WOW GUYS... I'm blushing! And Thanks for the kind words Steve. I've always enjoyed talking with you at PD's, RPRU's, and your e-mails. I always enjoy your projects you build & post here. The scale Midwest wagon hoist, #520 semi-mounted plow, etc. They all look and work great!
A lot of the great advice, but not all, for care & maintaining CC's Steve gives here I learned the hard way decades ago before Al Gore made the Internet. Yes, I've broke a few parts, but you'll NEVER see me post my mistakes here. I'll just tell you how to do it right.
Anyhow, I'll let you guys digress on your Greek Mythology before Charlie puts a stop to it!
BILL J. - Gerry Ide & I explained how to de-carb a Kohler here 3-4 yrs ago. Using straight water in a spray bottle, start & run the engine till it's warm, not hot, then with the engine running around 2000 RPM spray water into the carb intake, right down the carb throat. It's best to do this with the tractor outside because of carbon monoxide gas and all the bits of carbon deposits that will come flying out the exhaust outlet. 12-16 ounces of water is enough, one spray at a time so you don't kill the engine. The engine will sputter and almost die but let it recover before the next spray. It won't get all the carbon out but most of it. The flat head or side valve engines are more prone to developing carbon deposits because of the poor air/fuel mixture flow patterns in the combustion chamber. The deposits only accumulate where there is little mixture flow or turbulence. Every major tune-up is often enough, when the engine has taken it's 12-16 oz of water, pull the plug and inspect the combustion chamber, re-torque the head bolts per the manual, put a dab of anti-sieze on the new plug's threads & install it & torque it to spec, then change the points & condensor, change the engine oil and you're good to go. No new head gasket required, no chance of any hard bits of carbon getting stuck between the piston & cyl walls or wedging a ring tight in it's groove.
I did it to the K241 that ran 1400 hours 3-4 times throughout the years I ran it, and 1-2 times on the K301 in the 129 in the ten yrs after I rebuilt it.
35+ yrs ago, water injection was common on car engines to eliminate detonation due to the first generation vacuum controlled carburator emission controls, lean fuel/air mixtures & poor no-lead gas. As a side benefit people discovered that the combustion chambers had no carbon deposits in them when they pulled the heads.
), and I enjoy them very much. It just seems that no one can be "right" on this forum very long before another loyal member "corrects" him or her. The self-correcting, truth-seeking, back-and-forth jibber/jabber is what a Forum is all about: (and while I'm on a soap box) something that a "threaded forum" fails to communicate well. I'm sure the "forums" in Greece, from whence the term derives, were far more chaotic. Just My Honest Opinion.
