I just got one of these running the other day that came off a old swather that's been sitting for a decade or more since it last ran. #1 and #4 cylinder had stuck valves but it ran well enough that after a few warm up and cool downs they popped loose on their own. Had to start out with a full carb remove and clean out and a bit of cleaning on the points but it went. The oil was absolute mud and took about 3 gallons of gas sloshed through it (hung it from a chain on the forklift and gave it wibble wobble treatment bunch of times) to wash most of it out. First oil change still looks like brown sludge after maybe 20 minutes of run time.
WOW! That sound worse than some of the black as paint oil I empty out of scrapyard lawnmower engines! Glad yo hear you got it running. I may get up enough energy to re-assemble my V4 sometime, but it is sure a heavy weight to deal with!
@@ChargerMiles007 I had it running the last day or so just for tuning and a sort of re break in of sorts. Runs good until it warms up a bit then starts popping and backfiring while blowing black smoke like its flooding out but as soon as I idle it down it quits doing it. Idles great and will run all day like that in fact! I do see it popping tiny bit of smoke out the side of #4 cylinder when I rev it or it backfires so it has a partially blown head gasket that might be causing some of the problems when it warms up. Ordered a new set of head gaskets and carb kit for it today so I will see. Also ready for another oil and filter change too since the hour or so of idling stirred up more of the orange goo.
@@ChargerMiles007 Fun day you might find worth hearing about. I went to tractor salvage yard about a hour away to get parts for a few other projects I am working on and while there I inquired about if they had any pats for the old Wisconsin V4's. Yep! Cheap as dirt too! The guy helping me said I was his first customer in 3 years looking for parts for those things. They had piles of old parts just laying around! $50 got me a flywheel cowl with the starter mounts, two starters, a carburetor, a side mount generator and distributor and a what was left of a single distributor for non generator engines for parts. The carb looks good and the generator/distributor works and one starter works! The parts distributor got stripped to get the good parts from it to fix another one that had bad guts. Odds are the second starter will be fine too but needs a good cleaning inside to free it up. If not I have another that needs the field coil set from it.
Thats awesome, you sure lucked out on that find! With all this V4 talk, I am considering tracking down all the parts for mine, I know the seized cylinder is downstairs, some cowling parts are in the carport, and I think all the rest is in 1 shed with the block and crank :)
Yes, these are quite the engines! I was talking with my uncle about how to start it with the hand crank. I thought you just grab the crank and rotate it. NO, NO he says, thats how you can get a broken arm! Apparently you slowly crank i over until a cylinder is on compression, then you have the crank facing downward, and give it a quick jerk towards you. that way if it backfires it will be pulling your arm straight while the ramp in the handle dis-engages. He said the same technique was used on old cars. i never would have guessed to try it that way!
As far as parts go, I would look on ebay. I sent my engine back to the scrapyard, as it was taking up way too much shed space. But I did keep a few of the parts, like a piston and rod, and some of the sheet metal shrouding, and perhaps the magneto. If yours is a VE4, I could have a look for the parts, and sell them to you cheap, though mailing stuff always costs too much these days!
Looks like the plug wire that was missing was the cylinder that was full of water. Kind of a strange coincidence, maybe it was possible that the wire was removed by the previous owner as the cylinder originally had an issue? Seems like the engine wouldn't run really well on 3 cylinders.
Fierofreak01 You could be right. I did find the wire later, so at least I have it. Still wrestling with the engine to get it apart to get the seized piston out.
Howdy, I sent the Wisconsin back to the scrapyard this summer. I hated to do it, but I needed the space in a storage shed where it was. What model of Wisconsin do you need rings for, as I bought some rings for this one, but never installed them. I would sell them cheap, if they will fit yours!
