How to lift a Kohler
 

I'm in the middle of a Kohler K301 rebuild. I was looking at the posts for ideas and hints. Lots of info on this site and everyone seems so helpful. So I have an idea I got from a Model A engine I pulled out. To lift those heavy Kohler engines you can make a lift ring. I took an old spark plug, knocked the porcelain out, tapped the hole with a 3/8" tap and screwed in a ring. Screw the unit in the spark plug hole and lift it up with your lifting device. It may not be perfectly level but it is easier to handle. Just make sure your threads from the ring go all the way through. If one 3/8" ring can lift a Model A in a spark plug hole, it will lift a Kohler. :biggrin2:

That works! Tho I'd be afraid of stripping the threads out in the head. I usually take two headbolts out and thread in two eye bolts. If I have to lift it with a winch. Most of the time I lift by hand with a swift back wrenching motion.:biggrin2:

Rant from j mech beginning in 3..2..1 go:biggrin2:

I've got a tab for a hook on the top of my K series that is OEM. In the event of an engine pull, I'll use that.

If you take the gasket off the bottom of the plug it gives you more threads in the head.

Sorry...... I'm late.

That is a very, VERY, VERY bad idea :bash2:....... unless you want to buy a head. It's aluminum you know. You'll pull the threads right out of the head. Or crack it, or pull the whole thing apart, drop the engine, shatter the pan, bend up the tin-work, and then wonder why on earth you ever thought that was a good idea. Use the head bolts. Most engines have lift brackets on them. If not, a piece of angle iron with a hole drilled in both sides, using a head bolt in one hole, and the chain in the other is a much better idea.


BTW. A model "A" has a CAST IRON cylinder head......
And I still wouldn't pull even that engine like that.

and I thought it was a good idea, shows you what I know.:biggrin2:

I do it the hard way, I just grab a hold of them and lift. Then my back lets me know for a couple days that I'm not all that smart. :biggrin2:

I usually just pick them up too.

But not the KT's or the Mags...... nope. I'm not "man" enough for those. :biggrin2:

At least I'm not alone in the "lift it till it hurts" club :beerchug:

Miss you by seconds :biggrin2: When I had my 1811's, I had no choice but to lift the Mag's by myself. Sucked, but I did it. Come on, "man" up and break your back like the rest of us!! :biggrin2:

X 2
I be afraid you pull the threads out of spark plug hole
:Cub2:

x3...........

My friend a machinist type just made me one of those. Maybe it would be ok for the smaller singles like a 7 or 8hp... I always thought head bolts were the way to go too. I'm always the over cautious type when it comes to such things. I would probably use a 6k rated chain and my 1 ton floor jack to lift it out then slowly lower it to my work surface.:biggrin2::biggrin2:
I've always done my best to avoid accidents instead of recovering from them.

think about it this way, torque on a plug is 18-22 ft lbs . an engine dress out is around 125 lbs. That means that one foot-pound of torque is a force of one pound applied one foot from the object's axis of rotation.

a billet aluminum head I'd trust it. a 40 year old cast head, no way

Made mine by welding a large washer to the spark plug, after knocking the porcelain off. Not my original idea; it came right from the SeaDoo manual. Rotax heads are aluminum.
Didn't use it on the K321, just lifted it out/in.
http://www.onlycubcadets.net/forum/p...pictureid=5684

Looks like you used 2 on that engine.

How much does it weigh?

It also has a much thicker head......

I wouldn't lift it the way either, I can see wayyyyy to man bad things that could very well happen. Heck I get nervous lifting mine with the bracket on the head bolt! Lol I have a piece of heavy log chain wrapped around the 12" I-beam that runs the center of our house then a come-a long that I attach to that to raise and lower an engine or whatever heavy object you want.

Just for laughs, I did some calculations (calculated by Engineers Edge and Matbase for shear strength) and it would take over 100,00 lbs to pull out the threads in 242 cast aluminum which is what air cooled heads are made of.
:Huh:

That may be true...but it may not account for damaged threads or thin threads. I still would not lift a motor like that. I'd much rather lift them by hand or by the head bolts.

Lifting the KT or Magnum motors I use the tabs that are bolted on with the intake manifold bolts. If I can't winch them, I lift them with again...swift back jerking motion lol

I agree, if it has lifting lugs use them, but if it don't its an alternative. If it has damaged threads or thin threads, you should fix that anyway. I posted this idea because I saw a question on how you can lift an engine. I personally lift all small engines by hand. I've been working on engines for 60 yrs and didn't break one yet. I mostly do 1928 to 1950 vintage tractors and cars. I'm not exactly a newbie.

2 cylinder, 720cc, weighs about 95 lbs.

:Morning: I too do not think the spark plug hole is a good idea. In my younger days I used to man handle them, but now I am on the 70 mark age wise. I use two eye bolts in the head bolt holes and a chain hoist to pull them and set them back in the tractor. But like they say, to each his own. :American Flag 1:

I have an I-beam running the width of my garage. I have a chain fall on a trolley up there. I hooked to the lift lug on the head and used the chain fall when I pulled the engines out of my 1450 and 1000. Worked great, no back strain.

