Kohler Forgiveness

I had been Kohler engine buyer for many years. I had a single cylinder Kohler 20 hp Courage on a 46 Husqvarna riding mower and it was the biggest piece of crap I ever had on this farm. I never had an engine vibrate itself to the point where it not only vibrated the head bolts loose, but the main casting to side plate bolts and finally cracked the main castin where oil just spewed out. I replaced it with a BS Vtwin off ebay and went about my business.

A couple of years ago I was at a big box store and I saw a Craftsman T240, 46 22 HP riding mower with few hours, warranty return for $1300. I bought it figured being new with that few hours I could fix it....which I did. Problem that the stores mechanics couldn't find to fix was the fact that the assembly (at the Kohler engine assembly plant) morons didn't seal the intake manifold to the engine block properly and it was sucking air upsetting the fuel air mix and causing lots of starting/running problems.

I fixed that and found that their 7000 Series 22 HP is the best engine I ever had on small gasoline equipment. Kohler really did their homework and brought me back to the fold........

I'm sorry you had problems with your SINGLE cylinder Kohler Courage engine.

I first became acquainted with them about the time they were having all those problems. It seems like the last ones they made are holding together much better than the first ones.

The story I was told at service school was that Kohler knew they had a problem with them and let their customers know. The customers demanded they ship those engines anyway, fixed or not. Kohler shipped them as they were and the rest is history.

I do see a few of those courage singles still carrying on. I guess those were the ones that were put together right at the beginning.

Your 7000 series is the descendant of the Courage twin. Bigger fins, different pistons. Othewise very similar. Actually those Courage twin cylinder engines never gave much trouble except that the metal valve covers tended to leak.

Thank you sir for that info. I can fix the covers leaking if/when that develops. Not an issue especially with the performance I am getting out of it.

I heard someone say years ago, it took courage to own a Courage engine from Kohler that was back when they would crack the crankcases from vibrations while running. The Command series lasted much better.

I will still walk away from anything with a Courage engine. I have saw so many bad ones, especially in Cub Cadets, that I would not trust one to this day.