It Does Not Make Enough Power
Recently, I overheard someone asking a question about replacing the F4-134 in his 1952 pickup. I began to wonder what it would take for most of us to leave the stock engine in place. The usual reason that I hear when asking why the engine was replaced is that it did not have enough power. I agree that the L4-134 Go Devil, L6-148 Lightning, F4-134 Hurricane, L6-161 Lightning, F6-161 Hurricane, L6-226 Super Hurricane or the 6-230 Tornado are not high performance engines, or even considered to be of moderate performance.
Engine Performance Specifications
My understanding is that any engine producing more that 1.0 HP per cubic inch is considered to be high performance. The stock Willys engines are rated at about 0.5 HP per cubic inch. The road from 0.5 to 1.0 and beyond is not a straight one – it takes an ever increasing effort to get incremental gains of equal size the further one goes down the road. According to Motor Auto Repair Manual, Sixteenth Edition, Third Printing, 1981:
- The L4-134 develops 106 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 RPM with a 63 HP peak at 4,000 RPM (0.47 HP per cubic inch).
- The L6-148 develops 117 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 RPM with a 70 HP peak at 4,000 RPM (0.47 HP per cubic inch).
- The F4-134 develops 114 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 RPM with a 72 HP peak at 4,000 RPM (0.54 HP per cubic inch).
- The L6-161 develops 117 lb-ft of torque at 1,600 RPM with a 75 HP peak at 4,000 RPM (0.47 HP per cubic inch).
- The F6-161 develops 135 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 RPM with a 90 HP peak at 4,200 RPM (0.56 HP per cubic inch).
- The L6-226 develops 190 lb-ft of torque at 1,400 RPM with a 105 HP peak at 3,600 RPM (0.46 HP per cubic inch).
- The 6-230 develops 210 lb-ft of torque at 1,750 RPM with a 140 HP peak at 4,000 RPM (0.61 HP per cubic inch).
- The 6-230, with its hemi-head is capable of high performance with little effort.
What It Would Take for Me to Keep the Original Super Hurricane Engine
The 226 in my 1960 wagon performs well when the vehicle is driven as designed. However, when I am on the highway traveling at about 55 to 60 mph and want to accelerate to 70 mph, I had better have about 10 miles of straight road, with the wind behind me and preferably going down a hill.
For me to keep my original Super Hurricane it would have to develop 400 lb-ft of torque at about 4,000 RPM with a 300 HP peak at about 5,000 RPM. A nice flat torque curve between two and four thousand RPM would be nice too.
So, what would it take for you to leave (or to have left) your stock Willys engine in place?