230 Tornado - What to look for

BrokeJeepNut

BrokeJeepNut

Well Oiled
Mar 8, 2012
1,090
Woodland, WA
First Name
Eric
Willys Model
  1. Pickup
Willys Year:
  1. 1962
A coworker is going to look at a bone stock Wagon with the 230 tornado which is one thing I am unfamiliar with. It's a beautiful wagon for the price, under $5k. A relative of another coworker is selling it. If he doesn't buy it I might. What are the common issues with them? What should he look/listen for? I may go with him as I am familiar with these rigs. Any other major differences with the 230 wagons? Wasn't the steering different?

Thanks,

BrokeJeepNut
 
Steering is reversed, axle ratios different. Battery box, firewall, radiator all different. Ken is right on, air cleaner is a hard to find piece.
diggerG
 
Stock air cleaner is missing. Thanks for the info guys. Is the top speed higher with the 230 than my 226?
 
230 powered wagons typically had 4.10 gears as opposed to the 4.27 gears in 226 rigs. The 230 used the same bottom end as the 226 so I wouldn't rev one any higher.
 
I had a 1965 gladiator truck with the 230 back in the early 1970's. Engine was shot. Every time I filled up with gas I put in a quart of oil. I'd check compression unless you're planning on rebuilding or swapping.

From the following site (http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/06/classic-engine-jeeps-tornado-straight-six.html:

"On the ugly side were the problems with oil consumption and leaking issues seen mostly in the engine's early days. They were relatively easy to fix, both under warranty and in production. Because of the oil consumption and owners not checking the oil until it was too late, a relatively high number of engine failures were reported. Word spread, and even though the issues were largely solved by the next model year, the bad rap followed, and it has stuck to this day. The engine's relative complexity compared with the standard American engine of the day was also an issue for the less well-trained mechanics.

The Tornado didn't die when it was dropped from the lineup in 1965. Its design and tooling was transferred to Industries Kaiser Argentina (or IKA), which also had ties with AMC and Renault. The engine was used in the Torino, a Rambler American clone. With only a few upgrades, the engine was sold at a standard 155-hp level, and an Interceptor version with three side-draft DCOE Weber two-barrels made 176 hp. An economy 181-cubic-inch version (3.34-inch bore and 3.44-inch stroke) was built as well. In 1973, the lower end was upgraded to seven-main configuration, and by the time the engine was discontinued in 1982, there were 215-hp versions floating around. It was used extensively in racing, and it even garnered a few international victories."
 
My opinion - not a known fact but it just makes sense - is the higher speed is why they changed the steering. The parts book also lists a 3.54 gear for the Wagon so I believe a lot came with that. The Tornado was testing at 155 hp in the SAE paper on the engine and they said they would rate it at 140 because of being conservative, so regardless it was a huge step up in power from the 226, so it could pull the higher gear. I think that's when they figured out the steering link attached right to the knuckle in the same plane as the suspension movement was only a fair idea. The old steering was fine at 45 or 50 mph, but not as good at 70 or 80. Be interesting to know how fast a 3.54 geared Tornado wagon could go, and if it was stable. If anyone was that brave (stupid?).
 
I have a couple of buddies with Tornado equipped pickups and wagons. They say with overdrive 75-80 is very achievable. One cruises at 75 all the time in his. He claims he's hit 90 in it.

There were numerous tech bulletins on these motors to fix the issues. By late 1964, most of them had been corrected with tapping more bolts into the front cover for more clamping force. The top piston ring was changed as were the valve stem seals.

The steering system was upgraded to the FC style, however, if the vehicle had a front pto driven winch, the old style steering was still used because of clearance issues.

There are alot of differences between a 226 and 230 vehicle. THe heater controls, front frame, wiring harness etc. In fact, there were so many differences, Willys issued a tech bulletin stating how many differences there were because customers kept coming in dealerships wanting the new motor in 1963.

Bill
 
I would like to make a couple of minor corrections here. The reason for the reversed steering is that Willys decided to put back in the wagons and trucks a bell crank steering design. Maybe they got tired of that arm off the bottom of the steering knuckle. Anyway, the early Wagoneers and Gladiator trucks also used a bell crank type of steering and were designed around the same time.

Also all the OCH wagons i ever parted out had a factory 3.54 axle ratio versus a 4.27 for the 226.
All the OHC pickup trucks had the 4.10 ratio. I'm surd that both models had an optional higher ratio available as an option. Could be that more high altitude specific wagons and trucks got the opposite ratio package for climbing mountains. East Coast versus Rocky Mountains?
diggerG
 
One thing about about owning a 6-230, besides the history. When you open the hood and show the engine you will get a ton of questions and comments.

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Also in case you haven't seen 'em already, there some great 230 articles in the tech library:

Service bulletins: http://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/showthread.php?4167-230-OHC-service-bulletins-(1962-1966)
Service bulletin: http://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum...-additional-support-to-the-front-engine-plate
Throttle linkage: http://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/showthread.php?4715-6-230-Throttle-Linkage
Electrical specs: http://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum...ectrical-specs-from-Sun-Electric-(circa-1965)

The service bulletins are a great way to learn all about the engine, especially the early ones (1962-1963).
 
thanks scramboleer. ill have to look those over. my dad just acquired two pickups through some horse trading and i was told they are 61 or 62's so that got me thinking they might be the tornado engine. we should be picking them up in the next month or two and then i will know more!
 
I just scored the holy grail of all Willys parts. Well maybe not the holy grail, but it is rare and I've been looking for a while. I purchased an original oil bath air cleaner for the Tornado.

The bad news is it came attached to a scrap truck. What a pile of junk - I didn't know something could rust that bad without having gone down with the Titantic. But at least this truck seems to be relatively unmolested other than the rust, and it should be good for parts. A few interesting things are it's titled as a 61, clearly not right, although it is a very early serial number. It seems to have 4.27 gears instead of the 4.09 the information says.
 
Ken, Check out the mesh on the air cleaner. they are hard to get clean. I acquired two and one was so full of dirt I had to converted it to cartridge filament. The other one does not breath very well and leaks oil, but it looks bitchin. You can get the original sticker for the top form American Willys.
Dan
 
Thanks Dan. I want to keep the stock look, and am going to try to keep the oil bath part. I figure it's a bad idea to take it apart. Maybe a day in a heated sonic cleaner?

Pavel has some info on the engine numbers on his website. I have 2 supposedly 62 versions here now, and a M715 engine, so I could add some numbers.

http://members.shaw.ca/pavelb/engine.html
 
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