Our Facebook Marketplace gem today is a 1974 AMC Gremlin X for sale over in Buffalo, New York. Asking price is a staggering $12,900 but, get this, it's not really that far above what these are going for these days. Granted, that kind of money is for unmolested or mostly unmolested originals and this one is far from original. While I don't like to blog about cars I've already written about, you can read my past Gremlin soliloquies here and here, this Gremlin has enough uniqueness I've deemed it worthy of another go-round.
Like me, no doubt the first thing you notice about our Gremlin here, aside from the comically large rear tires, is its lack of a hood and that trucker stack sticking up out of the engine room.
The stack is bolted to a swapped in, Jeep 4.0-liter, inline six-cylinder engine that someone, no idea if it's the poster of the ad, added an aftermarket turbocharger to. Sadly, the post has little information about the turbo; I could message them about it, but my experience has been folks selling a car on Facebook have little interest in answering questions from some car blogger about what they're peddling. Besides, if I do and they don't like what I write about their car, they'll come after me wanting my head on a whip antenna.
Anyway, even without the turbo, heck, even without the damn car, the Jeep four-point-oh deserves a blog of its own. It was a heck of an engine.
Developed by American Motors just prior to their being acquired by Chrysler, the 4.0 evolved from another legendary AMC engine, their 258 cubic-inch (4.2-liter) inline six. The 4.0 was known for its power, tractor-like torque, fuel economy, durability and longevity. Popular Mechanics noted years ago that the engine was as reliable as a block of wood. Chrysler built the engine through model year 2006.
I'd have just swapped in the 4.0 rather than "turbo it", the turbo the ointment that scares the tread of my tires. Well, aside from this being a Gremlin.
As great as an engine as the 4.0 was, it was never intended to be turbocharged. And putting a turbocharger on an engine, while back in the day may have been little more than a literal "bolt-on", today requires considerable knowledge and a deft hand to tune it properly; there's a lot, I mean, a lot that can go wrong. Not just with the turbo, but the added stress the turbo loads onto the engine can make things go sideways.
With around 190-horsepower, an un-boosted 4.0 would have made this thing go like stunk seeing it weighed maybe 2,600-pounds with the 5.0-liter V-8 it was born with. The complexity and drama of the turbo doesn't seem worth the hassle. In addition of having to find a shop to work on it if you weren't a turbo head yourself, where would you drive this thing anyway?
1974 AMC Gremlin X ( real X trim ). Southern car its entire life until shipped up here. No rust or rot anywhere, all original metal. Only driven in summer months to shows and for fun. Some body filler, paint is single stage. Alot of time and effort went into redoing this car, all of the modifications done to it have been done in a way that can be removed and the car made to be stock again minus the 4.0 swap. An extra hood comes with it with the intention to cut a hole in it for the hood exit exhaust as the original hood is perfect and comes with the car. In addition, a normal exhaust system can be run exiting downward if desired, or put back to stock. The front bumper has been removed for cosmetic reasons but is in perfect condition and comes with the car also. Ebrake works perfectly, every light and feature on the car works as it should also. Car is NYS inspected and on the road currently. Many extra parts included not mentioned here.
$12,900.
