1864 Kohler Rebuild Costs

[mgonitzke]

Jeremiah-

Yes, it has hydraulic lifters.

 

[jchamberlin]

Todd,

My only concern with the evidence of contact at the top of the pistion would be a sharp point possibly causing pre-ignition, I would smooth it as much as possible.

I've also heard that polishing the top of the piston helps keep down carbon buildup, at least on the piston.

Others may have a different opinion regarding the "dent" in the piston top.

 

[tillenden]

I have the tractor back together. It runs and seems to run pretty good. It does still have a slight white to black smoke when it is under full load. It does run and drive well with the PTO engaged on the 48" deck.

I ended up getting a brand new head and putting that on correctly. there sure is a lot of inconsistent information on this engine.

Kohler states the head should be torqued to 200 and then to 370. The instructions with the new head gasket state to torque to 200. Seems confusing.

Also, what plug should I be running? And the gap? The owners manual from Cub states .040. The Kohler site says .030 and every plug they say works are all .030. So what should it be?

 

[jchamberlin]

Hopefully Todd is happily using his 1864 by now, but for anyone else reading this thread and wondering about the answers to his questions, I submit the following:

From no less an authority than Jim Diederichs concerning the spark plugs for an 1862 (which I'm assuming would be identical to those used in an 1864):
By Jim Diederichs (Jdiederichs) on Thursday, June 07, 2012 - 05:51 pm: . . .. The 1862 uses RV17YC Champions.

I may add that some "equals" may not necessarily be so equal. I replaced some nearly identical Autolite plugs with the Champions called out above, and my Magnum 18 motor started and ran noticeably better. (The motor was built to Spec# 224665 for AMERICAN YARD PRODUCTS sold through Sears, the main differences were the exhaust and non-remote oil filter, the air filter too is slightly different.)

Also, my Service Manual from Kohler (TP-2204-8) calls for a spark plug gap of 0.035" and also references the "Champion Type RV17YC or equivalent spark plugs" on p. 3.5. I downloaded the manual from Kohler's web site. The Service Manual is not for a particular Spec# but for any and all M18 motors, although I suppose the OEM manual, in this case the Cub Cadet manual, would trump it.