Wisconsin engine parts needed

[Patrick Bohinski]

Good morning, I am trying to find a head and headgasket for an antique Wisconsin engine. The engine is in a 1926 LaFrance Brockway Torpedo fire engine. I've been told it is a Wisconsin engine but have not been able to verify that. The information I have is as follows: On engine block: SU4X5-3789, on head: AB32C. If you can point me in the right direction I'd be really greatful!

Pat

[Bud Tierney]

Oddly enough, was going thru some old stuff last night, trying to tell how early some engines were used, and Wisconsin did build an "SU" 4x5, used as early as 1920 per my limited checking.
Wisconsin was not a large production firm like Buda or Herc, unless they concentrated on fields I'm not familiar with; in later years they seemed to concentrate on smaller engines in Ag and Const/Ind uses, but others are certainly more knowledgeable.
I'll see what my stuff says about other installations and advise.

[Bud Tierney]

Forgot to mention above there's a gasket outfit among the sponsors here (click on "sponsors" on the top) and olsonsgaskets.com (Port Orchard, WA) is ofter mentioned as a good source for obsoletes.
Don't throw away your old head-you may have to try to salvage it; not many Wisc SU uses showed up (my sources are some old parts catalogs, which are notoriously incomplete, as well as often failing to match re' uses):
Brockway: E2,S (may be ES) 1-11/2Ton 1923-24 +?;EB 11/2T 1925
FWD: H 11/2T no yrs (1930 book);
Maccar: EX 11/2T 1924-26;
Menominee: E 1T 1923+?; H-HT,HTN,HTX 11/4-11/2T no yrs (1930 book); Bus B,HT,HTN,HX 1922-29+?(1930 book)
Oshkosh: A,AW,AAW 2T 1923-28;
Parker: E23 11/2T 1923+?;Bus E24B 1923+?;
Schacht: H-J 1,11/2,2T and 31/2T 1923?+
Winther SOME 34,434,44 1,1/2,21/2T no yrs (1030 book)
REMEMBER: those marked +? from close to pub date of catalog, so may've been used later years.
Also sent a heads-up to get your post put back in the right forum. My only other suggestion would be to Google vintage/antique Wisconsin engines; I have a few suppliers of obsolete parts, but don't know if they have old Wisconsin parts. Is company still in operation?? With sympathy, Bud

[Bud Tierney]

Left one out:

Old Reliable: A, 11/2T, 1920-23+?
With a list like that, you should be able to find one easily! (poor joke). Bud

[K D Redd]

If you have a head gasket that is still in relative good shape, you can have a sheet metal shop who has a Numerical Controlled punch make a head gasket from copper sheeting. I had this done when I was turocharging a Dodge slant 6. Look around you can most likey find a shop like this. If not I can give you the name of who did mine.

Kent

[Bud Tierney]

Had never gotten into Wisconsins, so did a little digging, just out of curiousity. Seems they were a successful (but apparently smaller) engine builder in the early years, up through WWI and after. Site with a thumbnail history (and some later air-cooled engine info) (wisconsinmotorscanada.ca) said had full line of full-size water cooled engines thru the 20's, that in 29 they got into air-cooled, starting with 1cyl's, introduced their V4 air cooled in 35, and by 39 were out of the water cooled completely. Unfortunately site had no online info re' older water cooled engines. Wisconsin is apparently now Teledyne Wisconsin, producing Wisconsin and Continentals. Site didn't mention older engines, but I didn't inquire, either.
Pat: If you post around to other old engine-old truck sites be sure to state full size water cooled engine; lots of people in the hobby only know Wisconsins as the little air cooled jobs, and won't realise what you're looking for. Good luck.
PS: Several posts have complained that parts from Wisconsin, for later engines, are quite expensive.

[John Schwiebert]

This is for both of you, but the Water cooled Wisconsin engines were also used in some early model Cletrac crawlers before they moved over to the Hercules engines. I will need to check what size engines were used.

[Bud Tierney]

What little I have on the late 20s, early 30s for Cletrac and Wisconsin is pretty spotty..
Mod 30 1927 Wisc H;
Mod 30 1929 Wisc G-T
Mod 40 no yrs Wisc Z (but another shows Mod 40 and 55, 1928-35, Wisc ZT; first catalog is 1930, so ZT may be later variation));
Mod 80 and 80-60 1930-32 Wisc D3,D4;
Mod 100 no yrs Wisc E-T.
May have more; don't have the tractors indexed yet, but didn't see any SU tractor use in what I have (which leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least!).
John, many thxx for the heads-up!.