Ariens S-14 with 14hp Kohler K321 Loses Power Under Load

Ariens S-14 with 14hp Kohler K321 Loses Power Under Load

Originally Posted by Todd Frechette on December 20, 2008 at 15:47:38 from (69.0.38.225):

I have a 30+ year old Ariens S-14H garden tractor with a K321 Kohler engine. I"m on a replacement, rebuilt engine that has been running perfectly for about 2 years. Lately, when under heavy load, the engine sounds like it is drowning. Loss of power and basically...drowning. When I back off the load (either plowing snow, or lifting bucket loader) it runs fine. I haven"t tried fumbling with anything yet, looking for your suggestions. I did notice that the fuel filter looks dirty...hopefully it will be that easy. Any thoughts


This message is a reply to an archived post by Todd Frechette on December 21, 2008 at 05:26:28. The original subject was "Re: Ariens with 14hp Kohler K321 Loses Power Under Load".

Believe it or not, I"m still working this one. I haven"t done much, but I did discover one thing. It turns out that I had some misinformation about just how much oil you should add to a prefilter for your engines. My generator was dying and my Walker Mower, too. Turns out I"ve been choking my engines by oiling the prefilters too much.

If this is the cause of my problems with this engine, what kind of damage do you think I did. I took the air filter off and it definitely runs better. Once it gets hot and is under load it still will start pinging and I need to back it off.

Any thoughts on what kind of damage might occur from running the engine for too long (like a year) and starving it for air with the symptoms I described above?

What do you think I could do about the pinging? What kind of damage might I have done? Any thoughts on what I should do next to restore my self-respect?

Thanks for any advice!

Todd

i uaually sueeze the precleaner in a rag to get excess oil out of it. setting points with timing light according to manual can help pinging .use oem points cndenser.

Get a timing light and set the timing correctly. I had the same problem only worse with a K341. If it is pinging under load the timing is too far advanced.