Inliners International Forums General Discussion AMC/JEEP Rambler 196 OHV Cam Timing

Well I'm finally installing a Galvins RV cam in my little 196.
First Step is to measure the original cam....This is in 1965
motor with about 25,000 original miles...I'll include the RV cam
spec's for comparison..
Measurements @ .050"

........ Stock .................. RV
Lift Intake .383" .......... . .410"
Exhaust .383" .......... .... .410"
Duration 210 degrees..... 202 degrees

So, the RV cam has about .027" more lift and 8 degrees less duration. I'm taking .040" from the head surface also. This should give a 9.35/1 compression ratio. Stock is 8.6/1 I'm hoping for 10 to 15 more HP @ 2,500 to 3,000 rpm with these mods.

hi! long time no here for me.

i have one of doug's cams; i'm very happy with it. in there two years now. though i admit it scares me to do so, it happily revs to 5000, pulling all the way.

the specs i have are here, scroll down a bit: http://www.wps.com/AMC/195.6OHV/index.html

i think Doug gave me those numbers; did the cam change? did i post stock lift by accident? cam vs. valve?


I am skeptical about a lot of auto lore and assumptions. but after farting around with distributors, and having no luck getting them to dance right, i switched to a distributorless EDIS system, i was shocked at how much the engine improved, both at speed and at *idle*. I most-enthusiatically suggest ditching that crappy, old, worn-out distributor. Id' given mine as much attention as you can give a thing that old, and irreplacable.

Tom,

Glad to see a post from ya... I put Iridium plugs in my 196
and picked up a few mph on a grade....I'm quite happy with my
Delco/Petronix distributor... Those NGK plugs surprised me
though... I thought I had the Weber, spot on....Obviously,NOT!
Plugs shouldn't make any power increase, UNLESS other variables
are less than optimum...Anyway, I'm still waiting to get the
head back from the machine shop....In the mean time, I'll degree
the Galvins cam and see if it matches the cam spec sheet.

Oh, I also found two oil leaks I didn't even know about...The
oil line fitting into the front of the head was cracked..It was
putting oil in the #1 spark plug pocket AND the headgasket was
leaking oil at the R/R.. I had assumed the valve cover was the
problem......Wrong again! The wire trick and silicone had the
valve cover sealed up really good.

Suprise on me....

The Galvins "RV" cam is installed and dial indicated...All new
valves and a .040" mill job on the head....Just got done
indicating the cam....Everything ready for startup except for
installing the valve cover............
Guess what? The fricken cam dials in with the same spec's as
the stock cam... .382" lift....The cam card says .409" valve
lift...........Somehow I was shipped a stock replacement cam
with an RV cam card....Doug Galvin will make good on the cam
but, what a waste of labor.........Some days you eat the bear.
Some days the bear eats you.......
One last thing....a valve lift of .410" is pretty much the limit
with stock springs and guides...Coil bind occurs at .450" with
stock springs...Something to keep in mind..

Recieved another "RV" cam from Galvins....Same as stock again.
Returned it..I sent a good "core" cam to Elgin's yesterday with
info on what I'm interested in....No big monster cam...Just a
.020" cut off the heel of each lob... That would give .275" peak
cam lift, .412" peak valve lift and an honest .400" valve lift
with valve lash adjusted.... So far the ignition and carburetion
were easy.... The cam upgrade however, well I hope it's worthwhile, because it sure ain't easy...I just wanna drive my inline and not be hassled by "The Man".

wow, what a PITA on your cam. i think you'll be happy when you get it though.

yeah, it's not exactly a performance head!

I just got off the phone with D.Elgin...There is just enough
meat on a core cam for the following:
Duration @ .050" 214@.050
Peak cam lift .267"
Peak valve lift .400"
Intake lift w/lash .388"

A nice, reseasonable RV type grind...All stock valve train except
for the cam...

I'll post again after the cam is installed and I can evaluate it's performance...I'm hoping for a 10 to 15 hp increase over
the stock 138 hp.

Hi All,

The cam is installed and testing has begun.. And the bottom
line......The cam and compression work as anticipated! The engine runs exactly the same between 1,200 and 2,000 rpm...It
has a slight increase between 2K and 3,000 and above 3K it's like having a 20 mph tailwind..

I did fix a screwup while I
had the valve cover off.... The new grade 5, SAE washers I used
under the headbolts are about 1/16" larger on the O.D. This is
just enough to cause the V/C gasket to not seat completely at the
rear of the head...No room back there to see the resulting leak.
After machining the O.D. of the offending washer, the motor is
now leak free..

The mighty Rambler engine now breathes a little deeper and can
hold her own on "boiling point" grade..

That sounds good. What a neat Jeep. Have you had it in the dirt yet. I bet you'll see improvement there.

Beater, these trucks are pretty awful, off road..Weak drivetrain
and the chassis is too long with too much overhang..But, it
does pretty good on snow and fire roads..I mostly use the transfer case "low" on the 4th of July in our parade..I'll crawl
at idle @ 2 mph..The grand kids like to sit in the bed on hay
bales...Anyway, I much prefer 2 wheels for off road..I'm glad
somebody likes my repaired junker... My next two "repairs"
are the roof dents and adding loads of dynamat..

Well it's been quite a while and today I'm stuck in bed with a banged up leg so here's an update. In the past 11 months I've
hammered out the roof dents and have a good base coat of Krylon
Chevy Orange engine paint on it...No dents visible from 5 feet.

I dyna-matted the area under the seats, behind the seats and the back of the cab. Then I covered it all with grey, indoor/outdoor carpet from Homo Depot.. I still need to do the
inside of the firewall and floor in front of the seat.. Right now these areas are covered with carpet which is over 3/32" thick
synthetic rubber..

In another post, I am posting my new project of installing a bigger Rambler engine, T5 trans and Dana 300 transfer case. I hope to have this one done by Christmas...

"Chopped and channeled. Lowered and louvered. Cheater slicks and baby moons........She's hot and ready"......Stolen from Young Tom Waits...I just had to throw that in....

This was a test of photo bucket. Despite being unable to contact the webmaster, I may still go ahead and post photos of the repower to a Jeep 258/T5/Dana 300 and newer 1962 axles (with the much more desirable 4.88 ratio's. The preceding photo is of the
teardown and removal of the 196 cylinder head last year.. I had the head milled .040" and installed an Elgin regrind cam.