have a 1994 Walker MT20 GHS with Kohler CH20S. The unit has 800 hours and has been used for home residential lawn mowing all it"s life. At the end of last season it started to lose power, smoke some, and apparently overheat after about 30 min of use. I pushed it to finish out the season and ran it about three times like this. She would run ok at 3/4 throttle and get me through finishing the grass or leaves (I know...probably not the best thing).
I noticed what looked like oil and gunk around one of the spark plugs. Unfortunately the way this is designed it was impossible to pull the shield and make sure it was clean. I suspected maybe a head gasket.
Yesterday I pulled the engine out of the tractor so that I could get the housing off. I found a mess. One side was completely packed with dirt and the other side was catching up. The bad side also has what looks like scorched stuff that is hard to scrape off the fins.
So.....I"m wondering what the best course of action is. I definitely overheated it. It seems to have some oil leaking by on one side. But she did still run great for the first 30 min or so until she would overheat.
Now that I have the engine out I appreciate any advice. P.S. I"m a weekend warrior with pretty good mechanical abilities. I"ve rebuilt a different engine once before (successfully). And I would never have let my engine get this dirty to overheat like this. The design of this unit is really challenging and made it impossible to get the blower housing off to clean without removing the entire motor. Really kills me because I"m the guy who lubes it and changes the oil regularly, etc.
I noticed what looked like oil and gunk around one of the spark plugs. Unfortunately the way this is designed it was impossible to pull the shield and make sure it was clean. I suspected maybe a head gasket.
Yesterday I pulled the engine out of the tractor so that I could get the housing off. I found a mess. One side was completely packed with dirt and the other side was catching up. The bad side also has what looks like scorched stuff that is hard to scrape off the fins.
So.....I"m wondering what the best course of action is. I definitely overheated it. It seems to have some oil leaking by on one side. But she did still run great for the first 30 min or so until she would overheat.
Now that I have the engine out I appreciate any advice. P.S. I"m a weekend warrior with pretty good mechanical abilities. I"ve rebuilt a different engine once before (successfully). And I would never have let my engine get this dirty to overheat like this. The design of this unit is really challenging and made it impossible to get the blower housing off to clean without removing the entire motor. Really kills me because I"m the guy who lubes it and changes the oil regularly, etc.