It's been a gorgeous weekend in western Maryland... sunny and not too cold. Great weather for working outside. My grass has been overgrown lately, and my John Deere 140 was in pieces, having driven itself into a tree last fall. So I got the fiberglass hood patched up (it's ugly but it works), the plastic headlight bezel back together, reinforced on the back with fiberglass, and repainted, deck welded by a local welder, a quick sharpen of the blades, and a new deck belt. Topped off the hydraulic fluid (it's a hydrostatic) and the engine oil, charged the battery, and I was good to go. Unfortunately, the grass was a little too much for the little engine to take... I'm driving along, mowing "one last patch" that should have waited until this morning, and...

BANG! Everything stopped. I thought, this can't be good. So I open the hood and what do I see but the spark plug lying neatly atop the engine. It's an old Kohler engine, cast iron block with aluminum cylinder head.

I let it cool overnight (it's not in the greatest location, right next to the street, rather than in my garage) and pulled the cylinder head. There are 9 bolts holding it on, and it's just a piece of aluminum because the valves are in the block. Here's what the head looked like...

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it'll buff out....

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So I guess it's going to a machine shop for a helicoil. Any small engine guys out there? Can I get a thicker head gasket to reduce compression? Should I take it easier when mowing the really heavy stuff? (probably yes)

That will buff right out!

Good thing it didn't shoot right up through the cowl!

Heh. That's what I thought when I cracked the hood and the front bezel last fall.

I now understand the importance of having the hood installed at all times. It would have gone straight up, as the plug is on top of the engine.

Now there's yer problem.....

Ya bought a John Deere.....

I have what looks like same engine in my early 70's Cub Cadet mower, and they are built to run forever. After sitting out all winter, it started on the first crank. Now I need to track down some decent oil as the new crap seems to be specifically designed to kill aircooled motors.

The Cubs are built like tanks with a cast iron front grille about a half inch thick and a hood made from 1/8 inch thick steel....

Whatever I hit, it gets damaged, not the mower...

Coudn't you just drill and tap an insert in from the top? Grease the drill and the tap and take your time.. That way the chips stick in the grease so you can remove them.

Ken

you NEED to raise the mower deck all the way up for that first cut of LONG grass. lower it and go again if you have too. taking too much off right away is not good for your grass. putting a razor edge to the blade works wonders.

Yep, it was already up as high as it could go.

I touched up the blades with a grinding wheel mounted in my drill, as I don't have a bench grinder. They're sharper than they were, but ideally I'd rather take off enough material to make the whole cutting edge straight again.

Unfortunately... I fought the lawn and the lawn won.

'mowin' grass with john deere, i fought the lawn and the lawn won, i fought the lawn and the lawn won...'

Take it to a machineist. Thats not even a full hour of labor. I had one of my heads certed for about $25.

Zach

...... hmmmmm. bobby fuller four?

heads are cheap and easy to fix for that if it is what I think it is a Kohler k321 14hp. Check this out http://members.aol.com/pullingtractor/a1engine.htm. Someone must have crossthreaded a plug for that to happen. Make sure you get a new head gasket for $7.00 Ebay has some good heads also, but make sure you get the correct bolt pattern, Kohler made some small adjustments with head design and moved the plug location in some heads.

could have been over-torqued @ some point(s) in it's life too... Over torqueing a plug pits the steel threads on the plug against the aluminum threads in the head, and guess who wins?

Nice thing about the desert? No lawns...

BJH

Yeah, but where do the cheerleaders graze at halftime?

There are other uses for their intake ports...

Take your blades down at the same time and have him grind them sharp as well!

I think thats your best option...

my 1969 127. just put in a 14hp kohler k motor. This thing ways almost as much as my 914. No joke

I think it would be an excellent option... however, the tractor is parked about 1 foot from the street and next to a wall. I don't think I can safely remove the deck where it's sitting right now... and you can't push an early (S/N < 30000) JD 140 hydro without damaging the transmission (later models can disconnect the drive and freewheel). So I'm going to fix it in place... it has a tarp over it in case of rain.

I've had that happen a couple of times over the past 17 years I've had this landscaping business. Did the machine shop route before and it'll work. Buying a new head is about $80 and pretty easy to replace once you get the covers off as you can tell.

Every so often the gasket will blow and you get carbon everywhere. My Kawasaki engines have been nothing but great over that time and they seemed to love Z-Max small engine treatment. That only happens about every 6-7 years on a mower used every day in the Summer.

My recommendation is to just get a new head, grease the threads and not over-torque the plug into the head as some have said.

Best way to sharpen blades is a DA sander IMHO, then always dress them with a file. The sander eats through them like butter, so much better than the stone type sharpeners.

I don't understand. Whenever a car is discussed on this board, the answer seems to be to put a six into it. Looks to me like you have one of two choices: 1) Put a "six" into it, or; 2) turbo-charge it!

These two answers seem to solve just about everything around here! (Can you turbo a John Deere?)

How about a "four"? That's 3 more cylinders than the tractor has now... y'know, even a 36 hp VW motor would be over twice as powerful as the Kohler engine.

Talked to the Bug guy today, their machine shop is pretty much setup for VW stuff only. I'm going to another shop later this week.

You can turbocharge anything! (except a 914 of course)

Sweet!!!

Is it gay if someone asks if they can push in your stool?

Only if you say yes!

get a 1.7 and put that in there.... That should cut some grass and its cheaper than a new John Deere motor.....

I got a local machinist to install an insert. It looks pretty nice now.. the insert is flat on the top so the spark plug washer has a smooth surface to seal against. The machine shop and spark plug together cost $22.00, head gasket (which I will pick up today) will be $6.60 plus tax. So I'm out less than thirty bucks plus my time. Not too shabby.

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