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I have a 6 year old Toro lawn tractor with a Kohler SV540s engine that is blown. Replacement by local service center is over half the cost of a new tractor, neither of which I can afford. Does anybody know if any other vertical shaft motors will bolt up the same? I don't care if it is a pull start or if it isn't the same horsepower.
Not real pleased with the low quality of Toro now. My old Toro riding mower wasn't even a tractor. Just a sit down mower. And it lasted over 14 years. And my son used it for small lawn mowing jobs he did in high school. So it got 3 times more use and lasted over twice as long as this newer one with the blown engine. My Toro snowblower is 20 years old and still running strong.
The mechanic at the service center that checked the engine didn't recommend Toro at all. He said they are made from cheap Chinese junk parts now. He recommended a John Deere with a Kawasaki engine. And they don't even sell them there so he was sending me to the competition. Too bad I can't afford that.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Why do you say the engine is blown? What was the cause? I have been working on Toro units for 40 years and while I agree they are not built as well as they were back then, name me any brand that is. Blown engine is not a Toro problem, but in this case a Kohler problem, which is the reason I asked about the blown engine. I think there are many questions that need to be answered to solve your problem.

Rivets said:

Why do you say the engine is blown? What was the cause? I have been working on Toro units for 40 years and while I agree they are not built as well as they were back then, name me any brand that is. Blown engine is not a Toro problem, but in this case a Kohler problem, which is the reason I asked about the blown engine. I think there are many questions that need to be answered to solve your problem.

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The reason I said the engine is blown is based on two things: 1. I was mowing the lawn and the engine developed a severe rattle / knocking sound and puked oil all over the lawn. Of course when it started to do this, I immediately shut it off. 2. When I brought it to the service center, the mechanic took about a minute to find a big crack in the engine block. If I pour any oil in it, it just runs right out on the ground. And, the engine won't even turn over now. Just for reference sake, I regularly changed the oil and filter every 25 hours of use. That is way ahead of the 50 hours recommended by the owner's manual. The mower had less than 175 hours on it. I don't know what the average lifespan is of these Kohler engines but I would think it is more than that.

well it sounds like the engine is blown but i do have to agree its not a Toro problem its a Kohler problem so dont blame Toro for Kohlers bad engine good luck with getting it going again

I'd say if you dis-assembled the engine you'd find a thrown connecting rod and more than likely a loose rod bolt backed out or lying in the bottom of the engine! I remember when we used to have these locking tabs that went under the rod bolts and a tab bent up to lock the rod caps from moving. Lately the engine mfgs have gotten away from that and I can't help but think these supposedly locked down rod bolts will stay locked down.

You could always go the route of a short block and $ave some money.

I have a kohler 20 hp in my craftsman rider,i was told by my mechanic to get rid of it asap as that they were built in china and have not been the same as the older kohler motors.something to the effect of not having put the lock tabs on connecting rods as mentioned above!

Your posting #3 tells us more than #1. Now I agree you have a blown engine. In my opinion you can either short block the engine or try to repower with a different brand. If you try to repower, your biggest problems will be reworking an exhaust to fit into your unit and wiring the carb controls plus electrical wiring, plus connections.

Superman, you can tell your mechanic that 20 HP Kohler engines are still built in the USA.

What kind of price did your shop give you to fix your old one? Also, are you mechanically inclined to replace the entire engine yourself?

If so, you could spend about $500-$650 for a complete new SV540s engine on ebay, and you and a buddy could swap it out, possibly in a weekend, saving you some major $$. Here's a link to one new engine on ebay:
Kohler Courage SV540 0222 18HP Riding Mower Vertical Shaft Engine | eBay

I've bought new small engines for various power tools from dealers on ebay and had very good luck. Hope this helps.