So I just received a call from a guy who is the original owner of a 1981 SX/4 With the GM I4 that's a 4-speed.He was see if i am interested in buying it. The guy gave a great story on the car from when he bought it in 81' from the towns local AMC dealer at the end of the year clearance sale they only had 3 left on the lot one was a Wagon and 2 SX/4 one Auto and the other one was a 4 speed so he bought the 4-speed SX/4. He's drove to to and from work for years. I have even seen the guy driving it around town before.The eagle has 142,000 on it and comes with all the paper work and a few extra parts new tires. He even said its got a full tank of gas!!!.When i was on the phone with the guy the deal just kept getting better and better the car has such a cool history. He's retiring and wants it to go to a good home and hardly wants any thing for it .The car only has a little dent on the driver side and its sorta a bummer it being a GM I4. But that's what it came with so its fine with me. I have always wanted an SX/4 .It will be so sweet with my 2 Javelins and Rambler. :amc: :eaglebig:
the gm iron duke is a pretty good little motor for fuel economy and they last a good long time. best of luck with it and welcome to the nest
Welcome, and we would like to see lots of pictures and hear more of the story.
not seen many 4cly sx4's and the little duke is a good engine and can be built up quite nice ,, heck my fiero running horrible is getting 25 mpg!!
Cool deal that the owner actually reached out to you, trying to give the car a good home. Check for subframe rustout in the usual places like where the front subframe joins the body subframe.
The Iron Duke is not a bad engine, it was just saddled with the worst emissions-limiting crap like a tiny carb and a smog pump. If the car is pretty clean, you could look into swapping the throttle body fuel injection setup from another GM application that shared that engine. A final bonus, the 4 cylinder Eagles came with lower axle gear ratios(numerically higher) than the 6 cyl cars, so the car already has 3.55 gears, making it a hot rod if you were to swap in a 6cyl or V8. If the car is pretty rough, you might consider it just for the gearing. Save every 4cyl front axle you can come across, since a 4 cyl front axle swap is pretty much the only way to get lower gears into the front end of an Eagle.
Hey, blondedriver, I'm finally getting back to putting your gold car back together. I'll have to start a new projuct thread, since my old thread disappeared when the new look came to the Nest. Good to see you're still around here.
My 4 Cyl. Iron Duke in my SX/4 is the worst engine I have ever seen. I don't want to harp on it too bad here, but when you go 0-60 mph in 41 seconds... It's kinda hard not to... :-\
Hard to believe GM put these in Camaros ::) :rotfl:
Quote from: amc78concord on July 11, 2011, 12:07:26 PM
My 4 Cyl. Iron Duke in my SX/4 is the worst engine I have ever seen. I don't want to harp on it too bad here, but when you go 0-60 mph in 41 seconds... It's kinda hard not to... :-\
Hard to believe GM put these in Camaros ::) :rotfl:
Yeah. They are a horrible motor power wise.
A buddy of mine had a firebird with one, and it was faster walking.
Quote from: amc78concord on July 11, 2011, 12:07:26 PM
Hard to believe GM put these in Camaros
Not all Camaros were performance cars, unfortunately. Even back in the '60s you could get a stripped down six-banger Camaro. Ditto for the Mustang and others.
Just say "Berlinetta" to a die-hard Camaro guy and watch the reaction. ;D
Quote from: amc78concord on July 11, 2011, 12:07:26 PM
My 4 Cyl. Iron Duke in my SX/4 is the worst engine I have ever seen. I don't want to harp on it too bad here, but when you go 0-60 mph in 41 seconds... It's kinda hard not to... :-\
Hard to believe GM put these in Camaros ::) :rotfl:
Well hopefully, the 4 speed will wake it up a little, or at least make it more tolerable.
in all honesty I really like the little iron duke. where it's not the quickest engine out there it make up for it with fuel economy (in a spirit at least). My opinion could however change after I get my kammback back on the road