I have a 1962 Willys wagon with a f134 4 cylinder and overdrive transmission. The headgasket blew some years ago unfortunatly havent gotten to repairing it until now. Unfortunately it leaked water into #4 cylinder corroding the cylinder wall and siezing the piston. I have not been able to find a suitable replacement engine locally. Should i adapt a more readily available 4 cylinder from another make Or should i try to repair the original engine. I remember seeing a procedure in Dykes Automotive Encyclopedia for boring the block and pressing in a sleeve of proper i.d. Do you have any experience if there is reliability issues with that? Either option will require a lot of machining on my part. I would hate to junk the car as it had served me well for many years and is otherwise in great shape.
First off. Nice, gotta give props for love a running classic!
For replacement or repair, it depends on how original you would like to keep the car. I don't know the procedure you are talking about but it seems to be a lot of work for something that might not work. A newer 4cylinder from like a Honda on another-hand is readily available plentiful and easy to maintain IMO and is personally the route I'm going towards right now for my car. (Although mine is an electric swap) Either way I wish you luck!
You might want to ask in here:
https://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/index.php
The ubiquitous small-block Chevy V8 seems to be a popular choice. I think a Kaiser-Jeep "Tornado" overhead cam six would be an interesting choice though if you can find one as it was an option for your wagon in 1962.
