kholer engine trouble

[dennis55]

hello, i have a craftsman mower with a 17 hp kholer moter ohv and hydraulic lifters..now for a while the moter was spitting gas out of the muffler, so i bought a new carb put it on and its backfireing. i thought the coil wasnt giving enough spark so i replaced it and it still does the same.is it possible that something internal is broke causing it not to start.. thanks for any help

 

[reynoldston]

What Kohler engine do you have? If you have a Kohler courage I think you will find it has mechanical valve lifters, adjustment .005 and .007. The Kohler command has the hydraulic lifters.

 

[dennis55]

i have the hydro lifters

 

[reynoldston]

Corage or command??

 

[dennis55]

im not sure i have the hydraulic lifters, its 9 yrs old craftsman body i think 42 inch cut lt2000

 

[reynoldston]

the reason I ask is just last week I had a Kohler courage apart and it had mechanical lifters and it sounds like you have a valve adjustment problem. But its too bad you have hydraulic valve lifters because it still sounds like valve problems and this means you will need to remove the head because I don't think they are adjustable. The frist thing I would do is go to the Kholer web site and download a service manual for your engine. Kohler is very good about their service manuals and its free.

 

[reynoldston]

I went on the web and the only 9 year old 17 HP Kohler is a courage model SV530. If you bring up the service manual you will see that it has adjustable valves which are mechanical lifters. Bring up the service manual on this engine and it will show you how to adjust them. easy job Also when you replaced the coil what did you set the air gap at? It should be .008 to .012.

 

[dennis55]

i think its sv490

 

[reynoldston]

i think its sv490

Its the same engine as the SV530 only a little less HP. This a cheap made Kohler engine that Kohler made to compete in the price wars. They have had a lot of problims with this engine.

 

[dennis55]

im gonna check the flywheel key next