Turbo Lawnmower Engine-powered 1953 Willys Jeep
Never underestimate humankind’s creativity when given a challenge. Enter this Harbor Freight motor-powered, 1953 Willys Jeep.
There are few vehicles that are as characteristic and recognizable as Willys M38A1. Popularized during wartime in the 1950s produced in collaboration with Jeep and Willys, these 4WD light military vehicles were far from glorious or elegant, but they definitely were functional. As you might imagine, engine technology in small displacement four-cylinders back then is far from what we have now. Powering the Willys Jeep was a F4-134 Hurricane four-cylinder engine, displacing 134 cubic inches (approximately 2.2 liters) and making a hilarious 75 HP and 114 foot pounds of torque. Could you imagine if an automotive manufacturer today tried to sell you a vehicle with less than 100 HP?
Well, there are ways to solve the problem of the low output engine in the Willys Jeep. Why not put a lawnmower engine in it or two at the same time and maybe fab a turbo setup? Yeah, somebody actually did that. We will go into a bit more detail about how these crazy engines came to life (although we can’t guarantee they actually will survive even a couple miles). In a recent Facebook post, Brett Wagner, who was attending a Jeep car show in Pennsylvania, stumbled across two certifiable gems.
Both are Willys M38A1’s, running some very unique engine setups. The first features a 670CC V-twin Harbor Freight engine making 22 HP, something that you might frequently find in custom go-karts and generators. The motor is somehow mounted to the original Willys transmission via series of pulleys, belts and shafts that might take us either years of studying to comprehend if we were to explain it.
This simply wasn’t enough for the owner, so he decided to mount a turbo to it. Although the turbo set up is simple, it is just as difficult to understand. From what we can tell from the pictures, it does have some sort of intercooler setup, thanks to a series of silicon hose clamps and angled piping that runs through some sort of finned mini-radiator. In the above video, you can see this very Jeep at a early stage of development when it was running a hot turbo.
One of these Jeeps wasn’t enough though, so the owner built another which features two 212CC 6.5 HP single-cylinder motors, yet again, from Harbor Freight. Now the real question is, how do both of these motors run in unison and somehow power the Jeep’s transmission?
We have no idea, but if we were to guess based off of the owner’s previous methodology, it would be a series of shafts, pulleys, and belts that connect to a common shaft, which then connect to the pulleys on the transmission input end. We really don’t know, but we applaud the innovation. We really do hope to see the owner try something a little bit more out of the box, perhaps a twin-charged, air-to-liquid cooled, diesel powered Willys? We can’t wait to see what he thinks of next.
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