Milling Wisconsin Engine

[Jimmy]

I am restoring a Wisconsin AKN Engine, and have found out that the block (to which the head is bolted) is not perfectly flat, and when you rev it, smoke comes out of it.

Do any chain stores/shops mill down old engines?

I live in Ohio, and I already tried KOI (they do all of my valve jobs) and they said they can't do it.

Any suggestions?

[Elden DuRand]

Jimmy:

If you can find someone with a big enough vertical mill, it can be milled with a flycutter. You'll have to strip the engine down to bare block to do it, though.

In the past, I've used a really big file that will cover the whole deck of the engine. By carefully filing absolutely flat across the deck in a random manor, minor humps can be flattened.

That's how I flattened the de-valved deck of the Lenoiresque engine seen here:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/dur...ir/Lenoir.HTML

Take care - Elden

[JKWidener]

Thats a cool little engine you got there Elden, you got any video of it running?

[Ed Wright]

One time I took a four cyl continental block into a shop for a valve job and they belt-sanded the block and head . Can't say if i would recommend the practice. I didn't want to take any chances with it so did some more searching and found a shop that could shave the block in their mill. Just be carefull where you take it and ask questions.

[Beanscoot]

Well I'm a general (not automotive) machinist and have milled a few heads and intake manifolds. The difficulty is in holding the part on the milling table if, as typical, it doesn't have convenient parallel machined surfaces opposite to those to be machined. It only needs to be disassembled enough to hold in the mill, if you don't mind chips getting in.
Automotive machine shops should be able to skim the surface as well, for probably less money as their equipment tends to be more easily adapted to odd shaped parts.

Eldon, that article about the Lenoir engine conversion looks very interesting and well done. I don't have time to read it now, but I look forward to later.

[Elden DuRand]

Originally Posted by JKWidener

Thats a cool little engine you got there Elden, you got any video of it running?

JK:

Not yet. I still want to do some more "engineering" on it to make it run better. When I do, I may borrow someone's camcorder (mine died) and make a short video.

Needless to say, it's a sorta funky sounding engine.

Take care - Elden