filled bilge of a runabout...
its an A.M.C. or a STUDE. They both had a 327. And they kinda looked the same. re-read some of the threads. if it is a reverse rotation engine. be careful. dont know about A.M.C.s. do know Chrysler reversed the nerel on the crank for the rear main seal. when you put in a normal rotation it pushes oil out!
Gray Marine used AMC GEN-1 V-8s (250 and 327, not sure if they used the 287 -- it didn't come out until 64). As far as I know they never used Studebaker V-8s. The straight six engines were usually Continentals. Gray used a regular 4V on some, but they had that odd low profile dual side draft 2V intake. I think the carbs are Carters (yes, Carter made some side drafts, they even made my chainsaw carb!). Flow path is atrocious, so it's not a performance oriented intake, just what they had to do to keep the profile as low as possible.
Well that is news to me. You learn something every day. I have had 5 Studes. None with 327s. two with 354s. Always thought Stud should have come with Hemis in them. One with a 289 Stude. One with a 383 sbc. And one with a 374 Packard. But I never saw a 327 that didn't start with the general.
Well you do learn something then! The first 327 V-8 was made by AMC. In 1957 (first year) it was used in the big Nash and Hudson models and the Rambler Rebel. The Rebel was the second fastest car at the Daytona new car introductions. The press ran new cars on the beach on a timed course. The only thing that beat the Rebel was a fuel injected Corvette (283). The General didn't make a 327 until 1962, five years later. Just by coincidence the AMC and Chevy 327s both had 4" bores and 3.25" strokes. Either that or Chevy copied AMC for a reason, but I doubt that. Not that the AMC 327 isn't a good engine, but it's not a small block per se. All AMC V-8s (even the late models) have 3.75" bore spacing. That's what the engineers chose for the GEN-1 (250/287/327), and the only thing the GEN-2 (66-69 290/343/390) and GEN-3 (70-91 304/360/401, and a 1970 only 390) inherited from the original V-8. Why? so the same boring equipment could be used, just needed new block jigs and tooling. For the most part engine size similarities are just coincidence. Studebaker and AMC both made a 304 (Stude first), Studebaker and Ford both made a 289 (Stude first again, I believe). Studebaker made a 224, 232, 259, 289, and 304 V-8s. The Packard 352 was used one year in the Hawk. When Stude shut down their US plant and only made a relatively few cars in Canada for 65-66 they used the Chevy 327 (and Chevy sixes). The Avanti II (produced by the Avanti Company with molds from Studebaker) used 327, 350, 400, and 305 Chevy V-8s. Stude never made a V-8 bigger than 304 though. See http://billstudepage.homestead.com/files/engine.htm.
Yeah. I knew AMC made 327s. just news to me that Stude made them. Packard had a 327 before either of them. But it was a flathead straight eight. Why does my spell check hate "flathead"?
I'm looking for some of those Spark arrestors/Air cleaners for my Pontiac that came off from this Grey among others. I'm using 4 of these YH carbs with a Supercharger, there was another earlier set, also marine as I understand that I would like to find even more, photo attached.
My mistake. There was a guy that came to my brothers slot car track from time to time. He had a Avanti. Told us it was a 327. It looked like a regular Stude style engine to me. Are the A.M.C.'s swapable into the Stude? Or was he just BS-ing us?
The Avanti II (made using the Studebaker molds and frames, using the old Stude production facilities, 65-87) used a Chevy 327 early on, later a 350. 400, and even the 305. The Stude model (62-63 only) used the Studebaker 289. The guy probably had his facts mixed up. The AMC engine has a different bell housing bolt pattern than the Stude, so they don't easily swap in -- no more than any other make would.
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