Drawbacks
 

What were the main drawbacks for the 82 series kohler k series, kt series, onan, and magnum engines? Planning on doing a K series swap into a roller but want to know the main issues these engines face.

You listed four engines.... what one do you want to talk about?
How familiar are you to the internal workings of an engine?
Do you plan to overhaul any of said motors? (In other words, if one has an issue or a "drawback" are you going to actually fix it? Or just avoid it altogether?)
Do you have a roller '82 series to put a motor in yet?

They are all expensive to rebuild and repair. That’s the major drawback.

And finding parts can be difficult.

None of them are great on gas.

None of them are super easy to work on. For instance, Kohler recommends pulling the blower housing off every 50 hours to clean them out. That basically means pulling it out of the tractor.

Other than that they are all great engines.

Plus side, you can just drop a quietline k series with the cradle into an 82. So that’s an easy swap.

Gompers where the heck do you buy parts? Kohler?
The K series is great on gas, cheap to rebuild, super easy to get parts for and stupid easy to overhaul and work on.. The only part that you can't get is the cam flyweight spring. Even at that, you can pick up a good used cam for like $25-$30.

Pros - Good running engines

Drawbacks - As always.....Money

I learned by getting my hands dirty actually working on various engines rather than punching keys asking numerous ambiguous questions....

I try to learn like that but other things get in the way.


Aren't the onans notorious for dropping valve seats? I've seen a lot of JD 300 series posts where the engine dies because a blown valve seat.

I meant the kt, mag and onan.
On Kt/mag, good luck finding .020 or bigger pistons. Valves are mostly NLA, and when you find them they are $30 or so each (and you need 4 instead of 2). Even the condenser is NLA ( though it’s trivial to make a replacement).

You’re right though that K series is probably one of the cheapest engines to rebuild and super simple to work on.

Seeing as how a JD 300 had a K341 engine in it, I would say wherever you are reading the guys are FOS.

300 series would include the 318 (and 317 which had an Onan kit later in it's run after KTs kept spitting rods out the sides of the crankcase), no?