What "Classic" AMT Kits Had Interchangeable Engines?

[Snake45]

So...you want to know which engines will swap around between recent Revell kits with NO surgery whatsoever? Like drop-ins?

Sounds like a good topic for another thread.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I don't really understand the premise of the thread.

Several of the ancient AMT kits had engines that would swap around fairly easily due to the similarity among engine mounts, etc. Some were simple drop-in swaps, some took varying degrees of surgery to perform.

[Greg Myers]

Lots of good stuff here. Too bad we lost some photos. 

[Casey]

On 10/12/2014 at 12:53 PM, Art Anderson said:

I'm not altogether sure that AMT's designers back in those early days really considered "interchangeability" all that much when they started out with the Trophy Series, but it sure did turn out to be very much the case. Had such interchangeability been planned from the get-go, it seems to me that it would have been advertised from the get-go

[Russell C]

MCM library of info to the rescue. I got this really old buildup in an eBay auction a few years ago, figured it was about time to clean it up and give it a second life (will post a restoration thread soon), but the engine didn't have its exhaust headers and I was wondering what the right ones were. It didn't look like the usual Buick or Pontiac optional V8s in the ancient AMT '40 Ford kits series that I was at least a little bit familiar with. Courtesy of this thread, where our man "Snake45" said a decade ago via his page 1 list, this must be the 6-carb small block Chevy from the '32 Ford 5-window kit. Except it seems to have the pulley setup from the '40 Ford kit Buick engine option. Among the assortment of random AMT customizing parts that came with this buildup, I'm guessing the original builder had the '59 Corvette headers on this engine. Or at least minimally, they'd be the right ones to put on it.

 

[Chris V]

On 10/11/2014 at 7:18 PM, Snake45 said:

Okay, lets see if I have these straight. Please feel free to correct me if any of these are wrong. Here are the optional V8 engines in the Fords:

 

'25 T, All variants:--Lincoln

 

'28 Ford Tudor—Mopar 413 (Hat tip to Greg Myers!)

 

'29 Ford—Baby Hemi? (354)

 

'32 Ford 5-window: Small Block Chevy

 

'32 Ford Phaeton—427 Ford

 

'32 Ford Victoria—427 Ford?

 

'32 Ford Roadster—Chrysler FirePower Hemi

 

'34 Ford Pickup—Ford Thunderbird (Hat tip to rmvw!)

 

'36 Ford—Pontiac

 

'39-'40 Sedan—Olds

 

'40 Ford Coupe—Buick

 

'49 Ford—Cadillac (not sure this kit was part of this swap program) 

 

Any others?

 

AMT's 1949 and '50 Fords have a different, more detailed, style of engine assemblies compared to the "interchangeable" Trophy Series engines with the distinct mounting tabs molded into the engine block. 

In addition to the engines above, the following are designed in the same style, and can be adapted to fit the kits:

AMT Customizing Boat Kit - Lincoln Y-block (The engine does not have a transmission, but the transmission and bellhousing from the '34 Ford Pickup "Thunderbird" engine lines up perfectly with the block)

AMT 1953 Studebaker Starliner - Chrysler "Fire Power" 392 Hemi   

Furthermore it can debated if the Hemi engines in AMT's "Double Dragster", the recently retooled '63 Nova Wagon, and the "Boss Nova" Wagon belong to the same "family" of AMT engines. If I remember correctly, the "Boss Nova" was created by combining parts from the original '63 Nova Wagon with the  Hemi display-engine from the '61 Buick Wagon.