20 HP Kohler Command engine rebuild

[murraym]

Here is some pics for you guys.

 

[HarryJM]

My personal experience as a Honda motorcycle mechanic in the mid 70's to id 80's is that valve guide replacement, valve seat re-cutting the various angles and lapping in the new values is not a trivial or inexpensive endeavor. Due to the lack of adequate of shop equipment I purchased my own set of Newway valve sear cutter, reams, ball gauges, and mics and learned how to do a good job. At several of the shops I worked at I became the in house value guide replacement expert.

 

[Alcap]

Have you checked to see if they make oversized valves for your engine ?

 

[fixit]

If you elect to replace the engine I would recommend a Kohler over any of the cheap harbor freight motors, I have used the cheap knock offs before and they lack reliability. One 8 hp I put on a compressor vibrated so bad parts broke & fell off. JUST MY OPINION

 

[murraym]

Have you checked to see if they make oversized valves for your engine ?

I didn't even know that was a thing.

 

[Lo-Fi]

Common practice at a shop I used to frequent was to bore the guides out a little and insert a sleeve. Sort of like an internal speedisleeve. This avoided having to remove the existing guides which can be time consuming/destructive. Worth looking into as you could make the inserts fairly easily.
After that it's just the usual valve seat cut and grind.

 

[tq60]

Get new valves and call it a day...

Not a race car engine...

Re did our same engine from a SCAG mower.

Clock had went around once so no clue to actual hours.

Was old when we bought it 12 years ago...

Koehler thinks much of their parts..

Was able to find the rebuuld lit containing all gaskets and such on eBay as well as new genuine valves.

Rings were almost gone so consumed oil but rings were $80.00 a hole

Googled the part number and found an OEM in Greece for less than $60.00 total delivered.

Did no machine work anywhere and it runs great!

Unless you see obvious huge wear just put new rings and valves in it and run it.

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[murraym]

in an effort to better Quantify the slop in the guides..... I was able to set up an indicator against the side of the valve. With the valves open about a half inch, I can wiggle the valves around just about .010. Unless many strongly disagree, I'm leaning toward new valves. throw em in and cross my fingers.

 

[murraym]

Have you checked to see if they make oversized valves for your engine ?

Where would I look for these? any suggestion for suppliers?

 

[tq60]

Oversize valves not likely.

Just get new ones.

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