Melon - thanks for directing to this site. I the interest so more than happy to talk about the engine and vehicle build - but not sure where to start - as you know it's complicated.
I bought my Jeep in 1977. I saw it sitting near the Mason Street exit off I80 in Vacaville, CA. My brother-in-law owed a '49 (289 engine) so I decided to buy it for $700. How I managed to keep it all these years, through life stuff, is nothing short of amazing.
It was in very good condition, never having been molested. I think an electric wiper motor and spare tire rack bolted to the tail gate were the only two modifications. It was good at doing what it was designed to do; move from one place to another at a respectably slow pace of about 55 mph, accelerate from 50 to 60 over the distance of a mile or so as long as the road was flat, and kick butt off-road. It was my daily driver and I never tired of the comments about its uniqueness.
However, I was tiring of its performance. I wanted to go fast but I didn't what to modify the looks (too much) of my Willys. I consider the engine to be a vehicle's DNA. Once the engine is removed, the vehicle is just a host. Than meant I needed to do something with the engine.
After much studying (1984 to 1986) of flat head engines (there is a long story here but I'll spare you) I concluded that a Continental L6-226 was capable of 300 hp at around 5,500 rpm and about 400 lb-ft of torque around 3,500 rpm. That's a long way from the factory rating of 105 hp @ 3,600 rpm and 190 lb-ft @ 1,400 rpm. There really was a lot of studying but in the end the 300 hp goal that I pulled out of a dark place just simply sounded good!
I started getting serious about the project in 2003. It took the better part of two years to find someone that would take me seriously.
Uncommon Engineering in Indianapolis agreed to take on the project. There are some early photos of the engine on his site.
The engine work started in April, 2006 and I brought it home in July, 2012. It didn't say finished because it took one more year to get the vehicle ready for the engine and another year of work before it was ready to start for the first time.
Here is a list of things done to the engine -Edmunds aluminum cylinder head, 0.100" overbore, 0.425" stroker crank, dual sync distributor, closed loop efi, full flow oil conversion, larger intake and exhaust valves (1.7” & 1.5” vs 1.5” & 1.375”), port and combustion chamber work, tuned intake & exhaust, sequential port fuel injection, high(er) flow water pump, custom steel main caps, custom solid lifters, custom cam grind, ATI Super Dampener, twin Paxton SN60 blowers, ARP 2000 head studs.
In order to even come close to the engine performance goals it was necessary to consider the engine as a system. Nothing was done without fully exploring the impact a particular change would have on other engine components. In some areas the design became a series of trade offs. Anything could have been done but there were project constraints such as reliability/longevity (time between failures) and time.
You can read about the engine build (and vehicle build)
Old Willys Forum in excruciating detail so I won't redo it here.
It's still not finished and there are several things that I would do differently if I were to do this again.
Melon posted a photo but here are a couple more
engine photos .
Here are some
vehicle photos.
Thanks for your interest and I look forward to reading about and looking at your work and ideas.
