Engine kits ebay
 

I'am sure most of us have looked at the 10 - 12 hp kohler engine kits on ebay.
Has anyone here used them .
I ask as the 100 is tired and I really have to crank in order to finally get it to start. I figure it is low compression .
I do have some smoke while running by the way.

So I was thinking I could buy one of the kits and rebuild one of my other 12 hp kohlers
When I do order a kit do I bore the 12 out to a 14 hp ?
Or keep it stock . And are these kits worth a darn or not.
Tractor will be for mowing .

TIA

i bought one for a 14 horse kohler that is on my economy powerking and it has been doing great!!!! jeff

How about a link so I don't have to try and find it. I will be needing one for the 10 horse, but it's already 20 over so might not make 30.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=+ko....c0.m270.l1313


http://cgi.ebay.com/MASTER-ENGINE-RE...#ht_5109wt_815

Thanks for the clicky thing, sure makes life easier for us putor challanged members!! Looks good too, as long as their real kohler parts they should be OK.

from the auction linked to above..
All Parts are HIGH QUALITY PARTS, PURCHASED THRU STENS/ROTARY

IE they are not Kohler made parts.

I believe that you would be better off spending your money on new ignition parts. New coil, condenser, points. Then follow the timing (with either VOM or timing light) in tech section of this forum. Smoking or not, it will make that motor wake up, and start quickly!

I got one of the kits for a 14 hp, I think it was $92 including shipping, I got a gasket set, piston and rings, wrist pin, connecting rod, points, and NGK spark plug. My motor is still in the machine shop, the machinist thought the parts looked good, in fact the rod had a kohler part number on it. I was told the parts are made by (or sold by, anyways) stens rotary. Parts I have look good quality and much much cheaper than kohler parts!

My motor is getting the cylinder sleeved so that is increasing the machinist cost, otherwise I would have had less than $250 in a complete rebuild.

I doubt you will be able to bore your block to fit a 14 hp piston, if I remember right the 12 hp piston is 3 3/8" bore and the 14 is 3 1/2" bore. I had a junk 301 on hand that I used some parts out of for the 14, looking at the bottom of the cylinder on the 301 I have, there is no way it could be hogged out to the bigger piston. The outside of the cylinder bore at the bottom of the engine is just slightly bigger than the bore itself, no room for going bigger. I was thinking of the same thing, my cylinder was wallowed out and had been previously bore to .030 over, so I figured I would go to the 16 hp piston and keep from sleeving the worn out cylinder. The machinist showed me how thin the bottom of the cylinder is and it prevents you from up sizing to the next piston/ hp size. The 16 hp is a 3 3/4" bore if memory serves.

It may be possible to go from the 12 to the 14, I don't think you could, but I would only rely on the advise of a reputable machinist to see if they think it is possible. In your case you would only be going up 1/8", in my case it was 1/4". I would have also had issues with a head bolt, one is too close to the cylinder bore, thus the 16 hp 341 uses a different head, the 301 and 321 use the same head.

You have to take the engine apart and check the piston bore as well as the crank where the rod attaches prior to ordering your parts. I took my engine to the machine shop, they measured the above mentioned areas and told me what to order. If you order prior to have the measurements taken, you are taking a shot in the dark on getting the right stuff. After receiving your new parts (based on what the machinist told you to order, in my case standard piston, .010 under rod), you have to take them to the machine shop, then they will measure the new stuff and turn the crank and bore the block to perfectly fit your new parts. They will not perform any machine work prior to receiving the new parts, they want to turn out quality products and custom fitting the old parts to the new is the way they accomplish this.

Nice thing with the stens rotary kits mentioned in this thread is they have a rod available (I believe it is $20 more) for worn cranks that require them to be turned down .020 undersized...this in not available through kohler. In my case my original crank was already a .019 undersized and had a screwed up keyway in the PTO shaft, so I had to find a crank as well. I had a junk 301 and am going to put the crank from that engine into my 321...hopefully it works out, a new crank is just a little over $400.00!!!!!!!!