1960 AMC Rambler

Well, uh, I needed something long enough to throw a surfboard in, so I'm getting a 60 Rambler Wagon i6 in the next week or two!

Was wondering if anyone here has any experience with these or something similiar. Seems to be fairly simple engine, only advice I've been given is to re-torque the headgasket once a year.

Haven't been able to find any website like this for AMC, makes me appreciate fordsix.com even more.

Thanks- Johnny

For AMC related stuff try this out.
www.amcforums.com
A bunch of AMC nuts that are as good as the Ford guys here!

I overhauled two of those engines a long time ago. Simple, even crude, but tough. Hard to build for high performance, mostly because they have the intake manifold cast into the head, but you can improve them a bit without spending much or any money, if you have some shop-skills and a little time.
The combustion chambers are hilariously rough and malformed, but you can carve away the unwanted ledges and projections with your port-grinding kit. You will remove so much metal that you'll drop the compression, so you'll want to check the volumes and mill the head and block deck accordingly (do the block first, to get a .038-.042" squish, then check the cc's).
The exhaust system is as crude as on most old American-made sixes. I don't suppose there are any aftermarket headers available, but if you or a buddy can weld, that's no problem. J.C. Whitney will sell you the exhaust U-bends. You section them with a hacksaw to get the curves you want while your buddy welds them up. You'll only be out the price of the U-bends, a pizza, beer, and a few lap-dances at the local dive.
The intake can't be made into anything impressive, beyond altering it to take a 2-bbl progressive-opening carb. Oh, you could saw it off, braze some flanges on the head, and weld up a good bolt-on manifold, I suppose. But the engine will make acceptable street torque without going that far.
Johnny, I expect that all you want is to get to the beach and back without car trouble. But if you wanted to have a distinctive ride like no one else's, you sure have the makings of one in that old Rambler. I'm a contrarian, and I hardly ever look at the three dozen SBC cars that show up at the local cruise, or even the smaller number of 340 Mopars, 302 Fords, or other varieties that are so common and so well-supported by the aftermarket. I like the old, the obscure, the wierd! But not restorations; I like creative hot-rodding. My very nice, lightly hopped-up '64 Rambler American coupe (which I gave to my sister), and wagon (which went to my brother), are long-gone now, and I have owned what most guys would say are much cooler cars in the intervening years. But I wish I had hung on to one or both of the old Rumblers!

I'm with you, I like the oddball cars, personality. As cool as mopar/muscle can be, it's not my thing. Late 50's - early 60's space-age auto design IS!

Thanks for the valuable info, I should have the Rambler this week, can't wait to get my hands on it

I'm real familiar with Ramblers -- especially the old (and new) sixes. If you run into any problems drop me a line!

As stated, the old 196 isn't a hot rod. Best thing you can do is put a 2" exhaust and turbo muffler on it. The head pipe is 1-7/8", cut it just before the factory muffler and stick a short length of 2" pipe over it, then run a 2" tailpipe on the other end of the muffler. It won't be loud, but you can hear it (can't with the stock huge muffler an 1-1/4" tailpipe!). The next thing to do is open up that air breather! I cut the 2" snorkel off, cut the hold bigger, and riveted a squashed (into an oval) 4" can to the bigger hole. With the rounded edge the can looked factory after I sealed it to the breather with paintable caulk and painted the thing. Those two mods will get you about 15 hp, just enough to notice! The next step is to find a factory 2V carb. You could make a new plate from 1/4" aluminum and adapt another carb, but common 2V carbs from US cars won't fit. The carb has to sit close to the valve cover. You might find a narrow carb on a Japanese four cylinder. That engine only flows about 250 cfm flat out, so a 2.0L - 2.5L four carb will be big enough. After that you can have the camshaft reground. I had 0.10" more lift and 20 degrees more duration added. Didn't change bottom end at all, but gave it about 20 hp in mid range -- had a little hill pulling and passing power after that!

It's a long stroke small bore engine -- it will seem a bit lazy to take off, and there's nothing you can do to change it. More gear won't help a thing, just make it run more rpm at speed. It takes a bit of time to build rpm, but it produces great torque right off idle. It will move the car even if you don't give it enough gas -- the engine will just lug and slowly build up speed. It's hard to choke down and won't jerk like modern cars. It's good to learn to drive a stick on for that reason -- it's the only stick shift my ex wife could ever drive!

Hey, glad you checked in, Frank! I saw a gorgeous '66 American 440 coupe a while ago that really got me interested in another Rumbler. And I've always thought I'd like to have a Pacer wagon, so I could drive it around while wearing a propeller-beanie and winking eyeglasses. Glad we have an AMC ace now.

Hi, just signed up. About to put my 195.6OHV powered Rambler American (63 hardtop, 2 bbl carb, floor shifted 3 speed with OD) on the road. Valves were gummed up from bad gas (duh, should have drained and cleaned FIRST...!), bottom end unknown but looks OK. Car was someone's parts car, fairly rough overall, but it's cleaning up nicely and almost ready to go.

The odo says 69,000, it's probably right. Motor has a REBUILT tag, but the crankcase seems dirty and that rebuild was many years ago! It runs great with the new head, but who knows what shape the lower end is in... I'll find out in the next few months.

If it does need an overhaul (or replacement), what with the tiny engine compartment and expense of a hard-to-find-parts motor, the Falcon Six looks like a good candidate for a swap instead of a rebuild, should I end up needing that, since it's so short. I'm just doing a bit of advance planning... bought the Schjeldahl FORD PERF. BOOK (really nice book!) to read up on it... nice motor! Amusing that it has the same cast-in manifold biz too. It sure would be nice to be able to buy parts!

I do like inlines though, especially old ones, and weird ones. There's nothing like the sound of a motor you had a hand on all the innards on!

Had a 1959 and a 1960 Rambler wagon during the 60s. At that time, I had a young family, so they were both kept stock, but were very easy to maintain and very reliable.
Fred