Thanks to Tim Lederman's wonderful website, we can see that from the
performance curves for the 235 and 261 1954 truck engines there is about a 10% or better increase in torque at all engine speeds, and a 20% increase in peak HP for the 261 over the 235. The 10% increase in torque at the lower engine speeds is consistent with the 11% increase in displacement, and the 261 camshaft helps the higher speeds. I remember back in 1958 when i replaced the 235 in my '53 Chevy with a 261 the performance improvement was really noticeable.
Hoyt
