Wisconsin VG4D engine help

Asking here because I know these engines were used on skidsteers back in the day.

Out on a wimb I decided to purchase a straw blower for a few hundred bucks. Motor hasn’t run in many years obviously but I figured it would be a “fun” project. Engine is a Wisconsin VG4D. He guaranteed it would fire up as it ran when he last used it, as they always say. So engine has no plug wires on the distributor cap currently. I’m planning to start with replacing plugs and wires and possibly cap. Is the cap labeled as to which cylinder goes where? Firing order is 1-3-4-2 is my understanding.

I will change the oil, I assume 10w30 will work.
Check electric fuel pump he installed. (Apparently he used a gas can strapped to the back bc gas tank didnt have a cap or lines going to it anymore)

What else should I do before I try to fire it the first time? What should I do with choke cable and carb? Pull carb and clean with carb cleaner ? Certainly not a mechanic but can do most with instructions. (I do have repair manual I found online) thanks for any and all help

I don't remember the timing or specs but you used to be able to get all that from an auto parts store.
Is this a hand crank start or does it have an electric starter? Before wasting a lot of time on it, I would do compression checks on all the cylinders. At one employer I was at years ago someone donated a pump to us with that motor. It was dropped in my lap to get running in a hurry. At any rate one cylinder was dead because the exhaust valve was open when the thing was last shut down and water filled that cylinder. Because it was a hurry up I didn't have time to check that until I had to get it running with suction and discharge hoses attached on site to pump out a hole. It ran on three for a couple of hours then spit out one of the other cylinder's spark plug and the load of the water going up hill killed it dead. At any rate when they run right they make very little noise and run until you quit putting fuel in them. If it's a hand crank only try starting them by pulling up on the crank. If you push down and the cylinder fires back, you will have a very sorry feeling arm for a month or more.

It’s electric start so no worries about hand crank. How would I check to see if there’s water in a cylinder? Turn it over without spark plugs in it a few times ? Also what would be a good compression number on these engines ?

It's good it has a starter. I would pull the plugs for sure and turn the thing over by hand to make sure the cylinders were clear. You can get a compression test gauge at any auto parts store. They are pretty cheap. They will likely have specs on the motor as well. If no specs those engines were pretty low compression to begin with. I would check all the cylinders to make sure they are close to the same. If you have a cylinder that is lower than the rest, those are flat head engines so pulling a head takes minutes at the most.

This link might help:

http://www.wiengines.com/public/static/wm/images/catalogs/wisconsin/VG4D_Repair.pdf

Judging by your location I'll suggest pulling all the cooling air tin to see how many mouse, wasp and mud dauber nests are in there. Be a shame to have a good engine ruined from overheating.

kshansen said:

This link might help:

http://www.wiengines.com/public/static/wm/images/catalogs/wisconsin/VG4D_Repair.pdf

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Thanks that’s the one I have.

Well , you can thank your lucky stars it is a distributor model... magneto ones still make me sick to my stomach. I used to keep two mags for when one got hot and it wouldn't start, drop the cold mag in and away they would go. I must have cranked on one of those 50 thousand miles.

ol'stonebreaker said:

Judging by your location I'll suggest pulling all the cooling air tin to see how many mouse, wasp and mud dauber nests are in there. Be a shame to have a good engine ruined from overheating.

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Good idea for any air cooled engine that has been setting for more than a few days!

grandpa said:

Well , you can thank your lucky stars it is a distributor model... magneto ones still make me sick to my stomach. I used to keep two mags for when one got hot and it wouldn't start, drop the cold mag in and away they would go. I must have cranked on one of those 50 thousand miles.

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Not 100% sure which Wisconsins with distributors they were but some of them have that odd ball firing spacing that can mess with your mind if not paying attention!

I recall it was common to have clean carbon from the heads every 1000 hours or so and definitely keep all the shrouds cleaned out. VG4D is 37 HP if I remember right.

We had a V4 Wisconsin, forget the exact model, that ran a water pump.

Problem was it was only used a few weeks out of the year when we had flooding problems in the quarry. It then would sit unused for months at a time. The biggest problem this caused was the valves and guides would rust just enough to cause them to stick.

The "solution" was to pull off the heads and soak them with penetrating oil and crank over by hand and play "Whack-A-Mole" with them till they freed up.

Some other quarry also had a Bobcat 600 if I recall that had a V4 Wisconsin in it. That one I believe twice broke the crankshaft. Always felt the side load from the variable speed drive, similar to a snowmobile transmission but not operated by RPM's, put too much side load on the crank.

That engine used a crank with a tapered end on it. What we did to get it working again was to find an engine off some old hay baler a farmer had junked. Pulled the crank out and then sent it to a machine shop to have the straight crank cut to the tapper for the Bobcat drive. Doing that was less than half the price of a new crank!

kshansen said:

We had a V4 Wisconsin, forget the exact model, that ran a water pump.

Problem was it was only used a few weeks out of the year when we had flooding problems in the quarry. It then would sit unused for months at a time. The biggest problem this caused was the valves and guides would rust just enough to cause them to stick.

The "solution" was to pull off the heads and soak them with penetrating oil and crank over by hand and play "Whack-A-Mole" with them till they freed up.

Some other quarry also had a Bobcat 600 if I recall that had a V4 Wisconsin in it. That one I believe twice broke the crankshaft. Always felt the side load from the variable speed drive, similar to a snowmobile transmission but not operated by RPM's, put too much side load on the crank.

That engine used a crank with a tapered end on it. What we did to get it working again was to find an engine off some old hay baler a farmer had junked. Pulled the crank out and then sent it to a machine shop to have the straight crank cut to the tapper for the Bobcat drive. Doing that was less than half the price of a new crank!

Click to expand...

I’m not going to stick that kind of work into it. I’m doing simple stuff to see if she will fire and run a few times for me to blow straw then will be sold or scrapped. I just need about an hour or so of run time on her. If she won’t run then it’s to the junk yard with the blower