Inliners International Forums General Discussion AMC/JEEP Rambler 195.6 OHV six, update, EDIS wasted spark,

The head will easily take a 0.040" cut. I've had to have 0.030" off just to clean up a warped one before. If you get up to 10:1 compression you can forget a turbo, and you will have to run premium fuel. I wouldn't go over 9:1. What you really need for more power is a better cam. I had Lunati regrind one for me years ago. I just told them I wanted "a little more pep". They added 0.10" lift and 20 degrees duration. That did nothing for the low end, but as long as I kept the engine in the 1800-3000 range it really woke up! So it had great cruising and passing power, still took a bit of time to get up to around 40-45 mph where it had all the extra power. Galvin's (www.ramblerparts.com) now sells a reground cam that is supposed to come in a lot sooner, more like 1000 rpm... a towing "RV" grind. I think Tom is running that one.

If you want to turbo it you would be better off to REDUCE compression and dial in the boost to suit performance. Remember, boost is just about the same as adding compression.

Other than Tom I'm the only one I know who has put much into one of these engines. There just isn't a whole lot possible without major reengineering and $$$$. No other heads will fit from any other engine, it's in a world all it's own. It was derived from the small Nash L-head and many parts interchange with those, but the block casting was changed to accomodate the OHV configuration and the head is a special design just for that motor (can't put that head on an L-head block!).

I don't know about the 4.0L rods being stronger than the forged 196 rods. They are most likely lighter, especially than the earlier 196 rods (late model... 64-65... appear to be a different forging that is lighter than earlier, but I haven't looked a lot into that). I've only had 63-65 models myself.

DEFINITELY use the cooling mod Tom has devised! I never got into trying to fix any problems like that. I don't know if using studs is a fix for the head bolt creep (loosening over time) or not. Sounds good, and I thought about it, but never did because I'm just not willing to risk loosing the head (good ones are hard to find!) due to not retorquing the head every 2-3 years or 10-12K miles. The bolts are good for that (I've run as much as 14K, but only a couple times over a 14 year period), so I didn't bother with replacing them with studs. In theory the cooling mod along with studs should eliminate the problem, but what if it doesn't?