I'm going to let the machine rebuild project sit for a couple days...

Project "B" is rebuilding a kohler 12hp. model K301S engine on one of
my gravelies. I ordered a cheap rebuild kit off eBay with a .030 over
piston. Long story short this piston is actually only .025 over and
its a really crappy piston. (The skirt is 12 thou bigger than the
wrist pin) The cylinder wall isn't going to clean up as there's
already a .020 over in it.

I looked in the gravely manual. They show three styles of pistons with
far tighter specs. on styles B and C vs. the style A that I got.

Anyway, I need to order a top quality .030 over piston. Anybody
suggest a place?

Karl

Karl Townsend wrote:

I'm going to let the machine rebuild project sit for a couple days...

Project "B" is rebuilding a kohler 12hp. model K301S engine on one of
my gravelies. I ordered a cheap rebuild kit off eBay with a .030 over
piston. Long story short this piston is actually only .025 over and
its a really crappy piston. (The skirt is 12 thou bigger than the
wrist pin) The cylinder wall isn't going to clean up as there's
already a .020 over in it.

I looked in the gravely manual. They show three styles of pistons with
far tighter specs. on styles B and C vs. the style A that I got.

Anyway, I need to order a top quality .030 over piston. Anybody
suggest a place?

Karl


Have you tried Kohler? They have some of the best support I've seen,
even for quite old products. I know I've posted this before, but a
couple years ago I had trouble with the Kohler engine on my old Deere
110 mower. I looked on their site but didn't see any info for this old
engine, I figured it was hopeless, but I sent them an email with the
engine model and serial numbers to see what they had to say. It was
around 4pm CDT when I sent the email. The next morning at about 9:18am I
received an email from Kohler with links to full PDF owner's, parts and
service manuals for the engine along with a note to watch out for part
numbers that may have been superseded more than once on the 32 year old
engine. Obviously this engine was built long before PDFs existed, but
this company cared enough about supporting even their old products to
scan and archive all that documentation.

On Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:54:55 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:


Karl Townsend wrote:

I'm going to let the machine rebuild project sit for a couple days...

Project "B" is rebuilding a kohler 12hp. model K301S engine on one of
my gravelies. I ordered a cheap rebuild kit off eBay with a .030 over
piston. Long story short this piston is actually only .025 over and
its a really crappy piston. (The skirt is 12 thou bigger than the
wrist pin) The cylinder wall isn't going to clean up as there's
already a .020 over in it.

I looked in the gravely manual. They show three styles of pistons with
far tighter specs. on styles B and C vs. the style A that I got.

Anyway, I need to order a top quality .030 over piston. Anybody
suggest a place?

Karl


Have you tried Kohler? They have some of the best support I've seen,
even for quite old products. I know I've posted this before, but a
couple years ago I had trouble with the Kohler engine on my old Deere
110 mower. I looked on their site but didn't see any info for this old
engine, I figured it was hopeless, but I sent them an email with the
engine model and serial numbers to see what they had to say. It was
around 4pm CDT when I sent the email. The next morning at about 9:18am I
received an email from Kohler with links to full PDF owner's, parts and
service manuals for the engine along with a note to watch out for part
numbers that may have been superseded more than once on the 32 year old
engine. Obviously this engine was built long before PDFs existed, but
this company cared enough about supporting even their old products to
scan and archive all that documentation.

Thanks Pete, I'll do just that.

Karl

Have you tried Kohler? They have some of the best support I've seen,

Follow up. These guys are great. I have a special part number for both
rod and pistion and a service bulliten for installation.

Karl

In article ,
says...
Have you tried Kohler? They have some of the best support I've seen,

Follow up. These guys are great. I have a special part number for both
rod and pistion and a service bulliten for installation.


Sounds like you made out OK, but here is one more thing to keep in mind.
If Sears ever sold a product with that engine, they probably still stock
parts for it. I found this out on the Onan forums. I just ordered
upgraded valve guides, seals and intake gaskets for a 1979 Onan CCKA
engine. All you have to do is put in the Onan (or Kohler) part number at
Sears Parts Direct, they carried over the part numbers from the OEM. And
the prices were lower than the sellers on eBay.

--
DT

On Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:34:52 -0500, DT
wrote:

In article ,
says...
Have you tried Kohler? They have some of the best support I've seen,

Follow up. These guys are great. I have a special part number for both
rod and pistion and a service bulliten for installation.


Sounds like you made out OK, but here is one more thing to keep in mind.
If Sears ever sold a product with that engine, they probably still stock
parts for it. I found this out on the Onan forums. I just ordered
upgraded valve guides, seals and intake gaskets for a 1979 Onan CCKA
engine. All you have to do is put in the Onan (or Kohler) part number at
Sears Parts Direct, they carried over the part numbers from the OEM. And
the prices were lower than the sellers on eBay.
Not in Canada. I enquired about parts for the then 22 year old snow
blower and the girl laughed in my face.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada