Kohler Courage 19hp did what????

[cmw]

I am not going to spend any money on this thing but was curious why this might happen. I have several other good running mowers and this one was given to me and blew up in short order. The deck is also full of holes like Swiss cheese although the tractor itself is solid. My past experience with a Kohler Courage was that they were junk. This experience tells me they are junk. Yes, compression is definitely getting into the crankcase and I am well aware this is not normal.

I have some "parts mowers" or parts that have been stripped off others that fit my running mowers as well. This one is an oddball with no common parts that I can see so it is going to go bye bye.

I was just curious as to what would cause this. I might pull the head and see what carnage is there. I doubt it was just a head gasket letting go based on the sounds I heard. It sounded like metal breaking and lots of clunking.

Conor

 

[zman111666]

Keep us posted, I'm curious too now!

 

[cmw]

Keep us posted, I'm curious too now!

I can sometimes see into the plug hole with a flashlight on these engines and may do that. It has 4 good tires and a working transmission so figure I might just put it up on Craigslist of similar for $100 or so for parts. People seem to be more willing to buy a "project" mower if it isn't all ripped apart so might or might not pull the head. It actually doesn't seem all that molested right now.

I had a Briggs Intek where it ate a valve seat once (I understand some were known for this). This caused the valve to break off in the cylinder and the piston pushed it through the cylinder head, pressurizing the crankcase. I found a used head and it worked fine for another season or so until the same thing happened and it put a hole in the piston that time. I was done with it at that point. The commercial grade engines are a better bet for me with how hard I use stuff. Consumer grade riding mowers were never intended to cut acres of hay field.

Conor