Massey Ferguson 8 lawn mower

Hello, this is my 1st post on here.
About 2 years ago, I bought a MF8 lawn mower. The guy told me it was his Paps and it always had governor problems and they could never figure it out. I picked it up for $75. It has a few cosmetic issues but nothing I can't handle. I started working on the engine, (Tecumseh hm80) I realized its missing the linkage from the governor to the carb and a few other things. I monkey-ed with it a little more and got it to run. It runs like garbage and I decided I want to put a different engine on it. So I parked it in the corner and left it sit.
3 days ago I picked up a kohler k241s 10hp. It came off a wheelhorse. Now before I start tearing things apart and getting deep into this project, I wanna have a general idea of how much of a project this is going to be. Any ideas?

Well, you are looking at it and I am not. I did manage to put an 8 Hp. Briggs and Stratton engine into a Massey Ferguson 7 chassis about
15 years ago, and it was quite a job.

On that MF 7, The brackets for the pto engagement under the engine mount plate had to be notched to clear the engine mount bolts, I think
at least one bolt had to have one side of the bolt shaved off for clearance. The pulley I used was already on the 8 hp engine. Since the
engine came partially attached to the mower with 2 bolts, I don't know if it was original to the mower or not. To get the exhaust out from
under the hood an exhaust pipe was fabricated from flexible BX conduit to run into a Tecumseh muffler in the original bracket under the
frame. I had to cut up a Snapper exhaust pipe to make the adapters for both ends of the exhaust pipe. The hood had to have a notch to
clear the air cleaner and an even bigger notch had to be cut in all the parts of the grille to clear the air cleaner. I am thinking the
upper grille bar had to have another piece welded in so the end at the air cleaner would have at least a little support.

It looked pretty good when I was finished, but it was quite a job.

Don't know anything about a MF8 or the size of the engine compared to a Kohler but I stuck a 10 horse Kohler in a John Deere 110 to replace a blown up 8 horse Kohler and it was a battle all the way. Crankshaft height was an inch and a half higher screwing up the belt geometry, had to saw out the steering gear bracing and weld in different braces/ had to make a muffler/ had to make a different dipstick tube/ had to grind about a half inch of metal out of the left side of frame for the bigger blower housing/ had to find a bigger grill and roll it out front to make room for the air cleaner and on and on, came out ok and every thing works but I wouldn't do it again.

My son in law just put a Predator from Harbor Freight in a Massey Ferguson 8 this past summer. I haven't seen it yet, but as I recall it wasn't that difficult of a job. Seems he said a few minor adjustments
was all it took.

According to TractorData.com, the original engine on that tractor was a
Tecumseh H80.


That Kohler K241 is a big horse of an engine compared to the Tecumseh.
The smaller Kohler K181 would be a lot easier to put into that MF tractor.
If you're determined, the K241 can be done.

I suggest you get a piece of cardboard , fold it 90 degrees, and mark the
position of the Tecumseh crankshaft on the cardboard. You will need to
position the Kohler engine in the frame so it is the same height from the
top of the frame and the same distance from the right side of the frame.
That will minimize belt alignment issues.

You may need to cut the frame down and build a new plate to bolt the engine in,
or you may need to shim the engine up higher.