timing 14hp cast iron koler

I have power king economy with 14hp cast iron engine. it has been setting for a few yrs , tried to start it today has clean gas and fire to points, fires but will not run. it seems to be very hi in time, hard to turn over. how to check and set (points) timing? I forgot. also neighbor has power king with 18hp cast iron engine, runs good and is for sale at a fair price, but a friend tells me to stay from this engine because you can"t get head gasket and other parts for this engine if you need them. thanks for any comments.
 
For the 14 hp (K321) set the points at 0.020", if the starter is having a hard time turning it over it could be that the compression release isn't working, could be stuck from sitting.
As for the 18 hp OHV Kohler cylinder heads are hard to find but many good engine machine shops can rebuild them head gasket are available, but valve cover gaskets maybe hard to find,if the engine is running good check to besure the cylinder head is clean with no build up of crud on the cooling fins this is one of the big problems with the engine. The head is a bit short on cooling fin area and any crud can be cause for overheating causing the exhaust valve seat to drop out. Otherwise a nice powerful engine I really like mine 860 hrs on it and it uses no oil in 25 hrs.
GB in MN
 
I am thinking if the points are set to .018 to .020 it should fire and run.

If it is hard to crank over, my first thought is there is something wrong with the compression release. Most but not all cast iron Kohlers had comression release. Excessive valve clearance will cancel out the action of the compressison release mechamism. So check that first.

My neighbor across the street was starting his M16 on a Wheel Horse with stuck/bad compression release by turning it past compression stroke by hand, then turning the switch to start. By the time the engine rolled one and a half turns, the flywheel had enough momentum that it would go over compression stroke the next time.

As far as run problems, one thing I have seen twice in the last 2 or 3 years is a partial ground in the wire between the coil and the points. The engines fired and would run-sort of-with lots of missing. The valves were fine, I removed the head and checked them.
 
Below is a link to download the official Kohler manual for FREE (.pdf format).

Timing is set by the breaker point gap.

Hard cranking or kickback is likely an ACR (Automatic Compression Release) issue, and even if the ACR is intact, it can't work if the exhaust valve gap is too big.

The manual covers setting the timing by the point gap, checking the ACR, and setting the valves.

As to the other tractor, what is the model of the "18 HP" cast iron engine? Is it an opposed twin?
K321 manual
 
cleaning, filing, resetting points did the job. thanks for the info. mabe this old mind will remember next time.
 

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