why don't you trust the M18? Do some maintenance on it ,and run it for all its worth, get the goody out of it, while you look for a better deal on a donor. My most recent orange tractor (Ariens) that I bought just for the rear PTO mount tiller, was thought to be "seized up". so I basically bought the tiller, with the tractor thrown in. I had another tractor already, that I could use the tiller on. so it would have been worth the price I paid just based on that.
I (had) an engine here, that I thought might be a good swap in candidate, at least to check out the electrics and hydraulics to see if the tractor would be a keeper, or head to scrap. This tractor had been sitting outside for eons, with no top on the air filter (though that is partly protected by the tractor hood)
I was all ready from the getgo, to write off that original engine. based solely on what the prior owner had said. I bought that rig with the understanding that the engine was "shot".
As it turns out, just the starter drive was stuck outwards. and the starter itself was seized tight.
I put a pair of channellocks on the driveshaft between flywheel and hydro and with a slight yank, it was freed. Huh.... and not blown up either.
well, I went thru the potential replacement engine (an M18) and do a major tune up on it, since it came to me also not running (but not frozen, and had compression on both jugs) I had that engine running great, had the old engine off, and the tractor all power washed, ready for the transplant/ and I got to looking at the cylinders, realized they looked better than the "new" engine did, just eyeballing top of piston ring lands and such,
the killer for the transplant was the oil filter being mounted directly to the block... I needed a remote mount instead. I went to set the "new" engine into the frame, the oil filter hit upon the frame rail and crushed itself, and there would be no way to change the filter as it was set up, without unbolting the engine and raising it during every oil change from then on, so I took the starter from that M18, and put onto the original engine, decarboned the heads, ground the valves and put it together. Let it rip and it ran great. so I decided to put that engine back in place, and see what I could get out of it..... The kicker? That engine that I was so ready to cast aside? A lowly KT19 Series I. It powers the tiller easily.
I now have a (different) M18 sitting here, ready to go as a drop in spare, and I have recently acquired the remote oil line setup to go along with this engine, in case I do wind up eventually needing to trash the KT if it blows..... at this point, I have it as a dedicated tiller tractor, so being that tilling isn't a year round deal, couple weeks of usage spring and fall.... maybe that will prolong the agony.... haha..... but I do have 2 of these same tractors with that engine in it. the other one is my snow handler.
give that M18 a chance.... then once it does knock and/or scatter, you can contact me, as I have another engine that needs tin and it's missing a carb, so part of your M18 can live on... since I had to steal its tin to replace the rotted out original tin, from this KT that I have. I'm in Illinois too, even.
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