Thanks!
 

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great information you guys have put out there! Got my 'new' 149 put back together today and she ran great. Even pulled some old telephone poles up the hill - had given up on doing it by hand 5 years ago. Now I know why so many of you use Ag tires...

Only issue I had was that she started smoking and I noticed that there was a gush of oil from the breather that was burning on the hot engine. To be fair, the gasket is half gone so there's nothing to keep the oil from running now that I've cleaned off all the old gunk. How much oil from the breather is normal?

Gona need a rebuild. Do it right.

There shouldnt be any oil comming out of the breather. A little oily mist around that area may be noticed but a steady drip or stream of oil no. If one of your gaskets is half gone, thats probley where the oil is comming from.

Not saying it's OK or good for the motor, but I ran my 149 with blow by like that for years. It finally started getting really weak and I lucked up on another 149 with a new motor with only 85 hours on it. Took the two 149s and made one really good one. They are tough engines, but I would think it would be better to take care of it sooner than later.

Is the oil over filled? If the reed in the breather is doing its job it should maintain a slight vaccum on the crankcase around -.3 to -.6 inches on a U tube manomiter. If your getting that mist of oil when shes warmed up and hook the manomiter to it, the pressure will blow the fluid out of the gauge onto the floor. the mist is a good sign you'll soon need an overhaul.

The oil very well may have been too full. The tractor was on a slight incline when I refilled it. It was about 1 3/4 quarts. (K321A). I ran it for another hour or two after I let it cool down a little and didn't notice a repeat of the problem. However, judging from the sheer amount of gunk around the breather and the partially missing breather gasket, this may have been a problem for a while.

I want to further disassemble the tractor to have it repainted so I'll rebuild the engine while it's apart. I've never done any serious work on a small engine before - is there a general guide you guys would recommend to rebuilding this particular engine? Thanks!

Absolutely...the Kohler Service Manual is an absolute necessity when rebuilding an engine.