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| 1963 Rambler 195.6 OHV with E-Stick clutch (there's a reason why you've never seen one of those...) |
When American Motors Corporation was formed by the merger of Nash and Hudson, the new AMC Rambler cars were built with Nash-designed engines; a V-8 in two displacements (287 and 327 cubic inch) and the venerable L-head six, a design dating back to the 1930's, in its largest and final displacement, 195.6 cubic inches. AMC then warmed over the L-head design to create an overhead-valve motor of the same displacement, sharing most of it's parts with it's L-head progenitor. The block retains the L-head's distributor hole (complete with welch plug) and the side-valve access covers (which now provide a view of the pushrods and a gasket to leak).
And in 1961 [YEAR?] AMC produced an aluminum version of the OHV motor, again sharing displacements and most bottom-end parts, but equipped with hydraulic valves. This engine was not popular, was deemed unreliable, and is now rarely seen.
That's three distinct engines sharing the same displacement, in case you had not noticed. Explaining this situation at the local parts store is not easy.
The worst thing about this engine is that it has been all but forgotten. The second worst thing about this engine are design problems in the cylinder head, regarding cooling and sealing, both interrelated. Luckily these seem to be easily fixed.
This article started when I first got this 1963 Rambler American hardtop with 195.6 OHV engine, in 2007. I'd not owned or wrenched one before; I had an L-head American in the middle 1970's.
There is not a lot of technical information on this engine, on the web or in print. This engine also has the dubious honor of having not one single aftermarket/performance part made for it, ever.
In 2010 I undertook a full overhaul of the engine after I found coolant in the oil one morning. The engine was clearly previously rebuilt, likely in the 1980's or before, and I overhauled the head in 2007. Since the head was "new" and I was careful with sealing and recommended retorquing I was alarmed at the mixed fluids and set out to find the root problem.
Some of the links below are to subject pages that I'd created before the overhaul, but the bulk of them are from the overhaul and subsequent 'hop up' -- I took the opportunity of a complete teardown to try out some ideas for improving this motor, such as fixing the head-cooling issue, full-flow oil filtration, carburetion and camming for a boost in performance, and some small classic hop up improvements to internals.
