So I take the 2 cylinder heads off my newly acquired VE4 1953 Wisconsin air cooled engine. I created this video with the RU-vid Video Editor ( / editor )
hectorisdaman154 Thanks, I will need luck getting this one going. I am gonna let it soak in diesel for a while, and hopefully finish the 5 cylinder "radial" Briggs. Too many distractions this summer!
Oh good you did pick it up. I am looking forward to seeing what makes that tick. But also, you said you messed with one of them when you were a teenager, so what were they typically on?
Mr3wheeledbike The one I used to monkey with was on an ice cutter that my father, and perhaps grandfather built for cutting ice in the winter, before the days of refrigeration being easily available. (Tecumseh invented the sealed compressor, as well as the window air conditioner!) Anyway, so in the winter when the ice was like a foot thick, they would roll this contraption out onto the ice, and cut slices in the ice using its 4 foot diameter saw blade (sounds perfect for a horror movie!). It was powered by a V4 Wisconsin engine that was hand crank started, and powered the blade with about a 4 inch wide flat belt. It sat in our garage for years, I thought of mounting the engine onto a go-kart, but never did it. Eventually my cousin bought it, and as far as I know he still has it in a shed, I will have to make a vid of it as soon as I get to see him again. I never tried to start the engine, I was too afraid of it trying to kick back, as I have heard stories of that. Instead I worked on small Briggs engines, like cast iron block 2 horses and such.Oh to answer your question, from what I hear they were on hay bailers, skid steer loaders, and some smaller tractors.
ChargerMiles007 So a ice cutter? Well being i am a trifle bit south of you i go look one up. However these sound like need engines but when i looked them up they are right pricy. Hope the project goes well there!
zzzdogutube lol, we made a deal, she gets her own garden shed to store all the garden stuff (tomato cages, water hoses, rakes etc.) you know, all that stuff that keeps getting in the way of me finding a part for a 63 Briggs in my shed! So, hopefully the Elephant population will remain stable for a while, but you never know :)
The head bolts break on the later aluminum-headed engines. The cylinder bolts are a pain to get at but I think if you can get the rods loose and pull that cylinder off, you should be able to tap that piston out pretty easily. Be sure to pay attention to the orientation of the rods when you pull it apart. The rod bearings are lubricated by an oil squirter in the side of the block, so if you put the rod in backwards it won't get any oil. It doesn't look all that bad, I have one that was worse than that in all four cylinders and it came apart without much trouble.
No, I haven't re-assembled it yet. i did manage to get the stuck piston pin and rings loosened up after a long soak in a glass jar 1/2 full of penetrating oil.
That will be neat to see run, V-4's make some neat & sweet music! Just be patient & persistent and I bet you can get her roaring again, perhaps with a little smoke from that cylinder but that's just character! Some of those old John Deere & Caterpillar pony engines are pretty neat and make great fuel to music converters too! That would be neat stuck in a light weight little car! So does the wifey get one big elephant or like 4 small ones since its like 4 Briggs? Lol. I'm waiting for the day you actually have a real pachyderm roaming the yard! See a trunk come into your video camera frame and pick up one of your wrenches, lol. You could even name it Briggs or name it Stratton! I like that, Stratton the elephant! What does she get if you bring home something like a giant Fairbanks Morse or big stationary engine? lol
mytmousemalibu LOL :) Stratton our pet Pachyderm, kinda has a ring to it doesn't it!My wife is actually getting her own shed this time, so we don't fight over access to stuff, can't have garden things getting in the way of my many Briggs engines! Started work on the shed foundation this week, poured some sono tubes full of concrete tonight, as the ground slopes a foot over the 8 foot width of the shed!
Sounds good doesn't it! Stratton actually would be a neat name for many critters. I need more space myself and shelves, flat space is a prized commodity at my residence!
***** Yes, I think $250 for a good running one is a good price, rebuilt ones on e-bay go for more like $1700, though some of these engines are still in production, so it was probably a later series, this one is a 1953.
Looks like a fun project for sure! I need to find a way to recycle all the old rusted-beyond-stock-use VW cylinders I've accumulated, aside from actual metals recycling that is! XD
TheFurriestOne Too bad you didn't have all the time in the world, a fully equipped machine shop and loads of money, you could build quite the 42 cylinder radial engine using VW cylinders!!!
You could always build a 3 cylinder radial, like 805Roadking, though it will be a ton of work! My fake 5 cylinder "radial" engine is taking me long enough also, though I haven't been putting many hours into it lately.
TheFurriestOne Yes, it would be a great project! Designing and building the Sleeve Valve Lawnmower engine was our Senior project, started with a group of 6, then 3 once we started machining.
ajc894 lol, I guess it is Elephant for engine, and this is the biggest engine I have bought at a scrapyard!She is getting her own garden shed instead of Elephants this time.
Tyler grigg lol, I hear you about G+, been a thorn in my side since it started.Sure, I will send you a PM, one thing though, it will all appear on G+, so I discovered a while back.
Worked on one for a year it was in a Thomas skid steer and it had air cooled Wisconsin and we went though head-gaskets like crazy until i found that the heads were warped
Krankie V Yes, it would make quite the garden tractor engine. I have been thinking of building a "garden tractor" for a few years now, I am slowly figuring out what I want it to be like.