Ahhhhhh...... "engineering" programs. Gotta love 'em.

100,000lbs. huh. I must be a lot stronger than I though, because I've twisted a lot of them out with a short handle rachet before...... :bigeyes:

You go right ahead and do it that way if you want, but in the words of Jerry Clower..... "I ain't gonna do it!". :biggrin2:

I'm inclined to agree....

A single bolt/screw can hold a lot of inline force. (and 'torquing' bolts creates a large inline tension in the bolt - many times more than what it holds in compression, which is why breaking them by over torquing is so easy - a thread is really a wedge and able to generate very high loads with small torques). Thread friction plays a role, and in some critical applications they measure overall bolt strain deformation and not torque. For thread shear, the bulk of the shear stresses are carried through a small number of threads.

Besides doing pressure vessel design for years, was sitting around drinking beer with some other engineers one day and wondering just how much a drywall screw could hold. So we drove a single drywall screw into the overhead rafters of my buddies shop and it lifted the entire rear end of his pickup.

Side forces, fatigue, and other factors are usually the cause of failures. In this example my fear would be me forgetting to take a bolt out (or something like that). So if Im lifting with a hydraulic lift I end up putting a lot more than the weight of the engine on it.

But really it comes down to other risk factors (in the ideal case it obviously works, but if something that you didnt think of happens to not be ideal then.... could be problems). If someone is willing to take the risk, this method obviously works. Others prefer a different method 'just in case' something goes wrong.

Thanks for posting. I will leave it to each individual to decide for themselves if they want to try it.

If anyone is interested here is a nice writeup on some basic principles: https://www.fastenal.com/content/fed...t%20Design.pdf

Engineers love a discussion like this!! :bigthink:

:biggrin2:

lol Indeed. Mixed with a few beers, all kinds of crazy experimentation can happen....

Come to think of it, does anyone have a junk head and some weights lying around.....???? hmmm.....

:p I like it!

I can only add, don't pick it up by grabbing the big spinny-wheel-thing and have some blocks o'wood ready.

You didn't get older, you got smarter. :D

Actually...I have a spare head from an M18 laying in the shop. :bigthink:

engineers and mechanics seldom get along.

:beerchug: to that!!:biggrin2:

Thats because everything from an engineering standpoint works great on a piece of paper and a good mechanic knows better. :beerchug:

Couldn't agree more.

I don't know how many times I've seen engineering have epic fails when their "program" or "piece of paper" didn't stand up to the practical application.

No offense to the engineers here. CAD you have proven to me to be the most "practical" engineer I have ever met. You have yet to produce something I strongly disagree with. You seem to have used your skills, or background to actually build things on your own. You are one of the few who have both the knowledge base (engineering) and the mechanical aptitude to put your own ideas into actual products that work. Hats off to you. :beerchug:

I get along fine with mechanics:beer2: Though I dont really work in mechanical engineering. Common sense plays a roll in good engineering, finding the perfect balance between weight/ material saving and strength isnt always easy, and it becomes even harder when being pushed to save company's every dollar possible. I'm a decent mechanic, but I don't think I could design something like a diesel injector pump and have it work, lol. At the end of the day there are a lot of good mechanics and engineers that use common sense and make some great stuff. :beerchug:

On the topic, the engineer in me says the numbers look good and i can lift the engine fine, my common sense says that head is soft metal, if it rocks or get pulled sideways it could pull the threads out, and the mechanic in me says I guess I'll take another 5 minutes and use two head bolts so I don't have to replace the head if something goes wrong. No offense to anyone, that's just how I see it.:beerchug:

Yep. I was a farmer before I was an engineer. Then a motorhead. Then a machinist. Then an engineer. Now I dont even do engineering.

But I have met a lot of very practical engineers that can get the rubber on the road. And I have met some that are so theoretical you wouldnt want to test pilot anything they have designed.

At the same time I have met some great, practical mechanics with fantastic experience and wisdom. And I have met some that are full of hot air and I wouldnt let them come near my equipment with a 10ft pole.

Im not going to generalize based on an arbitrary label put on either group.

Having said that, Im looking forward to seeing how much weight jimbob can hang on his scrap head.....

(oh, for the record this wouldnt be my choice of how to lift an engine. But I like the philosophical debate (kinda like wallowing in the mud with pigs))

We get the engineer type customers here, most of them are sensible guys. The ones that make me laugh are the ones who claim to know it all, "but I dont have time to fix this" lol. My kohler 12 also has a lifting bracket there from the factory, it worked well. Thanks, TB

big difference between torque (twisting) and pulling (pressure). If we crank the engine without supplying fuel or ignition (so there's no combustion), the compression stroke of the piston produces a modest pressure peak (perhaps 120 PSI) right at TDC. On the other hand, if we provide a combustible fuel/air mixture combustion causes the pressure to build to a much higher value - typically 800 PSI in a normally-aspirated engine. Just sayin. Oh, by the way thanks for the discussion, I appreciate your view and you know your stuff.:ThumbsUp: