I don’t know why Willys were always anemic on the power plants, I have a ’48 Truck and was leaving a show following an all stock ’48 Chevy Truck and it smoked me big time, it was probably 3x faster, albeit 2WD six cylinder vs full time hubs with a L134. It is what it is when you are all in with a Willys you deal with it for sure, still a fun truck to drive, but super limited in scope and ability off the Farm so to say.
Maybe they were worried about the additional power on the driveline? I get it they used what they had at the time, but they never gave up and went to a decent V6 when available either for a long time.
1948 Chevy
216 six cylinder @ 90HP, 174 ft/lb Torque
Optional
235 six cylinder @ 93HP, 192 ft/lb Torque
1948 Willys
L134 60 horsepower and 105 lb-ft of torque
Willys never had the funding to develop a new engine. The 134″ block dated back to the 1930’s. When they did update it to the F head, overhead intake valves only, the power bumped to 72 but it was still and an old and very tired design.