Is the Kohler Courage really that bad?

[ChrisBFRPKY]

Dude, your engine blew. Get over it. Blaming a brand name for life, does nothing productive. You still have a blown engine...... Like a little child throwing a tantrum. Put your juice box down and pull up your diaper.

As for attempting to correct guys like Scrubcadet10, Rivets and Bertsmobile1, forget it. These guys and many others here have a ton of small engine knowledge. They've been around the block several times. You are fighting a losing battle. We are very fortunate these guys are on here. They make this forum what it is.

slomo

Yes my engine blew and I am over it. Further, I know why it blew and what caused it. Learning from these issues is what I do. When something like this occurs one doesn't simply scratch their head and go buy another of the exact same engine. You have to do some investigation, some research and determine the cause.

As far as "correcting" anyone, I've not done that. I've had some interesting conversations with a few members here and we may share different opinions on things like synthetic oils etc. I welcome a friendly debate, it doesn't mean we're enemies. Having a conversation is just that. If everyone held the exact same views and opinions the World would be a pretty boring place. If we can agree on nothing else at least we can agree to disagree and that's alright by me.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

As far as i know Kohler didn't change the name of that engine line...

 

[ILENGINE]

Scrub the Courage single line morphed into the 5400 series and the Courage twin became the 7000 and similar engine series.

And to Chris if you think the Courage single was bad check into the OHC or Triad series. Used on Walker and Grasshoppers they had issues with the cylinder liners migrating downward into the lower crankcase breaking both rods. That series had to be retrofitted for replacement with Command series engines.

 

[ChrisBFRPKY]

They "retired" the Courage and replaced it with a redesign of the Courage, the new design did not carry the Courage name. It was introduced as the "5400 series". New balance system, different head, different cam design. The latest greatest new engine yet it still retains the old bucket engine design. As long as the balance system and block issues have been corrected I say bravo!

 

[ChrisBFRPKY]

Great minds! LOL

 

[bertsmobile1]

The whole point of unmoderated open public forums is that people can express opinions without interfearence , bias or prejudice from the forum owners.
What is posted should always be taken at face value and judged on the strength of the arguement, not who is presenting it .
I and every other tech can be just as wrong as any other person on the planet .
Chris came on a bit strong, he has a bit of SOL about the engine which if anyone bought one & had it blow from almost new he is entitled to have.
And some of us here have great respect & admiration for the engine
Both sides expressed these so now it is up to the consummers to decide which side they will fall on .

The latter postings will be way too late for the original poster, but debates like this hopefully will alert other people researching Courage singles on second hand mowers they are thinking about buying .
I had never hear of the problem till I came here and by that time I had made one repair and tightend a few loose bolts.
This was a shame because for the first case I probably could have scored him a new short block as he had the full history of his mower from the day he bought it which he gave me but was unaware that Kohler were offering the very extended warranty,
OTOH I got in some welding practice on thin castings .

 

[ILENGINE]

Bert, Kohler didn't exactly make the extended warranty public. More of a passive field rep mentioned it while visiting.

 

[bertsmobile1]

And that is understandable being that 99%of home owners do not understand what a warranty actually is .
Make it public and every man & his dog will be bringing their mower for a "warranty blade replacement or warranty spindle replacement .
I still get people wanting warranty engine replacements on FR & FS Kwakkas where the not real good air filter elbow has been leaking and the bores are polished mirror finish from all of the dust .
Now kawasaki / Toro / JD do have some liability in so far that there should be a filter warning issued with every bagger and a recommendation to upgrade to the Donaldson style air filter.
IF the owner is too cheap and they stuff their engine then it is tough luck.
Apparently owners who come in from bagging with 3 lb of dust down the inside of their shirts still do not consider the mower to be running in "dusty " conditions.

 

[StarTech]

Or the one that is mowing rocks consider rocks might be the cause of the damage.

With warranties and service contracts it takes a lawyer to read and understand them because a written by lawyers. It sorta like the lifetime warranty I had on a modem years ago. It turn out to be a lifetime of the product warranty which mean that it expired as soon they retire the production of the modem. I was pissed to say the least when I found out that they quit the production two days before mine failed.

I even purchase a new car once with a bumper to bumper 12,000 warranty. It broke down with 800 miles and the dealer tried everything in the book to not cover it. Ended up having to Chrysler headquarters and my lawyer involved to get the fail distributor replaced.

 

[PTmowerMech]

I thought you might be one of those type of guys who searches usernames on google please excuse me if that's not the case.

I think the single cylinders had a few flaws. If Kohler ironed them out over the years while taking care of the unlucky ones that received a lemon, great. If gainestruk has a single cylinder Courage with 867 hours that's also great however as you can see from a few Craigslist searches there are still many lawn tractors with the blown single cylinder versions for sale that like mine did not make it that far. 272 hours isn't much service from an engine IMO.

I don't feel Kohler owes me the World. They do however owe me for a defective engine. I guess if there weren't that many problems with them there wouldn't have been a need to extend warranties, create short block replacement programs or change the name of the entire engine line. But those things were done for a reason and I'm confident that I wasn't the only one to receive a defective Courage single cylinder engine. I have no complaints about the old K series or the Commands, only that pesky little single cylinder Courage. It was definitely Kohler's Pinto and Vega combined.

Manufacturers aren't the only ones cutting costs. The consumer does it at almost every turn. Buying the cheapest the can, and complains that it didn't last as long as the high end models. The box stores figured this out a long time ago. Which is why Walmart doesn't have any quality mowers. Simply because they dictate what they'll pay MTD for their products. MTD, will buy the cheapest line of engines for their mowers so they can sell cheaper than the mom and pops.