A Five Liter Two Cylinder That Roars Like An Aircraft Engine

This is a motorcycle engine made out of parts from a famous aircraft engine.

This is a motorcycle engine made out of parts from a famous aircraft engine.

When you hear that an engine displaces five liters, or around 300 cubic inches, you expect that engine to have at least six cylinders but most likely eight. Well, this isn’t always the case. This one’s only got two cylinders. That means that each cylinder displaces as much as a typical four cylinder engine.

Pratt and Whitney Made The Cylinders In This Engine

Aircraft and history aficionados can see the Wasp origins of this engine.

Aircraft and history aficionados can see the Wasp origins of this engine. The tubes running from the top of the cylinders to the crankcase are for the custom pushrods that Millyard made for it.

The two cylinders in this engine come from a Pratt and Whitney R1340 engine, the venerable Wasp. The Wasp R1340 engine is a nine cylinder air-cooled radial engine that has powered dozens of aircraft types starting in 1926 when the US Navy first accepted it for use. We’re talking about aircraft such as the old Boeing F2B fighter and the Douglas C-29 transport. It even powered the famous Lockheed Electra C-10, the plane that Emilia Earhart was lost in on her record-breaking flight.  The Wasp engine was in active production and use in aircraft of all types until 1960, with almost 35,000 units produced in its 35 years of service.

This Five Liter Engine Is A V-Twin Design

The attention to detail that went into this engine is amazing.

The attention to detail that went into this engine is amazing.

The V-Twin design is most often found in motorcycles. The builder of this five liter V-Twin, Allen Millyard, so far only has it mounted to a stand for testing, but we’d love to see it on a bike or in a car. Millyard custom-built the crankcase for this engine.

He also modified the crankshaft to go from nine cylinders down to the two he used for this engine. In fact, he built everything for this engine except the cylinders themselves. The bore and stroke of the engine are both 5 ¾ inches. It’s wet sump lubricated and has a one gallon oil tank that’s integral with the fuel tank.

Yes, He Has Installed This Five Liter Two Cylinder Engine In a Motorcycle

The bike's design hearkens back to the old days of motorcycles.

The bike’s design hearkens back to the old days of motorcycles.

Millyard has something of a reputation for putting unheard of engines into motorcycles. For instance, check out his motorcycle with a ten cylinder engine.  He calls that one the Millyard Viper eight liter V10 and you can check it out here.

He calls this engine the Millyard Flying V Twin. At idle, it sounds like a lopey Harley engine. When he cracks the throttle open though, it just sounds like power defined. Here’s the video of him testing the engine on a stand in his yard. You can see flames from the exhaust when he revs it up. This was one way that fighter pilots used to track down aircraft at night before airborne radar was perfected.

The-Flying-Millyard-BikeThe building of the engine took some time, as you can expect. He had to hand build just about everything for the engine, and then test fit it all to make sure it worked. Once he had the engine working just right, he got to building the bike it would go in. The bike is something Paul Jr. would be proud of. The Flying Millyard has a wheelbase of eight feet and is four feet in height from the ground to the top of the handlebars. The four speed gearbox is hand-shifted and geared to push the bike up to 120 MPH at 2000 RPM in fourth gear.

About the author

Mike Aguilar

Mike has been wrenching on cars since the early 1970s when he worked at his dad's auto repair shop. By the age of 14 Mike had built his first performance suspension, and by 16 he had built, and was racing cars in several sanctioned events in the San Francisco bay area.
Read My Articles

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