232 rebuild questions

kronik wrote: Thanks for all the great info everyone. I think I’m going keep the 232 head that I have. I thought I read something about an oiling issue due to a narrow passage which can be solved by modifying a head bolt? Can somebody please explain. How much should I remove from the head to achieve 9.5 CR? Considering I might use a cam with lift in the low .500s... I don’t want to take off too much. As far as intake goes, I think I will use an offy 4 barrel or an 80s aluminum 2 barrel at least. I can’t upgrade the cam without doing the intake and exhaust. Exhaust will be replaced with some type of header hopefully. Can’t seem to find much for the driver side starter though.

I can't say I ever had a 232 oiling issue............ 

Yeah, the 4.0 head is better but geesh, good grief - the 232 ain't a big engine, and it's smaller than either the 258 or 242 (4.0) so really what would be gained? The engine is a pump and adding a fantastic head with all these abilities to a small engine isn't going to gain that much - port match, etc. and you'll gain without the hassle. Move to better intake design, better exhaust manifold design, and in doing so you LIGHTEN the whole car - there's a gain for ya!

If you take anything off the head, as mentioned, you have to also reduce the push rod length IF you kept all else the same.  Take off .024 like I did on my 4.0 and you would need to shorten the push rods by that much, IF all else was THE SAME. If you change anything else, such as cam, then you start from scratch on push rods. 
I was told on a 4.0 that taking off .024 would change compression "roughly half a point" IF I recall the machinist correctly and he'd done a lot of those heads. 
Changes to head (shaving) cam or valve train will require you check and set the lifter preload. No, I do not mean "adjustable valve lash" or adjustable lifters, I mean all hydraulic tappet engines of these eras have a preload - the lifter plunger was pushed down .xx - it wasn't that the lash was barely removed, it means the lifter plunger was depressed so many thousandths of an inch!
You also want the rocker arm to swipe the valve stem in a certain way, so the peak pressure and time occur with the rocker arm centered on the valve stem end. Otherwise you load the valve stem sideways and cause a lot of wear, friction, etc. and lose valve train efficiency. 
You will need to set lifter preload and make sure the rockers hit the valves in the correct places. I know, some will say "BS you don't need to do all that" but they are just tossing and hoping and having good luck. the CORRECT way that a professional will do it is to set both and do it right. I swapped to a Comp cam (great 6 cyl cams) and roller rockers and shaved the head on my 4.0 and did it all - shimming the rockers, choosing push rods, and more.
All of this applies to any engine - 232, 258, 4.0, whatever.

If you swap intakes, a good exhaust to consider is the 1981 and later stock exhaust manifold. It's similar to the V8 moving from a log to a free flow manifold in a way - it's sleeker and more smooth in the curves, far more efficient. The 1981+ intake will be 2bbl, will have water heating and an electric heater underneath the middle. It will require either a manual choke or moving to an electric choke as you will no longer have the ability to heat the choke. 
So whatever you do, headers, later exhaust, different intake, whatever, you'll have other changes to make. And if you go electric choke, do like AMC did in the 80s - run the choke power through a different oil pressure switch so it's only powered when the engine is running....... otherwise when you turn the key on it starts opening the choke, engine running or not. 

Checking rocker to valve contact area, black sharpie marker....... I used shims under the rocker pedestals. I ended up with perfect lifter preload and the rockers pretty well running centered across the valves. 

I had Clifford Research headers on my 68 232. Everything was a close fit as they are really intended for JEEPS - and the clutch linkage clearance was a particular problem. I had to grind linkage and use a ball-peen hammer on the header tubes in a couple of spots. Ugh. I think Jeep was the only reason headers ever really even existed for the AMC 6s. This means - good luck. 

I’m seeing starters advertised to fit the inline 6s and the v8s both. I didn’t know the they were the same. Is there a difference in the passenger vs driver starters? They must rotate a different direction right? Or can you “clock” the body of the starter to fit either side?

Engines turn the same way so it doesn't matter where around the circumference of the ring gear the starter goes.

On the early 232's the oil goes from the long horizontal oil gallery to the cam bearings. To get to the top it has to go around the second to last cam bearing and then up another small gallery to the head.

It wasn't just the 232 engine that was good in winter, the rest of the 65 Rambler was too. We took it out after a heavy fresh snowfall and got quite a few miles in on a logging road before spinning out up a hill. Better snow tires or chains would have gotten us through.

Plan B, go back for the Land Rover. Following the same tracks it didn't get in but a couple of miles before the engine quit. A look inside the engine compartment revealed snow packed to the underside of the hood and that the Lucas electrics had not like that. It took quite a lot of digging to get it cleaned out and started again to turn around for home.

Sigh. Thanks guys.