[jaynjeep]

Reed

The 15 w 40 should work well and the lucas certainly won't hurt anything... the main issue with the KT series I was the rods were only splash lubed... so if it got low on oil they didn't get much oil... well most of them burned oil... and most people don't check the oil... so you know what happened.. that's why you hear so many stories about holes in the block of an early Kohler twin. Slopes won't hurt it if it's full of oil and you aren't running it all day on one side.

As far as the ballast fluid... we just use water in ours... but we seldom have freezing temperatures here in south GA... We have an adapter that screws on the water hose and you just shoot the water right in the valve stem. Up north you would need to use some type of anti freezing agent... Old timers used calcium chloride solution... because it was very heavy and it didn't freeze... but it is terribly corrosive.. There are several modern ballast fluids out now that are not corrosive (I know beet juice is one and the fluid that they use to winterize RVs is another) but im not real sure how they get them inside the tire. Maybe one of the northern forum members could chime in and help with that.

I use ballasted or loaded tires even just mowing.. I find they don't spin at all when changing directions or making tight turns and the ride is better than air alone.

Maybe the sealer on the bolts will take care of the leaks... if not you may have to pull the cover and re seal the whole thing as you put it all together.

I think you have a lot of years left in that old KT if you take care of it!