OT (kohler engine rant)

in my life time I have owned four garden tractors for mowing grass. I still have two of them. also own a roto tiller, snow blower and chipper.

three of the garden tractors have had or has kohler engines all others are B&S.

never have I had a problem with the B&S engines no matter how I abused them.

every one of the kohler engines has given me problems. from burnt valve to blown head gaskets.

no more kohlers for me.
I might add that I am very annal about engine oil changes to the point of keeping a written record of when I do it.

I have owned two ride on mowers over the last twenty three years. I cut about an acre and a half of lawn around the home paddock .The first was an Ariens with a Kohler Command engine , my present one, a John Deere with a Briggs . The Deere /Briggs has far surpassed the Ariens/Kohler for reliability and ease of operation . I have owned it for twice as long now and it has done far more work than the Kohler with no trouble from blue smoke , starting issues , or electrical faults .

Over the years I have had b&s, Koehler and onan engines on garden equipment.

All have given long periods of good service and all have given some trouble.

All models of equipment now make cheaper units with less expensive motors.

Many times you get what you pay for and how you keep it serviced is what counts, even with more expensive farm tractors.

Last tiller motor my son bought was from harbor freight, $99, 6 hp, we installed it, poured gas and oil in the motor, it fired on the second pull and ran like a top, so who knows.

Well i have not owned either, but bloody good rant :shock:

If you are planning on keeping the equipment lookup re power online. I replaced an aging 1967 on an engine on my Melroe bobcat with a brand new Honda engine, very quick remove an replace procedure. Now no more problems and a good modern engine with spin on oil filter.

I have never liked Kohler. They are hard to start, even in hot weather. There parts are about 25-30% higher than Briggs.

The older Kohler K series engines were the Cadillac of there day. On Commercial turf equipment the better equipment used Kohlers. A Kohler K series engine with reasonable care would run 3000 + hours before they needed a rebuild. Some of the more seasonal equipment came with Briggs & Stratton and I had some that didn't even make 100 hours before they were trash. That being said in the late 70's early 80's if you weren't running unleaded gasoline you'd better be pulling the head off every 100 hours or so and cleaning the hard carbon out of them our they'd break rings and start the death spiral. I have seen some evidence that as the K series got long in the tooth they let quality slide. I killed a starter generator on a K 301 this year, it was on a replacement motor and had a bearing on one end, a bushing on the other. Blame Kohler or Delco-Remy? Or do you blame the marketing department for pushing price point or the Japanese for bringing their stuff on our market and putting pressure on Kohler to cheapen up? I never had much experience with the Kohler Magnum engines my understanding is they are a re-worked K series. Not had much luck with or heard much good about the newer aluminium Kohlers.