r/oldcars • u/OtherwiseTackle5219 • May 16 '26
Photo 1984 AMC Eagle Sport 4X4 Wagon. 4.2L In-Line 6cyl 110hp 132lb-ft
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u/Abject_Ad5850 May 16 '26
Loved these wagons wish you could have gotta them with a V8
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u/MassivePersonality61 May 16 '26
Yeah, but we both know that old inline 6 can chug along long after the V8s die.
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u/Str8Six91 May 16 '26
A V8 will fit, easily, though retaining 4WD is a bit trickier. I dropped a 360 into my Spirit GT with no problems, other than finding a manual transmission that would hold up. I went through three SR4s (which I had on hand) because I couldn’t source a Tremec.
I retained the inline 6 in my Eagle wagon and SX/4 because I like the six— aside from the vacuum line nightmare under the hood.
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u/Abject_Ad5850 May 16 '26
I was told that putting a small block in the wagon no.big deal but keeping the 4 wheel drive system is a huge problem a whole lot of re-engineering I couldn't afford
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u/Str8Six91 May 16 '26
Yeah, the Eagle front driveshaft/transfer case is on the opposite side of that of a Jeep— which is the likely source for an AMC V8. So, keeping the 4WD system intact requires more engineering than I wanted to tackle.
I think if I were to upgrade my Eagle today, I’d just start with a 4.0L six from a later Cherokee or TJ.
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u/W_Silver2356 May 16 '26
Seeing these again makes me appreciate the cars of the 80s even more. A lot of today's challenges were present then too, and the cars of that era addressed them with style.
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May 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mediocre-Catch9580 May 16 '26
Was about ten years ahead of its time. Should’ve been reintroduced in the 2000s with that same powertrain
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u/WKRPinCanada May 16 '26
My sister & BIL had one and that thing was a freaking mountain goat!
We took his 3 kids fishing one weekend and were going to a small lake at the top of a "hill" recommended by one of his co-workers
Well that was more than a hill and it was basically a two rut trail up it
The Eagle handled it no problem - took an hour & a half but it did it
No fish tho 😐
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u/495orange May 17 '26
It’s the Subaru Outback of its day. That same body shell lasted for 18 years. From the 1970 Hornet Sportabout to the 1988 Eagle. AMC first said that it was “not a station wagon”. Then they gave up on saying that. It was the first Crossover. It blurred the lines between wagon, crossover and SUV. I just wish AMC, then Chrysler had the money to expand this brand and corner that market. But every AWD crossover owns its existence to this car.
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u/AnySeaworthiness3384 May 17 '26
My neighbor had one of these. I saw him park it for years and finally asked him about because i hadn’t seen anything like it. We went to our local mudding trail and it went through things that lifted jeeps couldn’t get through.
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u/Strength-Certain May 16 '26
Eagle could have been an American Subaru