written by Frank Swygert 04-07-2026
These car are all basically the same chassis. Nash built the first 1950 Rambler around their smallest engine at the time, the 172.6 L-head six that first appeared in the 1941 Nash Ambassador 600. I mean they literally built the car around that engine! The car was designed to be a small car and they meant to make it as small as practical. It’s a good thing they didn’t make a four cylinder at the time! The engine specific to those models uses a shorter water pump than others. The same basic L-head engine was used in the much larger Nash Statesman in 184 and 195.6 displacements — same bore, longer strokes, same external block dimensions. Parts freely interchange amongst the three.
Right now all I have is this article: SBC in 1954 Nash Rambler. It has all the basic information needed. I’ll add more as I get time!